Question on Cthulhu

[Calinero]

I've been thinking of ways to adapt certain aspects of an episode of Supernatural into a Call of Cthulhu campaign. The episode is "Faith," for anyone who watches the show.

The basic idea of my campaign is that a friend of the investigators is terminally ill, and went to a faith healer as a last ditch effort to save himself. Lo and behold, he is saved! But something is wrong....and he calls upon his investigator friends to investigate. They look into the healer, and try to find out what is amiss.

Essentially, what I want is this: the healer himself thinks he is doing God's work, earnestly. However, his wife is another story. Several years ago, the healer was about to die of cancer or something similar, and in her desperation she turned to magic to attempt to save him. She summoned some sort of creature (the best I can find so far is a Colour Out Of Space) that can drain the life from someone. She used some sort of spell to control the thing, then sent it after someone she felt deserved to die. It drained the life from them, and then she somehow got it to give that energy to her husband. She then continued to do this at her husband's sermons, sending the Colour after a criminal or someone who she felt was 'immoral,' and using the energy to heal some ill person. However, the Sanity loss began to take its toll, and she began targeting people who weren't criminals, people who had simply offended her in some way. The reason the investigators' friend noticed anything was because his contact with the Colour resulted in an unpleasant feeling that stuck with him, as a result of his Cthulhu Mythos knowledge.

My question is this: is there any existing set of spells that would allow for this to happen, or would I have to homebrew some of my own? Does this sound like a workable idea?

[Lycan 01]

Homebrew is your best bet. With the Cthulhu Mythos, there are always dimensions and dark corners of the earth to pull stuff out of. I mean, I made my group fight the physical embodiment of mankind's greed once since I couldn't think of anything better...

Btw, cool session idea!

[Tsotha-lanti]

You shouldn't use a COoS - doesn't make sense. They don't fly over to a human and drain life from them - they settle in an area and drain life from everything.

Just say he's got the spell and some other extra-dimensional monster. There's no reason to feel restricted to anything pre-existing - over half the stuff in Lovecraft's books was never statted for any edition of CoC anyway.

The healer, of course, thinks the spell is a prayer to an angel or somesuch.

[Lycan 01]

Or a demon in the guise of an angel. Yeaaah... The wife prayed and prayed and prayed, and eventually she caught the attention of something unholy rather than righteous. The demon is now doing her bidding in hopes of corrupting her Soul, so that he may drag her back to Hell soon and recieve a nice reward for gathering such an evil spirit.

What do they need to combat the demon? The best option would be a real Faith Healer... But if one of your players is a Clergyman, they could bust out some Holy Water and/or a crucifix and do an old fashioned Exorcism.


Admit it, the Clergyman wrestling with the demon while the rest of the group try to restrain the psycho woman as lightning and flames fill the room is just an awesome climax for a session...


Edit: Typos

[chiasaur11]

Or a demon in the guise of an angel. Yeaaah... The wife prayed and prayed and prayed, and eventually she caught the attention of something unholy rather than righteous. The demon is now doing her bidding in hopes of corrupting her Soul, so that he may drag her back to Hell soon and recieve a nice reward for gathering such an evil spirit.

What do they need to combat the demon? The best option would be a real Faith Healer... But if one of your players is a Clergyman, they could bust out some Holy Water and/or a crucifix and do an old fashioned Exorcism.


Admit it, the Clergyman wrestling with the demon while the rest of the group try to restrain the psycho woman as lightning and flames fill the room is just an awesome climax for a session...


Edit: Typos

I'm not sure.

Demons imply angels, and CoC is all about there being pretty much nothing you can turn to in the face of reality numbing evil.


But, I haven't really played CoC so what do I know?

[Tsotha-lanti]

I'm not sure.

Demons imply angels, and CoC is all about there being pretty much nothing you can turn to in the face of reality numbing evil.


But, I haven't really played CoC so what do I know?

You are precisely right. There are no demons or angels. (Strictly, there's no ghosts or anything else that implies the existence of souls, either. No vampires or werewolves. There are zombies who retain some dim connection to who they were, but that's biochemical. Nothing supernatural, as such, just things that are inexplicable or unknown to the feeble human mind.)

There are Elder Gods, but they're functionally no different from Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, who are basically just incomprehensible supradimensional creatures of amazing power. They're not creators and have no power over "souls."

That's why I said the healer thinks it's a prayer to an angel. Most spells are framed in terms of demons, angels, and spirits in the Mythos grimoires, but they're really just supra-scientific formulae to wield inexplicable power over creatures and the universe itself. (Dimensional travel is done by moving at impossible angles towards certain blasphemous surfaces, etc.)

[Calinero]

You are precisely right. There are no demons or angels. (Strictly, there's no ghosts or anything else that implies the existence of souls, either.

I'm pretty sure there are Souls in the CoC system. They're quite tasty.

(Seriously, though, I saw at least one spell or demon that ate souls...or trapped them, or something. I dunno.)

Yeah, I can see how a homebrew might be better than trying to stretch an existing monster or spell beyond feasibility. If I'm going to that, I'll use a bit more directly from the show and call the thing a Reaper. Going to add my own twists, though, cause who wants to be a total copycat?

Well, one obstacle the players have to overcome is figuring out who is controlling the demon. Obviously, at first they'll suspect the faith healer himself. They'll need to figure out that it's actually his wife, and then they'll have to find a way to stop her. Once she realizes that they are a threat, she'll target one of the investigators as the life source for the next 'healing.' That makes me debate whether it should be possible to fight the thing off when it comes for you--in Supernatural the thing was called a Reaper, and was essentially Death coming for you, totally unstoppable. Then again, I'm not going to totally copycat the show, so I might make it possible for the hopefully forewarned and forearmed investigators to fight the thing off. That would result in a quite puzzled faith healer and a rather unhealed subject.

Oh, that reminds me--going to add a moral dilemma to the mix as well. I'm going to make at least one very friendly, likeable NPC--with a terminal disease. She will be next on the list to be healed. So, if they stop the wife from killing people with her curse, they're essentially dooming this likeable NPC to death within a few months. Oh, the choices. I'm just hoping no one in my group watches Supernatural...

[Tsotha-lanti]

I'm pretty sure there are Souls in the CoC system. They're quite tasty.

(Seriously, though, I saw at least one spell or demon that ate souls...or trapped them, or something. I dunno.)

There's POWer, which is a sort of ephemeral stat - mostly just there to give you Magic Points and a Luck Roll - but in the CoC/Lovecraftian reality, there's no soul, no afterlife. There's consciousness, which can do all sorts of nifty stuff - travel through time and space and other dimensions, occupy other things, etc. - but no soul. Resurrection doesn't deal with souls, it just involves reducing the body to it's "essential salts" and re-forming it from them (using magical super-science).

"Soul" and "consciousness" or "self-awareness" or "ego" are largely interchangeable terms, but there's no supernatural, immortal soul in CoC. There's no afterlife, nothing like that.

The real point is that there absolutely is no YHWH/Allah, Vishnu, or other "real" deity (pretty much all the Egyptian gods, for instance, were Nyarlathotep; the rest were other GOOs/OGs/EGs), there's no afterlife or -lives, and so on. There's no ghosts (I hate that they put them - and vampires - in the CoC rulebook; Curwen-style "vampires" are so much more appropriate, and cooler anyway), no angels, no demons.

However, this doesn't mean you can't use the idea of a soul - it's just that it's not reality. Witches and the like, muddling about with their magic and dealing with Nyarlathotep, may think their soul makes a journey into the afterlife or another world, but really they are just traveling through dimensions in unusual ways, either physically, or casting out their perceptions.

You can also use the idea of ghosts. Time-traveling or detached consciousnesses manifesting psychic abilities is a bit pulpy, but not out of line for CoC.

And the idea of angels and demons is already built into the game - the Mythos tome examples give "alternative names" for spells, where certain creatures are named angels or demons. The Latin Necronomicon, I think? Or Dr. Dee's?

But all this is supposed to ultimately be humanity's feeble attempts to name the unnameable, to understand the ineffable, to conceptualize the inconceivable... and it's futile and incorrect.

It makes for great material anyway.

[Calinero]

Indeed, it does not seem terribly likely in the Cthulhu Mythos that there are any angels looking out for us. However, that just gave me an interesting idea.

Faced with a horrible monster, a priest Investigator prays for help...and in a burst of light, the thing is destroyed. An angel? Hardly. Nyarlathotep, out to destroy everyone's faith in Christianity by exposing the faith healer as a fake, therefore sowing more dischord amongst the humans for his own amusement.

[Lycan 01]

Ah yes... Nyalathotep... The Keeper's best friend for DM Fiats.


I like that idea, actually. Sounds good. But don't let them know it was Nyarlathotep. Let them formulate their own opinions, and far, far into your group's future, when they run afoul Nyarlathotep, which they always do eventually, have him break their minds with this stunning revelation. XD

[FoE]

You could just have some standard evil being granting the wife's wishes as a way of eventually taking her soul. Or, I don't know, just use an actual Reaper.

Whatever you use, Sam and Dean didn't actually fight the Reaper, if I recall correctly. You just need to fight the wife and the cult that's sprung up around the faith healer.

[Lycan 01]

Or just never explain the truth. Like I said... let them formulate their own conclussions.

[Calinero]

Yeah, Sam and Dean never actually fought the Reaper itself. I'm thinking about changing the monster in this case to something relatively fightable. Not friendly, by any standards, but more killable than a manifestation of death.

And yes, it might be better not to tell them everything at first. I've got an idea going for a long term campaign, and I could probably incorporate this scenario into that campaign. For example, someone had to have taught the wife how to bind the demon to her will....Evil Mastermind!

[chiasaur11]

Ah yes... Nyalathotep... The Keeper's best friend for DM Fiats.


I like that idea, actually. Sounds good. But don't let them know it was Nyarlathotep. Let them formulate their own opinions, and far, far into your group's future, when they run afoul Nyarlathotep, which they always do eventually, have him break their minds with this stunning revelation. XD

Of course, why would any player trust anything Captain McLiesalot, aka The Wuss, aka that one guy out of one of Lovecraft's freakier dreams has to say?

[Calinero]

Of course, why would any player trust anything Captain McLiesalot, aka The Wuss, aka that one guy out of one of Lovecraft's freakier dreams has to say?

...because he gives them candy? I don't know. Perhaps he would have impossibly detailed knowledge about what happened, know things that he couldn't have unless he was there. Personally, knowing my players, they would probably believe him.

[Lycan 01]

Simple. If somebody argues, he backhands their face off without rolling any dice.

It worked incredibly well for proving that Nyarlathotep meant business to my group.



And then, so as not to piss the player off, he revives the player without batting an eye, because Nyalathotep is just that awesome.

[chiasaur11]

Simple. If somebody argues, he backhands their face off without rolling any dice.

It worked incredibly well for proving that Nyarlathotep meant business to my group.



And then, so as not to piss the player off, he revives the player without batting an eye, because Nyalathotep is just that awesome.

I knew he was a wuss.

Backhands people, just for pointing out flaws in his logic, and is such a wimp he brings them back rather than risk ghosty vengence.

[Mewtarthio]

I knew he was a wuss.

Backhands people, just for pointing out flaws in his logic, and is such a wimp he brings them back rather than risk ghosty vengence.

I suppose there is an alternative: Just say, "Nyalathotep destroys you in the most shockingly complete and utter way imaginable," then when the player in question asks what you mean by that, pull out a gun and shoot them through the head. Not only does this quiet irrelevant discussion at the table, it also aids in immersion, plus it really helps ratchet up the tension.

[Vexxation]

Sounds a lot like the man from "The Picture in the House".

Now just make him able to take the life-force and... "distill" it into a form that can be granted to others.

Wasn't there a D&D spell that let you drain the life of others, giving them ability [damage/drain] and extending your life? Probably in the BoVD...

Seems the OP could find that spell and base his off that. Maybe rather than killing the criminals, it merely cripples them?
Eh. Or just kill. Whatever.

[chiasaur11]

I suppose there is an alternative: Just say, "Nyalathotep destroys you in the most shockingly complete and utter way imaginable," then when the player in question asks what you mean by that, pull out a gun and shoot them through the head. Not only does this quiet irrelevant discussion at the table, it also aids in immersion, plus it really helps ratchet up the tension.

And now he needs direct intervention from the DM and modern science to take out an investigator, while Cthulhu can kill three a turn.

Wuss.

[Calinero]

Do not insult the great Nyarlothotep. He can rip your heart out, keep you alive so you can see it beating in his hand, then throw it at your face so hard that it breaks your skull.

[only1doug]

Do not insult the great Nyarlothotep. He can rip your heart out, keep you alive so you can see it beating in his hand, then throw it at your face so hard that it breaks your skull.

Never Mock the Mighty Nyarlathotep for he is a wuss with 1000 yawns forms

[allonym]

Frankly, though, Call of Cthulhu is not just about the Mythos. It's about intellectual, terrifying, alien horror. You don't have to shoehorn it into Lovecraft's world, just make something up and use it. I've seen some awesome Cthulhu games wherein the monotheistic ideas of demons and angels existed, so instead of the Mythos the antagonists were Satanic. Likewise, in the CoCverse, given that it's not only Lovecraft's creations, there exist vampires, werewolves, ghosts and ghasts. Look it up in the rulebook.

So yeah, do as Lycan01 (the ever-wise) said, homebrew it up, and if you like, add a bit of a mythos tinge.

[Tsotha-lanti]

A "ghast" is a Lovecraftian Dreamworld monster, from one of the Randolph Carter stories.

CoC games utilizing a different mythology are just general horror games that happen to use the ruleset (for some strange reason; it's not that great).

[Voshkod]

Just make up your own Cthulhu beastie. Maybe it's an alien that is now parasitically attached to a new host. Maybe it's some odd variation of a Hound of Tindalos. Never feel constrained by what Lovecraft wrote; he rarely did.

Edit: And if you have your players really paranoid, everyone and everything is Nyarlathotep, watching them.

[Calinero]

Yeah, I'm starting to think that I'll homebrew my own creature. And sure, I could have my own system of demons and angels, but I agree with what some others here have said. I like the Lovecraftian style of the Cthulhu mythos. Introducing benevolent higher powers adds too much security to the players. Plus, I plan on possibly linking this campaign with a larger overall campaign that does use pretty normal Cthulhu mythos. So I don't want to bend any more laws of Cthulhu than I absolutely have to.

[GolemsVoice]

As one poster already said, the Faith Healer, or his wife, could also use some copy of the Necronomicon or another book which realy treats the beings summoned forth as angels. John Dee did that to great extend (he loved angels, and had many of them listed) and if you read his works (check the internet, they are around) these angels are often summoned to do rather wordly things, like heating water, fetching lost items for you, or influencing the hearts of y person you desire, so an "angel" who heals persons if called is really nothing extraordinary.
Whatever this thing actually is, it most likely uses some alien technology or magic, and it most likely is also bound by the spell to do what it's summoner commands. Maybe his wife, or he, one day get the ide that there are also angels with flaming swords, right?

[Lycan 01]

Oh, wait...

What about Hastur? He's all about making grossly unbalanced deals and trades, IIRC. "Healing abilities? No problem. I just get to use your Soul as a chew-toy for the rest of eternity. What? You want to renegotiate? TOO BAD!!!"

[Calinero]

Hm....a trade...."Heal this person." "Okay, but in exchange, I make another person die horribly, and you go just a tiny bit insane." "...okey dokey!"

I shall look into this Hastur person. Creature. Thing. Whatever.

[Doomsy]

Hm....a trade...."Heal this person." "Okay, but in exchange, I make another person die horribly, and you go just a tiny bit insane." "...okey dokey!"

I shall look into this Hastur person. Creature. Thing. Whatever.

Er. I think the Dark Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young is more likely to do the healing route than the others. Hastur is usually connected to artists and creative entropic tropes than anything else. Shubby is more likely to heal you in an overcharge capacity - warping your system and throwing it out of balance, including mentally, just because that is how Shubby rolls.

I think you could probably work out something using Elder Things, Ythian, or Shan technology/spells for this too. A Ythian device could probably easily transfer life between two people and is sufficiently advanced to be magic to us. The Elder Things would mostly likely have some kind of organic monster that does the same, but more sadistically. And I'm almost certain the Shan can do it, but they are utter sadistic bastards and mad cultists to a bug so the question is more likely why would they bother.