“The Beckoning Fair One”: Oliver Onions’ Presentiment of the Modern Horror Tale

“...setting aside the highest masterpieces of literature, there is nothing more difficult to achieve than a first-class ghost story.”

Montague Summers, Victorian Ghost Stories, 1936

The tradition of the English ghost story is an old one dating from the days of Horace Walpole and the genesis of the Gothic Novel. Charles Dickens codified the form with the publication of his A Christmas Tale and the notion of reading a spooky story to a Yuletide gathering, with all the candles but one extinguished, became a seasonal event from that point onwards. Throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, the ghost story worked both as an entertainment and a warning; in his essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”, H.P. Lovecraft goes so far as to say that horror fiction represents the very earliest form of the transmitted narrative – whether written or orally presented – in that the didactic format was the basis of instructional learning by means of the cautionary tale.

Many writers have tried their hand at the conventions of the ghost story and some are well-known for little else. Chief amongst them is the English writer Montague Rhodes James (writing as M.R. James), the amiable Dean of King’s College in Cambridge until the late 1930s who published many volumes of the ghost stories which he produced as part of the Christmas tradition; his tales “Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook” and “The Haunted Dolls’ House” are still classics of the form. Less well-known is the Irish playwright J.S Sheridan le Fanu, who wrote the gothic masterpiece Carmilla that helped inspire Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and his stories such as “Green Tea” and “Madam Crowl’s Ghost” are still capable of raising a shiver today. Rudyard Kipling also dabbled with the form and his “The Phantom Rickshaw” is a memorable entry in the canon, as too is H.G. Wells’ “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid”.

However, good as these writers and their efforts are, they still fell prey to the changing nature of the zeitgeist and, as with any populist form of entertainment, it either evolves or falls into desuetude. After the real-life horrors of World War Two, the parlour-room adventures of middle class aesthetes and everymen in haunted backwater inns and country houses seemed too trifling to be any kind of distraction. The realities of genocide, mutation and possible nuclear eradication became obsessions of the post-War era and the nightmare of existential obliteration, rather than the agonies of an unquiet grave, became a focus for dabblers in the horror genre.

Modern horror writing is a fractured and sub-generic minefield that does little to strive for a literary effect. Most publishers and booksellers these days incorporate horror as a sub-genre of ‘Fantasy/Science Fiction’ and such hybrids as ‘Dark Fantasy’ and the dystopian horror of ‘Cyberpunk’ do little to bolster a ‘pure’ notion of horror writing. The mid-20^th century successes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz gave way – on the one hand - to the ‘Paranormal Romance’ indulgences of Virginia Andrews (Flowers in the Attic), Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire) and Stephenie Meyers’ dubious offerings, and - on the other - the sub-sub-genre crapulence of ‘Splatterpunk’. It seems little wonder then that such writers as Poppy Z. Brite and Joe Hill should emerge from the wasteland to champion horror fiction and put the ghost story back on the map.

Indeed, the formula for a good ghost story has developed much since the days of Charles Dickens. In 1986 Michael Cox and R.A Gilbert set the following guidelines for the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories when editing their selection for that volume:

“Each story should reveal to the reader a spectacle of the returning dead, or their agents, and their actions; there must be a dramatic interaction between the living and the dead, more often than not with the intention of frightening or unsettling the reader; the story must exhibit clear literary quality ... there must be a definable Englishness about the story ... and finally ... the story must be relatively short.”

For these present purposes, the need for brevity and “Englishness” need not necessarily apply, but M.R. James would most likely have added the following:

“[Ghosts should be] malevolent or odious; [their victims should be] introduced in a placid way, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings, and in this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head.”

James would also have appended an interdiction to observe rules of folklore in handling bogeys and ghosts, in order to lend an air of verisimilitude. Modern writers in the genre would tend to focus more upon the psychology of the apparition or monster, even pulling an Agatha Christie-like switch à la The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and writing the story from the horror’s point of view: a good example of this is John Gardner’s 1971 novel Grendel, which retells the Beowulf saga from the monster’s perspective.

Indeed, for the modern reader of horror fiction, the psychology of the players is paramount. In a time when our ‘monsters’ are more likely to be stalkers, rapists and serial killers than ghosts, vampires or werewolves, the desire to understand the motivation of the malefactor assumes a primary position: we no longer live with a worldview that ‘to be is to do’ – which more than sums up why a werewolf would attack a lone traveller under a full moon – since our new monsters are most likely people we know, or those whom we would not look at twice. Edgar Allen Poe began this probing into the understanding of the fiend and his works largely influenced the writing of the French and English Decadents, ultimately moving clear of the traditional ghost story; Lovecraft and his crowd, through the ‘Twenties and ‘Thirties up until today, dabbled in speculations as to the impact of horror in turning a sane mind mad; but it was not until the end of the Twentieth Century and into the current era that the psychology of the ghost story became a fait accompli.

Which brings us finally, to Oliver Onions.

George Oliver Onions was born on the 13^th of November in 1873 and was trained as a commercial artist before turning his hand full-time to the business of writing; many of the forty novels and short story collections which he published had dustjackets that he designed himself. He married the author Roberta ‘Berta’ Ruck in 1909 and they had two children. Berta had been born in India in 1878 – one of eight daughters –and was a successful novelist in her own right, penning over eighty works, mainly romantic novels, until her death in 1978. A handful of her tales were made into movies during the early ‘Twenties. Onions officially changed his name to ‘George Oliver’ in 1918 but still used Oliver Onions as his nom-de plume. He continued writing throughout his life, covering many different genres including an early foray into Science Fiction (New Moon in 1918), and received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1946 for his novel Poor Man’s Tapestry. He died on the 9^th of April in 1961.

“The Beckoning Fair One” comes from a collection of ghost stories entitled Widdershins, which Onions published in 1911. It is the best-known of his works, despite being ignored by many anthologies and other lists, most likely due to its length. It tells the tale of a writer named Paul Oleron struggling to prepare the manuscript of what will surely be his greatest novel, a romance entitled Romilly. A major impediment to his working practise is the fact that he occupies a flat at one end of London and has an office in which to write, some distance away; he resolves this issue by renting a floor in an unoccupied house which he notices for let whilst journeying between the two tent-poles of his existence. Once settled, his writer’s block becomes acute as the business of decorating and settling takes precedence; a ‘lady journalist’ friend of his, and would-be paramour, named Elsie Bengough, becomes concerned not only for Paul, but also for his masterwork, as he begins to fall under the spell of a possible entity dwelling in the building. He slips firstly, into a hermit-like, paranoid exile and then into depression and catatonia. When the authorities finally pay Paul a visit, following up the suspicious whispers of the neighbourhood, Elsie’s terrible fate is revealed and fingers are swiftly pointed at Paul ... but is he really to blame?

We can start to check off Cox and Gilbert’s list in our examination of this story. As already noted, it fails the test for brevity, but we aren’t too concerned with that here. In terms of its Englishness, his story actually travels into aspects of London life that are little known in other classic tales of the period (although they were probably mainstays of the popular fiction of the time): Elsie’s life as a journalist (and attitudes to women at work), the process and practise of renting property, even the condition of busses at the time are brought into relief and give us a window into Onions’ world.

As to literariness, things become somewhat murky. Onions’ language is dense and a trifle overblown although it stops short of being turgid. There are occasional tortuous phrasings, but on the whole his style works well with the material. Unlike M.R. James – a natural literary mimic who could churn out convincing prose in the style of whatever period asked for at a moment’s notice – or the likes of Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, or Wells - trained as newshounds and wary of muddy transmissions – Onions was a purely populist writer, tied to the strict deadlines of monthly serials like The Argosy and Cornhill’s Magazine, with all the limitations which that places on style.

Nevertheless there is definite mastery present here in the description of, not only Paul’s psychological disintegration, but also of the wedge which the Beckoner drives between the two would-be lovers, and the meticulous observations of the gulf widening between them delivered in dialogue and physical description – especially their parting discussion on the bus, wherein Elsie confesses the extent of her feelings for Paul - are deft and even heart-breaking.

If literary quality can be determined by a work’s ability to inspire and direct other writers, then Onions can also be said to have achieved this: Claude Tardat’s, novel Sweet Death, published in 1988, has strong echoes of Onions’ tale. This book tells of the purposeful self-killing of its emotionally-brutalised heroine by devouring chocolates, cakes and other sweet treats. The piece takes the form of her diary, meant at first only to be a catalogue of everything which she consumes, but which becomes a record of her mental state and observations during her horribly-focussed desire to end her own existence. The withdrawal, both psychological and actual, through which she goes are, as in Onions’ work, meticulously drawn and there is an analogue of the Elsie Bengough character in an outside agent whom the suicide meets: known only as “the student” he echoes Elsie’s movements at the end of Onions’ tale, as he desperately pounds on her door to gain admittance while she, feeling the sugar silting through her veins and the syrup slowing her heart, chooses to ignore him and conclude her horrible plan.

The notion of what exactly is working upon Paul Oleron raises our fourth criterion. The ‘Beckoner’ is an invisible female presence, who pouts and flirts over Paul throughout the tale. The only notion we (and Paul) have of her is the sound of her silk skirts and the electric crackle of her hair being brushed. Nevertheless, Paul interprets her ‘moods’ and responds by decorating the apartment to her taste, exiling Elsie as unwanted ‘competition’, and by destroying his unfinished novel, the other object of his affection. Certain clues crop up: the fact that the previous tenant – a talented artist named Madley – also wasted away in the flat; the discovery of the old harp bag hidden in the window seat; and the revelation of an ancient Welsh tune (“The Beckoning Fair One”) by his housekeeper. Together these might lead us to conclude that the Beckoner is a creature of Celtic legend, a ‘fairy mistress’ called the leanan sidhe in Gaelic, who, like a vampire, drains men of their creativity and talent, leaving them wasted and dead. Not that Onions tells us this information in so many words, preferring to drop veiled hints, but the folklore of the British Isles is redolent with the stories of this and similar creatures. In this sense, M.R. James would be well-pleased, as it conforms to his notion of having sprung from a well-scripted legendry. That the “ominous thing” also puts out it head in Paul’s lovingly-decorated apartment would no doubt also have amused him.

Manifestations of the dead and their interaction with the living are all that remain. In this instance there is a notion of the returning dead in the discovery of the dead artist Madley, whose history prefigures and warns Paul of his fate. There are other returns too: the harp bag reappears and the wig-powdering closet is opened: these two seemingly random objects from a past age take on their own chilling roles in the dénouement, no matter how innocently they emerge in the text. Despite the fact that the dramatic interaction with the spectral - the death of Elsie - takes place off-screen, the final question – ‘was it a ghostly creature, or was it Paul?’ – is placed emphatically before the reader.

It is the minutely observed disintegration of Paul’s sanity that makes this an unexpectedly modern piece of writing. There are a few points where the reader is pushed a little too hard to believe in the Beckoner – one scene shows the unequivocal self-movement of Paul’s comb, as the creature brushes its invisible hair – but, on the whole, the question of whether or not something supernatural is actually happening to Paul, or if it is all in his mind as part of an extended psychosis, is a compelling one that holds the reader until the very end. In part this explains the length of the story – the tracking of Paul’s psychological disintegration would most likely suffer and seem less real if it were unnecessarily rushed.

Today’s writers regularly plumb this realm of ‘psychological horror’, a style which has its roots in Poe and his stories, such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” in which guilt reveals the depravity of the villain. Robert Bloch’s Psycho (1959) took the notion of psychological horror to the fore and its power certainly impressed Alfred Hitchcock, himself an explorer of the mind’s construction as a springboard for evil. Latterly, such writers as Joe Hill and Poppy Z. Brite take to the psychologist’s toolbox to re-examine old tropes: Hill re-casts Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a Cold War, B-Movie fable of a boy who – under the influence of atomic radiation or Heavenly Judgement, it’s not revealed – becomes a giant locust in “You Will Hear the Locust Sing” and devours his father, an act which he interprets with his locust-brain as a selfless act of parenting that strengthens their bond; Brite writes a elegiac love-letter to Elvis Presley, examining his motivations in “Are You Loathsome Tonight?” by intercutting a fan’s longing for the glory days of her idol with the frankly-disturbing details of the crime-scene investigation of his death and his autopsy. Alongside these deft performances, Oliver Onions rates equally well with this frightening examination of the link between creativity and sanity, the tumble into existential despair and complete psychological breakdown, against a colourful frisson of supernatural potentiality.

*****

"Made Flesh" - Part 4

“When I was in the Antarctic,” he began, “We were lost; cut off; blinded by the snow and the frost. We had no dogs; only our compass with which to orientate ourselves. Schmidt stumbled and his foot went through the ice; I grabbed him and pulled. Zimmermann began to shout: I could hear him saying ‘it has him! It has him!’ but I couldn’t see what he was talking about. I heaved as I felt Schmidt sinking and he screamed. Then the flesh of his leg slid off, like a sock from a foot. I fell hard, into the snow with Schmidt on top of me, screaming for all he was worth that something had bitten him. As I stood up once more, I heard Zimmermann yelling for me to run, that he would hold off the creature while we escaped. With the snow and mist I couldn’t see clearly; Zimmermann seemed to be facing-off against some kind of eel, or serpent, rearing up out of the ice, moving slowly and rising higher. Schmidt was a mess; blood everywhere. I hauled him up over my shoulders and turned to see Zimmermann waving his ice pick at a huge wall of growing shadow, yelling over his shoulder for us to run as fast as we could. I did; and that was the last we saw of him...”

Review: The House of the Worm

 

English, Gary Myers, The House of the Worm, Arkham House, Sauk City, WI, USA, 1975

Octavo; hardcover with gilt spine-titling; 77pp., with 10 monochrome illustrated plates by Allan Servoss. Mild softening of the spine head; faint toning to to head of the text block. Dustjacket is sunned along the spine and showing light shelfwear. Else, near fine.

 

This is the first Arkham House publication I have ever owned and it is a very pleasing little number. Set almost entirely in Earth’s Dreamlands it is redolent of the fantasy tales of Fritz Leiber and of Jack Vance and would definitely appeal to fans of those writers. However, it is a Mythos beast, first and foremost.

I always enjoy a work of writing which obeys the rules of the setting in which it is placed but which also finds its own way along those well-documented paths. Gary Myers knows the Dreamlands like the back of his hand, dropping casual references to elements of HPL’s writings which never seem forced or calculated. Here we find Ulthar’s cats, the Zoogs of the Enchanted Wood, the black-sailed ships of Dylath-Leen, and even King Kuranes. These Mythos touchstones are seamlessly woven into Myers’ stories and they ground them perfectly.

Myers kick-starts the book with an introduction in which he declares that the volume is a work of “heresy”. I was a little confused about this until, reading further, he seems to be saying that the ‘blasphemous views’ that he espouses are anathema to the dogma of Arkham House, under the auspices of August Derleth, rather than to the Mythos itself. This is no bad thing: Derleth’s massaging of the Mythos – the so-called “Elemental Theory” of the Great Old Ones, the elevation of the Elder Gods – has been roundly criticised as being too great a rationalisation of the indifferent chaos espoused by HPL. Myers’ sly admission of heretical scribbling is actually an effort to return the Mythos to something more closely tied to Lovecraft’s vision.

Myers’ vision of the Dreamlands is literally a vista of darkness. Each evening, Night – a sentient, spawning agency of threat – emerges from its distant vale and spreads across the lands to feed. Gypsy wanderers and terrified citizens mutter incantations and burn incense to ward off its attentions; other, less-wise, adventurers seek it out and are never heard from again. Every temple in this Dreamlands is staffed by evilly-indifferent priests whose vengeance is swift and deadly; every smug thief or self-satisfied dabbler in the dark arts is sure to find horrible come-uppance.

In glory-conscious thieves such as Snid, hell-bent on unearthing the loot of Golthoth in the tale of the same name, we can see faint glimpses of Leiber’s Gray Mouser and Vance’s Cugel, and the smirking protagonist in “Yohk the Necromancer” would be right at home in the realms of Lyonnesse. There is too, a cachet of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy stories here in the references to ancient, decayed cultures and the atavistic re-emergence of Things Best Left Undiscovered.

The tone of Myers’ writing is light and playful, redolent of some Scheherazade outlining a tantalising tale; this also lends the writing an archaic and dark tone, as of some old legend. His oblique referencing of horrible demises and terrible sights helps to elevate the creepiness of his stories – as we know, it is what is unsaid that best lets our imaginations run amok. Phrases such as “they took him away and did with him that which is better left unwritten” are pithier and more allusive than a simple “the priests executed him for his crime” and the last two sentences of “The Four Sealed Jars”,

“That same morning, four sealed jars from the shop of Getech came into the possession of a prominent merchant of Celephais who fancied himself a connoisseur of old wines and hoped by this purchase to add something diverting to his cellars. There was some unpleasantness when his servants effected an opening of one of the jars.”

are far more effective in creating a frisson-filled culmination to the preceding drama than any finely-drawn description would have been.

A complaint I have about the work is of no concern or issue to the ability of the writer; rather, it concerns the publishing house at the head of this production. This book is one of only four-thousand issued by Arkham House and, bewilderingly for such a small print-run and such a relatively miniscule work, it is replete with typographic errors, misspellings and other distractions which, for my part at least, always serve to ruin the efforts of the author to create a thrilling mood. It’s a shame to see such a strong writer poorly-served by their publisher...although maybe it’s punishment for that heretical confession?

The artwork provided by Allan Servoss is not wholly convincing – the illustrator’s style is a bit too divergent from the intention of the writer and these images do not serve the material as well as they ought. This too, hearkens back to the publishing house and speaks of either, an unwillingness on their part to seek out an artist who could work well with the material, or an indifference to it. That being said, these images are easily passed over.

Another confounding sideline to this work, is the fact that Chaosium has milked it dry for inspiration for their own compilations. Every being, creature, wizard, thief and deity has been replicated with statistics and associated information in their own Dreamlands’ publications. I’m not sure that this is a good thing, overall: occasionally, a singular entity should remain just that – singular – and not be converted into a variant, or type, within a gaming system. Many readers will remember the “demi-lich” at the heart of TSR’s "Tomb of Horrors" and some, like myself, would have been disappointed to discover in later lists of fiendish beings, that it had become a type of monster, rather than being left as a unique creature as the writer no doubt intended. The most bizarre instance of this is the “god” Yop, created and solely worshipped by the idol-maker Yah-Vho in the story “The Maker of Gods”: why Chaosium would provide stats and attributes to this concept is beyond me, but it smacks of an attempt to pin everything down under copyright before someone else gets to it.

However these issues are a sideshow to Gary Myers’ main event. These are delightful – and deliciously dark – whimsical stories of the Mythos - great for idling away a quiet moment and savouring afterwards. Mythos fans should seek out a copy and add it to their collections – it will definitely repay your efforts at locating it.

Four-and-a-half tentacled horrors from me!

"Made Flesh" - Part 3

“Well, I was a mountaineer in my youth, always seeking new places to climb. I journeyed to the Himalayas during my time at University. I tried to get into the higher areas of the Hindu Kush but the troubles there prevented me. I spent some time in a monastery in the upper reaches of the Ganges and fell into some questionable practises whilst there. Under the influence of bhang during a Hindu festival, I had the strange insight that the whole world was being covered up with flesh, populations growing and coalescing together like the skin of an orange. A skin made of meat.” My face must have betrayed the disgust I was feeling.

“Oh, I know, I know: a most disconcerting vision to have had. Normally I would have shrugged it off, but, in the Antarctic, facing my own mortality, I kept reliving the experience and the horror of it forced me to make the decision upon my return. May I have this last biscuit?”

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 in to 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: Call/Dismiss Azathoth; Call/Dismiss Rlim Shaikorth; Contact Cthulhu; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Ghoul; Contact Nyogtha; Contact Tsathoggua; Contact Yog-Sothoth; 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; Gate of Oneiromancy; Green Decay; Levitate; Sign of Eibon; Sign of Kish (Elder Sign); Summon/Bind Star Vampire; Petrify; Voorish Sign; 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; 9^th 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 17^th 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 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; 13^th 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...”

H.P. Lovecraft & 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. 15^th 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 132^nd 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.