The Great White Space!

Central to a lot of the Mythos activity in China is the presence of the intersections into this reality of the blasted Plateau of Leng. Throughout Western China, Tibet and northern Burma, these rifts allow access to mysteries and horrors beyond count and reason. Whether this is a result of the proximity of the Great White Space and its nexus point with Earth or some other esoteric force is unknown; what is known is that this region of the Earth is a huge ‘Bermuda Triangle’ wherein adventurers can lose themselves forever. Take the following instances:

The Copeland-Ellington Expedition of 1913

Harold Hadley Copeland and his partner Ellington set out from Eastern China to head into the Western wilds. The expedition was plagued with all forms of bad luck including Ellington’s death by fever during the early stages of the adventure. Those coolies who didn’t abandon Copeland vanished, never to return, while Copeland himself was discovered wandering in Mongolia three months after his last communication.

The Great Northern Expedition of 1933

Under the leadership of Dr. Clark Ashton Scarsdale, five well-equipped half-track trucks entered the eastern margins of Tibet and disappeared from sight. While notoriously secretive about their intended destination, the only surviving member of the team – Frederick Seddon Plowright – was found months later delirious onboard a steamship near the Bay of Biscay. His record of the events of the Expedition discusses locations and terrain wildly at variance to the known geography of the region.

As stated in Jason Williams’ 2008 monograph, Mysteries of Tibet, while lost in the Himalayas as the result of a critically failed Navigation roll, there is a chance that those lost will cross over into the Dreamlands of Earth, arriving in the Cold Waste and the Plateau of Leng. The above examples prove that this effect is not wholly confined to this mountainous region and may occur in Mongolia, Sinkiang, the western Chinese mountain ranges, the northern wilds of Myanmar (Burma) and possibly even in the uncharted areas of Bhutan and Bangladesh. Certainly, these occurrences are not dependable, given that such adventurers as ‘Chinese’ Morrison and Aleister Crowley (ironically!) passed through these regions without anything untoward happening to them; other travellers such as Raymond Margary were simply not so lucky.

Any failed Navigation roll whilst in these areas will result in a party of adventurers losing their way; if this happens they must roll another Navigation attempt: if successful, they will wander into strange realms and encounter strange entities and mysterious beings. If this second roll fails, the group continues to wander aimlessly. Any subsequent Navigation roll will simply fail, or succeed, to set the party back on course to civilisation and the Real World.

Further, having fallen through one of these rifts and having returned, an Idea roll will serve to enable a traveller to return to the locale in which they found themselves, so long as they approach the area where the rift occurred in the same manner as they did previously.

Magical effects are another factor which allows individuals to breach the veils in these wilderness areas. Expenditure of Magic Points will cause rifts at a rate of 10% per Magic Point spent. This is regardless of whether the points are spent on spells or to empower magical artefacts. The difference in these cases is that the way, once travelled, cannot be repeated: the magical effect dissipates after its creation and the way is barred once more. A Cthulhu Mythos roll while reading a Mythos tome discussing these regions will provide clues that such activity is fraught with peril.

So, where do these hapless rift-openers go? This is largely up to the individual Keeper and their particular story; however, the following is a list of likely places:

Chorazin

A ruined city in Israel. Evil sorcerers are said to make a blasphemous pilgrimage to this locale in search of great power; indeed, both Abdul Alhazred and Ludwig Prinn made this journey.

Plateau of Leng:

Lelag-Leng

A Tcho-tcho stronghold at the base of the Plateau of Leng, this city is home to a vast number of traders who deal in strange silks and in rubies hewn from the side of the Plateau itself. Along with Aloazar, Lelag-Leng is sacred to the Tcho-tcho and tribute pours into the city’s coffers from tribes across the Waking World.

Pharos of Leng

This bizarre dark lighthouse sends its beams flowing across the top of the Plateau and is visible from almost everywhere on the elevated tableland. Beneath its black foundations are many pits and Nyogtha is said to manifest in these periodically.

Pre-human Monastery

This ruinous temple houses the entity known as the ‘High Priest Not To Be Named’, who may or may not be an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Many dangers lurk in the wastes surrounding the structure including twisted Leng Man priests and abominable Shoggoths.

Valley of the Spiders

This vast mountain pass is home to the awful ‘Children of Atlach-Nacha’, the hideous Leng Spiders. From the centre of the causeway it is a three-day journey downwards either to the remote village of Urg in the West, or the base of the Plateau of Leng in the East: not easy with giant spiders tracking in from every direction...

Yian-Ho

A ruined metropolis of countless eons passed: this place is said to be guarded by a huge monster that only powerful sorcerers equipped with the correct incantations can bypass; this entity is almost certainly the Xin. It is said that the denizens of Yian fled this, their original home, in the face of some primordial disaster. This is surely propaganda put about by the conquerors of Yian who re-named the city Yian-Ho. Memories of Yian are said to surface in the dreams of all human beings, such is its antiquity, and now, as Yian-Ho, it contains many mystical gates to other locations on the Earth.

Yian-Ho is the same as Yian, although where once Yian was bright and delightful, Yian-Ho is dark and bitter. Yian-Ho is said to be the centre of the Cthulhu Cult in China and all its resources are turned towards the benefit of that entity and its kin.

Plateau of Sung:

Aloazar

Built upon the Isle of Dread within the Lake of Stars, this is a holy city of the Tcho-tcho people beneath which are contained the Twin Obscenities, Zhar and Lloigornos. Reports are inconsistent, but it seems that the city may well have been destroyed; however, temporal effects of the veiling magicks may confuse this issue. Despite this, it is known that all Tcho-tcho communities send annual tributes to this location

Plateau of Tsang:

Caverns of Chaugnar Faugn

Within these caves dwells the horror which gave life to the Tcho-tcho. The caves wind, labyrinthine, into the depths of the Plateau and house not only the Great Old One, but its imprisoned Brothers, the amphibious Miri-Nigri, Tcho-tcho adepts and other things not lightly spoken of.

City of Croth

A dead city accessed by means of a 500-foot tall portal opening into a colossal tunnel that bores downwards 50 miles into the Earth’s crust. The City lies beyond a deep, subterranean lake and is guarded by a race of huge, bat-like scavengers. Within the city can be found the entombed (or are they?) remains of the Locust Beings of Croth and a gateway to the Great White Space...

City of Zak

An outpost city of great antiquity and peopled by a race of sophisticated but decadent humans. The city lies on the edge of the Plains of Darkness and trades with wandering nomads. Within its compass of government lies a distant desert township named, somewhat anachronistically, ‘Nylstrom’ – possibly established by an earlier visitor bearing this name, or a version of it.

Plains of Darkness

The Plains of Darkness are comprised of black, basaltic sands and cover a vast area between the hills of Zak and the Black Mountains, wherein lies the City of Croth. At night the Plains freeze whilst in the day they scorch under the unblinking eye of the Sun.

Shamballah

A city revered in Buddhist thought, Shamballah is said to hold the original version of the Book of Dzyan. Shamballah exists co-terminously with another locale that is the hiding place of the Emerald Lama and, as such, is as much a place of enlightenment and peace as it is a physical prison for that terrible entity.

Yian

A city located “across the seven oceans and the river which is longer than from the Earth to the Moon”, as one source has it. It is to be understood that the locale is hidden behind a veil of powerful dimensional magicks. In Yian it is always summer and the air is filled with the sound of myriad tiny silver bells. The city sits astride a great river crossed with a thousand bridges, a river that is “as long as the distance from the Earth to the Moon”.

Almost certainly, what is known of Yian is a race memory perpetrated by Dreamers recounting their tales whilst awake. Yian was a very ancient and wondrous city but has since fallen to the Kuen-Yuin and become a place of worship for the Cthulhu Cultists of China. Temporal anomalies and dream distortions allow some individuals to access the once-great metropolis but these instances are few and far between.

Yuggoth

Yuggoth is said to be a planet on the edge of our solar system and possibly even orbiting our sun in a trajectory perpendicular to that of the other planets in our region of space. At one time it was thought to be identical to our ‘planet’ Pluto; however, recent discoveries have put this notion to rest. The Mi-go are the undisputed rulers of this world and have constructed many vast metropoli across its surface.

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The Great White Space

The exact nature of this phenomenon is unknown. Some believe that it is another dimension whose environment is anathema to anything from ours; others believe that is it an enormous, permanent Gate, capable of transporting things across the length of the galaxy. One theory states that it is a field of energy that connects the ‘magnetic poles’ of the universe and that this energy can be tapped. Yet others believe that this is the source of the power used by the Great Old Ones.

Whatever it is, there is a gateway into it on our planet. It is possible that the Mi-Go roam our part of space in quest of it; some believe that the presence of Ubbo Sathla under our Southern Pole indicates the importance that Mythos beings place in this nexus. It is also theorised that such races as the Nug-Soth and many ancient wizards created spells which tapped into the ‘Space allowing transport over vast distances, specifically the “Light Wave Envelope”.

Many ancient tomes refer obliquely to the presence of the Great White Space. Some Investigators have tried in the past to seek it out, including Aleister Crowley who certainly must have inferred its presence: why else would he have taken so many long and dangerous journeys into the Chinese wilds? Some believe that British diplomat Raymond Margary was lured to his death in the 1860s by rumours of its presence. The most direct attempt to locate the ‘Space was the Great Northern Expedition of 1933 under Dr C.A. Scarsdale, an ill-fated voyage that raised more questions than it answered. Certainly, after this failed attempt, the Nazis spent a lot of time in Central Asia and the Antarctic, trying to locate this semi-fabulous power source.

The majority of what is known about this phenomenon has been culled from the notes, documents and interviews provided by Frederick Seddon Plowright after he was found delirious on a steam-ship in the Bay of Biscay, thousands of kilometres from his last recorded location. The only known survivor of 1933s Great Northern Expedition, his revelations are wild and unbelievable, however they contain a certain internal logic especially in view of some other pieces of information.

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According to Plowright, during interviews after he was discovered, he and the rest of Scarsdale’s expedition encountered a fantastic landscape after passing through a blizzard and topping the central Tibetan Plateau. He described terrifying monsters, hidden communities of strange people and monumental edifices, none of which – needless to say – any further investigations have been able to corroborate. However, tucked into the lining of his jacket when he was found, was a roll of film which, when developed, threw a troubling light upon some parts of his account.

The following are transcripts of parts of his interviews, made shortly before he was committed to a sanatorium.

Locust Beings of Croth, Lesser Servitor Race

“It was about four to five feet high, with a shrivelled maggot-like body from which depended two stringy lower limbs, hinged in three places ... On its back were gigantic wing-cases of bluish sheen. The thing appeared to be all the colours of the rainbow ... It was the nightmare face which had wrenched such a horrifying cry from Prescott’s pallid lips ... The features, low set on a neck which seemed to form a contiguous alignment with its chest, were insectivorous. Black tipped antennae projected from a high domed forehead; a series of mucous-plugged holes seemed to serve it for breathing purposes and a tangle of tubes writhed from where the ears would have been in a human visage. A horny slot in the hinged lower jaw served it as a mouth but it was the eyes which were the most unnerving and terrifying aspect of the creature. As large as soup plates and all the colours of the rainbow ... all the evil of cosmic space and the wisdom of ten million years seemed to gaze from them...”

Basil Copper, The Great White Space

It is highly unlikely that these beings built the City of Croth; it’s more likely that they invaded and occupied the area at the behest of the Sentinels of the Great White Space (q.v.). The Locust Beings have an affinity with the ‘Space and are able to travel in it to a limited degree; whether this is by means of metaphysical manipulation or a natural ability is unknown, but either way it led to their doom.

The Sentinels of the Great White Space use the Locust Beings to explore areas outside of the ‘Space and also to reproduce. They extrude an inky black substance which drains the Locust’s lifeforce and replaces it with some of the Sentinel’s. Thus disguised as a Locust Being, the Sentinel can move outside of their native environment and interact with creatures of various worlds. Since only a small part of the Sentinel’s lifeforce is bound up with the husk of the Locust Being, should it be killed, the Sentinel suffers no ill effect.

Figurine of a Grasshopper in Jade from Kansu in Western China, from the Copeland bequest in the Sanbourne Institute of Pacific Studies

More insidiously, the Sentinel sometimes places part of its lifeforce into the Locust Being with the intent of growing a new member of its species. In this instance the Locust Being continues its life as before with no recollection of having been so implanted. The nascent Sentinel within it grows and supplements the creature’s body as it feeds off the fluids and tissues within. At some point, the Locust Being is compelled to return to the Great White Space and cast itself in, without the benefit of protective spells or technologies: this ‘suicide order’ is instinctive and cannot be reasoned against. Once inside the ‘Space the Locust Being’s husk is destroyed and the Sentinel larva emerges to begin its new existence. It is noteworthy that the City of Croth contains vast quantities of Locust Beings kept suspended in an aeons-long sleep, possibly for this very purpose.

Locust Beings are voracious eaters and are known to devour their foes, even while still in combat; they are known to be cannibals as well, singling out weaker members of their own ranks for destruction. They rarely wait until their meals are dead before beginning to feast. Against superior forces they tend to incapacitate enemies with their Sonic Attack first before swarming. Locust Beings are capable of flight and of making prodigious leaps of up to 20 feet from a standing start. From evidence unearthed at Croth it seems that they used spears in combat; whether they used any other, or more advanced, technologies is currently unknown.

LOCUST BEINGS OF CROTH, Arthropod Dwellers of the Lost City

STR: 3D6 (10-11)
CON: 3D6 (10-11)
SIZ: 3D6 (10-11)
INT: 3D6 (10-11)
POW: 2D6+6 (13)
DEX: 4D6 (14)
Move: 7/9 Flying
HP: 10-11
Ave. Damage Bonus: nil

Weapon: Bite: 40%; 1d6 points of damage; Sonic Attack: Victim opposes their CON with the attacker’s POW; failure means they must flee or take 1d6 hit points per round within 20 feet of the attacker
Armour: 6 points of chitinous exoskeleton
Spells: Each Locust Being has an INTx2 chance to know 1d3 spells
Skills: Any, as the keeper desires
Habitat: At intersections of the Great White Space into this reality
SAN Loss: It costs 0/1d6 points of SAN to see a Locust Being of Croth

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Sentinels of the Great White Space, Greater Independent Race

“How shall I explain or describe the nodding horror which edged its way from the pale luminosity into our view? It was a colossal height ... The thing made a squelching, slopping noise as it progressed in a series of hopping jerks and with the noise came the stench ... The head of the thing, which appeared to change shape as it hopped along, was something like a gigantic snail or slug, while vague, lobster-like claws depended from its middle. In general form it appeared monadelphous; that is, a number of filament-like particles made up what we should call a body, uniting into one bundle from which depended the claw-members ... But most unnerving of all was the noise which emanated from them. From a lowing bellow like cattle at the bass end of the scale to the high shrill mewing of a cat at the other. Can anyone blame us if we all three ... ran for our lives?”

Basil Copper, The Great White Space

These enormous creatures act as the protectors of that phenomenon known as The Great White Space, a region of the universe sacred to the Old Ones and which allows them to traverse billions of light years of distance across reality. Due to the presence of a cosmic phenomenon called the Magnetic Ring, there is a nexus point on earth where the ‘Space intersects with our world; it is at this juncture that these creatures are most commonly encountered by humanity.

The Sentinels attack by grasping their victims using one of their myriad tendrils; in the next round a burst of blackish substance erupts from this appendage to envelop the captive: this material resembles a burst of squid ink surrounding the victim and lends weight to the theory that the light from the ‘Space is a medium through which these colossal creatures ‘swim’. As this inky material is re-absorbed into the Sentinel, the life-force, memories and knowledge of the victim – sometimes referred to as the victim’s ‘essence’ - go with it, leaving behind a withered husk which rapidly breaks down. By moving a part of their bulk into this husk, the Sentinels are able to mimic the deceased victim, animating the body for extended periods to enact plans to defend the ‘Space from incursions by humanity.

Print made of an over-exposed photographic plate from the Estate of Frederick Seddon Plowright, taken circa 1933

The Sentinels are, by and large, resistant to most forms of attack by standard weaponry: bullets and melee weapons do only minimal damage and do not Impale, even if enchanted. They are however quite prone to the effects of large-scale hydrostatic shock, so explosions cause them significant concern, doing maximum damage. Their gelid bodies repair quite quickly however, even from this type of trauma.

SENTINELS OF THE GREAT WHITE SPACE, Colossal Guardians of the Sacred Light

STR: 3D6x5 (52-53)
CON: 3D6+30 (40-41)
SIZ: 3D6x5 (52-53)
INT: 1D6+12 (15-16)
POW: 10D6 (35)
DEX: 4D6 (14)
Move: 8
HP: 46-47
Ave. Damage Bonus: nil

Weapon: Tendril: 90%; Paralysis, then Death on the next round
Armour: Gelid Form: Sentinels take only minimal damage from normal or enchanted weapons; Impales have no effect; explosions cause maximum damage; Fire has normal effect upon them; Regeneration: Sentinels regenerate 2d10 hit points each round if not attacking or performing any other action
Spells: All Spells are available to the Sentinels of The Great White Space
Skills: Any as the Keeper desires; also, any absorbed from the victims of the Sentinels
Habitat: The Great White Space and its incursions into our space / time continuum
SAN Loss: It costs 1D8/1D20 Sanity Points to see a Sentinel of The Great White Space

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Winged Guardians of Croth, Lesser Independent Race

“I now saw that a long tube of some grey-coloured material stretched from beneath Van Damm’s collapsed body ... Round the corner was peering one of the most hideous visages it has ever been my misfortune to encounter ... The creature’s face was grey; it slobbered from slit-like mouth and red-rimmed nostrils and ... gave off the nauseating slime which littered ... the caves. The eyes were large, jelly-like plates covered by some form of pulsating membrane, which pulsed and glowed so that one moment the lids were opaque and at the next the greenish-tinged core of the eye was staring through. The ears were pointed and bat-like; yellowed and crooked teeth glinted among the slime in its mouth ... The grey tube grew into an elephant-like proboscis which waved slowly about as the thing sucked or pumped fluids either out of or into Van Damm’s body ...it could not have been less than fifty feet high ... it had a scaly claw which it used to probe the tube from time to time ... I heard again the strange rustling I had heard so long ago ... The thing had great leathery wings, in a transparent casing on its shoulders and these brushed together as it moved. The tube was withdrawn with lightning rapidity; whip-like it snaked back along the floor...”

Basil Copper, The Great White Space

The Winged Guardians are enormous bat-like creatures which patrol the city of Croth as well as the wastelands which surround the city’s concealed entrance. They are extremely skilled at creeping about their environment and are difficult to detect, despite their great size. They are skilful fliers and, ‘though quiet, clumsier on the ground. Their presence is usually given away by the copious amounts of yellowish slime which they leave behind them, dribbled from their fanged maws.

The Winged Guardians are well-armed with a range of natural weaponry but they rarely use them in offense: these creatures prefer to take their prey by surprise, minimising any chance of retaliation. Most of the time these foul beasts scavenge their food rather than risk damage in a direct confrontation. They often spend much time in evaluating potential victims, seeking to work out their capabilities before attacking.

The Winged Guardians feed on the fluids contained within their victims, draining them by means of the flexible proboscis that uncurls from their top lip. This organ can stretch up to fifty feet in length and is often used to drain victims while they sleep. If food is unavailable, the creatures hibernate, lowering their metabolism drastically until they detect noises indicative of an approaching food source.

Given their proximity to the Great White Space, it is likely that these foul creatures arrived on Earth from some distant galaxy; equally though, it is possible that the peoples of Croth used them in some capacity and, now that that city has fallen, the beasts roam uncontrolled.

WINGED GUARDIANS OF CROTH, Bat-like Predators of the Plains of Darkness

STR: 5D6+12 (29-3
CON: 3D6 (10-11)
SIZ: 5D6+24 (41-42)
INT: 2D6 (7)
POW: 3D6 (10-11)
DEX: 4D6 (14)
Move: 8/12 Flying
HP: 26-27
Ave. Damage Bonus: +3D6

Weapon: Bite: 30%; 1d6+db; Claws: 60%; 1d8+db Proboscis: 70%; 1d2; 1d6 points per round by draining thereafter until detached
Armour: 8 points of furry hide
Spells: None
Skills: Sneak 60%; Hide 70%
Habitat: The Plains of Darkness and the City of Croth
SAN Loss: It costs 1d6 / 1d10 points of sanity to see a Winged Guardian of Croth

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Scarsdale’s preparations for his expedition seem to have relied heavily upon the information found in two volumes, both of which are incredibly rare: another copy of the Ethics has yet to be located and the Trone Tables was printed as a vanity edition by Scarsdale and most copies vanished along with the expedition in 1933.

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 the Great White Space. Reading between the lines of the archaic writing, 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 ‘Space 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 been determined. The rest of the text is a series of ritual procedures to be followed by those who revere and protect the ‘Space, including a series of linguistic and dietary regimens, designed to keep the adherent ritually pure during their devotions.

(Source: The Great White Space, Basil Copper)

Latin; Unknown author; date unknown; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Sign of Kish” (Elder Sign); Powder of ibn Ghazi; Voorish Sign;

Trone Tables

This work appears to be simply a set of logarithmic tables but a close inspection reveals that they are not of the standard variety. Some have said that the ‘Tables were translated into Latin from an original Gaelic source, written in the Ogham script. Patently, this could not be the case: neither that language nor that script is capable of encoding something as abstract and numerically involved as logarithmic processes. Given the levels of secrecy that Scarsdale placed around his second trip to Western China, we must assume that this is a red herring, designed to get nosy Investigators looking elsewhere.

Many believe that this work stems from an appendix, or chapter, of the Ethics of Ygor which was separated out and given to Professor Cornelius Van Damm to analyse and develop. This analysis seems to have incorporated certain findings which Scarsdale brought back from his first encounter with the Great White Space and have led some to speculate that the ‘Tables are the mathematical basis of some mechanism which may be employed in manipulating the energies of the ‘Space. If so, copies of this work must be eagerly sought after. Further speculation notices a correlation between the word “trone” and the planet “Tond” mentioned in the Revelations of Glaaki, and there are those who think that the ‘Space is an access way for many kinds of extra-planar beings who visit our world.

This mathematical transliteration was produced by Professor Cornelius Van Damm in a limited print run as part of his preparations for The Great Northern Expedition in 1933: only six copies were produced not all of which have been accounted-for. In his introduction, he claims that the Latin source from which he worked was created in the 2^nd Century AD, and was given to him by Scarsdale; again we must tread warily with this information. The edition was bound in pale sheepskin with marbled endpapers and the upper board has the words “Magnus Lux Aeternae” quoted from The Ethics of Ygor printed in gilt upon it. The calculations show an indefinable deviation that appears to be not completely random and they contain an extra column headed ‘GWS’, the purpose of which is not explained. It takes a successful Mathematics roll to even begin to understand this work.

(Source: The Great White Space, Basil Copper)

Gaelic?, written mainly in a code using the Ogham script?; author unknown; date unknown; Sanity loss: unknown; Cthulhu Mythos unkown; ??? weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Unknown

Latin; unknown translator; date unknown but possibly 2^nd Century AD; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 30 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English; Prof. Cornelius Van Damm; 1932; 1d4/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 20 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

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