What
is Going On?
As
stated above, whatever’s happening is up to the Keeper. If they choose that the
story is a scübidüberism, then nothing more is happening than what it looks
like – the medical school is using the local black population to further its
academic concerns and the local law agents are willing to facilitate these ends
in return for payment. Also as stated, the best recourse for the party is to
get the reporter Elihu Lomax on side and to resort to publicity to shame those
involved. Of course, part of this plan will involve unmasking the Night Rider,
who can be one of the local deputies, Sheriff Jubal Compton, or even one of the
University Professors, as the Keeper chooses. However, if the Keeper wants this
to be a Mythos story, then things are altogether of a different complexion:
In
this version, the local witches are taking their own revenge upon the personnel
at Johns Hopkins Medical School. They have summoned Nyogtha and have created a
new Spawn of the Great Old One to work against the medical community. This new
Spawn is Jessie’s baby. As back-up, Nyogtha has sent one of its other, fully
grown Spawn to protect the youngling – this is the Night Rider which the party
encounters at the shanty-town. This entity’s true nature is veiled by its white
robes and, if these should be removed, Sanity rolls all around will have to
take place. The ‘Rider’s horse is not actually a separate creature – it is a
part of the Spawn, extruded from its plastic body and made to move in an equine
fashion.
The Night-Riding Spawn of Nyogtha
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
26
|
POW
|
17
|
Age
|
n/a
|
CON
|
17
|
DEX
|
11
|
HP
|
19
|
SIZ
|
20
|
APP
|
n/a
|
Magic
Points
|
17
|
INT
|
13
|
EDU
|
n/a
|
SAN
|
0
|
Damage Bonus: +2d6
Weapon:
Bullwhip 45%, 1d3 or Grapple; Claws 65%, 1d6+db; Bite
65%, 1d8+db; Grapple 50%, special
Armour:
Immune to bullets and Impaling
weapons; minimum damage from all other attacks; immune to fire, acid, radiation
and electricity
Skills: Disguise
50%; Hide 75%; Sneak 50%;
Spells: Contact Nyogtha; Contact Naggoob;
Contact Ghoul [plus 2d6 others]
SAN Loss:
It costs 1/1d10 SAN to see a Spawn
of Nyogtha
As
the party investigates further, they will see the ‘Rider attack the School’s
doctors, or agents of the Law, or Press, in preference to black citizens; this
should get the party members scratching their heads. The party’s best defense
against the Night Rider is located within the pages of Ivor Gorstadt’s Necrolatry, unless of course they have
their own barrage of Spells at hand.
Postscript...
However
this sorry tale ends, as the party are boarding a carriage to the train
station, they spot the small child from the root cellar siege playing hopscotch
by herself on the roadside. As she skips along, she sings:
“You see that house? That great brick house?
Way yonder down the street?
They used to take dead folks in there
Wrapped in a long white sheet.
And sometimes if a black man’d stop,
And wonder who was dead;
The student men would take a club
And bat him on the head,
And drag that poor dead negro child
To the dissecting hall
To investigate his liver-lights,
His gizzard and his gall.
Take off that black man's hands and feet,
His eyes, his head, and all;
And when the students finished
There was nothing left at all.”
Perhaps,
if the Investigators have been less than effective in this matter, they can
take heart in the fact that it looks as if the memory of these events will
survive in spite of everything...
Notes:
That
this entire scenario is based on truth is something to give one pause. Whichever
way the Keeper chooses to take this story, the real horror at the heart of it
is the fact that learned, unethical men took advantage of their society’s
underclasses to advance their own careers. Blacks and the poor were
systematically cut up so that fat, rich, white men could live in greater
comfort; that the medical science of today gives (more or less) all of us those
same benefits is probably something we should all reflect upon.
And
just in case anyone thinks that all of this ended with the turn of the
Twentieth Century, I advise you to think upon the Tuskeegee Experiments in
which black men were allowed to contract syphilis and were then denied
treatment without their knowledge so that researchers could study the long-term
effects of the disease; this study lasted from the 1930s until it was shut down
in the 1970s. Then there is the case of Henrietta Lacks, whose body was taken
without consent in the 1950s and used (is, in fact, still being used) as a test culture for various disease studies. It
makes you wonder what else is going on in the name of medical advancement?
Anyone
interested in further reading about these subjects can check Wikipedia or “The Fortean Times”, issues FT323
(February 2015) and FT332 (November 2015). Several books have been written
concerning Henrietta Lacks, focussing either upon the ethics surrounding the
appropriation and use of her remains and/or the science which has been
generated by her corpus; her name is
also a Fox Mulder catch-cry which he uses (even in this 2016 season) whenever
he seeks to demonstrate the US Government’s misuse of the people whom it is
elected to represent.
As
readers will notice, this scenario is not a train ride – a series of scenes
leading to a conclusion - although several scenes are outlined. The Keeper
might have to fill in many blank areas around this rough sketch – NPCs,
locations and maps, further statistics – but there is more than enough here to
be getting on with.
Odd
Weapons
Pitchfork:
Base Chance
|
Damage
|
Hit Points
|
Impale?
|
Parry?
|
10%
|
1d6+db
|
10
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
New Spells
Crux Ansata
The
crux ansanta, or ankh, of Ancient Egypt is very efficacious against Nyogtha, and
indeed, of all the Old Ones, it would seem that it is the only one so affected.
A strongly presented ankh will stop
Nyogtha from advancing; however, the ankh
must be a specially-prepared one – infused with 2 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
The
word “Tikkun”, in Hebrew, refers to cabbalistic processes designed to restore
Creation from a shattered state, and this ‘holy water’ derives from Jewish
practises rather than Christian ones. The spell requires a pint of pure water to
be infused with all the caster’s Magic
Points, while chanting certain arcane Hebrew prayers during the Sabbath.
The ‘Elixir is able to remove 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. When used against a Spawn of
Nyogtha for example, the creature becomes vulnerable to gunfire, normal
weapons, fire, acid, radioactivity, and electricity for the space of one round.
Against Nyogtha alone, it does 2D10 points of damage as well. Of course, a
successful Throw roll is needed to
employ this weapon.
Mythos
Entities
Depending
upon how things proceed, there is a very high chance that certain other Mythos
beings might enter the frame of this narrative. Keepers are reminded to not let
things get too far out of control in this regard, but a well-experienced party
might be up for a greater challenge.
Ghouls – Lesser Independent Race
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
16
|
POW
|
13
|
Age
|
n/a
|
CON
|
13
|
DEX
|
13
|
HP
|
13
|
SIZ
|
13
|
APP
|
n/a
|
Magic
Points
|
13
|
INT
|
13
|
EDU
|
n/a
|
Move
|
9
|
Damage Bonus: +1d4
Weapon:
Bite 30%, 1d6+automatic worry; Claws 30%, 1d6+db
Armour:
Firearms and other projectiles do half damage (rounded up)
Skills:
Burrow 50%; Climb 85%; Glibber & Meep
100%; Hide 60%; Jump 75%; Listen 70%; Scent Decay 65%; Sneak 80%; Spot Hidden
50%
Spells: None
SAN Loss:
It costs 0/1d6 SAN to see a Ghoul
Wherever
there are witches, there are bound to be ghouls, especially where Nyogtha is
concerned. Some ghouls know spells: roll under the ghoul’s INT on 1d100 and
that’s how many spells the ghoul knows. Ghouls attack with both Claws and a Bite each round; if all three connect, the ghoul may choose to
forego Claw attacks next round and do
an automatic 1d4 points of damage instead. A successful STR vs. STR on the
Resistance Table will detach the ghoul.
Where
there are ghouls, there is going to be a graveyard. Keepers may wish to
establish a burial ground somewhere nearby – perhaps a Potters’ Field – and the
Investigators may stumble upon some of these loathsome creatures – or perhaps
some grave-robbers!
*****
Naggoob – Unique Entity
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
20
|
POW
|
20
|
Age
|
n/a
|
CON
|
18
|
DEX
|
17
|
HP
|
18
|
SIZ
|
17
|
APP
|
n/a
|
Magic
Points
|
20
|
INT
|
17
|
EDU
|
n/a
|
Move
|
9
|
Damage Bonus: +1d6
Weapon:
Bite 50%, 1d6+automatic worry; Claws 50%, 1d6+db
Armour:
Firearms and other projectiles do half damage (rounded up)
Skills:
Burrow 50%; Climb 85%; Cthulhu Mythos 35%; Dream Lore (Leng) 40%; English 75%; Glibber & Meep
100%; Hide 60%; Jump 75%; Listen 70%; Scent Decay 65%; Sneak 80%; Spot Hidden
50%
Spells: Clutch of Nyogtha; Contact Nyogtha; plus 1d3 non-Contact Deity spells from the Dreamlands list
SAN Loss:
It costs 1/1d8 SAN to see Naggoob
Naggoob
is an enormous ghoul and leader of the faction of these creatures who worship
Nyogtha. It’s possible that Naggoob is the “Black Man” mentioned so often in
witchcraft literature. The Spawn of Nyogtha are created through some awful
process involving Naggoob, Nyogtha and a human witch.
*****
Nyogtha – Great Old One
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
char.
|
value
|
STR
|
85
|
POW
|
28
|
Age
|
n/a
|
CON
|
40
|
DEX
|
20
|
HP
|
60
|
SIZ
|
80
|
APP
|
n/a
|
Magic
Points
|
28
|
INT
|
20
|
EDU
|
n/a
|
SAN
|
n/a
|
Damage Bonus: n/a
Weapon:
Tentacle 100%, 1d10, or entrap and
Grapple
Armour:
Nyogtha ignores the first 10 points of damage from all sources each round;
Nyogtha is dispelled at 0 hit points
Spells: all Call and Contact spells; Create Gate
SAN Loss:
It costs 1d6/1d20 SAN to see Nyogtha
When
attacking, Nyogtha ensnares a victim and drags it off to deep subterranean
pits, there to go slowly insane. The victim can be saved if a STR vs. STR Resistance Table roll can be made on
their behalf. If attacking to cause damage, Nyogtha’s attack is an area effect
and everyone in a 15-metre radius of it takes 1d10 points of damage from a
myriad small wounds.
Nyogtha
is vulnerable to a specially-prepared Ankh and a substance known as “Tikkoun
Elixir”; it is also susceptible to the Vach-viraj
Incantation, a spell found only in the Necronomicon.
Obviously,
if Nyogtha is around, then it needs a point of access. The Keeper should ensure
that there is a dark cave somewhere in the vicinity, possibly the home of the
Hoodoo Woman, otherwise, if Nyogtha is Summoned,
it will probably show up embarrassed and late.
*****
I hope that, if anyone out there decides to put
this work into play, that they have a good time with it (despite the subject
matter!). If you do play it through, let me know your thoughts and suggestions
– I’d love to hear them!
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