Roman Era Tomes...

The following is a list of magical texts – by no means exhaustive – which date from the period of the Roman Empire. These works are of use to those embroiled upon Cthulhu Invictus campaigns, but may also be of interest to Investigators in any of the other canon periods of Mythos adventuring.

Avesta

The sacred scrolls of the Zoroastrians, the Avesta contains specifics of the Persian gods and their worship. Although this work was damaged when Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis, rumours speak of a second, pristine copy somewhere in the Parthian Empire. The book is comprised of seven sections: the Yasna, which contains the sacred liturgy and hymns of Zoroaster; the Visperad, which supplements the Yasna; the Vendidad, which lists a variety of evil spirits and ways to defeat them, including spells to fight disease and rituals to cleanse everything from dead bodies to the stars in the sky; the Yashts, which include hymns dedicated to individual deities; the Siroza, which details 30 different deities; the Khordeh Avesta, which serves as a book of prayers; and the Fragments, which cover material not included in any other section of the Avesta.

Avestan; Zoroaster; c. 1400BCE; Sanity Loss 1D8/1D12; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; Occult +15 percentiles; Medicine +15 percentiles; average 84 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: Any the Keeper desires, including 1D8 of the following: Augury; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Bind Enemy; Cast Out Devil; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Find Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Powder of ibn-Ghazi; Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye.

Book of Apophis

These are papyrus scrolls which provide instructions for fighting Apep, including a complete list of Apep’s secret names. Its chapters include “Spitting Upon Apep”, “Defiling Apep with the Left Foot”, “Taking a Lance to Smite Apep”, “Fettering Apep”, “Taking a Knife to Smite Apep”, and “Putting Fire Upon Apep”. Priests at the temple of Amen-Ra in Thebes perform these rites daily on wax models and drawings of Apep as a form of sympathetic magic.

Egyptian, in hieroglyphics; author(s) unknown; c. 2,000BCE; Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D10; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; Occult +8 percentiles; average 30 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Banish Apep”

*****

Apep – Great Old One

The Book of Apophis warns of Apep, the “Eater of Souls”, who waits in the underworld beneath the western mountain Bakhu. The living; the dead; even gods: Apep hungers for them all. A serpentine beast more than 16 yards in length with a head made of flint, he blocks the underworld river with his coils, trapping those who travel upon it and hypnotizing them with his gaze. Then, while they stand still as statues, he devours them.

Those who resist Apep’s gaze find themselves fighting not only the Eater of Souls, but the earth and sky as well. The mountain quakes at Apep’s command, dropping boulders upon them, and the ground cracks and splits beneath their feet. Thunderstorms roll across the sky, turning the ground into an impassable mire if they try to run. Even those warriors who bested Apep have struggled in vain; the next day the great serpent rises again, hungry and waiting beneath Bakhu.

Although Apep’s cult is small, Egyptians consider it a grave threat. While the Book of Apophis provides details about fighting Apep, including spells and rituals to banish him, another unnamed book tells how to summon him from his underground lair. Little more is known about the ritual for summoning Apep, except a warning in the Book of Apophis about “when the moon blocks the sun and day turns to night”. To date, Apep’s cult hasn’t found the book to summon him, but their members scour the known world for any trace of it. If they ever find it, the Egyptians know they will call forth Apep and doom all humanity.

Hypnotize Attack: If Apep succeeds in a POW vs. POW roll on the Resistance Table, the victim is stunned for 1D4 rounds.

“The Eater of Souls”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	56	POW	30	Move	18
CON	60	DEX	22	HP	64
SIZ	67	APP	n/a	Magic Points	30
INT	20	EDU	n/a	SAN	n/a

Damage Bonus: 7D6

Weapon:       Bite 53%, 2D6+db

Armour:        Apep is immune to all non-magical attacks

Spells             Control Weather, plus any others which the Keeper desires

SAN Loss       It costs 1D12/1D20 SAN to see Apep

*****

The Chuma Scrolls

This sheaf of five scrolls contains information about the cult of Yibb-Tstll (known as “Chuma” to the sub-Saharan tribes). It contains information about contacting and summoning the god, his blood, and nightgaunts.

Egyptian, in Hieratic; translated by unknown scribes from a sub-Saharan original; c. 1800BCE. Sanity Loss 1D6/2D6; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; average 8 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Awaken Chuma” (Summon Yibb Tstll), “Call the Black Blood” (Black Blood), “Summon Child of Chuma” (Summon/Bind Nightgaunt), and any others the Keeper desires.

G’harne Fragments

According to the G’harne Fragments, The Chthonians, along with their leader Shudde M’ell, come from a distant planet named Urakhu. In ancient times, a group of sorcerers associated themselves with the worship of these beings and called their circle the “Followers of Urakhu”. These evil magi based themselves in the lost city of Irem (or Iram), which was quite well documented during the Roman period, and tyrannised the local populace with their activities.

Copies of the ‘Fragments which this cult uses, are based upon transcriptions devised by an ancient shaman named Ashod, who directed his followers to the locale where they built the city of Iram. In the process, they drove out a civilisation of reptilian humanoids which retreated beneath the dunes and left the wizards to their own devices. During the height of the Roman Civilisation, Iram was ruled by a Grand wizard named Shaddad, until he overstepped his bounds and doomed his empire forever.

One Follower of Urakhu named Dabir, feared that the oral rendition of the G’harne Fragments originally created by Ashod would be lost, so he captured an Assyrian scribe and forced him to transcribe the work as Dabir read it aloud to him. The resulting work consists of three heavily-damaged scrolls, stored in the library of Iram. When Iram (or Irem) is destroyed, it’s most likely that, so too, are these scrolls.

Assyrian, in cuneiform; transcribed by an unknown Assyrian prisoner from an Arabian translation; c. 980BCE; Sanity Loss 1D6/1D10; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; average 12 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Converse with the Gods of the Earth” (Contact Chthonian); “Speak with a Genius of the Air” (Contact Elder Thing); “Address the King of the Earth Spirits” (Contact Shudde M’ell), “A Barrier of the Earth’s Blood” (Red Sign of Shudde M’ell).

The Writings of Tacitus

"Inde consilium mihi ... tradere ... sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo."

(“My purpose is to relate ... without either anger or zeal, motives from which I am far removed.”)

-Tacitus

If Herodotus is often referred to as the “Father of History”, then Tacitus can be said to be the “Father of Historiography” (although he does owe a debt to Sallust who came before him). He is known, not only for the histories which he compiled, but for the method he adopted to do so: his prose is dense but spare, and never glosses over the essential facts. He never acts as a cheerleader, loudly proclaiming the might of the Empire and sweeping its defeats under the rug: in fact, his material, discussing as it does the corrupting influences of politics and power, can be roundly described as pessimistic.

Tacitus lived during the reign of Domitian and comments briefly upon the decadence and corruption which blighted that period; some have said that it was the tenor of those times which caused Tacitus to become a “glass half empty” kind of reviewer. At all times Tacitus appears to walk a neutral path: as often as he approves the decisions of a particular emperor or general, he later castigates them without apology.

Tacitus wrote two major works in his lifetime, along with three monographs (at least, these are what have survived down to our time, although internal evidence would also seem to limit his output to this handful). The two major works are the Histories and the Annals: The monographs came first and were followed by the Histories and the unfinished Annals. The works overlap each other: the “Agricola” outlines a certain period, but the Histories goes over the same terrain in greater – or different – detail. Even the monographs themselves re-examine earlier material: the “Agricola” touches on the society of Germania in its scope, but the later “Germania” invests more time on the subject. The “Dialogus” is tentatively considered to be the work of Tacitus: it is a more stylised work, adopting the literary approaches of Cicero, and feels less “naturally Tacitusian” than the rest of his work. Finally, the Annals covers a period before the Histories, but is unfinished: although earlier sections discuss the area to be covered, Tacitus died before completing it. Today it is known as one of the earliest secular histories to record the existence of Jesus Christ.

For the purposes of this list, it’s not so much what’s in Tacitus’s works that’s of interest but what is not. Not all of his works have survived and – despite knowing from the extant writings what would have been discussed – there is a huge amount of space for keen keepers to fill in the blanks. The monographs are more or less intact, but it’s the Annals and the Histories that will most suit Call of Cthulhu players.

The Histories was written before the Annals, although it covers a period after the events of the later work. The intent of the Histories was to cover the period from “The Year of Four Emperors” up until the end of the rule of the Flavians. Only the first four books remain, along with twenty-six chapters of the fifth book, taking the project up to the suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt by Titus (the years 69-70). It is believed that the work would have continued right up until the year 96, and the death of the Emperor Domitian. Most of book five contains an ethnographic overview of Roman attitudes towards the Jews and is considered an important record nowadays.

Most scholars believe that the Annals contained at least sixteen books, but books 7 to 10, parts of books 5, 6, 11 and 16 are missing. The book covers the death of Augustus Caesar in 14AD, and the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, probably up until the latter’s death in 68, in order to connect nicely with the period covered in the Histories. The work was intended to contain a codicil covering the life of Augustus Caesar and the founding of Rome, and some discussions of the life and reigns of Nerva and Trajan, but these are absent.

So what could be slipped into the blanks? How about this:

“It was a flaming sunset or late afternoon in the tiny provincial town of Pompelo, at the foot of the Pyrenees in Hispania Citerior. The year must have been in the late republic for the province was still ruled by a senatorial proconsul instead of a praetorial legate of Augustus, and the day was the first before the Kalends of November. The hills rose scarlet and gold to the north of the little plain, and the westering sun shone ruddily and mystically on the crude new stone and plaster buildings of the dusty forum and the wooden walls of the circus some distance to the east. Groups of citizens – broad-browed Roman colonists and coarse-haired Romanised natives, together with the obvious hybrids of the two strains, alike clad in cheap woollen togas – and sprinklings of helmeted legionnaires and coarse-mantled, black bearded tribesmen of the circumambient Vascones – all thronged the few paved streets and forum; moved by some vague and ill-defined uneasiness. I myself had just alighted from a litter, which the Illyrian bearers seemed to have brought in haste from Calagurris, across the Iberus to the southward. It appeared that I was a provincial quaestor named L. Caelius Rufus, and that I had been summoned by the proconsul, P. Scribbonius Libo, who had come from Tarrago some days before. The soldiers were the fifth consort of the XIIth Legion, under the military tribune Sex. Asellius...”

This of course is the Halloween dream which H.P. Lovecraft shared with Frank Belknap Long in a letter dated 1929 and which the latter used as the seed for his novella “The Horror From The Hills”, detailing the emerging abomination that is Chaugnar Faugn. Keepers wishing to construct an adventure involving this particular Great Old One, might wish to drop clues about it in an extremely-rare early edition of Tacitus containing some of the missing sections...

“Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.”

(“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”)

-Tacitus, Agricola (“De Vita et Moribus Iulii Agricolae”), 98 AD

“Germania”

This work describes the Germanic tribes of the European mainland, including their religions, politics, warfare, and culture. The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum) is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. The Germania fits within a classical ethnographic tradition which includes authors such as Herodotus and Julius Caesar. The book begins (chapters 1–27) with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the various tribes. Later chapters focus on descriptions of particular tribes, beginning with those who lived closest to the Roman Empire, and ending with a description of those who lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea, such as the Fenni. Tacitus had written a similar, albeit shorter piece, in his Agricola (chapters 10–13).

Latin; Tacitus; 98CE; Other Kingdom (Germania) +4 percentiles; Occult +2 percentiles; average four weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: None.

Historia Naturalis

In an impressive sheaf of over a hundred scrolls written in the cramped handwriting of Pliny, this work elucidates many aspects of what is known about the natural history of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

Latin; Pliny the Elder; c. 40CE; No Sanity loss; Natural History +15 percentiles; Occult +5 percentiles; average 25 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: None.

Mural of the Reptilian Residents of the Nameless City

The paintings in this series are of differing quality, obviously created over a long period. They include depictions of the reptilian race founding the city, the cataclysm that brought it to the surface, the arrival of the men who would build Iram (also known as Irem), and the reptilian race’s retreat toward an underground paradise. This work is of most use to scholars trying to understand the pre-history of the world and the events that transpired to create the ruins where these murals now stand.

No text; creator(s) unknown; date unknown; Sanity Loss 1D2/1D4; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; average two weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: None.

Pharmakeutria

Countless healers and magi use this early medical treatise for guidance in creating and mixing potions. It contains instructions for the alchemical process of creating Milk of the Dark Mother, a whitish substance made from the secretions of Shub-Niggurath causing rapid growth, early sexual maturity, and a variety of hideous mutations in plants. Its effect on animals or people is unknown.

Greek; Theocritus; c. 310–250BCE; Sanity Loss 1/1D3; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; Occult +3 percentiles; Potions +8 percentiles; average 15 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Create Milk of the Dark Mother” (Contain the Black Goat’s Bile); “Speak with the Children of the Dark Mother” (Contact Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath); “Call the Dark Mother” (Contact Shub-Niggurath)

*****

The Black Goat’s Bile

While the milk produced by Shub-Niggurath has myriad effects, not all of which have likely been observed, this other substance has a range of capabilities which are listed within the pages of the Pharmakeutria. It’s likely this excretion of the Black Goat and its Dark Young is useful to it in determining worthy worshippers and cult followers, and also to attack certain enemies.

The Bile causes all unevolved, or partly-evolved, living creatures to suddenly undergo full metamorphosis. This applies to humans with the “Innsmouth Look”, those who have made the Unspeakable Promise with Hastur, Fosterlings of the Old Ones, incipient Ghouls, latent Spawn of Nyogtha, and all other similar creatures whose destiny is to transform into something terrible.

Another effect of the Black Goat’s Bile is to cause vegetable matter to spontaneously erupt into cancerous rapid growth. There are no benefits to be gained from this use of the Bile – all nourishing aspects of the plant matter are removed during the mutation and the plants wither and rot away noisomely in short order.

The spell listed in the Pharmakeutria is not, in fact, a recipe for the making of this effusion but rather a means of creating a vessel to carry the substance. The Bile itself is produced by Shub-Niggurath and her Dark Young, and may be offered up by them as part of a bargain with these monstrous entities.

The caster must prepare a beaker or other receptacle, ensuring that it has a leak-proof lid. This vessel must be made of high-quality materials and then infused with all of the caster’s Magic Points while they chant over it during the course of a single night, during the dark of the moon. Once prepared, the container will hold the Black Goat’s Bile in a potent state for a period of up to one month.

*****

Praesidia Finium (“Frontier Garrison”)

“...The barbarians were wont to call out devils which they sent against us; they called them out from the air and beneath the ground, and one such which they sent killed half a centuria of soldiers before falling to their swords.”

-Brian Lumley, The Transition of Titus Crow

The original version of this work was written in 183 AD; some say the author was in fact the Roman governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, however, certain occult scholarship claims that this personality and the writer are two different individuals. It comprises the account of mysterious events which took place during the Roman occupation of Great Britain, in particular, the massacre of a winged being without a head in the North Country near Hadrian’s Wall. The text also mentions, in passing, a battle with a great, invisible dragon in the Severn Valley against troops led by Marcus Quintus Laberius and an unexplained explosion that occurred near York.

There are only two fragmentary copies of the original Latin text: the more complete one is kept in the holdings of the Wharby Museum in Yorkshire; the other resides in the Library at Miskatonic University. The first English translation of this work was produced, in a limited edition of only 50 copies, at a private press around 1703 and the only two surviving copies of this run currently form part of the British Library collection (one other copy was known to have been in the collection of Titus Crow, prior to the destruction of his home). Roman scholarship almost universally holds this work to be a clever fraud, defeated primarily by its subject matter.

(Source: “An Item of Supporting Evidence”, Brian Lumley)

Latin; Q. Lollius Urbicus; 138AD; Sanity Loss 1d2/1d6; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English; Translator unknown; c. 1703; Sanity Loss 1/1d4; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 2 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

Frontier Garrison

“…And with fifty of our Brotherhood torn and dead beneath the bloody light of Evening’s glow, we thanked the Gods for our victory; then we set to, to build a pyre on which to roast the hewn and steaming gobbets of our foe. For as the mad Pict had warned, if his tribe could but find the corpse, by Dawn’s pallid rays the beast would rise again to ravin in the wilds once more. Beneath the hither shadow of the Wall, we consigned it to its foul, unmarked grave…”

-Frontier Garrison

This edition - typical of many of the Golden Goblin’s catalogue - is a high quality work redolent of the book-production values espoused by William Morris and his set. The text is supported by sixteen detailed woodcut prints and the pages are heavily bordered in scrollwork of black and red. Only three of the plates show the monster; however, possibly due to an error in the translation, or maybe due to a whim on the illustrator’s part, the artist has chosen to depict the creature at all times as a typically medieval demon with its face obscured by foliage, or other elements of the scenery, rather than ‘headless’. This translation is quite at variance with the original text, dropping the dragon encounter and the explosion report, and is shot through with paraphrases and additions, never claiming the events described therein to be factual in the least but rather, a whimsical and eerie tale.

English; Unknown translator; Golden Goblin Press, 1911; Sanity Loss 0/1d2; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: None

Sapientia Maglorum

“Ostanes” is, most likely, not a single individual, but rather a conflation of several magical authors. In much the same way that many ancient texts were attributed to “Aristotle” in translation, or “Hermes Trismegistus”, the false attribution has become a kind of shorthand for the phrase “author unknown”. It’s likely that there was an ‘Ostanes’ at one time, but that the amount of occult literature attributed to him is much less in quantity than it would seem.

These powerful scrolls record a lifetime of occult learning. This compendium of dark and arcane sorcery can be very dangerous for the uninitiated to read, not least because it includes a spell to contact Azathoth.

Pehlevi; “Ostanes”; c. 6^th century BCE; Sanity Loss 1D4/1D8; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; Occult +5 percentiles; average 20 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Hide the Soul” (Apportion Ka), “Consign an Enemy to the Flames” (Banishment of Yde Etad), “Beseech Charon”, “Summon a Sandstorm” (Bring Haboob), “Bring Forth the Daemon Sultan!” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth), “Speak with the Oracle of the Green Flame!” (Call/Dismiss Tulzscha), “A Rite to grant Wisdom” (Chant of Thoth), “Garb Oneself with Flames!” (Cloak of Fire), “The Daemon Sultan’s Doom” (Dread Curse of Azathoth), “Create a Magical Beacon” (Enchant Brazier), “A Wicked Curse” (Evil Eye), “A Powerful Spell to Harm One’s Enemies” (Eye of Light and Darkness), “To Remove Obstacles” (Parting Sands), “The Thrall of Sekmenkenhep” (Sekmenkenhep’s Words), “Summon a Flying Steed!” (Summon/Bind Byakhee), “Protection from Wicked Curses” (Warding the Eye), and any others the keeper desires.

A corrupted Greek translation by the Samaritan sorcerer Dositeheus also exists. It contains fewer spells, which are more likely to be unfinished, and has incomplete passages and damaged pages.

Grammatically poor Greek; Dositeheus; c. 6^th Century BCE; Sanity Loss 1/1D3; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; Occult +4 percentiles; average 20 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Hide the Soul” (Apportion Ka), “Summon a Sandstorm” (Bring Haboob), “Bring Forth the Daemon Sultan!” (Call Azathoth, but not Dismiss Azathoth), “Create a Magical Beacon” (Enchant Brazier), “Protection from Wicked Curses” (Warding the Eye).

Scroll of Thoth-Amon

For unknown reasons – certainly unusual ones, given what’s known of his character - the Samaritan Simon of Gitta is believed to have destroyed the only copy of this profane work in 41 CE. Rumour has it however, that scribes at the Temple of Ptah produced a copy (or perhaps several copies) of it and relocated them to Thebes where they were hidden. Most scholars of any credibility think that these rumours are simply that and are grounded more in wishful thinking than in fact; however, we all know that “credible thinkers” tend to gravitate towards the middle ground of reasonableness and ignore distinct possibility. These scrolls are among the most mysterious and powerful works in the ancient world: they include spells for contacting Nyarlathotep in his guise as Set, and for bringing forth demons to serve the bidding of the caster.

Egyptian, in hieroglyphs; Thoth-Amon; c. 10,000BCE; Sanity Loss 1D4/1D8; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; Occult +6 percentiles; average 15 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “To See as far as the Aten” (Augury), “To Invoke the Wisdom of Thoth” (Chant of Thoth), “To Send Confusion to Your Enemies” (Cloud Memory), “A Curse to Smite Your Enemies” (Curse of the Stone), “Request an Audience with Set” (Contact Nyarlathotep), Call Upon an Emissary of the Gods” (Summon/Bind Child of the Sphinx), “The Touch of Anubis” (Wither Limb), “The Scourge of Horus” (Wrack), and any others the keeper desires.

Sibylline Oracles

"estai kai SamoV ammoV, eseitai DhloV adhloV"

-Sibylline Prophecy

These scrolls, comprising a total of 12 books, are a detailed description of the prophecies of the oracle at Cumae. They’re disjointed and hard to understand, even for those with knowledge of the oracles. This work includes information about contacting Hermes, the Greek manifestation of Nyarlathotep.

Greek; Heraclitus; c. 7^th century BCE; Sanity Loss 1D4/1D8; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; Occult +8 percentiles; average 30 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Consult the Omens” (Augury), “Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus”, “Speak with Hermes, Thrice-Wise” (Contact Nyarlathotep), “Speak in Tongues of Flame” (Candle Communication), “To See Afar” (Create Scrying Window), “Mystic Fire” (Enchant Brazier), (Enthrall Victim), “Name a Shade” (Identify Spirit), and any others the keeper desires.

Tilsimati

This work consists of carved tablets detailing the creation of amulets to protect against evil, particularly from an undesirable fate written in the Tablet of Destinies. The amulets are created by carving arcane images and shapes on cylindrical or flat seals. A Greek scholar in Seleucia is/was working on a translation of the Tilsimati using the only known copy.

Sumerian, in cuneiform; author(s) unknown; c. 4^th millennium BCE; Sanity Loss 1D3/1D6; Occult +4 percentiles; average 20 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: Create Amulet, plus any others the keeper desires.

Tuscan Rituals

“Pliny, in his Natural History, mentions the Tuscan Rituals, books containing the liturgy of Summanus, Monarch of Night and the Terror That Walketh in Darkness. The cult of this deity is surrounded with mystery and fear. His temple stood near the Circus Maximus, and St. Augustine says that his worshippers were few, the fact being that this horrid cult was conducted with such secrecy that even the most curious antiquarian inquirer could ascertain no particulars ... Martianus Capella, a native of North Africa, explicitly says that Summanus is lord of hell. Assuredly then in the worship of Summanus we have sheer demonolatry.”

-Montague Summers, Witchcraft & Black Magic

In Rome, Summanus was worshipped as a kind of dark Jupiter, controller of the night sky and wielder of the thunderbolt. Its holy day was June the 20^th and at that time its worshippers enacted certain rites and ate special wheel-shaped, red cakes. The temple at the Circus Maximus is said to have been built in the 3^rd Century BC, and its reputation as a place of evil stems from that time; nowadays, its exact location is unknown. A modern cult to this being still exists today and there are also cults to it in the Dreamlands. The Tuscan Rituals is a collation of all rites dedicated to this Old One, and its exact date of writing is unknown (Pliny gives the earliest mention of it). The text is written in the local “low” language rather than Latin, indicating perhaps the lower class origins of the organised worship of this being.

(Source: Brian Lumley, “What Dark God?”)

Italian; unknown author(s); c. 40CE; Sanity Loss 1/1d3; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Divine the Will of Summanus” (Augury); “To Speak with the Dark God” (Contact Summanus); “To Banish a Demon” (Curse of Darkness); “To Bind a Demon” (Imprison Mind)

*****

Roman era Spells

The spells which were of use in the Roman era are quite different from those in use in other time periods, and certainly with very different concerns. Individual Keepers may rule that these spells “no longer work” if it suits them to do so; certainly there is enough precedent in Mythos Tome Lore to make this ruling.

Augury

Range: n/a; Duration: Instantaneous; Cost: 1 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D3; Resistance: No

This spell allows Roman augurs to predict the future. Before casting this spell, the auger must determine what form of augury (ex caelo, ex avibus, ex tripudiis, ex quadrupedibus, or ex diris) is most appropriate. He then must carry out the ritual by making a Science (Augury) skill check. If successful, the augur receives a vague glimpse of the future. These can often be interpreted in multiple ways. For example: an augur trying to predict the outcome of a major battle between the Legion and a Celtic tribe might glimpse a vision of battered and bloody centurions returning to Rome; that could be interpreted to mean that the Legions will lose and limp back home, or, on the other hand, might be seen as a portent that victory will be hard-fought. A successful Know roll might help an augur understand an uncertain vision.

This spell is only usable once a week. If the augur sees a creature or event that would result in Sanity loss under normal circumstances, he loses the same amount that he would have lost in a face-to-face encounter.

Awaken Chuma

Range: n/a; Duration: Instantaneous; Cost: 8 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D8; Resistance: No

To bring Chuma, the sub-Saharan manifestation of Yibb-Tstll, from the Dreamlands to the waking world, the casters must gather in a circle around an image of the god during the early hours of the evening and under an open sky. The spell requires a living sacrifice. The sacrifice need not be human, but must have a POW of at least 10. As the spell is cast, the image begins to revolve; all who witness it must make a Sanity roll (1D3/1D6). As the spell progresses, the image spins faster and faster. At the same time, Yibb-Tstll’s blood floats down from the sky and covers the sacrifice, draining 1 POW from it every 30 minutes. When the victim’s POW reaches zero, he falls unconscious and Yibb-Tstll manifests over his body.

Banish Apep

Range: n/a; Duration: 1 Day; Cost: 10 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D4/1D6; Resistance: No

This ritual must be performed in a very precise order. After crafting a wax model or making a small drawing of Apep, the caster must first spit upon the effigy while extolling the power of Ra. While still exalting the sun god, the caster grinds the effigy under his left heel, stabs it with a spear, ties it with a leather strap, slices it with a knife, and tosses the mutilated remains into a fire. He must continue his litany of Ra’s powers and deeds until the likeness of Apep is reduced to ash. Apep has been banished to the land of the dead, and this spell keeps him there. It also affects his followers, each of whom suffers 1D8 points of damage if within a one-mile radius of the casting.

Beseech Charon

Range: n/a; Duration: Instantaneous; Cost: 12 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D10; Resistance: No

This spell must be cast at night in a gateway or archway. By his casting, the magus reaches out and contacts Charon, the keeper of the way over the River Styx in the underworld. Charon is an avatar of Yog-Sothoth, and contacting the avatar invites Yog-Sothoth into the caster.

Black Blood

Range: Sight; Duration: Instantaneous; Cost: 3 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D4; Resistance: No

With a successful casting of this spell, the magus summons forth the blood of Yibb-Tstll to rain from the sky and suffocate his target. The caster must keep the target in his sight for the duration of the casting, which takes 15 minutes.

Create Amulet

Range: n/a; Duration: Permanent (see below); Cost: 5 MP; Sanity Loss: 1; Resistance: No

Before a sorcerer can cast this spell, he must craft an amulet from a semi-precious stone. Each type of stone has its own unique properties that influence the amulet’s specific powers, as do the images carved into it. After creating the talisman, the sorcerer must sacrifice something of value to the person who will wear the amulet. Then, the spell is cast.

When the enchanted amulet is either worn about the neck as a pendant or carried in a pouch, it can be used to summon the aid of a supernatural guardian once per day. This guardian can mitigate five points of damage or increase the wearer’s POW by 3 for one hour.

Create Curse Tablet

Range: Touch; Duration: Special; Cost: 5 MP; Sanity Loss: 1D2; Resistance: Yes

To create a curse tablet, a sorcerer must have access to a lead tablet, which he then inscribes with the desired curse and buries in an underground chamber or tomb. Merely burying the thing in a hole in the ground is insufficient; an existing subterranean structure must be used. The curse must be written in either Greek or Oscan; Latin won’t suffice. Further, the caster must chant while inscribing and burying the tablet. After he buries the tablet, the caster makes a POW vs. POW roll against the curse’s intended victim on the Resistance Table. If the caster is successful, the victim suffers the effects of the curse.

If the victim is successful, the curse has no effect. The nature of the curse must involve fortune or money. A curse cannot kill someone outright, but instead damages his business or livelihood. A curse is permanent unless the lead tablet is removed from its burial place. The instant it’s removed, the curse is lifted. The victim doesn’t have to be the one to remove the tablet from the ground; anyone can do it, even unwittingly. To re-enact the curse, the chants must be repeated while the tablet is reburied.

Evil Eye

Range: Sight; Duration: 1 Day; Cost: 3 MP; Sanity Loss: 1; Resistance: Yes

Rarely found in tomes, sorcerers instead pass this ancient spell from one to the next through the oral tradition.

The Evil Eye curses its victim, bringing misfortune and bad luck. While under its influence, the victim has no more than half chance to succeed at any roll regardless of other modifiers. When the spell is cast, the victim can make an opposed POW vs. POW roll (his own against the caster’s) on the Resistance Table to resist the effects. A given magus may only afflict one person at a time with the Evil Eye.

Summon/Bind Child of the Sphinx

Range: n/a; Duration: 5 min. per MP Cost; Cost: 1 MP per 10 percentiles of success to summon; Sanity Loss: 1D3+creature 0/1D8; Resistance: Yes

Dating to pre-dynastic Egypt, this spell allows the caster to summon a Child of the Sphinx — an anthropomorphic animal construed as the Egyptian gods Ra, Thoth, and so on. In truth, Children of the Sphinx are avatars of Nyarlathotep.

Spending the MP and succeeding, a Child of the Sphinx rises from the sands in 2D10 game minutes. Surviving the Sanity test, the caster must bind it to his will or his life could be forfeit. To exert his control, the caster must oppose the Child’s MP with his own on the Resistance Table. If the caster fails, the Child is free to do as it wishes, which will most likely culminate in the caster’s death. This spell can only be used to control one Child at a time.