Codex Dagonensis
“Dagon
his name, sea-monster, upward man
And
downward fish; yet had his temple high
Reared
in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of
Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds...”
-John Milton, Paradise Lost: Book I
This work is one of four volumes which
appeared in northern Germany around the year 400 AD. The four books are the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium, the Codex Spitalski (also known as The Leprous Book) and the Cthaat Aquadingen. Each of these titles
shows distinct congruencies in the nature and layout of the material that they
present and it is thought that all of them were prepared and written by the
same author, or by a group of authors working from a single source. Each, however,
has had its own unique ride through history.
As with many books of this nature, the
titles are arbitrary and are usually derived from their content or the nature
of their discovery: the Codex Dagonensis
is known as such due its extended discourse upon Deep Ones and their religious
practices, especially relating to the entity Dagon. It may be that each of the
four books represents an attempt to produce a single volume of lore prepared at
four different locations and occasions; given the strangeness of the name Cthaat Aquadingen, it’s possible that
this title was meant to cover all of this material. Subsequent events –
including editing, additions, and re-workings of the material - have meant that
the reintegration of all this matter under that heading is no longer possible.
The Codex
Dagonensis concerns itself mainly with the nature, society and worship of
the Deep Ones. Obed Marsh of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, possessed a copy of this
work and used it to help create the form of worship of his Esoteric Order of Dagon: copies of the book were made and the
material amended to adhere more closely to the rituals of that Order, which
themselves derived mainly from the Ponape
Scriptures and other related sources. After the forced disbanding of the
sect in Innsmouth in 1928, Marsh’s original copy of the Codex and several of the translated versions were presented to the
Library at Miskatonic University, where members of the Order still consult them
from time to time.
Apart from the Deep One information, the Codex Dagonensis also contains the Nyhargo Dirge (for destroying zombies
and other corporeal undead creatures); several magical protections to thwart
summonings; information about the Elder Sign; a series of rituals concerned
with the Great Old One, Tsathoggua; as well as the Third and Eighth Sathlattae:
the Third Sathlatta protects against
Bugg Shash - the Devourer - when chanted at midnight; however, such protection
only lasts until such time as the subject’s death. It is not known what the Eighth Sathlatta does.
(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)
Latin; Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D8/1d12
Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 22 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: Alter
Weather; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Consume
Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact
Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Gate; Elder Sign; Grasp of
Cthulhu; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless
Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash)
The Teachings of the Esoteric Order of
Dagon
This is a work which seeks to ease the
transition of those affected with the so-called ‘Innsmouth Look’. It is a clear
manual outlining the nature of the Deep Ones, their connexions to humanity and
to the denizens of the deep. It outlines the whereabouts of Deep One colonies
and helps in the identification of others who are undergoing the change. As well,
it contains many prayers to Cthulhu, Father Dagon, and Mother Hydra and
discusses with some perspicacity the nature of these entities.
An early edition of this work dating from
Elizabethan times is kept in the British Library; another version published in
the early 1800s resides in the Miskatonic University Library collection. Yet
another version in Spanish has been identified in the Library of the University
of Toledo.
(Source: Bruce Ballon, et.al., Unseen Masters)
Elizabethan English; Author unknown; 16th
Century; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to
study and comprehend
Spells: Contact
Deep One; plus a 40% chance of one of the following: Alter Weather; Attract Fish; Bless/Blight
Crops
English; Author unknown; early 19th
Century; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to
study and comprehend
Spells: Contact
Deep One
Spanish; Author unknown; 1902; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu
Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend
Spells: Alter
Weather; Contact Deep One
Invocations to Dagon
A passing reference in a news journal
dated 1851 is the earliest sighting of this work, although the likelihood is
that it is much older. The Invocations
were never published; they were written by Asaph Waite and circulated amongst
the adherents of the Esoteric Order of
Dagon in the town of Innsmouth. After the destruction of that town in 1928
(during which Asaph Waite was killed), the manuscript disappeared and its
current whereabouts are unknown.
That being said, the Restricted Section
of the Miskatonic University Library has several pages from the Invocations. From these meagre gleanings
it is clear that the work is a collection of prayers and ritual devotions
seeking the intercession of Father Dagon in the worship of Great Cthulhu.
English; Asaph Waite; prior to 1851; 1d4/1d8 Sanity
loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 16 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Unknown
*****
Codex Maleficium
As with the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex
Spitalski, and the Cthaat Aquadingen,
the Codex Maleficium first appeared
in northern Germany around the year 400 AD and was possibly meant to be
identical with them. Scholarship has posited the notion that the book was
originally written in German, or Gothic, or derived from sources in those
languages: it could be that all four of these works are in fact the same book,
compiled and written in four different locations and intended to be called the Cthaat Aquadingen, given that text’s
mangled German (or Gothic)/Latin title. However, later amendments and additions
have rendered the book unable to be reintegrated as a single volume and it now
stands alone as a discrete text.
The Codex
Maleficium was captured and named early after its discovery by the
Inquisition and removed to the holdings of the Holy Roman Empire; it now
resides within the Vatican and access to it is severely restricted.
Transcriptions of the work were prepared, heavily edited and annotated, coded
in the Inquisitorial Alphabet, to be used as a reference work for Vatican
agents. These copies mostly refrain from outlining the ritual procedures of the
text, preferring to gloss over material deemed too blasphemous for the tastes
of holy warriors. Excerpts from other captured books were also included in this
printing as a means of comparing, codifying and contrasting the practices of
disparate heretical groups.
Like the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex
Maleficium contains information on the Elder Sign, incantations designed to
thwart magical summoning, the Nyhargo Dirge
for dealing with the corporeal undead and several Tsathogguan rituals. Unlike
any of the other related books, this is the only source for the First Sathlatta; what this incantation
may do is unknown, a situation which will likely not change until the Vatican
removes their restrictions of access.
(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)
Latin;
Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D8/1d12 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10
percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Alter
Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind
Enemy; Blight/Bless Crop; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast
Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of
Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Gate; Curse
of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Find
Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Powder of ibn-Ghazi; Summon/Bind
Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign;
Warding; Warding the Eye
Latin,
in the Inquisitorial Alphabet; Vatican translator(s) unknown; the Vatican,
circa. 1250 AD; 1D2/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 4 weeks to
study and comprehend
Spells:
None; although 20% of
copies will have 1D3 of the following: Augur;
Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Bind Enemy; Cast Out Devil; 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
*****
Codex Spitalski
(aka “The Leprous Book”)
Like the Codices Dagonensis and Maleficium,
the Codex Spitalski is one of several
texts each of which may have been an abortive attempt to compile and publish the
Cthaat Aquadingen. It is theorised that
the Codex Spitalski is the earliest
of these attempts.
The early movements of this manuscript
are unknown; however the work was published in an extremely abridged form, with
additional material elaborating the evil-doings of witches, at the height of
the witch hunting frenzy in Northern Europe. This edition was produced by a
Copenhagen publishing house and was entitled De Spedalske Bog (“The
Leprous Book”) - a warning as to the toxic virulence of its subject matter,
which only served to increase interest and therefore, its distribution. The
original manuscript became known thereafter as the Codex Spitalski: the word ‘spitalski’ is a mistransliteration from
the Danish ‘spedalske’ which means ‘leprous’; poor scholarship assumed that the
word was a family name, possibly of a previous owner, and the title stuck. The manuscript
languished in the holdings of the publishing house until it passed into the
hands of successive later buyers; it now resides in the Restricted Section of
the Library of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
Like the other volumes with which it is
associated, the Codex Spitalski
contains a series of Tsathogguan rituals, information regarding the Elder Sign,
the Nyhargo Dirge which deals with
the corporeal undead and some chants to prevent the effects of summoning
spells. Unlike the other works, it is the only version to contain the Second Sathlatta, the effects of which
are unknown.
(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)
Latin;
Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D6/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9
percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Alter
Weather; Augur; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Blight/Bless Crop; Cast Out
Devil; Clutch of Nyogtha; Consume Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless
Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Nyogtha; Contact
Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness;
Detect Enchantment; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Find Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison
Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog;
Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua;
The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Warding; Warding the Eye
De Spedalske Bog
Danish;
“Junior Philopatreias” (Sören Rosenlund) translator; Copenhagen, 1773; 1/1D3
Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 3 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Alter
Weather; Augur; Blight/Bless Crop; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Raise Night Fog;
Warding; Warding the Eye
*****
Cthaat Aquadingen
“Ye Science as practiced by a Majority of
ye Prime Ones was & is & always will be that of ye Path of Light,
infinitely recognized throughout Time, Space & all ye Angles as beneficent
to ye Great All’s Continuation. Certain of ye Gods, however, of a rebellious
Nature, chose to disregard ye Dictums of ye Majority, & in ye constant
Gloom of ye Dark Path renounced their immortal Freedom in Infinity & were
banished to suitable Places in Space & Time. But even in Banishment ye Dark
Gods railed against ye Prime Ones, so that those Followers of ye Light Path
must needs shut them Outside of all Knowledge, imposing upon their Minds
certain Strictures & ye fear of ye Light Path’s Ways, & impressing into
their Bodies a Stigma defying Generation; that ye Sins of ye Fathers might be
carried down through Eternity & visited upon ye Children & ye
Children’s Children forever; or until a Time should come as was once, when all
Barriers crumble, & ye Stars & Dwellers therein, & ye Spaces between
ye Stars & Dwellers therein, & all Time & Angles & Dwellers
therein be falsely guided into ye ultimate Night of ye Dark Path – until ye
Great All close in & become One, & Azathoth come in His golden Glory,
& Infinity begin again...”
-from ‘Contacting Cthulhu in Dreams’, Cthaat Aquadingen
(Brian
Lumley, The Burrowers Beneath III: Cursed
the Ground)
Although inextricably linked with the three
other texts mentioned above, the Cthaat
Aquadingen is a far more potent beast
than any of them. Scholars have theorised that the original sources for this
work were composed in German, or the Gothic tongue, or by a speaker of one of
those languages with a less-than-perfect facility in Latin; whichever is the
true state of affairs, the Cthaat
Aquadingen contains much the same information as those other texts and is
the most complete of any of them in this regard.
The origin of the title is unknown:
‘aquadingen’ is a corrupt admixture of German, or the Gothic tongue, with
Latin, translating roughly as “things of the water”; the word ‘cthaat’ remains
undeciphered, although some scholars have tentatively suggested that it may be
a word in the language of R’lyeh.
While the original manuscript of the book
has been lost forever, the first printing of the work took place around the
11th or 12th Centuries AD, and, of these, it is believed that only five copies
remain. One of these was rumoured to have been bound in human skin and was in
the possession of Titus Crow; if this is the case then it was probably
destroyed along with his house and the rest of his library. A partial
transcription and a translation reside in Oakdene Sanatorium, while another
copy is held at the Great Library of the Dreamlands. The British Museum has
consistently denied having a copy, despite persistently re-surfacing rumours.
The Cthaat
Aquadingen, as does the Codex
Dagonensis, concerns itself mainly with the Deep Ones and other Mythos
phenomena and spells connected to the seas and oceans. In addition, it dwells
at length upon those supernatural entities known as ‘the Drowners’ - Yibb-Tstll
and Bugg-Shash - including the Third
Sathlatta which offers protection from the latter. The text also covers
Nyarlathotep in its avatar as the ‘Small Crawler’, the Nyhargo Dirge, certain rituals to do with the Great Old One
Tsathoggua, invocations to foil summoning spells, and the Elder Sign.
Of the Sathlattae, created by the Ptetholites in eons passed, the Cthaat Aquadingen contains almost all of
them including - along with the Third
- the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Sathlattae.
The effects of these incantations are mostly unknown although it is reported
that the Ninth “no longer works” for
some reason; perhaps the majority of the others are also similarly temporally
or dimensionally restricted in some fashion. The Sixth Sathlatta has a variety of uses: if chanted before sleeping
it allows the chanter to contact Yibb-Tstll in dreams; if chanted by a circle
of thirteen ‘adepts’ at the beginning of any calendar year it will summon that
entity to our reality; if inscribed upon a wafer and eaten by an intended
victim, it will summon a phenomenon known as ‘The Black’ to destroy the target.
This process also requires the Hoy-Dhin
Chant, which is only found in the Necronomicon,
in order to be successful.
(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)
Latin;
Unknown author(s); c.11th-12th Centuries AD; 1d8/2d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu
Mythos +13 percentiles; 46 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Alter
Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind
Enemy; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast
Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One; Contact
Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create
Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of
Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison
Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind
Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll;
Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta (Banish
Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign;
Warding; Warding the Eye
*****
“Ghe’phnglui, mglw’ngh ghee-yh,
Yibb-Tstll, Fhtagn mglw y’tlette ngh’wgah, Yibb-Tstll, Ghe’phnglui mglw’ngh
ahkobhg’sh, Yibb-Tstll; THABAITE! – YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL!”
-The Sixth Sathlatta
(Brian
Lumley, “The Horror at Oakdene”)
A copy of the Cthaat Aquadingen crossed the Channel from the Low Countries during
the medieval period – possibly in the hands of refugees fleeing the Black Death
- and found its way into England. There, it was translated into the English
idiom of the times and stored within the holdings of Durham Cathedral.
The Black Death took a higher toll
amongst ecclesiastics than any other sector of the community in England and the
Durham Cathedral monasteries were wiped out almost to a man. It seems that the
Middle English version of the Cthaat Aquadingen
disappeared during this time and its whereabouts remain unknown.
Middle
English; Unknown translator; c.14th Century AD; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu
Mythos +8 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Alter
Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith;
Bind Enemy; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra;
Cast Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One;
Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create
Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of
Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison
Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind
Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll;
Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta (Banish
Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign;
Warding; Warding the Eye
Although the location of the Middle
English Cthaat is a mystery, partial
copies in manuscript form have turned up throughout England over the years.
These usually have only the Sixth
Sathlatta as the entirety of their spell complement although some have
shown a bit more variety.
The best known of these copies is housed
in Oakdene Sanatorium and several unfortunate episodes are on record
surrounding it.
English;
Unknown translator; various dates; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6
percentiles; 29 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
The
Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The
Black); there is a 10%
chance that 1D6 of the following spells will also be present: Alter Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of
Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Breath of the Deep;
Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Consume
Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of
Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create
Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of
Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison
Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind
Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding
the Eye
*****
“...And then shall the gate be opened, as
the Sun is blotted out. Thus the Small Crawler will awaken those who dwell
beyond and bring them. The sea shall swallow them and spit them up and the
leopard shall eat of the flesh of Rudraprayag in the Spring.”
A version of the Cthaat Aquadingen was translated into Hindi around the time of the
Indian Mutiny. This version was enhanced with a plethora of mystical
predictions and some new spells, interspersing the other material. This
additional material is distributed randomly amongst the other text, rendering
any attempt at chronological arrangement (without hindsight) impossible. Many
of the predictions involve Nyarlathotep in its various forms but this, as well,
is of no use in trying to organise the material. In most other particulars, the
book is the same as the English version of the Cthaat Aquadingen.
(Larry DiTillio & Lynn Willis, “Masks of Nyarlathotep: Kenya”)
Hindi,
in the Devanagari Script; Unknown translator; c.14th Century AD; 1d4/2d4 Sanity
loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 29 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
Affect
Weather; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss
Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of
Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create
Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of
Suleiman; Find Gate; Hands of Kali; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Powder of
ibn-Ghazi; Elder Sign; Nyhargo Dirge; Strike Blind The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact
Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta
(Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding
*****
Notes
on the Cthaat Aquadingen
“Many & multiform are ye dim horrors
of Earth, infesting her ways from ye very prime. They sleep beneath ye unturned
stone; they rise with ye tree from its root; they move beneath ye sea, & in
subterranean places they dwell in ye inmost adyta. Some there are long known to man, & others as yet unknown,
abiding ye terrible latter days of their revealing. Those which are ye most
dreadful & ye loathliest of all are haply still to be declared.”
-Joachim Feery, 1901
Joachim Feery (died 1934) was the son of
the German Baron, Ernst Kant, and, like his father, a dedicated researcher of
the supernatural. Feery had a more theoretical approach to his studies however,
unlike his father who died in a Westphalian asylum, claiming that a demonic
entity named Yibb-Tstll had taken control of his mind.
Feery is mainly known for the series of
limited edition books which he printed, each an extended commentary on a
particularly notorious book of forbidden lore, with annotations and quotations.
These works include The Book of Dzyan,
the Cthaat Aquadingen, De Vermis Mysteriis and, most
infamously, the Necronomicon. These
publications have expanded the range of these hard-to-access tomes and are
often utilised by hard metaphysicians where the original texts are unavailable.
A word of caution, however: while
generally well-received, Feery’s books were examined by other authorities on
these works and his quotations and supplementary material were found to be
somewhat at odds with the original matter, if not entirely unsupported by the
text. His response was that his researches had been supplemented by material
which had come to him in dreams. As a result, the reception of his publishing
efforts has been universally cool.
(Source: Brian Lumley, “An Item of Supporting Evidence”)
German;
Joachim Feery; 1901; 1D2/1D4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 12
weeks to study and comprehend
Spells:
None
*****
Nyhargo Dirge
The Nyhargo
Dirge is a potent ritual against undead zombies, restless skeletons and
other corporeal entities forced into activity after their demise. It affects
Mummies, Skeletons, Vampires, and Zombies; it has no effect upon Ghosts,
Golems, Scarecrows, Werewolves, Wraiths, or the minions of Glaaki. It is
equally ineffective against humans under the effects of the spells Compel Flesh, the Voodoo spell Create Zombi, Enthrall Victim, the Mi-Gos’ Hypnosis,
the image created by a Remortification
spell, or the target of a Soul Trap.
It will destroy a corpse driven by the spell Seek Heart, and it will reverse the effects of the spells Transfer Body Part and Transfer Organ (causing the affected
organs and members to cease functioning and mortify). Additionally, it will
neutralise and reverse the Voodoo spell Sending
of the Dead.
The Dirge
requires the chanting of a very long and complex series of verses. Given this,
translations or transliterations are sometimes incomplete or incorrect. If the
copy of this spell that the players are about to use does not derive from either, the Codex
Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium,
the Codex Spitalski or the Cthaat Aquadingen, there is a 20% chance
that the verses are wrong and that the spell will not work.
The spell requires a moonless night upon
which to be cast. The caster removes himself to a secluded outdoors locale and
takes with them a staff, or stone (or some other similar object) and begins to
chant the Dirge over this item while
painting upon it the spell’s accompanying symbols in their own fresh blood (at
least 1 HP’s worth). Whilst doing so, they sacrifice 2 POW.
The spell takes at least 2 hours to
chant. In order to correctly chant the ritual words, the caster must roll under
their INT score on 1d20. Chanting the ritual requires all of the words to be
uttered in the proper order except for the last one: when the spellcaster
wishes for the spell to take effect, they strike the ground with their chosen
object and say this final word; the spell then comes into play:
The area of effect of the Dirge is spherical, 100 metres across,
and centred at the point where the staff or stone (or other item) strikes the
ground. This means that subterranean or flying undead creatures within the area
are affected also. Eligible creatures within the zone are shredded into minute
fragments as if caught in a bomb blast – utterly destroyed.
Caveats: only the caster of the Dirge can set it off – no-one else; if
the object upon which the spell has been cast is destroyed or thrown into
running water, the spell is neutralised; if the caster fails to make their INT
roll, they still lose their POW and
the HP’s worth of blood, and the spell doesn’t work; seeing the effects of the Nyhargo Dirge forces those so doing to
lose 1D8 points of Sanity.
*****
The
Sathlattae of the Ptetholites
The Ptetholites were a proto-human race
which existed before the Hyperborean Age (between 900,000 and 1,000,000 years
ago), the coming of which spelt their doom. Little is known of them, other than
that the Hyperboreans were keen to eliminate them and that they went to great
pains to do so. In the end, the Hyperborean wizard Edril Ghambiz used the
Ptetholite’s own magic against them – specifically, the Sixth Sathlatta –
summoning the Black to terrorise Yibb Tstll’s own worshippers.
Along with worship of this particular
menace, the Ptetholites were known to offer sacrifice to Arwassa and Ithaqua,
although, as in the case of Yibb Tstll, whether this was true worship or simple
propitiation and manipulation is unknown. It’s likely that the Ptetholites were
roughly organised into clan alliances and fought constantly among themselves.
Remarkably, for such a primitive race, they developed their own form of
writing, although few traces of this remain:
Early copies of the Cthaat Aquadingen contain the Sixth Sathlatta written in Ptetholite
glyphs, with a Latin translation; The Kishite Recension of the Book of Eibon contains some fragments
purporting to be from “the Nyahites of Ptathlia”, which may be a reference to
these people. The most comprehensive collection of Ptetholite writing however,
is to be found on the Broken Columns of
Geph.
In the Seventies, an object known as the Phitmar Stone was unearthed. The
inscriptions on this tablet are in several different forms of Ancient Egyptian
writing, in a dialect dating from the Old Kingdom. Within these texts are
transcriptions taken from the Broken
Columns: this has some interesting implications when taken in the light of
the existence of an ancient document dating from the Roman Republic: several
sub-Saharan tribes known to the Romans worshipped Yibb-Tstll under the guise of
“Chuma”; their worship and rituals were outlined in a – now lost – series of
scrolls, written in the Egyptian Hieratic script, and known as the Chuma Scrolls.
The Chuma Scrolls
This sheaf of five scrolls contains
information about the cult of Chuma amongst the sub-Saharan tribes. They are
written using the Hieratic script, the ‘shorthand’ version of the Egyptian
Hieroglyphs; what language they have
been written in is unknown and may well be some form of sub-Saharan dialect. They
contain information about contacting and summoning the god (Yibb-Tstll in his
avatar as Chuma), his blood (“the Black”), and also minions, the Nightgaunts.
Copies of the Chuma Scrolls were said to have been housed within the Serapeum
of Alexandria and in the libraries of Carthage; if so, they have almost
certainly been lost forever.
In
Hieratic, in an unknown language; translated by unknown scribes from a sub-Saharan
original, c.1800BC; 1D6/2D6 Sanity Loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 8 weeks
to study and comprehend.
Spells:
“Awaken Chuma”, “Call the Black” (The Sixth Sathlatta); Summon/Bind Nightgaunt; any others the Keeper desires.
*****
The Sathlattae of the Ptetholites are a
series of complex, multifarious rituals, each of which has several applications.
Many of the Sathlattae do not seem to work – according to those who have the
opportunity to attempt them – which raises some interesting speculations.
Of the Ninth Sathlatta, it is said that this ritual “no longer works”.
This may mean that this particular spell, and likely some of the others, are
constructed to function only in particular time periods, “when the stars are
right” for instance. It may also be that the spells are dimensionally
predicated: some of the Sathlattae may only work in the appropriate dimension,
the Dreamlands for example, or on some other planet. Further research is
obviously required.
The following list shows the various
Sathlattae, the volumes in which they are found and their current status.
First Sathlatta – Codex
Maleficium
Capabilities unknown
Second Sathlatta – Codex
Spitalski
Capabilities unknown
Third Sathlatta – Codex
Dagonensis; Codex Maleficium; Codex Spitalski; Cthaat Aquadingen
Banish
Bugg-Shash
Fourth Sathlatta – Cthaat
Aquadingen
Capabilities unknown
Fifth Sathlatta - Cthaat
Aquadingen
Capabilities unknown
Sixth Sathlatta - Cthaat
Aquadingen; The Chuma Scrolls
Contact Yibb-Tstll
Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll
Summon
“The Black” (requires the Hoy-Dhin
Chant from the Necronomicon)
Seventh Sathlatta - Cthaat
Aquadingen
Capabilities unknown
Eighth Sathlatta - Cthaat
Aquadingen
Capabilities unknown
Ninth Sathlatta - Cthaat
Aquadingen
No longer works
