"Go to the sign of Marvel's Axe, a dubious inn on the edge of the Thieves Quarter, in the City of Greyhawk, and look to your own wrist. If you perceive a bracelet and dangling dice, watch for the next throw in the war between Law and Chaos and be prepared to follow the compelling geas." -Signal

Monday, June 20, 2011

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.

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