Continuing on, here is the next
selection of Mythos material organised by the first letter of their title. For
your delectation, this congeries of reading matter is brought to you by the letter
“E”!
*****
The
Egyptian Book of the Dead (Pert Em Hru or “The Book of Going Forth by Day”)
This ancient work concerns the beatification
of the dead, who were imagined as reciting the various chapters in order and thereby
gaining privileges in their new lives after death. The instructions and magical
procedures contained within its pages protect the dead against the dangers they
face in reaching the Afterlife. There are a wide variety of spells which cover everything
from the preservation of the mummy against mould, incantations to assist in shape-shifting,
to ritual procedures which assist the dead to become as gods themselves. The work
also contains many related spells and other more mundane spells and charms from
Dynastic Egypt.
The work began life as a series of spells
and written invocations written on the walls of the tombs of the Pharaohs, and which
were reserved exclusively for royal use. Over time, a change in the perception of
the Afterlife and the role of Osiris within it as judge of the dead, meant that
the life after death became available to all Egyptians and the spells were re-cast
for use across the entire spectrum of the society. The coffins, tombs and funerary
masks of the dead from all strata of the civilisation were inscribed with the new
spells which were collected together by Egyptologists as the Coffin Texts,
or Sarcophagus Texts; the preceding Pharaonic texts were collected as the
Pyramid Texts. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, all of the spells and the
new conceptual schematics of the Afterlife had been collated together as the Pert
Em Hru, or the “Egyptian Book of the Dead”.
Pharaonic, in Cursive Hieroglyphs; author
unknown; since time immemorial; No Sanity loss; Occult +7 percentiles; 10
weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “To See as far as the
Aten” (Augury); “A Spell to Banish Apep” (Banish Apep); “A
Spell to Ensnare One’s Foes” (Bind Enemy); “A Spell to Blind One’s
Enemy” (Curse of Darkness); “A Charm to Reveal the Magic of Evildoers” (Detect
Enchantment); “A Spell to Discover Hidden Ways” (Find Gate); “Call the
Servants of Bast!” (Summon/Bind Cat); “Call the Children of Sobek!” (Summon/Bind
Crocodile); “A Spell to Tear Away the Cloak of One Hidden” (Unmask Demon);
“An Enchantment to Reveal a Hidden Way” (View Gate); “A Spell of Warding”
(Warding)
Of course, any transmission of the text
to the West had to wait until Champollion’s work in translating hieroglyphs reached
fruition. The Pert Em Hru was known to Europeans as early as the Middle Ages,
but it was thought to be some kind of ancient grimoire, or holy book, and generally
avoided. In 1805, J. Marc Cadet published a bound collection of 18 colour plates
reproduced from an original papyrus, with accompanying descriptive notes; however,
his observations must be considered purely speculative. It was entitled “Copie
figurée d’un Roleau de Papyrus trouvé à Thebes des un Thombeau des Rois, accompagnèe
d’une notice descriptive.” Investigators may use the images as reference but,
unless they can read Hieroglyphs, the material will be largely useless to them.
French; J. Marc Cadet; Paris, 1805; No
Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles; 2 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None; however, if the
reader has the skill Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, the spells are as the Pert
Em Hru, above, but with a 15% chance of failure for each spell.
After the Hieroglyphic code was cracked,
the first printed version of the “Egyptian Book of the Dead”, coining and
cementing that title in the West, was by Prussian Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius.
His “Das Todtenbuch der Ägypter nach dem hieroglyphischen Papyrus in Turin mit
einem Vorworte zum ersten Male Herausgegeben” was published in Leipzig in 1842,
and codified 165 spells.
German; Karl Richard Lepsius; Leipzig,
1842; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles; 4 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “Um bis zum Aten sehen”
(Augury); “Ein Zauberspruch um Apep Verbannen” (Banish Apep);
“Um die Bediensteten oder Bast nennen!” (Summon/Bind Cat); “Zu den Kindern
Sobek nennen!” (Summon/Bind Crocodile)
Lepsius worked from a single version of
the Pert Em Hru held in an archive in Turin, and called upon his fellow Egyptologists
to begin collating as many different copies as they could find, in order to pin
down all the variant forms. Henri Édouard Naville, a student of Lepsius, bent to
the task and, between 1875 and 1886, compiled many different versions – with a spell
count of 186 – in a three-volume, bound edition.
German; Henri Edouard Naville; Leipzig,
1886; No Sanity loss; Occult +5 percentiles; 6 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “Um bis zum Aten sehen”
(Augury); “Ein Zauberspruch um Apep Verbannen” (Banish Apep);
“Ein Zauberspruch seine Feinde zu ungarnen” (Bind Enemy); “Ein Zauberspruch
seine Feinde zu Blenden” (Curse of Darkness); “Ein Talisman um die Magie
der Übeltäter Sehen” (Detect Enchantment); “Ein Zauberspruch Geheime Wege
zu Entdecken” (Find Gate); “Um die Bediensteten oder Bast nennen!” (Summon/Bind
Cat); “Zu den Kindern Sobek nennen!” (Summon/Bind Crocodile); “Ein Zauberspruch,
Jemanden zu Zeigen,” (Unmask Demon); “Ein Zauberspruch eine Versteckte Eingang
Sehen” (View Gate); “Ein Verteidigender Bann” (Warding)
The first English translation came from
Samuel Birch, the head of the Egyptian and Assyrian Department who immediately preceded
Wallis Budge in that role. His five-volume work was entitled “Egypt’s Place in
Universal History”, and volume five contains the “Papyrus of Nebseny”,
which is a copy of the Pert Em Hru written for and buried with that mummy.
When using the spells in this volume – or any other similar, highly personalised
version of the Pert Em Hru – there is a 20% chance that the spell will fail
due to errors which have crept in during the transcription process.
English; Samuel Birch; London, 1867; No
Sanity loss; Occult +4 percentiles; 6 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “A Spell to Allow Nebseny
to See as Far as the Aten” (Augury); “A Spell so that Nebseny may Banish
Apep” (Banish Apep); “A Charm So That Nebseny May See the Magic of Evildoers”
(Detect Enchantment); “A Charm so that Nebseny may Call the Servants of Bast!”
(Summon/Bind Cat)
The Scroll of Ani
To ensure that the passage to the Afterlife
was guaranteed, the Egyptians arranged to be buried with a copy of the Pert Em
Hru beside them. Producing such copies was an expensive process and so, only
the wealthiest of Egyptians were able to be interred with their own personal version.
Mostly, the text was simply painted upon tomb walls or sarcophagi. While cheaper
versions were available, many have not survived the passage of time.
The Scroll of Ani is a highly personalised
version of the Pert Em Hru, in which all the illustrations and the text refer
specifically to the owner – the scribe Ani – who paid for its creation. Along with
all of the standard chapters and spells, it has many charms and incantations particular
to this individual, along with a detailed (and probably hyperbolic) biography of
his life and accomplishments. When using the spells in this volume – or any other
similar, highly personalised version of the Pert Em Hru – there is
a 20% chance that the spell will fail due to errors which have crept in during transcription.
Pharaonic, in Cursive Hieroglyphs; unknown
scribe; ; No Sanity loss; Occult +6 percentiles; 12 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “A Spell to Allow Ani
to See as Far as the Aten” (Augury); “A Spell so that Ani may Banish Apep”
(Banish Apep); “A Spell to Ensnare Ani’s Foes” (Bind Enemy); “A Spell
to Blind Ani’s Enemies” (Curse of Darkness); “A Charm So That Ani May See
the Magic of Evildoers” (Detect Enchantment); “A Spell to Allow Ani to Discover
Hidden Ways” (Find Gate); “A Charm so that Ani may Call the Servants of Bast!”
(Summon/Bind Cat); “A Spell so that Ani may Call the Children of Sobek!”
(Summon/Bind Crocodile); “A Spell to Allow Ani to Tear Away the Cloak of
One Hidden” (Unmask Demon); “An Enchantment to Reveal a Hidden Way before
Ani” (View Gate); “Ani’s Spell of Warding” (Warding)
After obtaining The Scroll of Ani,
Wallis Budge arranged to send it back to England for study. In order to do this
without it being damaged en route, he cut the long length of papyrus into
five equal strips, so that it could be mailed flat. Although he made efforts to
minimise the damage to the work, many hieroglyphs and images were defaced in the
process. He defended his actions in this regard by saying that he hoped future generations
would be able to invent a way to piece the Scroll back together. In any event,
his translation is nowadays considered quite poor. As a consequence, along with
the 20% base chance of failure when casting spells from this source, Investigators
must also make a Luck Roll when using the spells listed within.
English; E.A. Wallis Budge (trans.); London,
1895; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend
Spells: “A Spell to Allow Ani
to See as Far as the Aten” (Augury); “A Spell so that Ani may Banish Apep”
(Banish Apep); “A Charm So That Ani May See the Magic of Evildoers” (Detect
Enchantment); “A Charm so that Ani may Call the Servants of Bast!” (Summon/Bind
Cat)
*****
Egyptian hieroglyphs
“I have come armed with
magical spells.
Thus can I quench my
thirst,
Since I am master of
the Words of Creation.”
-Texts of the Sarcophagi,
Chapter 644
Egyptian hieroglyphic text is a formal
script which is logographic (that is, each ‘letter’ stands for a word) and also
alphabetic (combinations of images making words phonetically); this is similar to
the way in which the Chinese written text works. To the ancient Egyptians, images
carried the nature and power of the things they described, so to depict an object
was to capture its essence. For this reason, hieroglyphs were used mainly for sacred
and ceremonial occasions. Throughout Egyptian archaeology, there are instances where
the hieroglyphic names of rulers or other famous individuals have been effaced from
texts, an act which was thought to cause them harm, or even destroy them, in the
Afterlife.
It is usually thought that the hieroglyphs
were the original form of the written language; however this is not the case. The
form of Pharaonic known as ‘Hieratic’ is older than the hieroglyphs and it is more
likely that hieroglyphs were developed from this earlier script. Hieratic (from
the Greek, meaning “priestly”) is a form of the language which is easier to write
on papyrus as well as a myriad other substances including leather and wood; in some
regions which were notably lacking in vegetation, hieratic has also been found carved
in stone and incised into clay. Hieratic has many abbreviated and alternate forms
to the hieroglyphs and contains ligatures, or joining lines, much like our cursive
writing. Unlike every other form of Egyptian written script, Hieratic is always
written from right to left. Research has shown that scribes were taught Hieratic
and that only those destined for higher levels of work – such as court duties or
funerary work – were taught the hieroglyphs.
Hieroglyphs, themselves, have a cursive
form reserved for writing on papyrus. Examples of this writing style are normally
encountered on scrolls or books meant to accompany the dead in their tombs; the
style is notable for its abbreviated symbols and ligatures. The Egyptian Book
of the Dead, as exemplified by the Scroll of Ani, is written in this
style.
Of course, hieroglyphic images are time-consuming
to write and scribes were often required to note down the utterances of individuals
at meetings and other gatherings and convey those records to other parties. For
this kind of writing, another style of non-hieroglyphic script appeared – Demotic
– abbreviated hieroglyphs that could be quickly painted onto wood or papyrus with
a brush and ink. Demotic came into use during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt
and exemplifies a shift towards Hellenistic styles and thought; it survived until
being replaced altogether by Greek. Demotic eventually evolved into the style of
writing used by the Coptic peoples, those Egyptians who moved elsewhere in the Greek
empire, and its survival into the modern era was what allowed us to translate the
original Egyptian hieroglyphs.
In the following table, the difficulty
of identifying and translating a work that is in Egyptian Hieroglyphs (where no
previous familiarity is present) is based on an Idea Roll at -10%; familiarity with
Coptic, Demotic, or Hieratic script lends bonuses to this roll. Translating Hieroglyphics
receives bonuses where the translator has access to certain works in the language
which allow reference to be made; having access to the Rosetta Stone, gives a base
50% chance of translating successfully.
Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Pharaonic):
Difficulty: Very
Hard (Idea Roll to recognise)
Modifiers: Working knowledge of Coptic (+30%);
of Demotic Script (+25%); of Hieratic Script (+15%)
Works in this Language: The Egyptian Book
of the Dead (Pert Em Hru) (+20%); The
Palette of King Narmer (+20%)
Linguistic Key: The Rosetta Stone (+50%)
*****
About Papyrus:
The Ancient Egyptians preferred to use
papyrus upon which to write. This was made by stripping the stalks of the papyrus
plant and laying the lengths of pith alongside each other. Another layer of these
stalks was then placed atop them but at right angles to the first layer. The mat
thus formed was then beaten flat to mash the stalks together into a flat surface
which was then left to dry and later polished by a smooth stone. The limits of this
product were that it could be uneven to write upon – some examples have been found
where the writing follows the stalk layers on either side of the sheet, at right
angles to the words on the opposite side – and that it did not stand up well to
the rigors of damp and humidity.
*****
The
Book of Eibon (aka, The Book of the Wizard Eibon)
“...The Book of Eibon, that strangest and rarest of occult forgotten
volumes ... is said to have come down through a series of manifold translations
from a prehistoric original written in the lost language of Hyperborea.”
-Clark
Ashton Smith, “Ubbo-Sathla”
This ancient and extensive grimoire
is the work of an eons-old sorcerer from Hyperborea known as the Wizard Eibon. The
scope of the material is truly encyclopaedic, covering a bewildering array of topics,
and it is renowned as a truly potent Mythos work, much sought-after by metaphysical
researchers. According to legend, the text was discovered in the ruins of Eibon’s
blasted tower; however, Cyron of Varaad, editor of the book and student of Eibon,
explains in his prologue to the text that Eibon gave the book to him. Cyron broke
the manuscript into three discrete sections and organised the material logically
within each. From there, after the destruction of Hyperborea during Earth’s Ice
Age, the text passed to other wizards in Zobna, Lomar, Atlantis and Hyboria, who,
in turn passed the Book on to their students, adding material as they felt appropriate.
The original versions of this work, in the Hyperborean language of Tsath-yo, are
considered legendary and it is thought that no copies currently exist.
The Book is mostly filled with
autobiographical details of the youth and accomplishments of Eibon along with the
descriptions of many of his magical experiments. There are discussions of his journeys
to Shagghai and the Vale of Pnath as well as what he discovered there. There is
also a one-page coded index of the creatures that dwelt in the Antarctic regions
and their accomplishments there; however, this table is rarely incorporated into
any of the later editions of the work. It is said that Eibon’s workbook also contained
a spell to summon and bind Dholes, something not normally possible as these are
an independent race; thankfully, due to the damage these horrors can inflict upon
a planet, these spells seem to have been lost. In addition, there are extended commentaries
upon many of the Great Old Ones and their associated minions as well as some of
the other independent creatures of the Mythos.
An ancient cult dedicated to the
worship of the Wizard Eibon is thought to have monitored and preserved the content
of the Book as it travelled through the world; another cult is thought to have similarly
maintained a keen eye on the Pnakotica. Early incarnations of the cult of
Mithras are also believed to have held this work as sacred but only according to
limited and tenuous evidence. Along with these followers many other translations
of this work have been made by various groups and these are outlined below.
(Source: Clark Ashton-Smith,
“Ubbo-sathla”)
Tsath-yo; the Wizard Eibon,
edited by Cyron of Varaad; Prehistoric timeline; 1d8/2d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu
Mythos +18 percentiles; 50 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “Invoke the Blind God” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Speak with the Children
of Zothaquah” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Speak with Kthulhut”
(Contact Cthulhu); “Invoke the Emanation of Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha);
“Speak with Yok-Zothoth” (Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Discourse with Zothaquah”
(Contact Tsathoggua); “Invoke the Barrier of Naach-Tith” (Create Barrier
of Naach-Tith); “Open the Mystic Portal” (Create Gate); “Summon Releh’s
Mist” (Create Mist of Releh); “A Spell of Shielding” (Deflect Harm);
“A Powder to Destroy Those From Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman); “Invoke Wheel
of Mist” (Eibon’s Wheel of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit” (Enchant Brazier);
“Create Athame” (Enchant Knife); “A Fitting End For One’s Enemies” (Green
Decay); “Rise upon the Air” (Levitate); “Transform into Stone” (Petrify);
“Summon a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Sign of Eibon”; “Sign
of the Voors” (Voorish Sign); “Curse of Wasting” (Wither Limb)
[The Book of Eibon] – the Kishite
Recension
“...For Ubbo-sathla is the source and the end.
Before the coming of Zhothaquah or Yok-Zothoth or Kthulhut from the stars, Ubbo-sathla
dwelt in the steaming fens of the new-made Earth: a mass without head or members,
spawning the grey, formless efts of the prime and the grisly prototypes of terrene
life...And all earthly life, it is told, shall go back at last through the great
cycle of time to Ubbo-sathla...”
-Clark Ashton Smith, “Ubbo Sathla”
Kish began life as a high priest
in the city-state of Sarnath in Earth’s Dreamlands. He is noted in that city’s history
for having tried to foment an attack upon the nearby city of Ib and its residents;
however, he was unsuccessful in this regard. Nevertheless, he was taken away by
the Elder Gods and lived with them as their disciple for a thousand years. Returning
to Sarnath as the ‘Prophet Kish’, he arrived just in time to witness the Doom that
came to Sarnath: his appeals to the rulers to flee the city went unheeded and he
managed to escape along with his own disciples at the last minute, using the Sign
of Kish which allowed him to break through the veil to the Waking World and materialise
in Ancient Egypt.
Using his magical powers, Kish
created a series of catacombs with which to protect himself and his followers from
the harsh elements. From this stronghold, they established a city and settled into
life in an unfamiliar reality. As part of this process, Kish sought far and wide
for scrolls and other documents and, in this way, encountered a copy of the fabled
Book of Eibon. This he completely re-wrote, deconstructing it and recompiling
it with his own knowledge and wisdom. The result differs only slightly from the
original, mainly in terms of the spells presented and the fact that it is written
in Hieroglyphics. Regardless, this work was considered legendary by the end of the
Third Dynasty and has not been seen in modern times.
Pharaonic; Kish, high priest
of Sarnath; Third Dynasty, circa. 2650 BC; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+17 percentiles; 48 week to study and comprehend
Spells: “Invoke the Blind God!” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm!” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Converse
with Kthulhut!” (Contact Cthulhu); “Speak with the Children of
Zothaquah!” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Summon the
Eaters of the Dead!” (Contact Ghoul); “Invoke the Emanation of
Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha); “Discourse with Zothahqua!” (Contact
Tsathoggua); “Speak with Yok-Sotot!” (Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Invoke
Naach-Tith’s Fearsome Barrier!” (Create Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Open
the Mystic Portal!” (Create Gate); “Summon Releh’s Mystical Cloud!” (Create
Mist of Releh); “A Spell of Shielding” (Deflect Harm); “A Powder to
Destroy Those from Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman); “Invoke the Mist Wheel
of Eibon!” (Eibon’s Wheel of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit!” (Enchant
Brazier); “Create Athame!” (Enchant Knife); “Open the Door to
Dreams!” (Gate of Oneiromancy); “A Spell to Destroy One’s
Enemies!” (Green Decay); “A Spell to Rise Upon the Air!” (Levitate);
“The Puissant Symbol of Eibon” (Sign of Eibon); “The Powerful Sign of Kish”
(Elder Sign); “A Spell to Summon a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star
Vampire); “A Spell to Turn One’s Enemies to Stone” (Petrify); “The
Gesture of the Voors!” (Voorish Sign); “A Smiting Upon One’s
Foes!” (Wither Limb)
[The Book of Eibon] – Punic
Edition
The amended version of the Book
of Eibon was not the only version in circulation in ancient times, however: around
800 BC a Phoenician scribe by the name of Imilcar Narba translated a copy dating
from 1600 BC into the version of Phoenician that was current in Carthage at the
time, a North African dialect of that language known as ‘Punic’. The name of this
scribe is known only from the later Graeco-Bactrian editions which arose from this
version. The contents of this copy can only be speculated upon, as the Romans put
paid to the Phoenician language and all works written in that tongue with an enviable
efficiency – no copies of this work have survived.
Punic Phoenician; Imilcar Narba;
1600 BC, translated around 800 BC; 1d6+1/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+15 percentiles; 42 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss Rlim
Shaikorth; Contact Formless Spawn of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Contact Kthulhut
(Cthulhu); Contact “Emanation of Yoth” (Nyogtha); Contact Yok
Zothoth (Yog-Sothoth); Contact Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Create Barrier
of Naach-Tith; Create Gate; Create Mist of Releh; Deflect Harm; Dust of Suleiman;
Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green Decay; Levitate; Sign
of Eibon; Summon/Bind Star Vampire; Petrify; Voorish Sign; Wither Limb
The Codex Narbanensis – Graeco-Bactrian
Edition
Trade with Greece and Byzantium
saw The Book of Eibon travel north by means of various hurried translations
made by itinerant sages, many of whom were making the Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin,
or Khirbat Karraza as it was originally known, a magnet for dark magicians even
before its denouncement by Christ. These copies are generally fragmentary, as the
various translators tended to pick and choose from the vast array of information
presented. In time the work became known as The Book of Narba, or the Codex
Narbanensis, and the attribution to Eibon was temporarily lost. It is also at
this time that ‘Bind’ component of the Summon/Bind Star Vampire spell
was dropped, leading to many regrettable accidents stemming from future editions.
Byzantine Greek; various translators;
after 1600 BC; 1d6/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3d4 percentiles; 40 weeks
to study and comprehend
Spells: Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Sign of Eibon.
Select two from the following: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss
Rlim Shaikorth; Contact Formless Spawn of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Contact
Kthulhut (Cthulhu); Contact “Emanation of Yoth” (Nyogtha); Contact
Yok Zothoth (Yog-Sothoth); Contact Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua).
Select four from the following: Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create
Gate; Create Mist of Releh; Deflect Harm; Enchant Brazier;
Enchant Knife; Levitate.
Select one of the following: Green Decay; Petrify; Summon
Star Vampire; Voorish Sign; Wither Limb
Liber Ivonis (I)
Before the fall of Atlantis, adherents
to the cult of Eibon – the Averones - fled with the words of their demigod etched
onto stone tablets in order to preserve it for posterity. Interestingly, they chose
to write the work in Latin, a language which, at that time, had little currency
in the world. Obviously a degree of (supernatural?) foresight was in play as the
decision served to keep The Book of Eibon alive. These refugees took their
master’s wisdom north into – at that time - barbarian lands in the region of Europe
which would later become southern France. The tablets were subsequently destroyed
but the information which they held had, by that time, been copied extensively and
passed through occult circles, mainly in that region known as Averoigne.
Latin; stone tablets, unknown
translator; Atlantis, date unknown; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +16
percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: “Invoke the Blind God” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Speak with the Children
of Zothaquah” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Speak with Kthulhut” (Contact
Cthulhu); “Invoke the Emanation of Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha); “Speak with Yok-Zothoth”
(Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Speak with Zothaquah” (Contact Tsathoggua); “Invoke the
Barrier of Naach-Tith” (Create Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Open the Mystic Portal”
(Create Gate); “Call Releh’s Mist” (Create Mist of Releh); “A Spell of Shielding”
(Deflect Harm); "A Powder to Destroy Those From Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman);
“Invoke Wheel of Mist” (Eibon’s Wheel of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit” (Enchant
Brazier); “Create Athame” (Enchant Knife); “A Fitting End For One’s Enemies” (Green
Decay); “Rise upon the Air” (Levitate); “Transform into Stone” (Petrify); “Summon
a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Sign of the Voors” (Voorish Sign); “Curse
of Wasting” (Wither Limb)
Sadly, by being transmitted in
this slipshod fashion, much of the information on the tablets became corrupted and
incomplete, and highly dangerous as a result. It would not be until the coming of
Gaspar du Nord that the situation would be rectified.
Latin; manuscript, unknown
translators; Averoigne, date unknown; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+2d6 percentiles; 32 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Roll POWx2 for each
of the following spells to determine if they are present: “Invoke the Blind God” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Speak with the Children
of Zothaquah” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Speak with Kthulhut” (Contact
Cthulhu); “Invoke the Emanation of Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha); “Speak with Yok-Zothoth”
(Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Speak with Zothaquah” (Contact Tsathoggua); “Invoke the
Barrier of Naach-Tith” (Create Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Open the Mystic Portal”
(Create Gate); “Call Releh’s Mist” (Create Mist of Releh); “A Spell of Shielding”
(Deflect Harm); "A Powder to Destroy Those From Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman);
“Invoke Wheel of Mist” (Eibon’s Wheel of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit” (Enchant
Brazier); “Create Athame” (Enchant Knife); “A Fitting End For One’s Enemies” (Green
Decay); “Rise upon the Air” (Levitate); “Transform into Stone” (Petrify); “Summon
a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Sign of the Voors” (Voorish Sign); “Curse
of Wasting” (Wither Limb)
The Codex Narbanensis – Greek
Edition
Theodorus Philetas discovered
the Byzantine Greek versions of The Book of Eibon and set to work collating
as many copies of the work as he could find. This recension served to save much
of the material from dissolution and placed the work back into its proper context
with a brief prologue outlining the history of the Book. Interestingly, he
chose to maintain the adopted title of the work, although he does acknowledge the
true author within the text.
Greek; Theodorus Philetas;
960 AD; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +13 percentiles; 36 week to study
and comprehend
Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth;
Contact Formless Spawn of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Contact Kthulhut (Cthulhu); Contact
“Emanation of Yoth” (Nyogtha); Contact Yok Zothoth (Yog-Sothoth); Contact Zothaqquah
(Tsathoggua); Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create Gate; Create Mist of Releh; Deflect
Harm; Dust of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green
Decay; Levitate; Petrify; Sign of Eibon; Summon Star Vampire; Voorish Sign; Wither
Limb
Liber Ivonis (II)
“Time is not constant, nor is the future unchangeable.
I have seen the coming of the Daemon Sultan’s Seed and also the day the oceans vomit
forth the citadels of the Elder Ones, when the stars shift in their patterns and
the dead live again. I have seen the empire of Atlantae, not yet born, fall to the
reign of years and those kingdoms which wax and wane in her shadow – serpent-haunted
Stygia, Aquilonia, Aegypt and Rome. Mark well what I have seen for these are the
signs of the Last Days, which foretell the return of those who Dream and Die Not...”
-Richard Watts, Dead Reckonings:
“Behold the Mother”
Roman scholar Caius Philippus
Faber prepared this translation of the Book from the Greek of Philetas, possibly
motivated to do so by the prophetic announcements that the work contains about the
collapse of past and future Empires, Rome along with them. This version differs
primarily from the earlier Latin version in that it maintains the spelling and other
errors that emerged from the Byzantine editions, most notably the missing Bind
Star Vampire spell variant. Only six manuscript copies have been accounted for.
Latin; Caius Philippus Faber;
9th Century AD; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +13 percentiles; 36 weeks
to study and comprehend
Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth;
Contact Formless Spawn of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Contact Kthulhut (Cthulhu); Contact
“Emanation of Yoth” (Nyogtha); Contact Yok Zothoth (Yog-Sothoth); Contact Zothaqquah
(Tsathoggua); Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create Gate; Create Mist of Releh; Deflect
Harm; Dust of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green
Decay; Levitate; Petrify; Sign of Eibon; Summon Star Vampire; Voorish Sign; Wither
Limb
Liber Ivonis (III)
Persecuted refugees from Averoigne
fled mainland Europe and found a haven in Catholic Ireland. There they compiled
their copies of The Book of Eibon, taken from the original stone tablets,
and prepared new editions. Interestingly, it appears that very little of Book
III of the work made it as far as the Emerald Isle, as all references to Rlim
Shaikorth and certain associated spells – essentially, the bulk of that section
entitled “The Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom” – is missing from these versions.
Latin; unknown translator;
Ireland, date unknown; 1d2/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +11 percentiles;
28 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Sign of Eibon;
Voorish Sign
[Book of Eibon] – Gaelic Edition
Some of the Latin translations
prepared by French refugees from Averoigne were further translated into Gaelic,
for the benefit of Irish hosts and possibly to further disguise the nature of the
text. These versions too, suffer from a lack of the material contained within the
Third Book.
Gaelic; unknown translator;
Ireland, date unknown; 1d2/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +11 percentiles;
30 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Sign of Eibon;
Voorish Sign
Liber Ivonis (IV)
This 17th Century Roman edition
reproduces most of the work as translated by C. Philippus Faber. In an attempt to
dodge any suspicion of heresy however, it avoids any direct references to various
entities as ‘gods’ and edits out all of the Contact and Summoning
spells. Copies from this print run are held in the libraries of Miskatonic and Harvard
Universities.
Latin; after Faber; Rome, 1662;
1d3/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 32 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create Gate;
Create Mist of Releh; Deflect Harm; Dust of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant
Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green Decay; Levitate; Petrify; Sign of Eibon; Voorish Sign;
Wither Limb
Livre d’Ivon
“Not without shudders, in the course of studies
that the average person would have considered more than singular, Tregardis had
collated the French volume with the frightful Necronomicon
of the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred. He had found many correspondences of the blackest
and most appalling significance, together with much forbidden data that was either
unknown to the Arab or omitted by him ... or by his translators.”
-Clark Ashton Smith, “Ubbo-Sathla”
With the arrival of Gaspard du
Nord it was time for the fourth recension of The Book of Eibon. Du Nord studied
magic under the tutelage of a sorcerer named Nathaire, but eventually came to outstrip
his master in power: he destroyed Nathaire’s mightiest magical construct which the
vile magician had set against the city of Vyone; in return, the Council of Averoigne
allowed du Nord to reside in the city of Vyone for the rest of his life, free from
the interference of the Church into his activities.
Like many before him, Gaspard
collected as many copies of the Book as he could find from his fellow countrymen
and compiled all of the information together, along with his own insights, notes
and observations. Interestingly, he was also able to locate a copy of the Greek
version to help organise the material into the same scheme initiated by Cyron of
Varaad. The result is a highly potent grimoire indeed.
It is unknown how many copies
of the work were completed, although all known copies are bound, hand-written manuscripts.
Today, only thirteen copies – some of them only partially complete – have been verified
in major collections, including the van der Heyl mansion of upstate New York and
the holdings of the Starry Wisdom Church in Providence, RI.
French; Gaspard du Nord; Averoigne,
1240 AD; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +12 percentiles; 36 weeks to
study and comprehend
Spells: Roll POW x4 for
each listed spell; a failed roll means that spell is absent in the present version. “Invoke the Blind God” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Speak with the Children
of Zothaquah” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Speak with Kthulhut” (Contact
Cthulhu); “Invoke the Emanation of Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha); “Speak with Yok-Zothoth”
(Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Speak with Zothaquah” (Contact Tsathoggua); “Invoke the
Barrier of Naach-Tith” (Create Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Open the Mystic Portal”
(Create Gate); “Call Releh’s Mist” (Create Mist of Releh); “A Spell of Shielding”
(Deflect Harm); "A Powder to Destroy Those From Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman);
“Invoke Wheel of Mist” (Eibon’s Wheel of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit” (Enchant
Brazier); “Create Athame” (Enchant Knife); “A Fitting End For One’s Enemies” (Green
Decay); “Rise upon the Air” (Levitate); “Transform into Stone” (Petrify); “Summon
a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Sign of the Voors” (Voorish Sign); “Curse
of Wasting” (Wither Limb)
Selections du Livre d’Ivon
"This wizard, who was mighty among sorcerers,
had found a cloudy stone, orb-like and somewhat flattened at the ends, in which
he could behold many visions of the terrene past, even to the Earth's beginning,
when Ubbo-Sathla, the unbegotten source, lay vast and swollen and yeasty amid the
vaporing slime ... But of that which he beheld, Zon Mezzamalech left little record;
and people say that he vanished presently, in a way that is not known; and after
him the cloudy crystal was lost."
-Clark Ashton Smith, “Ubbo-Sathla”
In preparing his French version
of The Book of Eibon, du Nord felt compelled to comment at length upon the
Latin material upon which he worked, exposing its flaws and warning potential adepts
against catastrophes. It is unclear as to whether his concerns arose out of the
myriad confused copies that abounded in Averoigne and the surrounding areas, or
if he had found a copy of Faber’s translation and felt compelled to comment upon
its shortcomings. Nevertheless, this volume is the result and painstakingly walks
the reader of Eibon’s work through the darkest and deadliest chapters, while simultaneously
offering warnings, counterspells and other preparations against the worst possible
outcomes of that text’s experiments.
French; Gaspard du Nord; 13th
Century; 1/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 4 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: Contact Nodens; Dismiss Nyarlathotep; Dust
of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Elder Sign; Powder of ibn Ghazi; Sign of Eibon;
Voorish Sign
The Book of Eibon – English
Edition
“Got the Book of Eibon
down from Uncle Hendrik’s old trunk in the attic last week, and am looking up something
good which won’t require sacrifices that I can’t make around here. I want something
that’ll finish these two sneaking traitors, and at the same time get me into no
trouble. If it has a twist of drama in it, so much the better...”
-HPL & Hazel Heald, “The Man of Stone”
During the reign of King James
I of England, one of the scholars who helped prepare the text for the King James
Bible also created an English translation of The Book of Eibon, taken
from du Nord’s French edition. Many copies of this manuscript were made and were
circulated amongst various occult circles; some of these re-crossed the English
Channel and were translated back into French – the author Clark Ashton Smith is
believed to have owned one of these but efforts to locate it after his death proved
fruitless. As far as is known, the Book was never printed and the existence
of only eighteen copies has been verified, one of these held by the van Kauren family
of New York.
English; unknown translator;
circa. 15th Century; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +11 percentiles;
32 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Roll POW
x2 for each of the following spells to see if they are present: “Invoke the Blind God” (Call/Dismiss Azathoth);
“Summon the White Worm” (Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth); “Speak with the Children
of Zothaquah” (Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua); “Speak with Kthulhut”
(Contact Cthulhu); “Invoke the Emanation of Yoth!” (Contact Nyogtha);
“Speak with Yok-Zothoth” (Contact Yog-Sothoth); “Speak with Zothaquah” (Contact
Tsathoggua)
Roll Luck for each of the following spells to
see if they are present:
“Invoke the Barrier of Naach-Tith” (Create Barrier of Naach-Tith); “Open
the Mystic Portal” (Create Gate); “Call Releh’s Mist” (Create Mist of
Releh); “A Spell of Shielding” (Deflect Harm); "A Powder to Destroy Those
From Beyond!” (Dust of Suleiman); “Invoke Wheel of Mist” (Eibon’s Wheel
of Mist); “Conjure a Fire Spirit” (Enchant Brazier); “Create Athame”
(Enchant Knife); “A Fitting End For One’s Enemies” (Green Decay);
“Rise upon the Air” (Levitate); “Transform into Stone” (Petrify);
“Summon a Demon” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Sign of the Voors” (Voorish
Sign); “Curse of Wasting” (Wither Limb)
*****
Partial Printings of the Book:
“Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom”
(Book III)
“...but, as for Groth-golka, that brother of
Mnomquah, He descended to this Earth in the regions circumambient to the Austral
Pole, where to this day He abideth the passage of the ages beneath the black cone
of Mount Antarktos...”
-Lin Carter, “The Fishers from Outside”
Demand for the missing sections
of certain translations led to the production of partial printings of The Book
of Eibon, especially of the Third Book: “The Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom”.
This section deals mainly with such beings as Cthulhu, Ithaqua, Yig and Chaugnar-Faughn,
along with less well-known entities such as Aphoom Zhah, Rlim Shaikorth, Mnomquah
and Groth-golka. Creatures such as the Cold Ones, Ghouls and Star Vampires are also
mentioned with some specificity. The book describes the pre-human timeline of Earth
and details such points as the Elder Race’s colonisation of Antarctica.
Regrettably, most versions of
this volume have been derived from the Faber translation and suffer the problems
associated with that work.
English; Various editors; various
dates; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 4 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create Gate;
Create Mist of Releh; Deflect Harm; Dust of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant
Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green Decay; Levitate; Petrify; Sign of Eibon; Voorish Sign;
Wither Limb
In 1946, researcher Harlow Sloan
made copious notes on the Papyrus, as part of his investigations into the
nature of a strange black stone unearthed in Zimbabwe. Using the Kester Library
copy of the Book in Salem Massachusetts, Sloan transcribed the entirety of
the Papyrus into his journal; thereafter, copies of this transcription were
made by other researchers keen to read The Book of Eibon but lacking easy
access to it. Several of these copies have been sold at auction purporting to be
Sloan’s original notes, but the real notes’ whereabouts are currently unknown.
English; Harlow Sloan; from
1946; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 4 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth;
Contact Formless Spawn of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua); Contact Kthulhut (Cthulhu); Contact
“Emanation of Yoth” (Nyogtha); Contact Yok Zothoth (Yog-Sothoth); Contact Zothaqquah
(Tsathoggua); Create Barrier of Naach-Tith; Create Gate; Create Mist of Releh; Deflect
Harm; Dust of Suleiman; Eibon’s Wheel of Mist; Enchant Brazier; Enchant Knife; Green
Decay; Levitate; Petrify; Sign of Eibon; Summon/Bind Star Vampire; Voorish Sign;
Wither Limb
“The Coming of the White Worm”
(Chapter IX)
“But I, the sorcerer Eibon, calling up through
my necromancy the wave-wandering spectre of Evagh, have learned from him the veritable
history of the worm's advent. And I have written it down in my volume with such
omissions as are needful for the sparing of mortal weakness and sanity.”
-Clark Ashton Smith, “The Coming of the White Worm”
Whereas the “Papyrus of the
Dark Wisdom” is a logical choice for a partial publishing of The Book of
Eibon, “The Coming of the White Worm” is somewhat more obscure. The chapter
deals almost exclusively with the entity known as Rlim Shaikorth, but contains no
spells or other esoterica; it is simply a narrative of the creature and its arrival
upon the planet. Why someone would go to the trouble to compile, translate and edit
this excerpt is unknown; its relative scarcity argues in favour of some kind of
vanity press issue, by someone who simply enjoyed the tale.
English; Unknown editor; Dublin,
1735; 1/1d2 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 4 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: None
“The Life of Eibon according
to Cyron of Varaad” (Prologue)
Eibon “the Unfathomable’s” books,
notes and equipment were bequeathed, upon his death, to his erstwhile student, Cyron
of Varaad. In collating the text for what would become The Book of Eibon,
Cyron edited out the autobiographical material from the body of the text and compiled
it together as part of the Book’s “Prologue”. To this material, he added
the later episodes of Eibon’s life including the strange manner of his death.
This extract tells how Eibon was
born to Milaab, who was Keeper of the Archives to the King of Iqqua. When Eibon
was seven years old, the priests of Yhoundeh discovered that Milaab was a secret
servant of Zothaqquah (Tsathoggua) and had him and his family exiled to the wilderness
of Phenquor. To spare his son the rigours of banishment, Milaab apprenticed Eibon
to the great wizard Zylac of Mhu Thulan. Eibon studied with Zylac until his twenty-third
year when his master was destroyed by a botched incantation. Eibon then wandered
the earth with his friend Zaljis for nine years before returning to Mhu Thulan and
taking over his former master’s property there.
Cyron takes over the account from
here, excerpting the self-references of Eibon’s text and correlating them into a
timeline of his greatest accomplishments, including his travel to Mount Voormithadreth
to see his deity Tsathoggua sleeping upon his enormous throne. In his 132nd year,
Eibon was harried to his tower by the priests of Youndeh, bent upon his destruction.
It is said that he escaped them by using a door of strange metal through which he
was able to transport himself to Saturn; Cyron tells us that, from that remote outpost,
he engineered a blast to destroy his enemies, simultaneously returning his magical
apparatus to the site of the explosion for his heir’s continued use.
Why this part of the Book
should have been singled out for separate publication is as great a mystery as the
excerpting of “The Coming of the White Worm”; however, it’s possible that
it was printed as part of the whole, then removed from the text block after being
identified as a less puissant part of the overall text. The original version, written
in the Hyperborean language of Tsath-yo has not been seen since the early Middle
Ages; the French translation is only slightly more common.
Tsath-yo; Cyron of Varaad;
Prehistoric timeline; 1d4/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles;
16 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None
French; translator unknown;
Thirteenth Century; 1d2/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 8
weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None
*****
New Spells:
The Green Decay
The caster prepares a special
piece of parchment upon which they write the name of their intended target. This
leaf is then perfumed by a combination of rare incense and, while chanting the spell,
is pierced through by a large thorn from a hawthorn bush or similar. By spending
8 magic points (MPs) and losing 1d20 Sanity Points, the caster causes the target
victim to putrefy and rot, growing an extensive mould-like substance over their
entire body, which can even enshroud the area in which they are dwelling. The death
that results is terrible and long in duration: the victim takes 1D6+CON days to
die, although exposure to sunlight speeds up this process by double the rate. Each
day, the target loses 1D4 to each of their APP, CON, DEX and SIZ, as well as 1D6
points of SAN. After any one of these statistics reaches 0, they must make a Luck
Roll each day, in addition, in order to escape instant death. If they do die
before the calculated time period, they may still be resurrected, as per the spell
of that name; however, once the time period calculated has expired, nothing will
restore the victim.
In many copies of The Book
of Eibon, users of this spell have commented that the use of this magic creates
a terrible mess. Sifting through the fungal aftermath can cause those so doing to
catch diseases of a topical or respiratory nature, so caution is advised.
Petrify
This recipe instructs the user
in the manufacture of a powder which, when mixed in with food or drink, transforms
the one consuming it into stone. The magical concoction amplifies the amount of
silica in the victim’s body and uses this to replace the carbon in all of their
body’s cells. The result is a stony, incredibly-detailed image of the victim, which
some, viewing it, may believe to be a carven copy.
The various ingredients used in
this spell are up to the Keeper to devise; suffice it to say, they should all be
rare and expensive to obtain. Once the concoction has been mixed, the caster chants
the required incantation and infuses the mixture with 24 MPs, possibly over several
days. Once created, the powder remains inert within a glass or stone container,
becoming active only when mixed into food or drink: from then on, it will last only
another four hours before losing efficacy. One casting of the spell creates 4 doses
of the powder and costs 1D10 SAN; seeing someone transformed into stone costs 1D8
SAN, 1D8+3 if the person is known to the viewer.
The Sign of Eibon
The Sign of Eibon is a three-armed swastika, or triskele, enclosed
within a circle; like the Elder Sign, it does nothing until it is enchanted
but, once its magicks are empowered, it is a highly potent device against the minions
of Nyarlathotep.
The Sign may be engraved
in metal, scored in stone or painted upon a convenient surface. It costs the sacrifice
of 1 POW to enchant but has no SAN penalty. It can be worn upon a pendant, or placed
near an active Gate, and will render the wearer or mystical passageway inviolable
to the agents of the Crawling Chaos. Nyarlathotep’s agents and minions will be unable
to approach within 10 feet of the Sign due to increasing nausea and headaches,
while those servitors with inhuman senses or thought patterns will simply be unable
to identify the enemies of the Mighty Messenger or formulate a means of challenging
them.
When worn as a pendant or inscribed
and enchanted as part of robes or clothing, the Sign deflects magicks from
Nyarlathotep’s minions directed at the wearer. This does not dispel the sorcery;
rather, it alters the target to some other individual in the vicinity – everyone
within 30’ of the wearer must make a Luck Roll or become the magick’s default
target.
Please note also, that this spell
has no effect whatsoever upon Nyarlathotep in any of its avatars or incarnations
(or any other Great Old One, Outer or Elder God, or their minions or servitors);
apart, that is, from generating its speedy dislike and vengeance.
*****
The
Elder Key
Knowledge of this symbol
apparently comes by means of magical contact from future beings who have sent
their minds back into their past to relay vital information. These beings
purport to be post-human creatures evolved from human beings. It is said that they
used this “key” to ward off incursions by hideous creatures antithetical to
their cause, but little else is truly known. Most likely, this symbol is simply
the Elder Sign (see below) under a variant name.
*****
The
Elder Keys, or The Elder Records
“Zon Mezzamalech had dreamt to recover the wisdom
of the gods who died before the Earth was born. They had passed to the lightless
void, leaving their lore inscribed upon tablets of ultra-terrene stone; and the
tablets were guarded in the primal mire by the formless idiotic demiurge, Ubbo Sathla...”
-Clark Ashton Smith, “Ubbo-Sathla”
The
Elder Keys (also known as the
Elder Key, Elder Records or The Tablets of
Destiny) are a series of carven stone blocks around which is draped the protoplasmic
menace which is Ubbo-Sathla, “The Unbegotten Source”, a cosmic entity said to be
the mindless twin of Azathoth. So powerful are said to be the incantations writ
upon these tablets that the most minor of them – a one line inscription –brought
our earth into this dimension and caused life to appear upon it. Many wizards and
other hard-metaphysical investigators have attempted to locate and transcribe these
carvings however none have ever returned – victorious or otherwise. The Mi-go, it
is said, have the Keys as their ultimate
reason for being on Earth and it is this which keeps them travelling to our planet
from Yuggoth. Alternate theories suggest that Ubbo-Sathla excretes some arcane substance
which is vital to Mi-go technology and it is this, rather than the tablets, which
attracts their interest. Still another theory is that the presence of Azathoth’s
twin on this planet is the cause of the Great
White Space’s terminus on our home world, thus providing a rationale for our
planet’s infestation of dire divinities and their associated misbegotten agents.
There have long been rumours that another copy of the ‘Keys exists on this planet – bringing the total number of copies to
two – but this has not been verified: it is more likely that the other copy is something
completely different, with the same name.
While the rewards of obtaining the Elder Keys would seem to be obvious, the
greatest danger to accessing them is Ubbo-Sathla itself, whose 100 attacks per round
inflict instant death upon any living substance with which it comes into contact.
Robotic or automated platforms for gathering information from the Keys may achieve greater benefits in future
but this begs the question as to why the Mi-go,
or the Great Race of Yith, or even the
Elder Things – beings with more highly
advanced technology than our own – haven’t explored these possibilities already.
The shoggoths have long been said to have
been created from the essence of this being. Ubbo-Sathla is sometimes equated with
the being known as Abhoth who has similar qualities; it is likely that ‘Abhoth’
is a derogatory name applied to the creature by a subsequent civilisation who derided
the worship of their precursors. And just maybe, Ubbo-Sathla isn’t as mindless as
has been reported...
(Source: Clark Ashton Smith, Ubbo-Sathla)
Unknown language; Primordial Extra-Dimensional Hard-Metaphysicians;
a time prior to the Big Bang; 1d100/100d100 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +100
percentiles; 208 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None, any, or all as the Keeper rules
*****
Elder
Script
Correctly
known as “Tsath-Yo”, this is the primal script of Hyperborea. Most likely it is
a form of writing rather than a language. It is seldom encountered in the modern
world and then, mainly in dreams, or by means of some mystical process. The original
version of The Book of Eibon was penned in this format; other books of a
comparative antiquity may use it also.
Dreamers
who encounter the script beyond the Waking World report that the format is fairly
frequent in Dreamland’s libraries, however, the perceptual strangeness of the Realms
Beyond the Wall of Sleep make any concept of legibility moot. Generally speaking,
the only way to be able to read such script is via some magical translation process.
(Source: “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” by HPL &
E. Hoffman Price)
*****
The
Elder Sign
Also known as the “Sarnath-Sigil”,
the “Sign of Kish”, or “Star-Stone of Mnar”, there is some
confusion as to the appearance of this symbol. Some sources say that the Sign
takes the form of a branch with several twig-like extensions; others posit a
more complex image of an eye within a pentagram with a column of fire emanating
from the pupil. Still others claim that the Signs are greenish stones
imprinted with an impressed star image. Any, or all, of these designs might be
correct: variations in format may be the result of individual researchers
attempting to refine the basic mandala component of the enchantment.
The purpose of the Elder
Sign is to thwart the actions of the Great Old Ones and their minions.
When placed by a Gate or a non-magical entryway, these entities are
prevented from passing; when placed upon an object to be warded, the Sign
offers a degree of protection against the designated beings: minions of the Old
Ones will generally be unaware of objects and creatures so warded. Such
protection is limited however, and many sources offer warnings to initiates to
not rely solely upon the efficacy of this symbol.
*****
The
Eltdown Shards
The history of this text has been
obscured by an egregious instance of wilful academic misconduct. Two researchers,
Doctors Woodford and Dalton, encountered the shards whilst in Britain, preparing
for a geological expedition to Greenland. They discovered the fragments while staying
in the Sussex village of Eltdown. From their discussions with the locals there,
they determined that the pottery pieces had been unearthed from nearby fields and
other construction works dating back to around 1882. The local townsfolk referred
to them as “fairy pieces” and many families in the area kept them as tokens of good
luck. Woodford and Dalton arranged to privately purchase as many pieces of the text
as possible from the locals and smuggled them back to Beloit College in Wisconsin,
their base of operations. Initially, Dalton was quoted in a London newspaper article
as having discovered the fragments in Greenland during their 1903 investigation;
later, publishing their findings in an initial paper, they both declared that the
pieces had been found in a gravel pit within a stratum of earth dating from the
Triassic Period near the small town of Eltdown in Illinois.
“The
Eltdown Shards – an overview”
This monograph – given the shenanigans
going on in the background – is terse and summarily executed. It provides a catalogue
of all 23 fragments returned to Beloit College, giving their weight and dimensions
with a rudimentary summation of the various characters depicted upon them. This
listing is not of any particular use to translators as the characters need to be
read in relation to each other to provide meaning. There are several engraved depictions
of a few of the pieces, but these are small and not particularly detailed. In summation,
the authors pronounced the shards to be “untranslatable”.
English; Drs. Woodford &
Dalton; 1908; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; 1 week to study
and comprehend
Spells: None
In the wake of the paper’s publication,
the fragments went on show at the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College
where they attracted some passing interest. The two ‘discoverers’ of the pieces
seemed unusually willing to remove themselves from any involvement with the find
and left the college soon after to pursue other avenues of research. While on display,
many outside individuals took sketches and photographs of the pieces and soon a
plethora of manuscript ‘translations’ of the hieroglyphs began to appear along the
eastern seaboard of the USA, claiming to have interpreted the writings. Most of
these documents circulated exclusively through various occult communities with unknown
effectiveness, while a few made it into print as catchpenny pamphlets claiming to
give the purchaser the ability to find buried treasure or to summon the dead.
English; manuscript, unknown
transcribers and translators; 1908-1915; 1/1D2 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+1 percentiles; 3 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: 20% chance of Contact Yithian being
present
English; cheaply-printed pamphlet,
unknown transcribers and translators; 1908-1915; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos
+0 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend
Spells: None of any effectiveness
In the wake of the appearance
of these grimoires, a Professor Turkoff, in residence at Beloit College from Miskatonic
University at the time, was given permission to perform a “psychic evaluation” of
the fragments. This was a fairly regular occurrence during this period when Spiritualist
notions flourished, although not considered entirely rigorously academic – even
Percy Fawcett consulted a mystic before setting off on his expedition to South America.
Through the agency of a medium, Turkoff was able to determine that the pottery shards
had been manufactured by an alien race resident upon the Earth in the eons before
the rise of humanity. He arranged for five of the shards – numbers 1, 3, 5, 19 and
23 - to be sent to Miskatonic University in order that the text could be compared
against various writings held in the restricted section of the Orne Library. With
these pieces removed to that other institution, the Logan Museum pulled the rest
of the shards from public view – the display had been attracting too much attention
of a decidedly unsavoury nature.
Meanwhile, in England, prompted
by discovery of one of the cheaply-produced grimoires and memories of the London
Times newspaper article in which Dalton had claimed to have discovered the shards
in Greenland, cleric and amateur antiquarian Rev. Arthur Brooke Winters-Hall began
to investigate the source of the pottery fragments. A Sussex resident himself, he
had heard stories about the village of Eltdown and its “fairy pieces” and so he
went there to talk about them with the townsfolk. He soon cottoned-on to what Woodford
and Dalton had been up to, and began a new investigation, organising the local people
into an informal archaeological dig which lasted from 1908 until after the Great
War. He unearthed another 42 fragments of pottery from deep within Triassic Era
soil strata and began his efforts to translate them, a task which took him from
1912 to 1917 to accomplish.
On Fragments Discovered in
Sussex, also called the Eltdown Sherds
This work was self-published by
Winters-Hall as a thick quarto pamphlet in a print run of only 350 copies. It provides
detailed analysis of each fragment found by the author and a complex dissection
of the hieroglyphs and their translation. The translated text discusses certain
pre-human races dwelling upon the Earth in past times as well as giant worm-like
creatures called the “Spawn of Yekub” and their use of strange cubes to project
their minds across the universe. The text also tells of the Great Race of Yith and
of their origins.
Upon its release, the Reverend’s
efforts were met with general disdain from academia, a common sticking-point being
that the translated text was much longer than the original collection of hieroglyphs.
Winters-Hall’s insistence upon calling the shards “The Sussex Fragments” also meant
that his efforts became confused with another work of that title, along with the
“Sussex Manuscript”, a notorious translation of the Necronomicon.
The Reverend finally walked away from the project altogether, donating his collection
of fragments to the British Museum where they reside to this day.
English; Rev. Arthur Brooke
Winters-Hall (trans.); 1917; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +11 percentiles;
6 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: Contact Yithian
In the wake of the translation’s
publication, a linguist at Miskatonic University named Gordon Whitney, a specialist
in ancient scripts, stumbled upon the pieces contained in the Orne Library which
had been left there after Professor Turkoff’s investigations. Whitney travelled
to Beloit College to examine the rest of the collection; while there, he discovered
a copy of Winters-Hall’s publication and began to examine the shards in detail.
In the course of his studies,
Whitney created the cataloguing system which now organises the fragments. The pieces
located in Wisconsin and Massachusetts are numbered 1-23; those held by the British
Museum in London are numbered 24-51; where the fragments contain duplicated information,
the London pieces are identified with a lower-case ‘s’ for ‘Sussex’. Thus, fragment
8 of the Wisconsin collection is mirrored by fragment ‘s.8’ of the London set. In
total, there are seven replicated shards: numbers s.2, s.5, s.8, s.10, s.17, s.20
and s.21.
It should be noted that Whitney’s
focus upon the shards was not to discover what information was contained on the
fragments, but to unlock the written language upon them. He returned to Arkham and
concentrated his efforts upon the largest shards kept there – numbers 5 and 19 –
and, in translating them, corroborated much of Winters-Hall’s work.
Whitney’s published work on the
Eltdown Shards, while not comprehensive, provides an exhaustive overview of the
hieroglyphs on the fragments and the manner in which they work to convey meaning.
The translations which he provides outline a terrible entity named “Avaloth”, some
discussion of the Great Race of Yith and incomplete information concerning a being
entitled “the Warder of Knowledge”, including a fragmentary spell for summoning
it – the dismissal component of the ritual is missing. After its publication by
the Miskatonic University Press in 1920, Whitney retired prematurely to South Africa
where he later died.
The Eltdown Shards – A Partial
Translation
English; Gordon Whitney; 1920;
1d2/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 4 weeks to study and
comprehend
Spells: Summon “Warder of Knowledge” (incomplete)
With the publishing of Whitney’s
work, increasing attention was focused upon the shards and their background. Inevitably,
the fact of Woodford and Dalton’s academic misconduct came to light and Beloit College
resident Dr. Everett Sloan was charged with getting to the bottom of things. He
travelled to Eltdown in Illinois, discovering only a ghost town without a gravel
pit to its name, and then went to the British Museum to see the fragments held there,
from which he took extensive rubbings and photolithographic renderings. Sloan’s
concerns were primarily with examining the conduct of Woodford (now deceased) and
Dalton (departed to parts unknown), and the validation of Whitney’s work; in his
zeal, and thrown off by the reference to Winters-Hall’s work as The Sussex Fragments,
he was unaware of Winters-Hall’s previous work until his own book went to print;
a second-state issue of the title in the same year contains a revised Introduction
which incorporates the Reverend’s observations.
In the final analysis, Sloan was
able to show that Woodford and Dalton had falsified their discovery in order to
keep the fragments to themselves, later to try and walk away from the whole situation
and the potential scandal it would inevitably invoke. He combed-through Whitney’s
work in translating the text and found it to be everything required of such an enterprise,
and a worthy effort in linguistics. Later, in the revised Introduction, he
was also able to praise the work of Arthur Brooke Winters-Hall and remove years
of acrimony levelled at the cleric.
As to the text contained upon
the fragments themselves, Sloan doesn’t go into the material too much, except to
corroborate Whitney’s findings. He does provide a gloss of the material contained
on each fragment, prefaced with an image of the shard in question and a collation
of the hieroglyphs written upon it. There is also a revised History of the
finding of the shards and a distancing of Beloit College from the actions of Woodford
and Dalton.
A Re-evaluation of the Eltdown
Shards
English; Dr Everett Sloan;
1922; 1/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 3 weeks to study
and comprehend
Spells: None
(Source: Richard F. Searight, “The Sealed Casket”)
*****
The
Emerald Mandala
The Emerald Mandala is a complex
circular design which creates an unhealthy craving and hunger for insight. Found
in copies of select esoteric texts, meditating upon its geometric configuration
opens the path to madness and cold human enlightenment. An Investigator’s INTx4
must be rolled each time they meditate on the Emerald Mandala. A failed roll creates compulsion to further meditate
upon the ‘Mandala. If failed three times,
the Investigator gains 1 point of Cthulhu
Mythos Knowledge and the desire to
further research the mystery of the ‘Mandala.
In their dreams and meditations, the hovering form of the Emerald Lama appears to
guide them to Yian Ho, Shamballah, or other mystic Mythos secrets. The appearance
of the Emerald Lama causes the dreamer to lose 1d3/1d10 Sanity points. Repeat this
cycle as long as the Investigator insists upon it or is driven to meditate upon
the Emerald Mandala.
*****
The
Emerald Tablet of HermesTrismegistus
“Seeing within myself an immaterial vision that
came from the mercy of God, I went out of myself into an immortal body, and now
I am not what I was before. I have been born in mind!”
-‘Hermes Trismegistus’
Hermes Trismegistus, or the “Thrice-Great Hermes”
was not an actual being; rather, he is a syncretism of the Greek deity Hermes with
the Egyptian god Thoth, dating from the Ptolemaic rule of Egypt under the Greeks.
With the true authorship of the work thus shrouded, later writers created a complete
backstory to account for the creation of the text: apparently, these cryptic words
were found in a high mountain cave, carved on a slab of emerald and clutched in
the desiccated claws of Trismegistus’ corpse. A colourful tale indeed, but this
emerald tablet was said to have been removed and stored in the Library of the Serapeum
of Alexandria where it was known variously as The Emerald Tablet, the Smaragdine
Table, the Tabula Smaragdina, or The Secret of Hermes. It was said to have
been stolen and/or destroyed during the sacking of that great repository. (It is
worth noting that many ancient texts referred to green jasper or green granite,
even green glass, as “emerald”.)
The text upon the ‘Tablet – probably
originally written in the 1st to 3rd Centuries AD - is the
cornerstone for that body of thought known as ‘Hermetic wisdom’. It is the single
most-quoted alchemical text in the Western tradition of that art and is often incorporated
into the works of other authors. It claims to reveal the secret of the ‘primordial
substance’ and its transmutations; in essence a cryptic formula for the Philosophers’ Stone. Other writings attributed
to Trismegistus, or which were derived from these texts, are referred to as the
Corpus Hermeticum or ‘body of Hermetic
lore’.
The earliest known arrival of this text into
the West was as an incorporation to the Kitab
Sirr al-Asrar (see image, above), in Latin translations entitled Secretum Secretorum (“The Secret of Secrets”). This book is pseudoepigraphical,
that is, it purports to be a series of letters between Aristotle and Alexander the
Great, containing many articles on rulership along with discussions of science,
astrology, physiognomy and alchemy. The first translation from the Arabic into Latin
was by John of Seville (“Johannes Hispalensis”, or “Hispaniensis”) around 1140,
while a second translation was produced by Philip of Tripoli circa 1243. Medieval
readers were absolutely convinced of the prima
facie authorship of the work and, since it formed a part of the body of the
works of ‘Aristotle’, it was widely read and circulated by scholars without fear
of retribution.
Other Arabic texts have also been found to contain The Emerald Tablet: amongst these are the Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani ("Second Book of the Elements of Foundation") supposedly written by Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa wa San 'at al-Tabi'a ("Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature"), both dated between 650 and 830 AD. It was also to be found in the original Arabic Book of Causes (Kitab ul-iadh li-Aristutalis fi'i-khauri'l-mahd), allegedly written by Apollonius of Tyana,
English
Translation from the Arabic of the Book of
Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana:
“It contains an accurate commentary that
can't be doubted.
It states: What is the above is from the
below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.
And all things sprang from this essence
through a single projection. How marvellous is its work! It is the principle [sic] part of the world and its custodian.
Its father is the sun and its mother is
the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it.
Father of talismans and keeper of wonders.
Perfect in power that reveals the lights.
It is a fire that became our earth. Separate
the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that
which is coarse, through care and wisdom.
It ascends from the earth to the heaven.
It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the
power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore
the darkness flees from it.
The greatest power overcomes everything
that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse.
The formation of the microcosm is in accordance
with the formation of the macrocosm.
The scholars made this their path.
This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with
wisdom.
This is his last book that he hid in the
catacomb.”
The Medieval alchemist Ortolanus wrote an exegesis
of the ‘Tablet, a massive examination
and interpretation which had a heavy influence on the development of the Western
alchemical tradition. Known as The Secret
of Hermes, many copies of this work survive, dating back to the 15th
century. Other works were not so lucky: due mainly to Papal interference, most other
texts concerning the Hermetic Tradition were consigned to the flames. It was not
until the Renaissance that many of the texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus –
in fact the whole Corpus Hermeticum –
were rediscovered from Byzantine sources.
Various; ‘Hermes
Trismegistus’; 1st to 3rd Century AD; 0/1 Sanity loss; Occult
+13 percentiles; 21 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None
*****
Enochian
The term ‘Enochian’ is supposed to reference
the fact that the Biblical Prophet Enoch is the last person to have seen or used
this particular script before John Dee - wizard to Queen Elizabeth I - and his associate
Edward Kelley were reintroduced to it, supposedly by the Archangel Uriel. These
two adepts wrote many long journals in this script, mainly transcripts of the discussions
they had with angelic beings whilst under trances and maintained it as the prime
means whereby they coded their grimoires.
Latter-day attempts at deciphering the
‘language of the angels’ has brought it into disrepute: it has proven to be a poor
effort at a relatively simple language based upon English grammar and with symbols
derived from many extant alphabet systems known to Dee and Kelley. Nevertheless,
many magical practitioners have taken it at face value and have used it in their
own workings, most notably A.E. Waite in his evaluation of ancient grimoires.
There is a great divide between those who
believe that this alphabet is an angelically imparted system and those who point
fingers of blame at the notorious Kelley and his persuasive hold over the otherwise-credible
Dee. QEI’s wizard himself refused to use the term ‘Enochian’, preferring such titles
as ‘Angelical’, the ‘Celestial Speech’, the ‘Language of Angels’, the ‘First Language
of God-Christ’, the ‘Holy Language’, or ‘Adamical’, because, according to Dee's
Angels, it was used by Adam in Paradise to name all things. Nevertheless, the existence
of the language itself has given rise to many latter-day incantations and other
formulae which all bear the descriptor ‘Enochian’.
*****
“The
Equinox – The Review of Scientific Illuminism”
A semi-regular journal launched by Aleister
Crowley and a major organ for the dissemination of his theories on Thelema and “magick”.
First published in 1909, the work contains essays, discussions, and theoretical
articles of import to Crowley’s magickal order, the A∴A∴, or ‘Silver Star’, the Thelemite organisation
he created after leaving the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn. The journal is also of interest to members of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), the sister organisation
of the A∴A∴.
The first volume of the Equinox took Crowley from 1909 to 1913 to
complete; it was released in a series of 10 issues containing many treatises on
subjects ‘magickal’, most of them written by Crowley himself under a bewildering
variety of pseudonyms. It also contained short fiction and poetry, not only by Crowley
and his Thelemite brethren, but also by such luminaries as Lord Dunsany and Katharine
Susannah Pritchard. The completion of this first volume seriously drained Crowley
both emotionally and financially and he declared the second volume would be a “journal
of silence”.
The first issue of the third volume was printed
in 1919 and released as a hardbound tome. Printed under subscription, it was of
primary interest to the OTO and further codified Crowley’s aims in his Thelemite
teachings and explorations into “sex magick”. Due to its striking blue cover, it
was commonly referred to as the Blue Equinox.
Later issues from this volume trickled out sporadically in a more typical magazine
format. Volume four contained only two issues and was largely compiled by Crowley’s
adherents. After Crowley’s death other individuals took over the journal and it
was still in print as of 1998.
English;
Aleister Crowley & other contributors; 1909 - Present; No Sanity loss; Occult +2 percentiles/issue
Spells: None, unless the Keeper deems otherwise
*****
The Ethics of Ygor
“Scarsdale looked at me with thinly disguised triumph. ‘I have
been working long years at this, my dear Plowright,’ he said. ‘These carvings are
hardly unfamiliar to me. And I had The
Ethics of Ygor to guide me’”
-Basil Copper, The
Great White Space
The text of this work deals in part with a phenomenon
called the ‘Great White Space’. Reading between the lines of the archaic writing,
this appears to be an alternate dimension sacred to the ‘Old Ones’ and used by them
to travel across vast distances. By means of a polarised region of space called
the ‘Magnetic Ring’, this dimension intersects our own at a point far below the
earth in west China or possibly Mongolia. The text discusses a city guarding the
phenomenon called ‘Croth’ and places the location of the dimensional rift in a mountainous
region of western China. It also mentions a sect of worshippers dedicated to protecting
the phenomenon called the ‘White Brotherhood’. Whether these individuals are the
same as the ‘Hidden Elect’ of Mme. Blavatsky’s writings, who also use this cognomen,
remains to be seen.
The text deals in part with the journey to the ‘Space
referencing a city called ‘Zak’ on the edges of ‘The Plains of Darkness’, beneath
the ‘Black Mountains’ – the exact locations of these places have not yet been determined.
(Source: Basil Copper, The Great White Space)
Latin; Unknown author; date unknown; 1d3/1d6 Sanity
loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 13 weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None
*****
ESP:
Beyond Time & Distance
An
odd book produced during the Cold War era and in response to Russian claims
that they had identified the brain as the source and capabilities of human
psychic powers. In response, Lethbridge – an original member of the Ghost Club
and the Society of Psychical Research – demonstrates by means of several simple
experiments how the mind exists free of the physical reality of the brain and
is capable of many great and astonishing feats. Along the way, in a fumbling
attempt to explain how psychic powers work, he prefigures the concept of string
theory – without using any concrete terminology from that field (at that time
not conceived) - as the means whereby human psychic power can be facilitated.
English; T.C. Lethbridge: Routledge & Kegan
Paul Ltd., London 1965; 0/1 Sanity Loss; Occult +6 percentiles; 6 weeks to
study and comprehend
Spells: None
*****
An
Examination of Cryptographic Process in Linguistic Interpretation using African
Models
See:
The G’Harne Fragments
*****
An
Examination of De Vermis Mysteriis
Joachim
Feery’s overviews of various Mythos tomes have been discussed before. His
reviews are a handy means whereby readers without access to the necessary
mystical works can enact a workaround to their logistical problems; however,
the incomplete knowledge that these books afford is fraught with danger. This
book is a case in point. Much of what Feery committed to print from his reading
(and suppositions) of the contents of Prinn’s magnum opus is lacking in
certain necessary particulars – spells are unfinished; rituals are lacking in
requisite information; and certain vital elements of various discussions are
left out. The hard metaphysical researcher is warned to proceed with care…
German; Joachim Feery (after Ludwig Prinn);
Berlin, circa 1930; Sanity loss 1/1d3; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; average
three weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None complete
Of
course, there is also an English translation, produced in London after the
Second World war:
English; Joachim Feery (after Ludwig
Prinn); London, 1948; Sanity loss 1/1d2; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentiles;average
three weeks to study and comprehend
Spells: None complete
*****
“Experiments with
a Medium”
Professor
Garder was a noted lecturer and researcher into the phenomena of occult experiences.
Like many other psychic explorers of the time – Sir A. C. Doyle, Harry Price, Thomas
Carnacki – Garder was concerned that his experiments and methodologies were above
reproach, reproducible and, above all, free from any taint of sensationalism or
perceived attempt at personal gain. Garder was no exposer of false mediums like
Harry Houdini; rather, he attempted to quantify the mediumistic experience as a
whole in scientific terms, rather than tear apart individual cases.
These experiments took place with an unnamed
medium and there is some suggestion that two or even more mediums took part in the
sessions. Many believe that Rudi Schneider, with whom Harry Price worked at length,
was the main test subject, based upon Garder having spent some time in Germany prior
to the paper’s publication.
The point of these tests was to see if there
were any substances or barriers, physical or otherwise which could prevent contact
by “etherical or spiritual forces or substances”. Such materials as lead, zinc and
copper were rated as largely ineffective in preventing the medium from contacting
the Other Side, while underwater experiments and those conducted in rooms filled
with chlorine or sulphuric gases were of greater danger to the test subjects than
to the “forces Beyond”. Many standard ‘magic circles’ and other such protective
diagrams, with or without the adjuncts of garlic oil, salt, iron or holy water,
were tried and the results were ambivalent at best. The most successful trials were
those in which varying frequencies of light were employed.
At
the blue end of the scale, it was found that contact “across the Veil” was successful
and benign; at the red end of the spectrum, contact was no more or less affected,
but was more agitated and even malevolent. By sheer accident, attempting to focus
and intensify different wavelengths of light, Garder discovered that spirit contact
was rendered useless by the imposition of a barrier of electrical current passed
through vacuum tubes. Seated within a cage of softly glowing vacuum cylinders, the
medium subject was unable to summon spirit contacts and complained of feeling “peculiarly
isolated”.
(Source: William Hope Hodgson)
*****
Extractus Alsophocus
During the Renaissance, the Black Tome of Alsophocus was discovered by
the Inquisition and a collection of extracts compiled from it. This book contains
no spells but is written in the Inquisitorial alphabet, making decipherment a bothersome
difficulty. The extracted passages are concerned with the Shining Trapezohedron, from its creation on Yuggoth to its disappearance
during the Ancient Egyptian reign of Nitocris. It deals with the known qualities
of the device and the means whereby it can be used against the Haunter of the Dark.
(Source: Bruce Ballon, et.al., Unseen Masters: “Coming of Age”)
Latin, in the Inquisitorial cipher; Unknown translator;
circa. 1517; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 3d4 weeks
to study and comprehend
Spells: None
*****
The
Inquisitorial Alphabet
Most
people would not be too surprised to learn that the Inquisition, that instrument
of terror deployed by fanatical Popes throughout European history, used a series
of codes to hide the nature of the correspondence between their agents. What is
surprising is that this invented written language was based largely on alchemical
and Hebrew symbols. For an organisation heaven-bent on wiping out heretics across
the globe it seems more than a little hypocritical of them to have borrowed their
enemy’s alphabets as inspiration for their secret codes. To add insult to injury,
it’s also a very simple replacement code that’s laborious to write, so what they
gained from it is anybody’s guess.
Difficulty: Slight: Idea Roll x2
Works in this Language: Codex Maleficium (+20%); Zekerboni (+10%); Extractus
Alsophocus (+0%)
‘Rosetta Stone’: None, although presumably
Vatican agents have textbooks on the subject
*****
Vaults
of Academia:
DANNSEYS, Peter (1987), “Early Research Results
from the N’Kai Excavations”, Publications of the Arkham Biophysical Institute 40:21-25
IBID., (1988), “Elegant Symmetry: Inversion
and Reversion in Dark Dimension Demi-life”, Houghton & Mifflin, New York NY,
USA
GARDER, Prof. W., (18__), “Experiments with
a Medium” (Publication details unknown)
MARSH, S. Robert, (1976), “Extension and Resorption in Nubes raptus
(Robson)”, Abstracta Bestialis 82:39-78
MUSTOLL, Ivan, (1984), “Emergency Procedures During Controlled
Obsession of Yog-Sothoth”, Annals of the Innsmouth Society 82:317-324
RATSEGG, F. Ford (1988), “Exploring the Outer
Alpha Centauri System”, unpublished NASA document, 88.3.21/889912
SMITH, C.A. (1932), “Examining Tomes of Knowledge”, The Occult Librarian,
March: 23-29
TYPER, Alonso Hasbrouck (1881), “Ein Katalog von Vampirism”, University of Heidelberg
Press, Heidelberg, Germany
