De Vermis Mysteriis

“...amidst dusty shelves seemingly forgotten by time, I came to the end of my search. There, securely wedged between two century-old editions of Shakespeare, stood a great black volume with iron facings. Upon it, in hand-engraved lettering, was the inscription De Vermis Mysteriis, or ‘Mysteries of the Worm’.”

Robert Bloch, “The Shambler from the Stars”.

Ludwig Prinn is said to have been the scion of a great Flemish trading family with connexions to Constantinople; in his own writings, he claimed to have been the sole survivor of the Ninth Crusade, an assertion which would have made him centuries old. Whatever the reality, he was a sorcerer of great ability and had made the Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin on the Sea of Gallilee.

Prinn was a relentless traveller and roamed widely in his search for power. He is known to have visited Alexandria to speak with the priests of the Black Brotherhood of Nephren-Ka and spent time as a prisoner of Syrian wizards in Jebel Ansariye, from whom he learned much about the summoning and imprisonment of demonic entities. He returned to Bruges at the end of his travels, later moving to Ghent and from there to a hermitage constructed from a pre-Roman tomb in a forest outside of Brussels. It was from here in 1540, that he was arrested by agents of the Inquisition and brought to trial on charges of sorcery. While imprisoned, he wrote his magnum opus, De Vermis Mysteriis, and managed to smuggle it out of his cell in order to be printed after his execution.

“In addition to those interesting notes, there were diagrams of what seemed to be very odd operations ... apparently copied out of ancient texts, particularly ... De Vermis Mysteriis, by Ludvig Prinn. ... The operations themselves suggested a raison d’etre too astounding to accept on face; one of them, for instance, was designed to stretch the skin, consisting of many incisions made to ‘permit growth’. Yet another was a simple cross-incision made at the base of the spine for the purpose of ‘extension of the tailbone’. What these fantastic diagrams suggested was too horrible to contemplate, yet it was part and parcel, surely of the strange research conducted for so many years by Dr. Charriere, whose seclusion was thus readily explicable...”

August Derleth, “The Survivor”

The first edition of this work was published in Cologne the year after Prinn’s death; it is considered to be the only accurate printing of the text. In 1569, Pope Pious V banned the work as an instrument of the Devil and copies began rapidly to disappear. This did not, however, prevent other editions being made by publishers with an eye towards capitalising on the work’s notoriety: a German black-letter edition appeared in Düsseldorf in 1570 and another Latin version was produced in Prague in 1809. The German edition was heavily expurgated and is considered of little worth; the Prague edition was in a very limited print run and has rarely ever been seen: it is considered by many to be a lost book.

“Tibi, Magnum Innominandum, signa stellarum nigrarum et bufaniformis Sadoquae sigillum...”

Chant to Summon a Star Vampire,

Robert Bloch, “The Shambler from the Stars”

In 1789, a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis surfaced in the village of Jerusalem’s Lot in Massachusetts. Much of this copy was written in the Ogham script used by the ancient Druids and suspicion has fallen on the book’s identity: either this book was not De Vermis Mysteriis but rather some other text, or it was the Cologne or Düsseldorf edition to which additional elements had been added. In any case, this example disappeared along with the citizenry of that town on October 31^st in 1789 and thus, we may never know for certain.

“Watch not the Stalkers, nor seek to know the Spawn of the Woods, for the tainted wellspring which gives them birth cares not for the intruder. Mark well what fate befell Orpheus when the Daughters of Dionysus came upon him deep in the woods. The Black Goat of the Woods spawns and spawns again ... and all the world shall tremble beneath her hooves, She Who is the Ender of Ages.”

Richard Watts, Dead Reckonings: “Behold the Mother”

Latin; Ludwig Prinn; Cologne, 1543; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +12 percentiles; 48 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Compel the Dead” (Command Ghost); “To Invoke the Bearded One” (Contact Byatis); “To Invoke the Serpent Lord” (Contact Yig); “To Create the Liao Drug” (Create Plutonian Drug); “To Summon Visions of the Past” (Create Scrying Window); “To Compel a Corpse in Servitude” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “To Invoke a Child of the Goat” (Summon/Bind Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath); “To Invoke an Invisible Servant” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Prinn’s Crux Ansata”; “To Shed the Weight of Years” (Mind Transfer); “A Sign of Power” (Voorish Sign)

“He knew, even before he opened that accursed tome, that it was evil. The musty scent that rose from those antique pages carried with it the reek of the tomb. The faded leaves were maggoty at the edges, and rats had gnawed the leather; rats which perchance had a ghastlier food for common fare.”

Robert Bloch, “The Shambler from the Stars”.

German, black-letter edition; unknown translator; Düsseldorf, 1570; 1d6/2d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

Latin; Ludwig Prinn; Prague, 1809; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 45 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Compel the Dead" (Command Ghost); “To Create the Liao Drug” (Create Plutonian Drug); “To Summon Visions of the Past” (Create Scrying Window); “To Compel a Corpse in Servitude” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “To Invoke a Child of the Goat” (Summon/Bind Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath); “To Invoke an Invisible Servant” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Prinn’s Crux Ansata”; “To Shed the Weight of Years” (Mind Transfer); “A Sign of Power” (Voorish Sign)

“...O the visions of history that I beheld in the throes of the Liao! Into the minds of my ancestors I was swept. Sorcerers, kings, madmen, labourers, warriors, beggars and still more madmen – these were my forebears. And beyond that, shambling things scarcely able to walk erect, yet still vaguely human. Beyond even that, as all traces of humanity fled from the countenances of my earlier selves – beasts, devils, sibilant scientists ... would there were time I should write volumes on the secret wonders I have seen through eyes dead and dust these millions of years. But the High Inquisitor is impatient to carry out my fair trial and execution and thus, I must discuss other things...”

Kevin A. Ross, Sacraments of Evil: “Signs Writ in Scarlet”

English translations of the book have been relatively prevalent but have also suffered the hallmarks of unreliability at the hands of editors and translators. The first of these was the version produced by Edward Kelley in 1573: Kelley was a notorious fraud and confidence trickster and his edition suffers accordingly. Charles Leggett produced another English copy in 1821, using the Düsseldorf edition as his source: given that that work was largely incomplete, Leggett’s efforts are of little practical use and the situation is compounded by the fact that very few copies were actually released. Later in 1895, the Starry Wisdom Press announced the impending release of a reprint of the work but no copies have ever been seen: whether it was done at all remains a matter of conjecture.

English; Edward Kelley; London, 1573; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 40 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Speak with the Dead!” (Command Ghost); “To Create Visions within the Glass” (Create Scrying Window); “To Cause the Dead to Rise!” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “A Gesture of Command” (Voorish Sign)

English; Charles Leggett (translated from the German edition); London, 1821; 1d4/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English?; unknown translator?; Starry Wisdom Press, Providence, RI, 1895; No further statistics can be provided as the fact of the book has never been proven.

Spells: Unknown

“Iä! Rhyn tharanak ... Vorvadoss of Bel-Yarnak! The Troubler of the Sands! Thou Who waiteth in the Outer Dark, Kindler of the Flame ... n’gha shugg y’haa...”

Henry Kuttner, “The Invaders”

The contents of this blasphemous tome are divided into sixteen chapters each of which deals with a different topic of sorcerous lore, the most famous of which – “Saracenic Rituals” – deals with the rites and practises of the Saracens who had imprisoned Prinn during his wanderings. One chapter deals exclusively with the summoning of invisible creatures from the skies. There are chapters on necromancy and divination; vampires, elementals and familiar spirits; tales of Byatis and the Worm-Wizards of Irem; of the Crocodile-god, Sebek, along with operations designed to hasten the transformation of Deep-One hybrids. Most famously, this is the original source of the formula for the infamous Liao Drug amongst Western wizards, and is widely sought-after for this recipe alone.

(Source: Robert Bloch, “The Shambler from the Stars”)

“Saracenic Rituals”

“In Syria, with my own eyes, I, Ludwig Prinn saw one wizard of Years without Number transfer himself to the person of a younger man, whose Number he had divined; when at the appointed Hour he spoke the Words of the Worm. And this is what I saw... [Editor’s Note: Prinn’s description of the dissolution of the wizard and the investment of himself into his host is considered too horrific and monstrous to permit of any merely casual or unacquainted perusal. – X]”

Brian Lumley, “Lord of the Worms”

This is a pamphlet, printed on well-browned and foxed paper of a lesser quality. A small folio edition, there are 48 pages: 22 of these comprise the introduction by the author with the rest making up his translation. The printing is hurried, with many misspellings, and authenticity is determined by a worn lower case ‘a’ impression. Often, when encountered, there are missing pages and those that remain are quite chipped and worn. Occasionally, a careful former owner may have made a special box for it, or may have even had their copy bound.

The text is an excerpted chapter from De Vermis Mysteriis. “Saracenic Rituals” is the best-known chapter of that work, dealing mainly with numerology, and the translator spends much time in his introduction outlining the background to the text and in justifying his decision to translate such a blasphemous work (while simultaneously managing to dodge the question of why he did so anonymously). The actual translation is heavily footnoted, laced with editorial comments and paraphrased where the material is considered by the translator to be “too horrible to reveal”.

(Source: Brian Lumley, “The Lord of the Worms”)

English; “Clergyman X”, translator; 1856; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; Occult +5% or gain 5% in Numerology (Keeper’s choice); 6 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

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The Liao Drug

“I have here five pellets of the drug Liao. It was used by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tze and while under its influence he envisioned Tao. Tao is the most mysterious force in the world; it surrounds and pervades all things.”

Frank Belknap Long, “The Hounds of Tindalos”

Also known as the Plutonian Drug, this enchantment allows the user to travel backwards in time and see the past from the viewpoint of the minds of their ancestors. The user of the ‘Drug sees through the eyes of their distant relatives but cannot affect or direct their movements or activities; they are also not directly privy to their ancestors’ thoughts or motivations. Whilst under the influence of the ‘Drug, the user can hear activity in the presence of their physical body and can relay to those nearby the sights that they witness. The ‘Drug can take the form of either a liquid, a pellet, or intravenous “shot”, depending upon the whim of the manufacturer. In any form, the ‘Drug must be “energised” with Magic Points before gaining potency; the more Magic Points expended, the further back in time the mind of the user travels.

The larger the dose taken, the further back in time the user’s mind travels, eventually experiencing the distant past in prehuman and non-human forms. It is at this point that the dangers of the ‘Drug become manifest: the Hounds of Tindalos, creatures which inhabit the ‘angles’ of the distant timelines, resent the intrusion offered by the users of the ‘Drug and are able to pursue such individuals forward through time in order to devour them and prevent further interruptions. Other beings similarly sensitive to the use of the ‘Drug are the Elder Things, the Great Race of Yith and the deities Yog-Sothoth and Daoloth: their reactions to such intrusion are less predictable than are those of the Hounds. Another mishap that can occur is that the mind of the user does not return to its original body when the effect wears off: in this instance the user’s body falls into a coma from which it never awakens while the user’s consciousness is locked forever as a passenger of their ancestor’s form.

An extract of the Black Lotus is essential for the creation of this drug and its recipe is jealously guarded by those who cultivate the insidious plant. The most widely-known source for the formula of this admixture is Ludwig Prinn’s De Vermis Mysteriis.

The Tyndalon

“‘They are lean and athirst!’ he shrieked... ‘All the evil in the universe was concentrated in their lean, hungry bodies. Or had they bodies? I saw them only for a moment, I cannot be certain.’”

Frank Belknap Long, “The Hounds of Tindalos”

This symbol is somehow linked to the Hounds of Tindalos and is useful in any attempt to contact or destroy them. Like the Elder Sign, the drawn symbol is useless without the accompanying spell to enchant it; that being said, an unenchanted sketch of the Tyndalon makes an attempt to Contact a Hound more efficacious, the Hound appearing to the caster within 15 minutes, rather than an hour or more.

Enchanting the Tyndalon requires the sacrifice of 2 POW; if a Hound appears within 10 feet of such an image, its ability to regenerate damage is nullified. Further, if inscribed upon a weapon and then enchanted, that weapon is considered enchanted, but only in regard to Hounds of Tindalos and their kin. Note well, that a gun or bow inscribed with the symbol gains no tangible benefits; bullets and arrows so inscribed and enchanted do gain this capability. Grenades and other explosive devices accrue no benefits since – obviously - the symbol would be destroyed in the explosion.

Significantly, this spell is rarely found in standard copies of De Vermis Mysteriis.

"In the coldest regions of space, the monstrous entities Ogdru Jahad - the Seven Gods of Chaos - slumber in their crystal prison, waiting to reclaim Earth... and burn the heavens."

- De Vermis Mysteriis, page 87

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