Shooting Cold...

...or, Even the Guns Go Crazy at the Mountains of Madness!

We all know that the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos are largely immune to our species' puny weaponry; yet still, we like to weigh ourselves down with lumps of metal, chemical compounds and the projectiles that issue from their interaction. Previous posts have discussed ways to make players think twice before relying too heavily on their sidearms but, if the lesson still isn’t getting through, here are some other cunning strategies to help them reconsider their options.

Guns, like most other pieces of technology, don’t like to be exposed to extremes of temperature. In the cold especially, guns tend to malfunction more frequently. Generally speaking, the more simple the weapon the better it is able to adapt; however, even then, there are pitfalls to be discovered in relying on shooting something in order to deal with it.

Most adventures occur in places where the temperatures maintain a moderate range between upper and lower extremes. For the most part this is fine. However, there is always that adventure where the party goes to Iceland, or into the Arctic Circle, or Antarctica, and suddenly the average temperatures start to be labelled “extreme”. The tolerances of most types of technology – including guns – begin to be tested at these limits.

Certainly there are pieces of equipment that are constructed to function in these extremes; these rules don’t apply to those types of items. We’re talking only about the bog-standard weaponry that the party carries around with it on a daily basis. You never know when Ithaqua might pay a call...

Firstly, getting around in the extreme cold usually requires a few extra layers of clothing. In the days of Scott and Amundsen – and even Mallory of Everest fame – “a few extra layers” was often, literally, the normal precaution taken by these dauntless adventurers. All that extra fabric gets in the way of a character’s ability to move with any kind of grace or style. Gloves make you clumsy; goggles make things hard to see; thick boots mean less secure footing. Even in the modern era with extra-lightweight, extra wind-proof fabrics, the sheer novelty of the rig makes re-learning all your combat finesse a painful but necessary task. In these instances, the Keeper is free to impart a -20% penalty on all Combat and Movement rolls required when “in costume”, as it were; once the player has made three successful rolls under these conditions, or a single Critical Success, that particular skill is no longer affected by the penalty.

Note however, that the penalty returns if the roll has to be made under conditions of duress – time pressure, surprise, etc. Sometimes there’s just no getting around the fact that you’re wrapped up like the Michelin man, with sausage fingers and inconvenient eyewear.

Some canny players might do things to avoid these strictures, such as spending time in alpine areas acclimatising before undertaking this particular quest, or modifying their weapons (for example, cutting off the trigger guards) so that shooting in gloves is easier; this is fine – remember that, when push comes to shove, that penalty will still apply despite all their training. And those guys without the trigger guards will have to just live with accidentally shooting someone nearby when they fall over (or when they re-holster their weapon with a little too much gusto).

Of course, character backgrounds and the party’s normal turf may mitigate these limitations entirely, as the Keeper sees fit.

As far as guns are concerned, in these modern times the best rated weapons for extreme winter work are built to withstand temperatures as low as -40°C; in Gaslight Cthulhu or Classic Era Call of Cthulhu, these types of guns are a distant fantasy. Nevertheless, even in those settings, a party may find itself experiencing the kind of cold that really counts. Keep in mind that in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth – the mean temperature pushes -60°C; and the wind-chill factor can push this even lower: the lowest temperature recorded on land there was -89.2°C.

Guns don’t take kindly to being warmed up suddenly, especially if they go from a really cold start. Players who take the time to warm their weaponry – holding it (unloaded!) near a fire for example, or keeping it in a special case – will go some way towards avoiding damage. Automatic or rapid fire weapons shouldn’t be completely spent from a cold start: a few single shots should be attempted before emptying the clip.

If precautions aren’t taken, on a Malfunction score, the barrel of the gun fractures and the gun becomes useless – no jamming; it’s dead. If a Malfunction is rolled and precautions to offset the cold were in place, have the player roll a D6: on a 1 or a 2, the barrel shatters anyway.

Using autofire, or otherwise expending the entire clip, from a cold start imposes a -10% penalty on that weapon from that point onwards, as the barrel begins to warp. This penalty is cumulative for that firearm.

Another issue is more subtle, and occurs when a gun has been used in the extreme cold and is then brought into a warm environment. Condensation forms on the metal from the surrounding heated air and, if the gun is then taken back out into the cold, this moisture will freeze into ice. In these instances, if a Malfunction score is rolled, have the player roll the D6: on a 3 or 4, the frozen gun has become inert and won’t fire again until the ice inside it has been melted. An easy way to obviate this situation is to leave your guns at the door before subjecting them to a temperature slide.

An unpleasant codicil to this is the fact that at extreme low temperatures, the oil used in the gun also starts to freeze. Today’s best cold-weather gun lubricants are rated to a temperature of -50°C but these are rare, usually only distributed to military or other specialist organisations. For players operating without this kind of refinement, increase the Malfunction score of their weapon of choice according to the following table:

Temperature Celsius	Temperature Fahrenheit	+ to Malfunction score
0°C to -10°C	32°F to 14°F	+5%
-11°C to -20°C	12.2°F to -4°F	+8%
-21°C to -30°C	-5.8°F to -22°F	+10%
-31°C to -40°C	-23.8°F to -40°F	+13%
-41°C to -50°C	-41.8°F to -58°F	+15%

Finally, as if all the above wasn’t bad enough, as air gets super-chilled, it becomes more dense. This means that accuracy and trajectory become severely impaired. Use the following table for when things get really cold:

Temperature (°C)	Temperature (°F)	Skill Modifier	Range Modifier
0°C to -10°C	32°F to 14°F	-5%	-10%
-11°C to -20°C	12.2°F to -4°F	-5%	-15%
-21°C to -30°C	-5.8°F to -22°F	-10%	-25%
-31°C to -40°C	-23.8°F to -40°F	-15%	-35%
-41°C to -50°C	-41.8°F to -58°F	-20%	-50%

Some Keepers might think that these sorts of mechanics might lend an air of authenticity but require too much number-juggling; that’s fine – just let your players do the maths. There’s no reason not to let the players keep track of the modifiers and penalties themselves – most gamers actually enjoy crunching the numbers, since it lets them feel as though they’re more involved in the process.

"A Fearsome Story of Central Australia..."

In late 1889, The Bulletin published the reconstructed diary of an engineer working on the overland Telegraph from Adelaide to Port Darwin (now just Darwin). The diary contained information of an unprecedented nature, not only the approximate location of a gemstone quarry-site, but the existence of a sub-human subterranean species of hominids with references in the local tribal lore. The diary was reconstructed after being found on the mummified corpse of the engineer: it was badly damaged by exposure to the elements and much of it was lost. The provider of the information to The Bulletin (also the transliterator) claimed in his covering letter that he was himself about to embark upon an expedition to the seam of gemstones in the Northern Territory; however, it is not known whether his efforts amounted to anything.

The engineer in question has been identified as one Steven F. Crane. His employment by the Overland Telegraph Company is a matter of public record and his record contains no blemish or scandal. It is said by those who knew him that he was engaging, intelligent, and a loyal company man. The contents of the diary demonstrate that perhaps those who knew him were not completely able to read his character, as a strong ambition and desire for material wealth is evidenced within those pages. The events of the diary take place during a six-month period of leave from the company which he sought permission to take and, such was the regard in which he was held by his superiors, was not refused.

Crane organised horses and camping equipment and headed north from Adelaide in the company of another man to whom he refers only as “Jackson”. A “W. Jackson” is listed on the company books at the time with a notation that he was “Absent – Whereabouts Unknown” from a date almost a year previous to Crane’s departure from Adelaide in March 1888. It is assumed that Crane’s companion and this man are one and the same.

According to the diary, Crane discovered Jackson while out with a line repair crew: he had made his way to the line after being nursed back to health by a group of Aboriginals, the only survivor of a three-man team sent by the Company to survey new territory in the north of the state of South Australia. In aiding Jackson’s rehabilitation, Crane discovered that Jackson was privy to the whereabouts of a large seam of rubies somewhere in the McDonnell Ranges. Taking the linesman in hand, he decided to return to the seam and stake a claim upon it, making their fortunes in the process. He duly submitted his request to take six-month’s leave of absence.

Arriving at the location – somewhere eight day’s march northwest of Charlotte Waters on the Finke River – the pair found a narrow defile in the Ranges which they named ‘Ruby Gorge’. A day’s work there rewarded them with twenty rubies of fine quality, one described by Crane as “living fire”. As well, they located a series of low caves, several of which seemed, from the marks of old fires, to have been used as campsites. The duo explored one of these and discovered a strange monkey-like being, which startled them and disappeared with a splash into an underground stream. Jackson told Crane that he thought it to be a “jinkarra”, a species of spirit creature which the local tribespeople had informed him about.

Further probing into the cavernous depths revealed that a whole society of these creatures dwelt there, their territory kept secret by the presence of a subterranean river system. Crane and Jackson captured several of the inhabitants and inspected them closely:

“Never did I see such a repulsive wretch as our prisoner. Apparently he was a young man about two or three and twenty, only five feet high at the outside, lean, with thin legs and long arms. He was trembling all over, and the perspiration dripped from him. He had scarcely any forehead, and a shaggy mass of hair crowned his head, and grew a long way down his spine. His eyes were small, red and bloodshot...never did I smell anything so offensive as the rank smell emanating from this creature. Suddenly Jackson exclaimed: ‘Look! Look! He’s got a tail!’ I looked and nearly relaxed my grip of the brute in surprise. There was no doubt about it, this strange being had about three inches of a monkey-like tail.”

Further examination proved that the tail was no anomaly, but consistent throughout the gathering of creatures. Unfortunately, their investigations proved to be Jackson’s undoing: he apparently slid down a natural chimney in the rock – part of the subterranean water system – and was lost. According to Crane’s narrative, he became trapped in the caverns by a sudden flooding of the underground stream and spent sixty hours stuck in the pitch darkness, not knowing if he was going to be attacked by the strange jinkarras or not.

Emerging days later from his ordeal, Crane discovered that their horses had returned towards the line, leaving the camp abandoned. Packing himself a light pack, he set out towards the telegraph line himself, hoping to make it in a day or so. Sadly it was not to be: his body was discovered – mummified by the desert conditions – almost a year later by a line repair crew which stumbled across him.

*****

Several questions arise out of this tale. The transcriber of the diary contents mentions that no rubies were found on Crane’s corpse: it seems odd that Crane would not have tried to take at least one stone with him on his desperate strike back towards civilisation; his descriptions of these stones certainly indicate that he would have tried to recoup something from his disastrous expedition. Another mystery is the fate of Jackson: Crane seems to quickly assume that the linesman died in the dark cave without doing too much to ascertain otherwise. Certainly, from some of the diary’s comments regarding Jackson, Crane might well have jumped to a conclusion which suited him financially. It might be possible that Jackson will stagger once more out of the desert fastnesses...

Publication of the diary’s contents in The Bulletin doesn’t seem to have caused the sort of stampede that talk of Lasseter’s Reef has periodically sparked; reports of fantastic ruby strikes in the McDonnell Ranges have not made the press to date. There are several possibilities as to why this is the case. Firstly, the whole incident might be a hoax and gossip surrounding the report might well have made this fact abundantly clear; certainly The Bulletin was never known for its unbiased or un-larrikin-like reportage. Secondly, it may well be that the information in the article was deliberately falsified to throw other prospectors off the scent. Finally, apropos of nothing, the directors of the Overland Telegraph Company posted a notice in 1890, in several major Australian newspapers, underscoring the fact that geological discoveries made by persons in its employ all became property of the Company. Could the ruby strike have been hushed up by the Company’s board of directors?

Finally, of the jinkarras, no further report has been heard. Crane’s document credits this race with knowledge of fire-making and the manner of Jackson’s so-called death implies that tool and trap-making are also within their purview. Local Aboriginal legends among the Wangkangurru and Arabana peoples indicate that the jinkarras have sinister motivations in regard to the tribes’ children and people wandering solo after dark. Until further attempts to return and locate the “Haunt of the Jinkarras”, no more information will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, there is this interesting image taken from the archives of the Adelaide Public Library...

(Source: Ernest Favenc, “A Haunt of the Jinkarras”, 1890)

Four Books...

Codex Dagonensis

“Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man

And downward fish; yet had his temple high

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds...”

-John Milton, Paradise Lost: Book I

This work is one of four volumes which appeared in northern Germany around the year 400 AD. The four books are the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium, the Codex Spitalski (also known as The Leprous Book) and the Cthaat Aquadingen. Each of these titles shows distinct congruencies in the nature and layout of the material that they present and it is thought that all of them were prepared and written by the same author, or by a group of authors working from a single source. Each, however, has had its own unique ride through history.

As with many books of this nature, the titles are arbitrary and are usually derived from their content or the nature of their discovery: the Codex Dagonensis is known as such due its extended discourse upon Deep Ones and their religious practices, especially relating to the entity Dagon. It may be that each of the four books represents an attempt to produce a single volume of lore prepared at four different locations and occasions; given the strangeness of the name Cthaat Aquadingen, it’s possible that this title was meant to cover all of this material. Subsequent events – including editing, additions, and re-workings of the material - have meant that the reintegration of all this matter under that heading is no longer possible.

The Codex Dagonensis concerns itself mainly with the nature, society and worship of the Deep Ones. Obed Marsh of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, possessed a copy of this work and used it to help create the form of worship of his Esoteric Order of Dagon: copies of the book were made and the material amended to adhere more closely to the rituals of that Order, which themselves derived mainly from the Ponape Scriptures and other related sources. After the forced disbanding of the sect in Innsmouth in 1928, Marsh’s original copy of the Codex and several of the translated versions were presented to the Library at Miskatonic University, where members of the Order still consult them from time to time.

Apart from the Deep One information, the Codex Dagonensis also contains the Nyhargo Dirge (for destroying zombies and other corporeal undead creatures); several magical protections to thwart summonings; information about the Elder Sign; a series of rituals concerned with the Great Old One, Tsathoggua; as well as the Third and Eighth Sathlattae: the Third Sathlatta protects against Bugg Shash - the Devourer - when chanted at midnight; however, such protection only lasts until such time as the subject’s death. It is not known what the Eighth Sathlatta does.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)

Latin; Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D8/1d12 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Consume Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Gate; Elder Sign; Grasp of Cthulhu; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash)

The Teachings of the Esoteric Order of Dagon

This is a work which seeks to ease the transition of those affected with the so-called ‘Innsmouth Look’. It is a clear manual outlining the nature of the Deep Ones, their connexions to humanity and to the denizens of the deep. It outlines the whereabouts of Deep One colonies and helps in the identification of others who are undergoing the change. As well, it contains many prayers to Cthulhu, Father Dagon, and Mother Hydra and discusses with some perspicacity the nature of these entities.

An early edition of this work dating from Elizabethan times is kept in the British Library; another version published in the early 1800s resides in the Miskatonic University Library collection. Yet another version in Spanish has been identified in the Library of the University of Toledo.

(Source: Bruce Ballon, et.al., Unseen Masters)

Elizabethan English; Author unknown; 16^th Century; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Deep One; plus a 40% chance of one of the following: Alter Weather; Attract Fish; Bless/Blight Crops

English; Author unknown; early 19^th Century; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Deep One

Spanish; Author unknown; 1902; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 week to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Contact Deep One

Invocations to Dagon

A passing reference in a news journal dated 1851 is the earliest sighting of this work, although the likelihood is that it is much older. The Invocations were never published; they were written by Asaph Waite and circulated amongst the adherents of the Esoteric Order of Dagon in the town of Innsmouth. After the destruction of that town in 1928 (during which Asaph Waite was killed), the manuscript disappeared and its current whereabouts are unknown.

That being said, the Restricted Section of the Miskatonic University Library has several pages from the Invocations. From these meagre gleanings it is clear that the work is a collection of prayers and ritual devotions seeking the intercession of Father Dagon in the worship of Great Cthulhu.

English; Asaph Waite; prior to 1851; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 16 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Unknown

*****

Codex Maleficium

As with the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Spitalski, and the Cthaat Aquadingen, the Codex Maleficium first appeared in northern Germany around the year 400 AD and was possibly meant to be identical with them. Scholarship has posited the notion that the book was originally written in German, or Gothic, or derived from sources in those languages: it could be that all four of these works are in fact the same book, compiled and written in four different locations and intended to be called the Cthaat Aquadingen, given that text’s mangled German (or Gothic)/Latin title. However, later amendments and additions have rendered the book unable to be reintegrated as a single volume and it now stands alone as a discrete text.

The Codex Maleficium was captured and named early after its discovery by the Inquisition and removed to the holdings of the Holy Roman Empire; it now resides within the Vatican and access to it is severely restricted. Transcriptions of the work were prepared, heavily edited and annotated, coded in the Inquisitorial Alphabet, to be used as a reference work for Vatican agents. These copies mostly refrain from outlining the ritual procedures of the text, preferring to gloss over material deemed too blasphemous for the tastes of holy warriors. Excerpts from other captured books were also included in this printing as a means of comparing, codifying and contrasting the practices of disparate heretical groups.

Like the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium contains information on the Elder Sign, incantations designed to thwart magical summoning, the Nyhargo Dirge for dealing with the corporeal undead and several Tsathogguan rituals. Unlike any of the other related books, this is the only source for the First Sathlatta; what this incantation may do is unknown, a situation which will likely not change until the Vatican removes their restrictions of access.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)

Latin; Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D8/1d12 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Blight/Bless Crop; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Find Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Powder of ibn-Ghazi; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye

Latin, in the Inquisitorial Alphabet; Vatican translator(s) unknown; the Vatican, circa. 1250 AD; 1D2/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 4 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None; although 20% of copies will have 1D3 of the following: Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Bind Enemy; Cast Out Devil; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Find Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Powder of ibn-Ghazi; Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye

*****

Codex Spitalski (aka “The Leprous Book”)

Like the Codices Dagonensis and Maleficium, the Codex Spitalski is one of several texts each of which may have been an abortive attempt to compile and publish the Cthaat Aquadingen. It is theorised that the Codex Spitalski is the earliest of these attempts.

The early movements of this manuscript are unknown; however the work was published in an extremely abridged form, with additional material elaborating the evil-doings of witches, at the height of the witch hunting frenzy in Northern Europe. This edition was produced by a Copenhagen publishing house and was entitled De Spedalske Bog (“The Leprous Book”) - a warning as to the toxic virulence of its subject matter, which only served to increase interest and therefore, its distribution. The original manuscript became known thereafter as the Codex Spitalski: the word ‘spitalski’ is a mistransliteration from the Danish ‘spedalske’ which means ‘leprous’; poor scholarship assumed that the word was a family name, possibly of a previous owner, and the title stuck. The manuscript languished in the holdings of the publishing house until it passed into the hands of successive later buyers; it now resides in the Restricted Section of the Library of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

Like the other volumes with which it is associated, the Codex Spitalski contains a series of Tsathogguan rituals, information regarding the Elder Sign, the Nyhargo Dirge which deals with the corporeal undead and some chants to prevent the effects of summoning spells. Unlike the other works, it is the only version to contain the Second Sathlatta, the effects of which are unknown.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)

Latin; Author(s) unknown; circa. 400 AD; 1D6/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Augur; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Blight/Bless Crop; Cast Out Devil; Clutch of Nyogtha; Consume Likeness; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Nyogtha; Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Find Gate; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Warding; Warding the Eye

De Spedalske Bog

Danish; “Junior Philopatreias” (Sören Rosenlund) translator; Copenhagen, 1773; 1/1D3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Augur; Blight/Bless Crop; Elder Sign; Evil Eye; Raise Night Fog; Warding; Warding the Eye

*****

Cthaat Aquadingen

“Ye Science as practiced by a Majority of ye Prime Ones was & is & always will be that of ye Path of Light, infinitely recognized throughout Time, Space & all ye Angles as beneficent to ye Great All’s Continuation. Certain of ye Gods, however, of a rebellious Nature, chose to disregard ye Dictums of ye Majority, & in ye constant Gloom of ye Dark Path renounced their immortal Freedom in Infinity & were banished to suitable Places in Space & Time. But even in Banishment ye Dark Gods railed against ye Prime Ones, so that those Followers of ye Light Path must needs shut them Outside of all Knowledge, imposing upon their Minds certain Strictures & ye fear of ye Light Path’s Ways, & impressing into their Bodies a Stigma defying Generation; that ye Sins of ye Fathers might be carried down through Eternity & visited upon ye Children & ye Children’s Children forever; or until a Time should come as was once, when all Barriers crumble, & ye Stars & Dwellers therein, & ye Spaces between ye Stars & Dwellers therein, & all Time & Angles & Dwellers therein be falsely guided into ye ultimate Night of ye Dark Path – until ye Great All close in & become One, & Azathoth come in His golden Glory, & Infinity begin again...”

-from ‘Contacting Cthulhu in Dreams’, Cthaat Aquadingen

(Brian Lumley, The Burrowers Beneath III: Cursed the Ground)

Although inextricably linked with the three other texts mentioned above, the Cthaat Aquadingen is a far more potent beast than any of them. Scholars have theorised that the original sources for this work were composed in German, or the Gothic tongue, or by a speaker of one of those languages with a less-than-perfect facility in Latin; whichever is the true state of affairs, the Cthaat Aquadingen contains much the same information as those other texts and is the most complete of any of them in this regard.

The origin of the title is unknown: ‘aquadingen’ is a corrupt admixture of German, or the Gothic tongue, with Latin, translating roughly as “things of the water”; the word ‘cthaat’ remains undeciphered, although some scholars have tentatively suggested that it may be a word in the language of R’lyeh.

While the original manuscript of the book has been lost forever, the first printing of the work took place around the 11th or 12th Centuries AD, and, of these, it is believed that only five copies remain. One of these was rumoured to have been bound in human skin and was in the possession of Titus Crow; if this is the case then it was probably destroyed along with his house and the rest of his library. A partial transcription and a translation reside in Oakdene Sanatorium, while another copy is held at the Great Library of the Dreamlands. The British Museum has consistently denied having a copy, despite persistently re-surfacing rumours.

The Cthaat Aquadingen, as does the Codex Dagonensis, concerns itself mainly with the Deep Ones and other Mythos phenomena and spells connected to the seas and oceans. In addition, it dwells at length upon those supernatural entities known as ‘the Drowners’ - Yibb-Tstll and Bugg-Shash - including the Third Sathlatta which offers protection from the latter. The text also covers Nyarlathotep in its avatar as the ‘Small Crawler’, the Nyhargo Dirge, certain rituals to do with the Great Old One Tsathoggua, invocations to foil summoning spells, and the Elder Sign.

Of the Sathlattae, created by the Ptetholites in eons passed, the Cthaat Aquadingen contains almost all of them including - along with the Third - the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Sathlattae. The effects of these incantations are mostly unknown although it is reported that the Ninth “no longer works” for some reason; perhaps the majority of the others are also similarly temporally or dimensionally restricted in some fashion. The Sixth Sathlatta has a variety of uses: if chanted before sleeping it allows the chanter to contact Yibb-Tstll in dreams; if chanted by a circle of thirteen ‘adepts’ at the beginning of any calendar year it will summon that entity to our reality; if inscribed upon a wafer and eaten by an intended victim, it will summon a phenomenon known as ‘The Black’ to destroy the target. This process also requires the Hoy-Dhin Chant, which is only found in the Necronomicon, in order to be successful.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Cyprus Shell)

Latin; Unknown author(s); c.11th-12th Centuries AD; 1d8/2d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +13 percentiles; 46 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye

*****

“Ghe’phnglui, mglw’ngh ghee-yh, Yibb-Tstll, Fhtagn mglw y’tlette ngh’wgah, Yibb-Tstll, Ghe’phnglui mglw’ngh ahkobhg’sh, Yibb-Tstll; THABAITE! – YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL!”

-The Sixth Sathlatta

(Brian Lumley, “The Horror at Oakdene”)

A copy of the Cthaat Aquadingen crossed the Channel from the Low Countries during the medieval period – possibly in the hands of refugees fleeing the Black Death - and found its way into England. There, it was translated into the English idiom of the times and stored within the holdings of Durham Cathedral.

The Black Death took a higher toll amongst ecclesiastics than any other sector of the community in England and the Durham Cathedral monasteries were wiped out almost to a man. It seems that the Middle English version of the Cthaat Aquadingen disappeared during this time and its whereabouts remain unknown.

Middle English; Unknown translator; c.14th Century AD; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Alter Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye

Although the location of the Middle English Cthaat is a mystery, partial copies in manuscript form have turned up throughout England over the years. These usually have only the Sixth Sathlatta as the entirety of their spell complement although some have shown a bit more variety.

The best known of these copies is housed in Oakdene Sanatorium and several unfortunate episodes are on record surrounding it.

English; Unknown translator; various dates; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 29 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Deity: Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); there is a 10% chance that 1D6 of the following spells will also be present: Alter Weather; Augur; Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Breath of the Deep; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Consume Likeness; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Elder Sign; Find Gate; Grasp of Cthulhu; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Nyhargo Dirge; Raise Night Fog; Summon/Bind Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding; Warding the Eye

*****

“...And then shall the gate be opened, as the Sun is blotted out. Thus the Small Crawler will awaken those who dwell beyond and bring them. The sea shall swallow them and spit them up and the leopard shall eat of the flesh of Rudraprayag in the Spring.”

A version of the Cthaat Aquadingen was translated into Hindi around the time of the Indian Mutiny. This version was enhanced with a plethora of mystical predictions and some new spells, interspersing the other material. This additional material is distributed randomly amongst the other text, rendering any attempt at chronological arrangement (without hindsight) impossible. Many of the predictions involve Nyarlathotep in its various forms but this, as well, is of no use in trying to organise the material. In most other particulars, the book is the same as the English version of the Cthaat Aquadingen.

(Larry DiTillio & Lynn Willis, “Masks of Nyarlathotep: Kenya”)

Hindi, in the Devanagari Script; Unknown translator; c.14th Century AD; 1d4/2d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 29 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Affect Weather; Barrier of Naach-Tith; Bind Enemy; Call/Dismiss Dagon; Call/Dismiss Mother Hydra; Cast Out Devil; Contact Deep One; Contact Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua; Contact Deity: Cthulhu; Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep (as The Small Crawler); Contact Deity: Tsathoggua; Create Bad-Corpse Dust; Create Gate; Curse of Darkness; Detect Enchantment; Dust of Suleiman; Find Gate; Hands of Kali; Identify Spirit; Imprison Mind; Powder of ibn-Ghazi; Elder Sign; Nyhargo Dirge; Strike Blind The Sixth Sathlatta (Contact Yibb-Tstll; Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll; Call The Black); The Third Sathlatta (Banish Bugg-Shash); Unmask Demon; View Gate; Voorish Sign; Warding

*****

Notes on the Cthaat Aquadingen

“Many & multiform are ye dim horrors of Earth, infesting her ways from ye very prime. They sleep beneath ye unturned stone; they rise with ye tree from its root; they move beneath ye sea, & in subterranean places they dwell in ye inmost adyta. Some there are long known to man, & others as yet unknown, abiding ye terrible latter days of their revealing. Those which are ye most dreadful & ye loathliest of all are haply still to be declared.”

-Joachim Feery, 1901

Joachim Feery (died 1934) was the son of the German Baron, Ernst Kant, and, like his father, a dedicated researcher of the supernatural. Feery had a more theoretical approach to his studies however, unlike his father who died in a Westphalian asylum, claiming that a demonic entity named Yibb-Tstll had taken control of his mind.

Feery is mainly known for the series of limited edition books which he printed, each an extended commentary on a particularly notorious book of forbidden lore, with annotations and quotations. These works include The Book of Dzyan, the Cthaat Aquadingen, De Vermis Mysteriis and, most infamously, the Necronomicon. These publications have expanded the range of these hard-to-access tomes and are often utilised by hard metaphysicians where the original texts are unavailable.

A word of caution, however: while generally well-received, Feery’s books were examined by other authorities on these works and his quotations and supplementary material were found to be somewhat at odds with the original matter, if not entirely unsupported by the text. His response was that his researches had been supplemented by material which had come to him in dreams. As a result, the reception of his publishing efforts has been universally cool.

(Source: Brian Lumley, “An Item of Supporting Evidence”)

German; Joachim Feery; 1901; 1D2/1D4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 12 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

Nyhargo Dirge

The Nyhargo Dirge is a potent ritual against undead zombies, restless skeletons and other corporeal entities forced into activity after their demise. It affects Mummies, Skeletons, Vampires, and Zombies; it has no effect upon Ghosts, Golems, Scarecrows, Werewolves, Wraiths, or the minions of Glaaki. It is equally ineffective against humans under the effects of the spells Compel Flesh, the Voodoo spell Create Zombi, Enthrall Victim, the Mi-Gos’ Hypnosis, the image created by a Remortification spell, or the target of a Soul Trap. It will destroy a corpse driven by the spell Seek Heart, and it will reverse the effects of the spells Transfer Body Part and Transfer Organ (causing the affected organs and members to cease functioning and mortify). Additionally, it will neutralise and reverse the Voodoo spell Sending of the Dead.

The Dirge requires the chanting of a very long and complex series of verses. Given this, translations or transliterations are sometimes incomplete or incorrect. If the copy of this spell that the players are about to use does not derive from either, the Codex Dagonensis, the Codex Maleficium, the Codex Spitalski or the Cthaat Aquadingen, there is a 20% chance that the verses are wrong and that the spell will not work.

The spell requires a moonless night upon which to be cast. The caster removes himself to a secluded outdoors locale and takes with them a staff, or stone (or some other similar object) and begins to chant the Dirge over this item while painting upon it the spell’s accompanying symbols in their own fresh blood (at least 1 HP’s worth). Whilst doing so, they sacrifice 2 POW.

The spell takes at least 2 hours to chant. In order to correctly chant the ritual words, the caster must roll under their INT score on 1d20. Chanting the ritual requires all of the words to be uttered in the proper order except for the last one: when the spellcaster wishes for the spell to take effect, they strike the ground with their chosen object and say this final word; the spell then comes into play:

The area of effect of the Dirge is spherical, 100 metres across, and centred at the point where the staff or stone (or other item) strikes the ground. This means that subterranean or flying undead creatures within the area are affected also. Eligible creatures within the zone are shredded into minute fragments as if caught in a bomb blast – utterly destroyed.

Caveats: only the caster of the Dirge can set it off – no-one else; if the object upon which the spell has been cast is destroyed or thrown into running water, the spell is neutralised; if the caster fails to make their INT roll, they still lose their POW and the HP’s worth of blood, and the spell doesn’t work; seeing the effects of the Nyhargo Dirge forces those so doing to lose 1D8 points of Sanity.

*****

The Sathlattae of the Ptetholites

The Ptetholites were a proto-human race which existed before the Hyperborean Age (between 900,000 and 1,000,000 years ago), the coming of which spelt their doom. Little is known of them, other than that the Hyperboreans were keen to eliminate them and that they went to great pains to do so. In the end, the Hyperborean wizard Edril Ghambiz used the Ptetholite’s own magic against them – specifically, the Sixth Sathlatta – summoning the Black to terrorise Yibb Tstll’s own worshippers.

Along with worship of this particular menace, the Ptetholites were known to offer sacrifice to Arwassa and Ithaqua, although, as in the case of Yibb Tstll, whether this was true worship or simple propitiation and manipulation is unknown. It’s likely that the Ptetholites were roughly organised into clan alliances and fought constantly among themselves. Remarkably, for such a primitive race, they developed their own form of writing, although few traces of this remain:

Early copies of the Cthaat Aquadingen contain the Sixth Sathlatta written in Ptetholite glyphs, with a Latin translation; The Kishite Recension of the Book of Eibon contains some fragments purporting to be from “the Nyahites of Ptathlia”, which may be a reference to these people. The most comprehensive collection of Ptetholite writing however, is to be found on the Broken Columns of Geph.

In the Seventies, an object known as the Phitmar Stone was unearthed. The inscriptions on this tablet are in several different forms of Ancient Egyptian writing, in a dialect dating from the Old Kingdom. Within these texts are transcriptions taken from the Broken Columns: this has some interesting implications when taken in the light of the existence of an ancient document dating from the Roman Republic: several sub-Saharan tribes known to the Romans worshipped Yibb-Tstll under the guise of “Chuma”; their worship and rituals were outlined in a – now lost – series of scrolls, written in the Egyptian Hieratic script, and known as the Chuma Scrolls.

The Chuma Scrolls

This sheaf of five scrolls contains information about the cult of Chuma amongst the sub-Saharan tribes. They are written using the Hieratic script, the ‘shorthand’ version of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs; what language they have been written in is unknown and may well be some form of sub-Saharan dialect. They contain information about contacting and summoning the god (Yibb-Tstll in his avatar as Chuma), his blood (“the Black”), and also minions, the Nightgaunts. Copies of the Chuma Scrolls were said to have been housed within the Serapeum of Alexandria and in the libraries of Carthage; if so, they have almost certainly been lost forever.

In Hieratic, in an unknown language; translated by unknown scribes from a sub-Saharan original, c.1800BC; 1D6/2D6 Sanity Loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 8 weeks to study and comprehend.

Spells: “Awaken Chuma”, “Call the Black” (The Sixth Sathlatta); Summon/Bind Nightgaunt; any others the Keeper desires.

*****

The Sathlattae of the Ptetholites are a series of complex, multifarious rituals, each of which has several applications. Many of the Sathlattae do not seem to work – according to those who have the opportunity to attempt them – which raises some interesting speculations.

Of the Ninth Sathlatta, it is said that this ritual “no longer works”. This may mean that this particular spell, and likely some of the others, are constructed to function only in particular time periods, “when the stars are right” for instance. It may also be that the spells are dimensionally predicated: some of the Sathlattae may only work in the appropriate dimension, the Dreamlands for example, or on some other planet. Further research is obviously required.

The following list shows the various Sathlattae, the volumes in which they are found and their current status.

First Sathlatta – Codex Maleficium

Capabilities unknown

Second Sathlatta – Codex Spitalski

Capabilities unknown

Third Sathlatta – Codex Dagonensis; Codex Maleficium; Codex Spitalski; Cthaat Aquadingen

Banish Bugg-Shash

Fourth Sathlatta – Cthaat Aquadingen

Capabilities unknown

Fifth Sathlatta - Cthaat Aquadingen

Capabilities unknown

Sixth Sathlatta - Cthaat Aquadingen; The Chuma Scrolls

Contact Yibb-Tstll

Summon/Bind Yibb-Tstll

Summon “The Black” (requires the Hoy-Dhin Chant from the Necronomicon)

Seventh Sathlatta - Cthaat Aquadingen

Capabilities unknown

Eighth Sathlatta - Cthaat Aquadingen

Capabilities unknown

Ninth Sathlatta - Cthaat Aquadingen

No longer works