Keepers Screen - CoC, Summon Guardian

Friendly Advice - If an item you spend a lot of time writing about seems way to familiar - check your previous posts.

Short post today about the item since I hate to repeat myself (please see above). This is a Keepers Screen for some edition of Call of Cthulhu. I am not sure what edition it is for though and the entries over at yog-sothoth.com do not have any images. It accomplished what a GM screen is expected to though the art work is kind of lacking. If I were a player I would demand something better to look at while gaming :)

I hate making such a short post today. I will make sure and check I have not written about an item more thoroughly in the future.  Much better write up on Different Worlds #1 than I did back in March for the record !


Spell:

Summon Guardian

Level: Fifth
Range: None
Duration: Special
Ares Effect: None
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 1 Round
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast the magic user summons a mystical guardian to defend them. The creature summons will be similar in nature to an unseen servant though they will perform no other action than defend the caster.

When not defending the caster the guardian will be out of phase with the rest of the world and will be invisible to the naked eye though those who can see extra-planar creature will see the guardian. When activated the guardian will appear as a normal sized creature of the same race as the caster. They will be wearing black plate mail and will be wielding a long sword and shield.

The guardian will attack as a fighter equal to one half the level of the caster, rounded up, plus one. They will have an armor class as appropriate for plate mail and shield. They will also have maximum hit points as if they had an 18 constitution as well.

The guardian will suffer damage as if they were a normal creature and will suffer damage from all normal attacks. If a save is needed they will save as the caster though. The guardian can not be healed through normal or magical means though. They will remain until their hit points reach zero.

The material component of this spell is a gem of no less than 10 gp in value per level of the guardian. The gem will vanish when the spell is cast and the guardian appears.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

The Fungi from Yuggoth, Acquire Greater Familiar

The Fungi from Yuggoth is a Call of Cthulhu campaign published by Chaosium in 1984. This is for the classical era setting of Call of Cthulhu in the 1920's. The working title for the product was Voices Out of Time and it was later reissued in 1998 as Day of the Beast.

Fungi is one of those world spanning epics that make Call of Cthulhu so much fun. This one takes it a step further than some but I will mention that later. The module comes in at seventy-six pages so it will be one that will take a good period of time to work through. There are eight Chapters and each builds of the others but could be considered an individual adventure in its own right.

The adventure deals with a group called the Brotherhood of the Beast and their insane desire to bring about they call the Day of the Beast. The history of  adventure begins in 1733 BC and goes forward to 1136 AD when the Brotherhood is formed. The real action in the adventure takes place in the 1920's though a more modern setting could be used just as easily as the adventure centers around a worldwide corporation as the front for the Brotherhood.

The adventure spans the globe which is why a worldwide corporation is needed as the cover. The adventure starts in New York and then takes the stalwart investigators to Boston, Transylvania, Egypt, Peru, San Francisco, Oakland and finally ending up in Giza. There are two optional portions though one should not be so optional. One of these takes the characters on a twelve trillion mile round trip.

As with other Chaosium products the product makes a point of making things easy for the GM. This starts with a plot synopsis for each of the chapters/adventures. It then has seven different appendices that deal with a number of the important players as well as adding a time-line of events for the GM. Finally as usual there are a number of player handouts that add color to the game.

I won't give away any more than I already have, which is too much. This is an early Cthulhu campaign setting so it has much of the early flavor that was present in the early Cthulhu products. It can be used as written or the different chapters of the campaign cold each be used as a stand alone adventure in the GM's own campaign. It is not as essential as some of the earlier products but still deserves a place in the Cthulhu section of any gamer's shelves.

Spell:

Acquire Greater Familiar

Level: Sixth
Range: Special
Duration: Special
Ares Effect: Special
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 24 Hours
Saving Throw: None

With the casting of this spell the magic user begins a special process which will allow them to either obtain a greater familiar or replace the one that they currently have with one. Unlike the first level Find Familiar spell this one will guarantee the caster that the familiar they can acquire is a special one.

The spell will require that the caster perform a special ritual for a period of no less than 24 hours. The ritual requires the unbroken concentration of the caster. If anything should break the concentration or disrupt the ritual then the caster will fall into a coma like state for one day per hour left in the ritual.

Once the ritual is complete the caster will be granted a vision of the familiar and intimate knowledge on where their new familiar is. They will also know if the familiar is moved or something were to happen to them. The exact location of the familiar is up to the DM. The location will be on the plane the caster is currently on and no more than seven days travel. The quest to get them should be memorable but not life threatening.

Once the caster locates the familiar the process of binding the two together will be the same as the first level spell. If the caster already has a familiar at the time the binding occurs the current familiar is released from servitude. As a result of the bond breaking though the magic user will permanently lose hit points equal to the old familiars hit points. It should also be noted that if anything were to happen to the new familiar they can not be ever be replaced short of use of a Wish or similar such magics.

The materials in the ritual will be rare and exotic herbs, gems and animal parts. If the caster does not procure them directly the cost of the ritual will be between 2000 and 5000 gp.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

Delta Green - Pagan, Mystical Healing

Delta Green from Pagan Publishing is an award winning campaign setting for the Call of Cthulhu. It takes place in the modern (1990s) era but the setting has a rich and detailed back story. The Delta Green organization was founded after the incident at Innsmouth mentioned at the end of  Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth". The group draws upon elements of most if not all the standard fare of governmental organizations (FBI,CIA, DEA, ATF, CDC etc) but is not one that operates in the light or with public knowledge. This idea in and of itself (very much like the SAVE group from Chill works to help support the campaign as it gives new or replacement characters an in. There are many like myself who want to compare this to the X-Files and and say that it must have spawned from that. The comparison is a fair one though even with the depth of Delta Green its mythology is easier to follow than the X-Files. The fact of the matter is that the first mention of Delta Green, from The Unspeakable Oath, predates the X-File for about a year. It will take some serious reading an has a bit of a learning curve but if you want a well thought out and detailed campaign setting for your CoC or any horror/modern game this would work for you.

Spell:

Mystical Healing (R)

Level: First
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Ares Effect: Creature Touched
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 3,5,7 or 9 Segments
Saving Throw: Special

This spell allows the caster to heal damage that they or another may have suffered to be healed. Damage that can not normally be cured through clerical based healing will also not be able to be healed by this spell though. The spell opens a very minor channel to the Positive Material Plane and then using themselves as a conduit to direct the energy into the recipient. The amount of damage that can be healed by use of this spell is dependent on the level of the caster as higher level casters can maintain the a larger channel for a longer period of time. The caster will heal an amount equal to their level plus a random amount. The amounts that can be healed and the casting times at various levels follows:

Level        Casting             Amount
1-5          3 segments        1d4
6-10        5 segments        1d6
11-15      7 segments        1d8
16+         9 segments        1d12

The reverse of this spell will by means of opening a channel to the Negative Material Plane cause an amount of damage equal to what would be healed at the same level and will have the same casting time. The reverse entitles the intended victim to a saving throw. The save if successful will mean that the victim only suffers half damage. If the caster misses the To Hit roll or if the intended victim makes their save then the caster will take the remainder (or whole amount) of the damage due to the negative energy remaining in their bodies.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

Call of Cthulhu - Chaosium

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. This game more than any other I have played led to some great role playing. I have not played any of the White Wolf storyteller games so I can not gauge it against them but I hear they lend themselves to it as well. If you are playing CoC you have to get into the role playing because you won't have your character long enough to become attached to them. If they survive more than five or six session you aren't doing it right. They are supposed to die or go insane. I think it is time for Professor McManus to go lose some more sanity in Innsmouth.