Strange Aeons

STRANGE AEONS
A LOVECRAFTIAN SETTING FOR GENESYSTM
by
Paul M. N. Haakonsen
PAUL MAGNE NOERAGER HAAKONSEN
CREDITS
DESIGNER COVER ART

Paul M. N. Haakonsen Richard Luong
PUBLISHER INTERIOR ART

Paul M. N. Haakonsen Dave Allsop, Antonio Brandão, Jamie Bruce,
Wes Burt, Lee Carter, Robin Carter,
WRITING + EDITING Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, Joseph Diaz,
Gary Dupuis, Wayne England, Anders Finér,
David Griffith, Hainaut, Robert Hunt,
Michael Jaecks, Tomasz Jedruszek,
ASSISTANCE Pasi Juhola, Lvan Leer, Diana Levin,
Leah Haakonsen, Evan Rae Victor Lozada, Henning Ludvigsen,
Richard Luong, Paul Mudie, Jake Murray,
GRAPHIC LAYOUT Luic Muzy, William O'Connor,
Paul M. N. Haakonsen Zach Oldenkamp, Christian Pearce,
Borja Pindado, Guillem H. Pongiluppi,
Scott Purdy, Max Rambaldi,
PLAYTESTERS Ihor Reshetnikov, Kostja Schleger,
Karsten Frandsen, Johnni Jensen, Craig Simmons, Marc Simonetti, Matt Soffe,
Paul M. N. Haakonsen, Rasmus Lund, Craig J. Spearing, Dean Spencer,
Martin Rosenvinge. Tom Sullivan, Crystal Sully,
Giacomo Tappainer, Cory Trego-Erdner,
David Uhl.
A copy of the Genesys™ core rulebook from Fantasy Flight Games is required to play.
FANTASY FLIGHT
LOVE THE CRAFT
PUBLISHING SWON BOOKS GAMES
Strange Aeons is based on Call of Cthulhu. Call of Cthulhu is a registered trademark of Chaosium Inc.
Genesys is a trademark of Fantasy Flight Games. This material is protected under the copyright laws
of the Denmark. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is
prohibited without the express written permission of Paul Magne Nørager Haakonsen. This product is
a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely
coincidental. Copyright ©2018 PM Games. LOVE THE CRAFT Publishing and SWON Books are subsidiaries
owned by PM Games. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are registered trademarks of Fantasy
Flight Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. The publisher cannot be held responsible for any loss of
sanity that might occur from playing this game. Psychiatric consultations may be necessary.
ISBN: 978-1-60606-123-4 Product Code: SA-01
www.FantasyFlightGames.com
Strange Aeons
TABLE OF CONTENTS
GREAT CTHULHU LIES DREAMING IN SUNKEN R'LYEH WAITING
Table of Contents..............................................................1 Getting Out of Town...........................................190
Introduction..........................................................................3 Rail Travel.................................................................191
Foreword..............................................................................4 Automobiles................................................................192
Cthulhu As a Game.....................................................4 Choosing an Automobile..................................194
What is a Role-Playing Game?........................4 Motorcycles.................................................................206
Dice Symbols.....................................................................5 Choose a Motorcycle............................................207
Character Creation..........................................................7 Boats and Others...................................................213
Archetypes.........................................................................7 Air Travel....................................................................216
Careers...............................................................................10 Common Aircraft.....................................................218
Career Skills................................................................10 Distances........................................................................223
Careers in the 1920s..............................................11 Magic.........................................................................................226
Motivation.............................................................................42 What is Magic?..........................................................228
Merits..................................................................................43 Mythos Tomes..............................................................229
Flaws....................................................................................47 Spellcasting and Sanity................................231
Skills..........................................................................................52 Sanity, Fear and Horror........................................237
Available Skills.......................................................53 Fear....................................................................................239
New Skills........................................................................54 Sanity...............................................................................242
Talents......................................................................................55 Loss of Sanity..........................................................242
Available Talents...................................................57 Sanity Threshold..................................................243
Talent Descriptions...............................................77 Insanity.........................................................................244
1920's Slang.......................................................................144 Recovering Sanity................................................249
Cultists..................................................................................152 Treatment of Insanity.....................................249
General Notes on Cults....................................154 Mental Disorders....................................................251
Primitive Cults.......................................................154 A Psychiatric Glossary....................................258
Non-Human Worshippers...................................155 Crafting................................................................................260
Sacrifices......................................................................155 How Crafting Works.............................................261
Benefits to the Worshippers......................155 Armor Crafting........................................................263
Costs of Worship.....................................................155 Brawl and Melee Crafting............................265
Gear and Equipment...................................................157 Ranged Weapon Crafting................................267
Starting Money........................................................158 Gadget Crafting.....................................................269
Item Rarity.................................................................158 Artifacts and Alien Devices.............................272
Item Qualities..........................................................159 The Cthulhu Mythos..................................................284
Weapons...........................................................................159 Elder Gods....................................................................286
Ammunition...................................................................167 Great Old Ones.........................................................286
Weapon Attachments...........................................169 Outer Gods....................................................................303
Armor.................................................................................174 Adversaries........................................................................311
Armor Attachments...............................................176 Playing Monsters Effectively.................312
Clothing..........................................................................178 Reading the Entries...........................................314
Miscellaneous Gear..............................................181 Adversary List.........................................................315
Lodging and Real Estate...............................186 Arkham....................................................................................391
Transport & Travel....................................................187 How to Find Arkham............................................392
Getting Around Town.........................................188 Arkham's Climate....................................................392
Table of Contents 1
General Hours of Business...........................393

Getting a Place to Live..................................393
Finding Employment...........................................394
Getting a Loan.........................................................394
Joining a Club..........................................................396
Miskatonic University......................................396
Arkham Government.............................................398
Police and Courts..................................................398
Lovecraftian Family Names........................401
A Brief History of Arkham.........................401
Arkham Today...........................................................404
A Lovecraft Chronology.................................404
A Guide to Arkham...............................................406
Northside......................................................................407
Downtown.......................................................................418
Easttown........................................................................429
Merchant........................................................................432
Rivertown.....................................................................444
Campus..............................................................................447
French Hill.................................................................462
Uptown..............................................................................467
Lower Southside.....................................................470
The Outskirts............................................................475
The Dreamlands.............................................................484
Into the Dreamlands..........................................485
Who Can Enter..........................................................488
Within a Dream........................................................490
Exit the Dreamlands..........................................492
The Atmosphere of Dreams............................492
Other Locations.............................................................498
Dunwich...........................................................................500
Innsmouth.....................................................................510
Kingsport......................................................................521
2 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
THAT IS NOT DEAD WHICH CAN ETERNAL LIE
Strange Aeons
FOREWORD minds and physical world.

It should come as no surprise that the
timeless and classic works of Howard CTHULHU AS A GAME
Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) should While other games have definitely
need little or no introduction, after all incorporated to great extend and success
you are about to embark on a journey the mythos that Lovecraft unleashed
that will most likely take away your upon the world. Then this GENESYS take
sanity, well your character's sanity at on the mythos is a storydriven approach
least. which is substantiated by the narrative
Thanks to the creative mind of dice system that is GENESYS. This is an
Lovecraft, we have been given a world edition that is not as heavy on rules and
and mythos that is rich in mystery, fear, regulations as other role-playing games
cosmic dread and creatures which defy set in this particular mythos have a
the boundaries of reality and time tendency of being.
itself. Without this The essence of STRANGE AEONS is
creative writer, we would that the player's take on the roles
not have known about the of ordinary people whom confront
fabled, and dreaded, the unimaginable, whether it is
Necronomicon as penned by intentionally or by
Abdul Alhazred, the coincidence. This is a
mad Arab. horror role-playing
Lovecraft's approach game, where one's sanity
to the universe was one is at stake, and more
that seems to appeal to often than not will start
the darker side in us to deteriorate as the
all, where humanity character succumbs to
becomes inconsequential the madness that follow
in the unimaginably in the wake of tentacled
vast sea of space and monsters, fanatic
time, where Elder Gods cultists, the living dead
reside beyond the spheres. and even cosmic entities
Lovecraft's stories are from beyond the stars.
still enjoyed today and STRANGE AEONS can be played both as a
could as easily have been pulp version and a more traditional
written today, because they bear that style in the spirit of Howard Phillips
particular timeless quality to it. In fact, Lovecraft's writing – one that is still
the mythos he singlehandedly created is clearly horrific, but doesn't stress
very much alive today, with countless tentacles and slimy goo as much as the
authors contributing to the lore and true insignificance of the heroes (and in
myth regularly. These stories are not fact, of all humanity).
just stories of horror and gore, or of
unimaginable monsters with fangs and
claws. Nay, they are stories that state WHAT IS A ROLE-
that humans are not the center of the PLAYING GAME?
universe, or multiverse if you will. Whether or not this is your
Humans are mere insignificant specks in introduction to a role-playing game, it is
the time and space continuum where strongly suggested that you familiarize
creatures stalk the dark corners of our
4 Introduction
Strange Aeons
yourself with the GENESYS core rulebook are usually available at your local
beforehand, as the STRANGE AEONS friendly gamestore.
sourcebook is an expansion for the The dice used in the GENESYS system
GENESYS system, and is not a stand-alone are called the Narrative Dice, and should
system. be readily available at your local
You can think of a role-playing game gaming store. Dice sets are sold
as a movie, except all the action takes separately; or players may use the
place in your imagination. The players GENESYS DICE APP to roll them
are the stars in this film electronically.
In the STRANGE AEONS role-playing It is also highly recommended that you
game you take on the role of a character read at least one or two stories
in a story, set in the 1920s, interpreting involving the Cthulhu mythis before you
your character's actions through the use begin, such as the original “Call of
of the rules and mechanics detailed in Cthulhu” short story by Howard Phillips
the GENESYS core rulebook. You sit Lovecraft himself. It is near impossible
around a table telling a collaborative not to find it readily available in an
story with a group of players. One of anthology at your local bookstore.
these players will take on the role of
the Game Master (GM). The GM is like the
director of a movie, but also plays other DICE SYMBOLS
roles as well. The GM decides what the While STRANGE AEONS is set in the
story is about, describes the locations GENESYS system, the symbols for all dice
the investigators see, and unleashes the throughout the sourcebook will
occassional horrible monster. The GM also presented using the STAR WARS dice
keeps track of the rules, interprets the symbols, also available from Fantasy
outcome of actions, and describes what Flight Games.
happens. For easy reference in translating the
In addition to all these dice symbols from STAR WARS to GENESYS,
responsibilities, the GM also plays the a conversion table has been included for
roles of other characters the your convenience.
investigators encounter. These “extras”
are commonly known as non-player DICE SYMBOL CONVERSION
characters (NPCs). TYPE OF SYMBOL STAR WARS GENESYS
Because this game is based on the
Advantage a a
Cthulhu mythos, some characters die
horribly, some are driven insane from Success s s
exposure to things mankind was never Triumph x t
meant to witness, others live long enough
to make it to a sequel. Threat t h
Failure f f
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO PLAY? Despair y d
To join a STRANGE AEONS game, you'll
need a copy of this book, which you
should have since you are reading this!
You will also need a copy of the GENESYS
core rulebook, a copy of the character
sheet, and a pencil and a scratch paper.
You'll also need some dice, the kind that
5 Introduction
CHARACTER CREATION
AND WITH STRANGE AEONS EVEN DEATH MAY DIE
Willard watched from the small glass

window in the door. It was hard to
ARCHETYPES
The archetypes in the STRANGE AEONS
believe that the sunken in husk that sat
role-playing game represent the wide
in the middle of the padded cell,
range of skills and knowledge that
wearing a straitjacket was Celine, the
people in the future world have access
girl he grew up with during their
to.
childhood in rural Arkham. That the
Mechanically, archetypes establishes
woman whose eyes no longer held any
your character's base characteristics as
spark or resemblance of life was the
well as your secondary attributes, such
same girl that he shared a first kiss
as wound and strain thresholds. Once
with. Even more alien to him was the fact
you've set the baseline through your
that it was the same woman that he had
choice, then that choice also provides a
asked to marry him that late evening in
budget of experience points that you
mid-July at the small corner cafe on
spend to improve your characteristics
Miskatonic Avenue and West Street. That
and buy skills and stalents.
it was the same woman who had embraced
Keep in mind that the choice of
him passionately and accepted his
archetype is permanent. Your character is
proposal of marriage.
not going to be able to adopt a new
Yet there she was, sitting on the archetype in the midst of a game; you
middle of the floor, oblivious to her would just need to build a new character
surroundings and not even once had at that point.
looked up at him as he looked through
the window. The orderly had told him
that Celine often was found swaying AVERAGE HERO
back and forth while muttering The average hero archetype is the
something incoherently to herself over baseline for character creation, and
and over. While she was like that, they portrays the most customizable example
could not get her to respond to any of a person.
stimuli, despite numerous and various
efforts to do so. Willard never met with
this Dr. West himself, but he had heard
of him by reputation. Willard would see
to it that he found the time to pay Dr. • Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn.
West a visit and enquire about Celine's • Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower.
mental condition. • Starting Experience: 110 XP.
Willard sighed deeply, before putting • Starting Skills: An average human
the tips of his fingers gently against starts with 1 rank in each of two
the cold, smooth surface of the glass, different non-career skills at character
before he broke away and headed down creation. They obtain this rank before
the hallway of the Arkham asylum. He spending experience points, and these
knew that he had to go out to the old skill can not be increased higher than
farmstead if he was to find any answers. rank 2 during character creation.
This was where they found Celine, laying • Ready for Anything: Once per session, as
curled up in a ball on the ground of the an out-of-turn Incidental, you may move
farmhouse, strange runes scribbled on one Story Point from the Game Master's
the kitchen floor around her. pool to the player's pool.
Instinctively, Willard picked up his
pace.
Character Creation 7
Strange Aeons
CHARISMATIC HERO entrepreneur, or even a priest. The

Persuasive leaders, attractive Dedicated hero’s features revolve around
celebrities and personalities, inspiring investigative, empathic, healing, and
politicians, adept negotiators, spiritual devotions. Strong willed and
entertainers, seducers, fast-talkers, cult alert, the dedicated character typically
leaders, and suave gamblers are some of relies on a high Willpower characteristic.
the professional choices of the
Charismatic hero archetype.
The charismatic hero archetype
reprents any character who has the gift
of a silver tongue. As charming smooth • Wound Threshold: 9 + Brawn.
talkers, charismatic archetype typically • Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower.
rely on high Presence characteristics. • Starting Experience: 100 XP.
• Starting Skills: A dedicated hero
character starts with 1 rank in
Discipline during character creation.
They obtain this rank before spending
• Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn. experience points, and may not increase
• Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower. Discipline above rank 2 during character
• Starting Experience: 100 XP. creation.
• Starting Skills: A charismatic hero • Focused: Once per session, as an out-of-
character starts with 1 rank in Cool turn Incidental, you may spend one Story
during character creation. They obtain Point to recover all your strain up to
this rank before spending experience your strain threshold.
points, and may not increase Cool above
rank 2 during character creation. FAST HERO
• Forceful Personality: Once per session, Athletes who employ speed and grace
your character may spend a Story Point instead of raw power, stunt people,
as an Incidental. If they do so, during pilots, professional drivers, law
the next Social skill check they make enforcement or military personnel who
during that turn, your character doubles concentrate on using ranged weapons, and
the strain they inflict or the strain agents – on either side of the law – who
they heal (you choose before making the employ stealth and sleight of hand are
check). just some of the professional choices
available to the Fast hero archetype.
DEDICATED HERO The fast hero archetype represents a
Health care workers, clergy, activists, character with increased body control
investigators, and those dedicated to a and coordination, who has a background
cause or idea are some of the in something that requires precision and
professional choices available to the deft hand-eye coordination. This could be
Dedicated hero archetype. an athlete, riders, or even thieves. Quick
The dedicated hero archetype and nimble, the fast hero archetype
represents a character with a stout and typically relies on a high Agility
stalwart dedication or morale compass, characteristic.
who has a background in a field that
requires an unmatched will and nerves of
steel. This could be a student, an
8 Character Creation
• Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn. SMART HERO

• Strain Threshold: 10 + Willpower. Scientists and researchers of all
• Starting Experience: 100 XP. descriptions, academics, law enforcement
• Starting Skills: The fast hero or military professionals who specialize
character starts with 1 rank in Athletics in using tactics, deduction, or reason, and
or Coordination during character many kinds of white-collar professionals
creation. They obtain this rank before fall within the scope of the Smart hero
spending experience points, and may not archetype.
increase Athletics or Coordination above The smart hero archetype represents a
rank 2 during character creation. character who has a background grounded
• Did You See That?: Once per session you in some sort of intellectual pursuit. This
may spend a Story Point as an Incidental pursuit could be any number of fields of
and immediately take two additional expertise. Brilliant and skillful, the
Maneuvers in a turn, even if this exceeds smart hero archetype typically relies on
the limitations of 1 Maneuver and 1 free a high Intellect characteristic.
Maneuver.
RESOURCEFUL HERO
The resourceful hero archetype
represents a character who gets things • Wound Threshold: 8 + Brawn.
done by unconventional ways or manners, • Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower.
one whom does not always think inside • Starting Experience: 100 XP.
the box. The pursuit of a resourceful
• Starting Skills: A smart hero starts
character could be a con artist,
with 1 rank in Knowledge during
survivalists, outdoorsmen or even spies.
character creation. They obtain this rank
Unconventional and innovative, the
before spending experience points, and
resourceful archetype relies on a high
may not increase Knowledge above rank 2
Cunning characteristic.
during character creation.
• Brilliant!: Once per session, your
character may spend a Story Point as an
Incidental. If they do so, during the next
check they make during that turn, you
• Wound Threshold: 9 + Brawn. count their ranks in the skill being used
• Strain Threshold: 11 + Willpower. as equal to their Intellect.
• Starting Experience: 100 XP.
• Starting Skills: A resourceful hero STRONG HERO
character starts with 1 rank in Boxers, martial artists, some types of
Perception or Streetwise. They obtain soldiers, athletes who depend on raw
this rank before spending experience physical power, blue-collar workers, and
points, and may not increase Perception others who rely on pure brawn all fall
or Streetwise above rank 2 during within the scope of the Strong hero
character creation. archetype.
• It Came Out of the Blue!: Once per The strong human archetype represents
session, your character may spend a Story a character who has a background in some
Point as an Incidental to change any form of manual labor, and who is
number of a to s results equal your generally strong and tough. Powerful
Cunning. and good at close quarter combat, the
Strange Aeons
strong human archetype typically relies concept of what your character is going
on a high Brawn characteristic. to be especially good at during the game.
Careers enable your character to focus on
being better at certain tasks at the
expense of others. A career is usually
definited by the role the character
plays in the game.
• Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn.
• Strain Threshold: 8 + Willpower.
• Starting Experience: 100 XP. CAREER SKILLS
• Starting Skills: A strong hero In order to add a greater sense of
character starts with 1 rank in Athletics diversity to the STRANGE AEONS setting,
during character creation. They obtain the ordinary rules of career skills, as
this rank before spending experience detailed on page 40 of the GENESYS core
points, and may not increase Athletics rulebook, has been modified to allow for
above rank 2 during character creation. a greater character customization.
• Tough As Nails: Once per session, your Each career now only comes with four
character may spend a Story Point as an predetermined career skills, that are
out-of-turn Incidental immediately after unchangeable, whereas in the GENESYS
suffering a Critical Injury and core rulebook they come with a set of
determining the reuslt. If they do so, eight predetermined career skills.
they count the result rolled as “01”. As the careers presented below only
comes with four predetermined career
skills, what about the remaining four
CAREERS career skills to complete the career? The
The choosing of an investigator's STRANGE AEONS setting allows the player
occupation is probably the most to select the remaining four career
important choice a player makes. The skills and make notice of these as being
occupation of your investigator has a career skills on the character sheet.
direct bearing on which skills he may However, the player must adhere to the
have and his status in the community. following restrictions for selecting the
Although the following listning may remaining four career skills. It is
seem, at times, excessive, keep in mind important to notice that the
that a player searching for a quick predetermined career skills do not count
replacement character in the middle of against the requirements listed below, of
an adventure may have limited choices. course.
Game Masters may also draw inspiration
from these examples. • At least one Social or Combat skill must
Select one starting career (or be selected.
occupation, if you will) for your starting • No more than three Combat or Social
hero character. This represents the skills can be selected: Magic skill counts
training and life experience the as Combat skills for this purpose.
character has had prior to the start of • No more than two additional General
the campaign. A hero may hold other jobs skills can be selected.
as his career unfolds, but the benefits of
a starting career are only applied once, Following the normal rules for career
at the time of character creation. skills, on page 40 in the GENESYS core
You can think of a career as your rulebook, a starting character may choose
character's job or role. It's a broad
four of their career skills and gain one patrolmen, hired by companies and
rank in each of them. This is done before individuals to protect property and
spending experience during character people against burglars, assassins, and
creation. kidnappers. Use the Uniformed Police
Officer's description for these
CAREERS IN THE 1920s characters. Company Operatives are
plainclothes detectives sent out on cases
The following careers below are requiring them to solve mysteries, stop
available to the players in the STRANGE murders, etc.
AEONS setting. Please take into The agency detective counts the
consideration that the Game Master has following skills as career skills:
the final vote on determining whether or Coercion, Perception, Ranged [Light] and
not the list below fits into his or her Vigilance.
specific campaign.
ALIENIST
ACCOUNTANT Psychiatry is not a recognized
Although the accounting department is treatment in the U.S. There are no
essential to any business endeavor it is licensing requirements and practicing
usually outside the mainstream of alienists run the risk of being charged
the company. Few, if any, are ever with malpractice. It is safest for the
promoted out of Accounting. psychiatrist to call himself a
The accountant counts the “psychologist,” taking patients on
following skills as career skills: referral from other physicians. Many
Cool, Knowledge, Negotiation and alienists are physicians themselves,
Perception. attracted to the therapy because
of the emotional disorders of some
ACROBAT of their patients. Eventually
Acrobats may be either recognized by the AMA (American
amateur athletes competing Medical Association) and the
in staged meets – possibly federal government, practicing
even the Olympics – or psychiatrists will eventually be
professional acrobates licensed as such, but will be required
employed by circuses to have first obtained a medical
and carnivals. Some degree.
have begun amateurs Those wishing to have made a serious
and later turned pro. study of psychotherapeutic methods
The acrobat counts the will have probably had to spend some
following skills as career time in Europe working in an
skills: Athletics, Coordination, appropriate clinic or with a private
Discipline and Resilience. practitioner.
The alienist counts the following
AGENCY DETECTIVE skills as career skills: Charm, Cool,
Numerous well-known detective Medicine and Psychoanalysis.
agencies exist: the Pinkerton and
Burns agencies to name only AMBASSADOR
two. Large agencies employ Ambassadors are appointed to their
two types of agents: security guards positions, often as a reward for
and operatives. Guards are uniformed services rendered during the campaign.
Strange Aeons
Despite this, efforts are made to send In the 1920s, successful archeologists
qualified ambassadors to the more became celebrities, seen as explorers and
important nations, reserving the smaller adventurers. While some used scientific
countries for political rewards. methods, many were happy to apply brute
The ambassador counts the following force when unveiling the secrets of the
skills as career skills: Charm, Cool, past – the use of dynamite was common.
Knowledge and Negotiation. Such bullish behavior would be frowned
upon in modern times.
ANIMAL TRAINER The archeologist counts the following
May be employed by film studios, a skills as career skills: Knowledge,
travelling circus, a horse stable or Mechanics, Survival and Vigilance.
possibly working freelance. Whether
training guide dogs for the blind or ARCHITECT
teaching a lion to jump through a Architects are usually college trained
flaming hoop, the animal trainer usually and familiar with some aspects of
works alone, spending long hours in close engineering. Junior architects employed
proximity with the animals in their care. by large firms find that getting
An animal trainer can use the supplier bids on 2000 doorknobs is part
psychology skill with animals as well of their job. Others try to go it alone,
as people. working out of their house or small
The animal trainer counts the office. Few manage to seel the
following skills as career skills: grandiose designs they all nurse.
and Coercion, Cool, Survival The architect counts the following
and Vigilance. skills as career skills: Charm,
Mechanics, Negotiation and
ANTIQUE DEALER Perception.
Antique dealers may own
their own shop, retail items AUTHOR
out of their homes, or go on As distinct from the
extended buying trips and journalist, the author uses words
making profit on resales to to define and explore the human
urban stores. condition, especially the range
The antique dealer counts of human emotions. Their labors
the following skills as are solitary and the rewards
career skills: Charm, Driving, solipsistic: only a relative
Knowledge and Negotiation. handful make much money in the
present day, though in previous
ARCHEOLOGIST eras the trade once provided a
The study and exploration of regular living wage.
the past. Primarily the The work habits of authors vary
identification, examination and widely. Typically an author might
analysis of recovered materials spend months or years researching in
relating to human history. The preparation for a book, then
work involves painstaking withdrawing for periods of intense
research and meticulous study, creation.
not to mention a willing attitude The author counts the following
to getting one’s hands dirty. skills as career skills: Charm,
Discipline, Driving and
Knowledge. the bail bondsman, intended to protect

him against loss should the accused
AVIATOR person flee while awaiting trial or
Professional aviators may be employed sentencing. This security is usually real
on U.S. Contracted mail routes or estate, but automobiles or other items of
work as a pilot for one of the small value can sometimes be negotiated. Bail
commercial passenger lines. Others bondsmen employ bounty hunters to
work at carnivals, stunting or track down those who skip bail.
selling rides to awed rubes, or The bail bondsman counts the
offering local “air-taxi” following skills as career skills:
services in and out of small Coercion, Deception, Knowledge and
airports. Others compete in Negotiation.
organized air races, either
cross-country or on fixed BANK ROBBER
courses. Hollywood makes fair Bank robbers are
use of pilots, as do aerial independent operators. While
mapping firms, the U.S. Forest the East Coast and to some
Service, and many others. A few extent the West Coast are
aviators even find work as controlled by the urban
test pilots for the aircraft gangs, these foot-loose
manufacturers. Many criminals are most commonly
actively serve in the U.S. found in the vast Midwest.
military. Working in small gangs, bank
Many aviators learned to fly robbers stay on the move, criss-
during the War and as a result crossing the country in stolen
still hold commissions as cars, robbing and murdering, and
officers in the Army, Navy, looting National Guard armories
Marines or Coast Guard. for firearms and ammunition. They
Younger pilots have either sometimes have “Robin Hood”
received military training reputations, supposedly burning
during peacetime or learned unregistered mortgages at banks.
on their own. They rarely commit crimes
The aviator counts the against the working class, but
following skills as career some have found profit kidnapping
skills: Cool, Mechanics, Piloting, and businessmen and bankers, then holding
Resilience. them for ransom.
The bank robber counts the following
BAIL BONDSMAN skills as career skills: Coercion, Driving,
Bail bondsmaen operate their own Melee and Skulduggery.
businesses, usually out of offices located
very near the county jail or other arrest BARBER
holding facility. They provide funds Barbers are licensed by the state – a
that allow those charges with crimes to practice dating back to the days when
“make bail” and go free. Bondsman barbers were also surgeons. During the
usually require the person to put up 1920s barbers vigorously campaigned
some of their own money in cash – usually against female owned and operated “hair-
10-20% of the bond – along with dressing salons” where hair is being cut
substantial real property signed over to without the requisite licenses.
Strange Aeons
The barber counts the following skills until tomorrow when you can start living
as career skills: Charm, Cool, Negotiation life today? Enjoying food and drink, as
and Streetwise. well as other pleasurable pursuits, is
the key to a lifestyle where excess is the
BARTENDER norm. Whether poor or rich, such a person
A profession made illegal by the puts little thought to saving for a rainy
Prohibition Act, many still ply their day, preferring to be the center of
trade in speakeasies and other secret gin attention and a friend to all.
joints. The bon vivant counts the following
The bartender counts the following skills as career skills: Charm, Driving,
skills as career skills: Brawl, Charm, Leadership and Resilience.
Deception and Streetwise.
BOOK DEALER
BIG GAME HUNTER A book dealer may be the owner of a
Big game hunters are retail outlet or specialize in
skilled trackers and buying trips across the country
hunters who earn their and even overseas. Some represent
livings leading safaris wealthy clients at book auctions
for wealthy sportsmen held in England and other
clients. Most are places.
specialized in one The book dealer counts the
part of the world following skills as career
such as the skills: Cool, Driving,
Canadian woods, Knowledge and
African plains, Negotiation.
or other.
Although the BOOKIE
great white hunter is the An illegal occupation
quintessential type, others involving the handling of bets
may be simply local Indians placed on sporting events,
who escort hunters through political elections and, in
the backwoods of the particular, horse racing. A
Yukon in search of moose bookie often keeps a
or bear. restaurant or other legitimate
The big game hunter business up front, operating
counts the following multiple phone lines and a tote
skills as career skills: board in the back.
Melee, Ranged [Heavy], The bookie counts the
Stealth and Survival. following skills as career skills: Brawl,
Deception, Negotiation and Stealth.
BON VIVANT
A bon vivant is “one who lives well,” BOOTLEGGER / THUG
but that doesn’t necessarily mean they The soldiers of organized crime. Tough,
are rich. While many are accustomed to mean, and loyal, they transfer beer
wealth, the bon vivant is someone who shipments, intimidate enemies, collect
could be said to enjoy life to the fullest debts, and hijack rival gangster's trucks.
and damn the consequences! Why wait Arrested, they are expected to take the
fall for the gangsters above them. They Amateur boxing competitions abound, a
usually serve only short jail sentences, training ground for the pros.
the mob supporting their families in The boxer (or wrestler) counts the
exchange for their silence and loyalty. following skills as career skills: Brawl,
Once released they are back in the gang's Coercion, Coordination and Resilience.
“family” and often in line for possible
promotion. BURGLAR
Freelance thugs work as muggers, stick- Burglars are independent operators
up men, and armed robbers. though they occasionally employ
The bootlegger (or thug) counts the partners. Cat burglar or otherwise, most
following skills as career skills: Brawl, prefer to leave little trace of their
Coercion, Driving and Melee. comings and goings.
The burglar counts the following
BOUNTY HUNTER skills as career skills: Athletics,
Bounty hunters are a leftover from an Perception, Skulduggery and Stealth.
earlier era but still useful tracking
down and returning fugitives from BUS DRIVER / STREETCAR
justice. Bounty hunters are freelancers
most often employed by bondsmen to CONDUCTOR
track down bail jumpers. Bounty Formerly owned by private companies,
hunters freely cross state lines in by the end of the decade most bus and
pursuit of their quarry and show other public transport lines have been
little regard for civil rights and taken over by their respective cities
other technicalities when or countries. Workers are fully
capturing their prey. Breaking unionized and there seems at
and entering, illegal phone last an end to the crippling
taps, threats, and physical urban transit strikes or
abuse are all part of the earlier years.
successful bounty hunter's The bus driver (or street
bag of tricks. Although a car conductor) counts the
captured fugitive might following skills as career
complain to authorities about his skills: Driving, Mechanics,
rights being violated, grateful Negotiation and Streetwise.
police are slow to follow up on
these charges. BUTLER / VALET
The bounty hunter counts the This occupation covers those who
following skills as career skills: are employed in a servant
Coercion, Driving, Ranged [Light] capacity and includes butler,
and Stealth. valet and lady’s maid.
A butler is usually employed as
BOXER / WRESTLER a domestic servant for a large
Boxers and wrestlers are managed household. Traditionally the
by individuals or small teams of butler is charge of the dining
managers and trainers, and possibly room, wine cellar and pantry, and
backed by outside interests. ranks as the highest male
Professional boxers and wrestlers servant. Usually male – a
work and train full-time. They are housekeeper would be the female
usually locked into contracts. equivalent – the butler is
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responsible for male servants within the southern Bible Belt supports many
household. The duties of the butler will traveling tent shows featuring song,
vary to according to the requirements of dance, and gospel revival.
his employer. The charismatic cult leader counts the
A valet or lady’s maid provides following skills as career skills: Charm,
personal services, such as maintaining Cool, Deception and Perception.
her employer's clothes, running baths and
effectively acting as personal assistant. CHARMER
The work might include making travel Confident and elegant, the charmer
arrangements, managing their employer’s employs his wits and wiles with more
diary and organizing household finances. precision than a surgeon's scalpel. Rather
The butler (or valet) counts the than resorting to uncivilized
following skills as career skills: Charm, intimidation tactics or distasteful acts
Discipline, Knowledge and Perception. of violence, the charmer believes the
best way to get what he wants is to
CATHOLIC PRIEST simply ask for it. A charmer knows how to
Priests are celibate, and answer talk the talk, possessing natural
directly to the hierachy of the Catholic charisma that makes him irresistible.
Church and the Pope. The Struck by the flash of his
Church usually assigns smile or the wink of his eye,
priests to their respective people have a hard time
parishes, or sends them on denying anything to the
missions. Priests may rise charmer.
through the ranks of bishop, The chief weapon in a
archbishop, and cardinal. Many charmer’s arsenal is
are trained in professional clearly his undeniable
skills, acting as doctors, lawyers, charisma. When coaxing
and scholars. his way into a private
The Catholic priest counts the club or restricted area,
following skills as career skills: the charmer knows how
Charm, Discipline, Knowledge and to compliment without
Vigilance. sounding sycophantic.
In rare cases when
CHARISMATIC CULT LEADER his debonair
America has always generated appearance and
new relgions, from the New refined taste fails
England Transcendentalists to him, the charmer
the Latter-Day Saints, as well as knows how to resort
many others. During the 1920s to negotiation and
any number of charismatic cult trickery to get his
leaders emerge. Some espouse way, doing so with
forms of Christianity while his own smooth
others incorporate Eastern brand of flair and
mysticism and occult practices. style. The charmer
These groups are particularly keeps a cool head in
familiar to America's West Coast the hottest
but are found all around the situations, which
country in different forms. The often serves as
inspiration to others, and he has no Clerks are habitually underpaid and the
qualms with taking a leadership role if work is drudgery. They hope to gain a
it furthers his purposes. Whether or not managerial position someday.
he knows the right thing to say, the The clerk counts the following skills
charmer always knows how to say it. as career skills: Charm, Knowledge,
The charmer counts the following Perception, and Resilience.
skills as career skills: Charm, Deception,
Streetwise and Vigilance. COCKTAIL WAITRESS
Again a technically illegal profession,
CHARTER BOAT CAPTAIN many job opportunities exist working in
Charter boats work both the illegal speakeasies owned by the mob.
coasts of America, as well as The cocktail waitress counts the
on the Great Lakes, following skills as career skills:
catering to sport Charm, Cool, Deception and
fishermen and vacationers. Negotiation.
By far the greatest
number of charter COLUMNIST
boats are found in Columnists are the celebrities of
Florida, on both the the newspaper world, well known to
Gult and ocean coasts. their readers. Usually ex-reporters,
Those found at Key they work in the office, or at home,
West can be chartered usually writing one column per day,
for trips to Havana, Cuba, five or six days a wekk. Some are
where alcohol, gambling, and sports columnists, others write for
nearly everything else are business and finance, society or the
legally available. Charter entertaiment industry. There are columns
boats are typically large giving advice to the love-lorn and even
cabin cruisers equipped with astrology columns. The most sophisticated
bunks and a galley. and popular columnists are syndicated to
The charter boat captain newspapers around the country.
counts the following skills as The columnist counts the following
career skills: Medicine, skills as career skills: Charm, Knowledge,
Operating, Perception and Negotiation and Streetwise.
Survival.
COMMUNIST / RADICAL
CHAUFFEUR The other side of the political coin,
A chauffeur is either directly radicals work in the streets selling
employed by an individual or firm, or newspapers, organizing rallies, and
works for an agency that hires both car talking to the public. Others, less
and chauffeur out for single respectful of the law, infiltrate unions,
engagements or on a retainer basis. incite riots, or even engage in terrorist
The chauffeur counts the following bombings.
skills as career skills: Coordination, The communist (or radical) counts the
Driving, Mechanics and Streetwise. following skills as career skills: Brawl,
Deception, Discipline and Driving.
CLERK
The lowest level white-collar position.
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COMPANY OFFICER / EXECUTIVE responsibilities carrying with them

These are high-paying positions in titles like “Religion Editor”.
large national and multi-national The copywriter counts the following
corporations. Chairman of the Board is skills as career skills: Discipline,
usually the highest title, followed by Knowledge, Negotiation and Perception.
one or more Presidents and often near-
countless vice-presidents. Other CRAFTSPERSON
executives are titled managers, and wait May be equally termed an artisan or
impatiently for promotion. master craftsperson. The craftsperson is
Occupations are available in any essentially skilled in the manual
manufacturing industry – the auto production of items or materials.
industry being one of the largest – or Normally quite talented individuals,
light and power, banking, or even the new some gaining a high reputation for works
and film industries. of art, while others provide a needed
Although bachelors are not infrequent, community service.
most executive types are family men with Possible trades include: furniture,
wives and children. It is often expected jewelry, watchmaker, potter, blacksmith,
of them. textiles, calligraphy, sewing, carpentry,
The company officer (or executive) book binding glassblowing, toy maker,
counts the following skills as career stained glass and so on.
skills: Coercion, Cool, Driving and The craftsperson counts the following
Leadership,. as career skills: Cool, Coordination,
Driving and Resilience.
CON ARTIST
Confidence men are smooth talkers. DEEP-SEA DIVER
Working alone or in teams, they Deep-sea divers work as sponge
descend on communities, fleecing gatherers, salvage divers, and even
citizens of their hard-earned treasure hunters. The U.S. Navy
savings. Some schemes are elaborate, maintains
involving teams of scam men and trained diving
rented buildings; others are simple teams and it
affairs, transactions is possible
requiring only one con that an
artist and no more than a investigator
few minutes. learned his occupation
The con artist counts in the service. Tarpon
the following skills as Springs, Florida, is home to a
career skills: Brawl, flourishing sponge trade.
Deception, Perception and Sponge boats – many of them
Stealth. owned by the large Greek
community – sail out every day,
COPYWRITER sending down divers to find and
Newspapers employ collect sponges from the bottom.
copywriters to turn slap- The deep-sea diver counst the
dash reporting into following skills as career skills:
readable prose. Some are Athletics, Coordination, Resilience and
given additional Stealth.
DENTIST as career skills: Knowledge, Negotiation,

Dentists are licensed by the state in Perception and Streetwise.
much the same way as physicians. Dentists
most often open small offices and ELECTED OFFICIAL
develop their own practices. Popularly elected officials enjoy
The dentist counts the following skills prestige commensurate with their
as career skills: Charm, Medicine, position. Small town mayors and township
Negotiation and Perception. supervisors find their influence
extends little beyond their
DESIGNER municipality's borders. Often these
Designers work in all fields: jobs are only part-time, paying but
fashion, stage, furniture design, small compensation. The mayors of
light fixtures, etc. big cities are well-paid, however,
The designer counts the often ruling their cities like
following skills as career little kingdoms and wielding
skills: Coordination, Mechanics, more influence and power than
Negotiation and Streetwise. the governor of their respective
state.
Local representatives and
DILETTANTE senators elected to state houses
Dilettantes are self- enjoy a fair amount of respect,
supporting, living off an particularly with the business
inheritance, trust fund, or community, and often at a
other. The amount of money at statewide level. Govenors, of
your disposal may be great or course, are responsible for
meager but is enough to keep entire states and have
you from being forced to seek connections across the country.
employment. Federal positions carry the most
The dilettante counts the clout. States send a number of
following skills as career representatives to Congress based
skills: Charm, Driving, upon population count and the House
Leadership and Vigilance. seats over 400 members, each elected
to a two-year term. Each state,
EDITOR regardless of size, also sends two
Editors work in the office, senators to Washington. Elected to
assigning reporters stories, writing six-year terms and numbering less
editorials, dealing with crises, and than a hundred, senators hold
meeting deadlines. Occasionally considerably more influence than
they edit. Large newspapers have many representatives and some elder senators
editors, including managing editors more receive nearly as much respect as the
involved with business than news. Other president.
editors specialize in business, sports, or The elected official counts the
some other area. following skills as career skills: Charm,
Small newspapers may have only a Driving, Knowledge and Leadership.
single editor who, in fact, may also be
the owner as well as the only fulltime ENGINEER
employee. A specialist in mechanical or electrical
The editor counts the following skills devices, employed in a civilian business
Strange Aeons
or in the military, but also including the surrounding territory is still

inventors. The engineer applies scientific unknown.
knowledge, mathematics and a liberal The explorer counts the following
amount of ingenuity to design solutions skills as career skills: Athletics, Ranged
for technical problems. [Heavy], Resilience and Survival.
The engineer counts the following
skills as career skills: Athletics, FARMER / FARM HAND
Coordination, Mechanics and Operating. The 1920s are the first decade where
the urban population of the U.S.
ENTERTAINER outnumbers the rural population.
A performing entertainer may be a Independent farmers are finding
singer, dancer, musician, comedian, themselves squeezed between competition
ventriloquist, juggler, or other – or any from corporate controlled farms and
combination of these different talents. fluctuating commodities markets.
New York's Broadway and off-Broadway The farmer (or farm hand) counts the
stages are the pinnacle, but theatres are following skills as career skills:
found in every large city. Vaudeville is Athletics, Mechanics, Melee and
nearly gone, but not quite dead, Resilience.
and many song-and-dance men
still work this old circuit. FEDERAL AGENT
Others to go Hollywood hoping to There are a vast variety of federal
find a spot in the film industry. law enforcement agents. Some are
The entertainer counts the uniformed, such as the U.S. Marshals
following skills as career and some agents of the Customs
skills: Athletics, Charm, Department. Use the Uniformed
Deception and Stealth. Police Officers description for
these characters. Others – the
EXPLORER Bureau of Investigation, the
There are still enough Secret Service, etc. - are
unknown areas in the world plainclothes and operate similar to
that some people can make a detectives.
career of exploring. The federal agent counts the
Scientific grants, inflated by following skills as career skills:
private donations combined Coercion, Driving, Ranged [Light] and
with newspaper, magazine, Stealth.
book, and film rights often
generate enough money to FEMME FATALE
support the adventurer and A deadly woman or man whose
his exciting life. outward beauty usually masks a
Still unexplored is much self-centered approach to life; one
of darkest Africa, great who is ever vigilant. By
portions of the Matto Grosso in constructing an alluring and
South America, the great glamorous persona the femme
Australian desert, the Sahara and fatale is akin to a spider. She
Arabian deserts, and much of the draws others to her web in order
Asian interior. Although to possess what she desires or
expeditions have reached destroy her target. Brave and
both the north and south poles, much of
cunning, the femme fatale is not shy of FILM CREW

getting her hands dirty and is a capable Film crews are more specialized than
foe. Neither is she foolhardy, and she theater stage crews and include
will wait until her web is constructed carpenters, electricians, cameramen,
before dealing out a sudden and well- costumers, and many others. Unions are
timed assault (be it mental or physical). A already making inroads in a film
classic pulp archetype, the femme fatale industry earning enough money to easily
could as easily be termed homme fatale if concede to most of their demands. Unlike
so desired. their counterparts on the stage, members
The femme fatale counts the following of the film crews are rarely aspiring
skills as career skills: Charm, Cool, actors.
Deception and Skulduggery. The film crew counts the following
skills as career skills: Coordination,
FENCE Driving, Mechanics and Streetwise.
Fences are the recivers of stolen
goods. Paying rates as low FILM STAR
as ten cents on a dollar Movie stars and the film industry
they purcahse, store, and have captures the interest of
resell hot merchandise. Pawn America. Many starts are made
shops are particularly good “overnight” and most of them lead
fronts for fencing flashy, high-profile lives.
operations. Others store Many careers are lost with the
their goods in warehouses or introduction of talkies in the
even their own homes. latter part of the decade. With
The fence counts the following the addition of dialogue, the
skills as career skills: Coercion, arm-waving histrionics of silent
Negotiation, Skulduggery and actors give way to more subtle
Stealth. characterizations. John Garfield
and Francis X- Bushman are
FIELD RESEARCHER forgotten for new stars such as
Field researchers are usually Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford.
highly experienced, independent The film star counts the following
and resourceful, and most often skills as career skills: Athletics,
robust and healthy. Oil companies Charm, Coordination and Deception.
send geologists into the field to
explore potential petroleum fields, FIREFIGHTER
anthropologists study primitive Firefighters are civil servants,
tribes in forgotten corners of the employed by the communities they serve.
globe, and archaeologists spend years They work around the clock, on shifts
of their lives unearthing treasures lasting several days: eating, sleeping,
in deserts and jungles, bargaining and entertaining themselves within the
with native diggers and confines of the station.
governments. Organized along military lines,
The field researcher counts the promotion through lieutenant, captain,
following skills as career skills: and chief is possible.
Athletics, Knowledge, Medicine and The firefighter counts the following
Resilience. skills as career skills: Athletics,
Strange Aeons
Medicine, Resilience and Vigilance. following skills as career skills:

Knowledge, Medicine, Perception and
FLAPPER Vigilance.
Being a flapper is a state of mind
rather than an occupation, FORENSIC SURGEON
although some dilettantes have A specialized occupation, most
raised it to a fine art. Pixie forensic surgeons are employed by
haircuts, cloche hats, long a city, country, or state to conduct
strings of beads, and gowns autopsies, determine causes of
slit high up the side are de death, and make recommendations to
rigueur. Above all is required the prosecutor's office. Forensic
a distinct lack of restraint. surgeons are often called to give
Flappers are most often testimony at criminal proceedings.
employed as secretaries, sales The forensic surgeon counts the
help, or other, similar work. following skills as career skills:
Many origins are given for the Discipline, Knowledge, Medicine and
name flapper, but it most likely Resilience.
dates back to the early years of
the decade when it became FORGER / COUNTERFEITER
fashionable to wear rubber The artists of the criminal world,
galoshes left unbuckled to “flap” they specialize in forging official
while walking. deeds and transfers and providing
The flapper counts the phony signatures. The beginners work
following skills as career skills: manufacturing fake ID for petty
Charm, Discipline, Driving and criminals; the best engrave plates
Negotiation. for counterfeiting U.S. currency.
The forger (or counterfeiter) counts
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT the following skills as career skills:
Foreign correspondents are the Deception, Knowledge, Skulduggery
elite of reporters. They work on and Stealth.
salary, enjoy expense accounts,
and travel the globe. The work is often GAMBLER
exciting and sometimes hazardous. Gamblers are the dandies of the
The foreign correspondent counts the criminal world. Sharp dressers, they
following skills as career skills: Cool, usually possess some sort of charm, either
Negotiation, Stealth and Streetwise. earthy or sophisticated. Race track touts
smoke cigard and wear pork pie hats and
FORENSIC SPECIALIST loud sport jackets. More sophisticated
A rather new occupation, the forensic gamblers frequent the illegal casinos
specialist is usually a detective with a operated by organized crime. Some fly to
knack for collecting and analyzing Cuba for weekends of gambling and legal
fingerprints, blood samples, and other drinking. A few are known as poker
forensic evidence. Because of their players and are often involved in
preoccupation with this pursuit, they are lengthy, high-stakes games where they
usually passed over in the course of may even be backed by outside investors.
normal promotions. The lowest frequent alleys and dives,
The forensic specialist counts the playing craps with loaded dice, or
hustling in pool halls. GANGSTER'S MOLL

The gambler counts the following The female companion of a professional
skills as career skills: Cool, Deception,criminal. Sometimes known a “gun moll”
Negotiation and Vigilance. (e.g.. Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde
infamy). the moll is expected to do as
GANGSTER she’s told and live at the beck and call
Gangsterism rose to prominence in the of her mobster boyfriend; however in
1920s. Neighborhood ethnic gangs who had reality this could easily be the other
heretofore limited their activities to way around, with the moll working her
local protection schemes and small boyfriend for all she can before
gambling rackets discovered the immense skedaddling with all the cash and furs
profits to be made in the illegal beer she can carry.
and liquor industry. Before long they The gangster's moll counts the
controlled whole sections of cities and following skills as career skills:
warred with one another in the streets. Deception, Driving, Melee and Streetwise.
Though most gangs are of ethnic origin –
Irish, Italian, and Jewish in the main – GARDENER / GRAVE DIGGER
gangsters of nearly all These characters are strong, healthy
nationalities are found within the types – most often loners. They
ranks. occasionally surprise people with an
Aside from illegal liquor, unexpected knowledge of literature,
organized crime deals in philosophy, poetry, or other self-taught
prostitution, protection, narcotics, specialty.
gambling, and many other forms The gardener (or grave digger)
of corruption. counts the following skills as
Gangsters keep plush offices career skills: Athletics,
in desirable downtown locations. Perception, Resilience and
Although some prefer to Survival.
keep a low profile, many
are flashy individuals
desirous of attention and GENTLEMAN
publicity. Sharp dressers, A man of good breeding,
they are often charming in courteous behavior and good
public, though dangerous in conduct. Usually the term is
private. applied to a member of the upper
A gangster character could class who is independently
be the boss of a whole city, wealthy (either by inheritance or
part of a city, or merely an regular allowance).
underling gangster that works In the 1920s, a gentleman would
for the boss. Underlings certainly have had at least one
usually have specific areas of servant (butler, valet, chauffer)
responsibility such as and probably a country and city
overseeing liquor shipments, residence. One does not necessarily
collecting protection money, etc. have to be rich to be a gentleman, as
The gangster counts the often family status is more important
following skills as career skills: than family wealth in terms of the
Brawl, Coercion, Driving and Ranged highest society.
[Light]. The gentleman counts the following
Strange Aeons
skills as career skills: Athletics, Charm, The hobo counts the following skills as
Driving and Leadership. career skills: Athletics, Deception,
Stealth and Survival.
GOLF PRO
Professional golfers are often from HOOKER
warm climates where links are available Depending on circumstance, breeding
year round. Most grew up working as and background, a prostitute may be a
caddies and/or grounds keepers, spending high-rolling expensive call girl, brothel
all their spare time golfing. Most whore or streetwalker. Often driven by
golf pros hold steady jobs at circumstance, many dream of a way out. A
privately-owned golf courses, few work completely independently;
giving lessons, socializing with however for most, they are lured and
club members, etc. kept in the business by ruthless pimps
The golf pro counts the whose only concern is cash.
following skills as career The hooker counts the following skills
skills: Athletics, as career skills: Deception, Negotiation,
Coordination, Negotiation Stealth and Streetwise.
and Perception.
ITINERANT PREACHER
HITMAN Itinerants are usually dusty,
Hitmen are the cold-blooded ragged preachers traveling the
killers of the underworld. country on foot, spreading the
Usually hired from somewhere word of God on street corners
out of town, they arrive, do and in parking lots. Many
their work, then quickly proclaim the forthcoming
disappear. Sociopaths, they end of the world.
seem to lack the ability to The itinerant preacher counts the
empathize with other human following skills as career skills: Charm,
beings. Despite this, many Negotiation, Stealth and Vigilance.
marry, raise children, and in
all other ways behave like JUDGE
model citizens. Judges are either appointed or elected,
The hitman counts the sometimes for a term of specified length,
following skills as career other times for life. Judges are always
skills: Driving, Melee, licensed attorneys whether they sit on
Ranged [Light] and the smallest bench in a far off
Stealth. Western town, or on the bench of the
Federal Supreme Court.
HOBO The judge counts the following skills
Although there are people out of work as career skills: Coercion, Knowledge,
and, as always, alcoholics lying in the Negotiation and Perception.
gutters, the true hobo forms a separate
breed. Riding the rails continually, on LABORATORY ASSISTANT
the move from one town to another and Working in a scientific environment,
working only when necessary, they are the assistant (or technician) performs
poets and vagabonds – adventurers, laboratory and administrative tasks
criminals, and thieves. under the supervision of a lead scientist.
Tasks are varied and dependent on the lending money at exorbitant interest
scientific discipline of the lead scientist rates. Loan sharks usually have thugs
or laboratory, but could include: working for them to collect overdue
sampling, testing, recording and payments and extract vengeance on bad
analyzing results, setting up or debitors.
performing experiments, preparing The loan shark counts the following
specimens and samples, administering the skills as career skills: Brawl, Coercion,
day-to-day work of the laboratory and Negotiation and Streetwise.
ensuring health and safety polices are
adhered to. LUMBERJACK
The laboratory assistant Lumberjacks are most often employed
counts the following skills as by large lumber companies
career skills: Coordination, working in the northern U.S.
Discipline, Knowledge and and northwest Canada. Many
Medicine. are of French-Canadian descent.
The lumberjack counts the
LABORER following skills as career skills:
This includes factory Athletics, Melee, Resilience and
workers, mill hands, Survival.
stevedores, road crews,
miners, and any other MADHOUSE ATTENDANT
unskilled labor Although there are private
position. Often these sanitariums for those few that can
jobs are represented afford them, the vast bulk of the
by unions, especially mentally ill are housed in state and
in the larger shops, county facilities. Aside from a few
but many employment areas doctors and nurses, they employ a
still resist unionization. large number of attendants, often
The laborer counts the chosen for their strength and size.
following skills as career The madhouse attendant counts the
skills: Brawl, Coordination, following skills as career skills: Brawl,
Operating and Resilience. Charm, Coercion and Medicine.
LIBRARIAN MANAGER / COACH

Librarians are most often Usually ex-athletes too old to
employed by public institutions compete, managers and coaches direct
or universities. Occasionally teams, conduct practices, and plan
opportunities appear to take strategies. Coaches of popular college
over custodial care of a private football teams are some of the most well-
library, but these are increasingly known celebrities in sports, and highly-
infrequent. paid. Trainers of gymnasts and others
The librarian counts the following become father-figures to their most gifte
skills as career skills: Charm, Discipline, athletes, often forming long-lasting,
Knowledge and Perception. personal relationships.
The manager (or coach) counts the
LOAN SHARK following skills as career skills:
A loan sharm makes a specialty of Athletics, Brawl, Medicine and Resilience.
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MARTIAL ARTIST America and the rest of the world. They

Organizations and cultures have are protected by a seaman's union but
developed their own unique hand-to-hand once away from port are truly at the
combat styles. Over decades, centuries and mercy of the ship's captain. Although
millennia, these combat forms become more many of the gross abuses of the past
than mere means of inflicting violence; have ceased, it is still a coarse and
generations of practitioners work to demanding life.
make them into art forms, philosophies, Sailors work aboard ships usually one
and ways of life. A desire to practice voyage at a time. A small advance is paid
self-defense can become a belief in the upon sailing, the rest due when the ship
value of self-betterment and the innate lands in port. After parting with a ship,
potential of others, though not all sailors typically spend the next few
ideologies develop along such lines. days, weeks, or months ashore, spending
Unlike characters from other careers all their money. When finally broke they
built around closequarter combat, seek out the next ship leaving port and
martial artists does not need a weapon to sign on.
fight competently. Martial artists The merchant marine counts the
generally value precision over brute following skills as career skills:
strength, and strive to execute Athletics, Mechanics, Operating and
efficient unarmed strikes. By Resilience.
wasting as little energy as possible,
they can deliver extremely forceful MILITARY OFFICER
blows even when unarmed. Officers are command rank and
The martial artist counts the most commissions demand some
following skills as career sort of higher education. The
skills: Athletics, Brawl, armed services have
Coordination and Discipline. established officer training
programs (ROTC) at most major
MERCENARY universities and, with his
Military mercenaries are tuition paid by the military, a
professional soldiers hiring cadet simultaneously trains for
themselves out to fight small the military while attending school.
wars, stage revolutions, or Upon graduation he is promoted to
quell rebellions. Most have the rank of Army or Marine Second
legitimate military experience, Lieutenant, or Naval Ensign, and
probably in the Great War, but assigned to a station. Usually they
perhaps in something more owe the government four years
exotic like the French Foreign active service after which time
Legion. they may return to civilian life.
The mercenary counts the Many of the officers trained this
following skills as career skills: way hold professional commissions
Athletics, Melee, Ranged [Heavy] and serve as doctors, lawyers, or
and Survival. engineers.
Those looking for a life's
career in the military try to get
MERCHANT MARINE themselves appointed to one of the
These are the sailors who military academies: the Army's West
work the cargo ships of Point, or the Navy's Annapolis. Its
hard to beat the respect an officer gains The missionary counts the following
having graduated from one of these skills as career skills: Charm, Discipline,
schools. Once out of school some officers Knowledge and Medicine.
opt for special traininig such as air
pilot or other. MONK / NUN
Occasionally an experienced and A male member of a cenobitic religious
exceptionally worthy enlisted man is order, dwelling in community with his
promoted to “Warrant Officer”. Although fellow monks for some purpose that is
technically at the bottom of the intended to serve the aims of his faith.
officers' list of ranks, the time and Note that a monk is not necessarily an
experience required to achieve this ordained priest but is in some form of
promotion carry a respect and reverence religious orders, unlike a lay brother,
far exceeding that of any junior to who is an ordinary rank-and-file member
middle-grade officer. of the religion living in a monastery and
Most commissions are for life. Even a working alongside the monks, usually as
long-retired officer has the right to calla servant or specialist craftsman.
himself “Captain”, “General”, or whatever. Traditionally monks were meant to live
The military officer counts the under codes which include such
following skills as career skills: Brawl, strictures as poverty, chastity
Leadership, Ranged [Light] and obedience - sometimes with a
and Survival. very restricted diet, rules of
silence and other disciplines
MINER of faith. In practice the
A grueling job most likely in degree to which these rules
the coal mines of West Virginia, were observed - and whether
Pennsylvania, and surrounding the spirit or the letter of
area. Unions struggle against the the code was better kept -
mine owners and violence – including varied greatly and it was
bombings and assassinations – is not not unknown for some
uncommon. monastries to accquire
The miner counts the following skills scandalous reputations
as career skills: Athletics, Perception, for high living and
Resilience and Vigilance. debauchery.
The female congnate of
MISSIONARY “monk” is “nun” - most of
Most often a Catholic priest or the above applies with
Protestant minister, missionaries visit slight variations
remote corners of the globe regardless of the gender of
dispensing the word of God to the the participants, although
unfortunate primitives. Mormons are a convent of nuns was
also called upon to perform missions, often used as a dumping
but these are often in urban areas ground for “inconvenient”
including parts of the U.S. Being sent women.
on a two-year mission to Los Angeles is The monk (or nun)
not impossible. counts the following
Laymen also serve as missionaries. skills as career skills:
They are often professionals: doctors and Discipline, Knowledge,
other skilled types. Medicine and Vigilance.
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MOUNTAIN CLIMBER auto, and train.

Mountain climbing as a sport became The jazz musician counts the following
popular in the 19th century. Most skills as career skills: Cool.,
climbers are weekend and vacation Coordination, Driving and Steetwise.
sportsmen; only a few have the
reputations needed to attract the MUSICIAN, LEGITIMATE
financing required for major climbs. Legitimate musicians are trained in
By the 1920s all the major American schools and colleges. They strive for
and Alpine peaks have been conquered. steady salaried employment in civic
After lengthy negotiations with the orchestras.
Tibetans, climbers have finally been The legitimate musician counts the
granted access to the highest peaks of following skills as career skills: Charm,
the Himalayas. Regular assaults on Mt. Coordination, Discipline and Perception.
Everest, the last unconquered peak in the
world, are routinely covered by radio NURSE
and newspapers. Expeditions in 1921, 1922, Nurses are trained medical assistants,
and 1924 all failed to reach the summit sometimes male, but far more often
and resulted in the deaths of female. Nursing schools have been
thirteen people. established around the country and
The mountain climber counts the most states now require successful
following skills as career skills: completion of an accredited nursing
Athletics, Medicine, Resilience and course before awarding a license. Many
Survival. older nurses, however, have been in
the profession since long before
MUSEUM CURATOR there were such things.
A museum curator can be The nurse counts the following
responsible for a large skills as career skills:
facility like a university or Leadership, Medicine, Resilience
other publicly funded and Vigilance.
institution, or any sort of
smaller museum, often OCCULTIST
specializing in local geology or Occultists are students of magic
other such topic. and other powers. They fully believe
The museum curator counts the in extra normal abilities and
following skills as career skills: actively attempt to discover these
Charm, Coordination, Negotiation powers within themselves. Most are
and Perception. familiar with a broad range of
different philosophies and magical
MUSICIAN, JAZZ theories.
Jazz musicians work in small The occultist counts the following
combos and dance orchestras in skills as career skills: Cool,
large and medium-sized cities and Discipline, Knowledge and Magic.
towns. A few musicians living in
large cities like Chicago or New York ORDERLY
find steady work in their hometown The typical hospital orderly is in
but most spend significant amounts charge of emptying wastes, cleaning
of time on the road, touring by bus, rooms, taxiing patients, and any other
odd job requiring slightly more skill pretend to enjoy extraordinary powers,
than a janitor. but instead spend their efforts
The orderly counts the following attempting to observe, record, and study
skills as career skills: Coercion, such instances. Making use of a few
Mechanics, Medicine and Stealth. simple devices and a good dose of common
sense, they spend a major portion of
OUTSIDER their time debunking fake mediums and
The outsider stands apart from the mistaken phenomena than recording
rest of society, either figuratively or actual evidence. Some make intensive
literally. Such people may be alien to studies of ESP, telekinesis, and other
the environment in which they find paranormal powers.
themselves, perhaps from a different The parapsychologist counts the
country or culture, or they are part of following skills as career skills: Cool,
the society but find themselves at odds Knowledge, Magic and Mechanical.
with it. The outsider is usually on some
form of journey, physically or PHARMACIST
spiritually, and must complete their Oddly enough, pharmacists have long
objective before they can return to, or at been more closely regulated than
last feel part of, the greater physicians. They are licensed by
whole. Often the outsider will individual states, most of them
have distinct skills or a requiring a high school education
different way of approaching and three years of pharmacy
things; utilizing forgotten, school. There are currently seventy
secret, or alien knowledge. to eighty pharmacy schools in the
The outsider counts the U.S. A pharmacist may be
following skills as career employed in a hospital or a
skills: Deception, drug store, or even seek out his
Discipline, Resilience and own store.
Survival. The pharmacist counts the
following skills as career
PAINTER / SCULPTOR skills: Knowledge, Medicine,
The plastic arts are Negotiation and Resilience.
always popular but
materials are expensive PHOTOGRAPHER
and sales infrequent. Many Photography as an art form
artists work in advertising has been around for a long
firms drawing pictures of time, but most photographers
washing machines and work for advertising firms or in
automobiles. portrait studios taking pictures
The painter (or sculptor) of families. Others are employed
counts the following skills as in the newspaper and film
career skills: Discipline, industries.
Knowledge, Negotiation and The photographer counts the
Perception. following skills as career
skills: Driving, Mechanics,
PARAPSYCHOLOGIST Perception and Vigilance.
Parapsychologists do not
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PHOTOJOURNALIST schools and by 1923 their number had

These are reporters that use cameras. A fallen to eighty, seventy-four of which
true photojournalist is expected to write required a minimum two years of college
prose to accompany his photo articles. before entry.
Newsreels come into being in the 1920s. Younger doctors will have passed
Heavy, bulky 35mm film equipment is through the school and licensing system
hauled around the globe in search of established in later years. Older
exciting news stories, sporting events, physicians have probably practiced since
and bathing beauty pageants. Thrills before the days of strict licensing and
and dangers are the key word in the may or may not be proficient in
newsreel industry. modern methods. Some survive from
Newsreel teams usually number the day when a doctor was expected to
three, one of them an actual reporter be a barber, as well.
who writes the copy while the A doctor can choose to be a
other two handle the camera, General Practitioner with a
lights, etc. Voice-overs are rural or neighborhood practice
done at the home studio, in or near a small town or city.
based on the written In rural areas such small
copy. practices can still be
The photojournalist purchased from retiring
counts the following skills physicians by younger doctors
as career skills: Cool, looking to establish
Negotiation, Perception and themselves. Many physicians
Streetwise. are employed by large urban
hospitals, allowing them to
specialize in things like
PHYSICIAN pathology, toxicology,
Physicians are licensed by orthopedics, and even
individual states, most brain surgery. Doctors
requiring a minimum of two may also serve as part or
years attendance at an full-time medical
accredited medical school. These examiners, conducting
requirements, however, are but autopsies and signing death
a recent development. Many certificates for the city, county,
older physicians first obtained or state.
their licenses long before such The physician counts the
strict regulations were in effect following skills as career skills:
and continue to hold them Coordination, Knowledge, Leadership
despite failing to have ever and Medicine.
attended medical school.
At the beginning of this century there
were over 160 medical schools in the U.S. PICKPOCKET
but no governing agency to oversee them. Pickpockets lead desperate, furtive
Many of these schools were inadequate, lives. Often they know one another,
and some downright frauds. Even the best occasionally teaming up to perform more
of them seldom required more than a high intricate maneuvers: one making the
school education from its applicants. In actual snatch then quickly handing off
1904 the AMA (American Medical the prize to the passing partner and
Association) began critically rating these relieving himself of any evidence.
The pickpocket counts the following The political boss counts the following
skills as career skills: Perception, skills as career skills: Charm, Coercion,
Skulduggery, Stealth and Streetwise. Knowledge and Streetwise.
PLASTIC SURGEON PRACTICING ATTORNEY

This is a new field and particularly Attorneys are licensed by individual
popular in Hollywood where closeup states, most of them requiring an
cameras readily reveal the disastrous attorney to have a minimum of a high
effects of aging; face lifts are already school education, plus either attendance
common within the film community. at an accredited law school or two or
Gangsters and other criminals have also three years spent working under a
taken advantage of this science, seeking licensed attorney. An examination
to alter their appearance and escape administered by the State Bar
recognition. Plastic surgeons are all Association rates attorneys and awards
licensed physicians specializing in what licences. An understanding known as
is commonly known as cosmetic surgery. “comity” allows attorneys to
The plastic surgeon counts the practice law in different states
following skills as career skills: regardless of where their license
Coercion, Knowledge, Medicine and was obtained.
Negotiation. Attorneys can be employed by
large law firms, directly by
POLICE DETECTIVE corporations, or simply hang
The plainsclothes branch of out their shingle and hope to
police agencies, detectives attract a practice.
examine crime scenes, gather The practicing attorney
evidence, conduct interviews, counts the following skills
and try to solve homicides, as career skills: Charm, Cool,
major burglaries, and other Knowledge and Negotiation.
sorts of felonies. They work
the streets, often in close PRIVATE EYE
cooperation with uniformed The private eye is a
patrolmen. They have their freelance detective with his
own hiearchy of ranks similar own small agency, possibly
to, but separate from, the employing an assistant and a
uniformed officers. secretary. Most private eyes have
The police detective counts the spent time working as operatives
following skills as career skills: with national agencies or city
Driving, Perception, Ranged [Light] police forces before going out on
and Vigilance. their own. A special license is
required.
POLITICAL BOSS The private eye counts the
Political bosses never run for following skills as career
office and, in fact, shun the skills: Brawl, Coercion,
limelight. These are the men who Driving and Perception.
gather in smoke-filled backrooms to
wheel and deal, to make and break PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE
candidates. You play on a professional baseball,
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football, or basketball team. This may be Coercion, Cool, Knowledge, and

a major league team with a reasonable, Negotiation.
regular salary and national attention or
– particularly in the case of baseball – PROSPECTOR
one of the many minor league teams, some Though the days of the California Gold
of them owned and operated by major Rush and the Nevada Comstock Lode are
league owners. The latter pay barely long gone, the independent prospector is
enough to keep players fed and on the still a feature of the American West.
team. In any case, professional athletes Roaming the mountains, they endlessly
spend a considerable amount of time on search for the big strike that will make
the road in busses and on trains. them rich. In these days oil may be as
The professional athlete counts good as gold.
the following skills as career The prospector counts the following
skills: Athletics, Coordination, skills as career skills: Athletics,
Melee and Resilience. Perception, Resilience and Survival.
PROFESSOR / TEACHER PROTESTANT MINISTER

Professors are employed by Protestant ministers run a range
colleges and universities; of types from the robed priests of
teachers work in public and the Episcopal Church, to the suited
private schools with the professionals of the Unitarians, to
lower grades. Occasionally the fire-and-brimstone preachers of
larger corporations employ evangelist faiths.
a teacher to train The protestant minister counts the
employees, give seminars, or following skills as career skills:
write technical publication. Discipline, Knowledge, Leadership and
Independent scholars Vigilance.
sometimes support themselves
by teaching part-time courses
at colleges. PSYCHOLOGIST
The professor (or teacher) A rather new field involving the
counts the following skills as study of human behavior. Many
career skills: Discipline, psychologists are professors and
Knowledge, Leadership and researchers but industry is currently
Perception. showing interest in the possibility of
increasing productivity through
improved working conditions.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY The psychologist counts the following
Prosecuting attorneys are skills as career skills: Charm,
employed by local, state, or Knowledge, Perception and
federal government agencies to Psychoanalysis.
prosecute cases brought by the state
against individuals. “District Attorney”
is only one of many such titles. Smaller PUNK
communities, rather than keep an The typical young street hood, possibly
attorney on salary, hire local attorneys looking for a chance to hook up with real
to handle cases as they arise. gangsters. Experience is probably limited
The prosecuting attorney counts the to stealing cars, shoplifting, mugging,
following skills as career skills: and burglary.
The punk counts the following following skills as career skills: Driving,
skills as career skills: Brawl, Cool, Medicine, Ranged [Heavy] and Survival.
Melee and Streetwise.
REPORTER
RABBI Reporters work mostly outside the
Rabbis are scholars and office, gathering stories. Some are
advisors, trained in the Hebrew assigned to specific beats like the
faith. They usually practice in police station or the sports scene.
the neighborhood where they Others cover social events and garden
grew up. club meetings. The most experienced are
The rabbi counts the made investigative reporters who
following skills as career track down their own stories. These
skills: Cool, Knowledge, latter are often responsible for
Leadership and Negotiation. exposing government corruption,
organized crime, or other
RACE DRIVER malfeasance.
Auto racing is a favorite sport Reporters carry “press passes” but
of the 1920s. The Indianapolis 500 these are of little value other than to
is already a highly-publicized identify an individual as employed by
annual event. Many drivers race the newspaper. The real work is similar
boats as well as automobiles. to that of a private detective and
The race driver counts the reporters usually have to resort to
following skills as career skills: subterfuge to gain the information they
Cool, Driving, Mechanics and really want.
Perception. The reporter counts the following
skills as career skills: Athletics, Charm,
Perception and Stealth.
RADIO ANNOUNCER
The radio industry booms in the
1920s as this magical new medium RESEARCHER
captures the nation's imagination. The academic world sponsors a good
The radio announcer/celebrity is just deal of research, particularly in the
coming into his own. fields of astronomy, physics, and other
The radio announcer counts the theoretical sciences. The private sector
following skills as career skills: Charm, employs thousands of researchers,
Coercion, Knowledge and Streetwise. especially chemists, pharmacists, and
engineers. The big oil companies hire
many geologists. Researchers spend their
RANCH HAND / COWBOY time indoors, working and writing.
Cowboys still work the ranges and The researcher counts the following
ranches of the west. Some own their own skills as career skills: Discipline,
ranches, but many simply hire on where Knowledge, Mechanics and Medicine.
and when work is available. A few have
found employment in Hollywood working
as stuntmen and extras in the ever- SAILOR
popular westerns. Wyatt Earp currently Sailors are trained in either the Navy
works as a technical advisor to the film or Coast Guard. Like their counterparts
industry. in the Army, all sailors go through an
The ranch hand (or cowboy) counts the initial period of basic training. Upon
Strange Aeons
graduation they are assigned Where science is applied to creating

rates and stations. Although useful items, one might employ an
many sailors serve in the engineer, but if one wishes to expand the
traditional roles of bounds of what is possible, one will
Boatswain's Mate or Fireman require scientists.
rating (ship's engine man) Scientists are employed by
the Navy also has a need businesses and universities to carry
for technically trained out research.
mechanics, radio Although specializing in one field
operators, air of science, any scientist worth his of
controllers, etc. The her salt will be well-versed in several
highest enlisted rank if branches of science. A scientist will
Chief Petty Officer also have a good command of their own
which carries with it a language, having done higher degrees
prestige respected by even and probably a Ph.D.
high-ranking officers. The scientist counts the following
Enlistments are for six skills as career skills: Cool, Discipline,
years, usually four years Knowledge and Perception.
of active duty followed by
two years od inactive SECRETARY
reserve commitment during A position that ranges from high-paid
which the sailor can be private executive assistant to the typing
called to serve in times of pool. Men occasionally serve at the
national emergency. higher positions but the lower levels are
The sailor counts the almost exclusively female.
following skills as career The secretary counts the following
skills: Gunnery, Operating, skills as career skills: Charm, Discipline,
Ranged [Light] and Survival. Knowledge and Vigilance.
SALESMAN SHIFTY ACCOUNTANT / LAWYER

An integral part of many Organized crime needs its lawyers,
businesses, salesmen maintain small accountants, and other business
offices at company headquarters but personnel. Due to the nature of their
spend much of their time on the outside work they are usually kept segregated
meeting clients, buying lunches, and from the actual crimes, pretending not to
sharing drinks. Salesmen are likely to know what their employers are really up
change employment from one company to to. Nevertheless, most are recognized
another, almost effortlessly. Some sell underworld figures well known to the
product, others services; some sell police, the press, and the public as well.
advertising space in newspapers and The shifty accountant (or lawyer)
magazines, or on radio broadcasts. counts the following skills as career
The salesman counts the following skills: Coercion, Knowledge, Negotiation
skills as career skills: Charm, Driving, and Perception.
Negotiation and Streetwise.
SHOPKEEPER
SCIENTIST The owner of a small shop, market, or
Natural philosophers who delve restaurant is a self-employed person with
reality in the pursuit of knowledge.
few, if any, employees. Family members SMUGGLER

often work the business, and the owner Smuggling is always a lucrative
usually lives in an apartment behind or business. During the 1920s most smugglers
above the store. In the 1920s many women were involved in the alcohol trade,
open their own hairdressing and although some dealt in morphine and
millinery shops. other narcotics, and a few in illegal
The shopkeeper counts the following firearms.
skills as career skills: Coercion, Cool, Illegal liquor is brought into the
Negotiation and Streetwise. country along both the East and West
Coasts by large ships anchoring
SKILLED TRADE / MECHANIC offshore then unloading into small
This occupation includes all launches. Additional quantities of
types of trades requiring liquor come in through Canada
specialized training, time on either crossing the long border
the job, etc. Carpenters, stone in trucks, or shipped over the
masons, plumbers, Great Lakes. High speed launches
electricians, millwrights, regularly run liquor across the
mechanics, and others all narrow Detroit River from Windsor
qualify as skilled trades. They to Detroit, counting on their speed to
have their own unions – almost outrun police and Coast Guard vessels
guilds – that bargain with constantly on patrol. Cuba is another
contrators, corporate employers, favorite spot from which both planes
etc. and boats are launched toward
The skilled trade (or mechanic) Florida.
counts the following skills as The smuggler counts the
career skills: Brawl, Driving, following skills as career skills:
Knowledge and Mechanics. Driving, Piloting, Ranged [Light]
and Stealth.
SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
Small businesses employ a SOCIALITE
dozen or more people and are Socialites are the consummate
usually built up by the owner social butterflies, at ease in any
from scratch. A small interactions involving talking
manufacturing plant, a print to someone else. Whether a rich
shop, a machining or plating debutante in the highest circles
outlet, design company, etc. of society or a goodnatured
- all qualify. Although bartender who knows everyone's
perhaps successful and monied, the small name, a socialite can get along
business owner's background is usually with anyone and everyone. More
middle class at best. importantly, they always know how to get
This character knows how to do every the best out of any social interaction.
job in the place, probably better than The socialite counts the following
most of his employees. skills as career skills: Charm, Cool,
The small business owner counts the Deception and Streetwise.
following skills as career skills:
Coercion, Cool, Driving and Negotiation. SOLDIER / MARINE
This refers to the enlisted ranks of
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the Army and Marines and presence and influence of the

include the lowest ranks of disembodied dead: ghosts, phantoms,
private up through Master or poltergeists and so forth. Spiritualist
Gunnery Sergeant. Although investigators will each have their own
technically outranked by even rather fickle Spirit Guide.
the freshest of second The spiritualist counts the
lieutenants, veteran following skills as career skills:
sergeants are respected by Deception, Cool, Perception and
even the highest-ranking Vigilance.
officers. Standard
enlistment is for six SPY
years including four Foreign spies in the U.S. were
years active duty, and uncommon prior to the War. Since
two in standby (inactive) that time, however, more
reserve. attention has been
All enlisted men paid to America. Most
receive basic spies work for hostile
training - “boot governments but even the
camp” - where raw friendliest of allies try to keep
recruits are taught how to tabs on one another.
march, shoot, and salute. Spies are sometimes foreign
Upon graduation from basic ambassadors or embassy workers.
training, most are assigned to Others work under deep cover,
the infantry, although the posing as members of the
army also needs men for community, working a normal job,
artillery and tank corps as well even marrying and raising families.
as the ever-growing Army Air The spy counts the following
Force. A few are trained skills as career skills:
for non-combat roles such Deception, Melee, Ranged
as air controller, mechanic, [Light] and Stealth.
clerk, or even officer's
steward. Marines, while technically part
of the Navy, are similar to soldiers in STAGE ACTOR
background, training and skills. Although the theatre center of the U.S.
The soldier (or marine) counts the is in New York, there are major stages in
following skills as career skills: Melee, most cities across the country. Touring
Gunnery, Ranged [Heavy] and Survival. companies travel by train, presenting new
plays as well as classics by Shakespeare
and others. Some companies spend
SPIRITUALIST considerable amounts of time working
Spiritualists offer comfort by outside the U.S., touring Canada, Hawaii,
providing a means of communication Australia, and other places.
between the living and the dead, usually Many stage actors have a background
for a fee. They are most often assisted in in the classics and, condering themselves
this by a “spirit guide”, an entity that “legitimate”, look down upon the
can convey messages to and from the dead commercial efforts of the film industry.
to the spiritualist, who acts as a medium. The stage actor counts the following
Although many are charlatans, some skills as career skills: Charm, Cool,
Spiritualists are sensitive to the Deception and Driving.
STAGE HAND load and pack cargo on a ship (or, more

Stage hands work behind the scenes, rarely, on other forms of transport). The
moving props, working lights, providing word may also be used (less accurately) to
sound effects, and constructing and describe general dockworkers and
painting sets. Most, if not all, are longshoremen, but in strict terms only to
aspiring actors awaiting their big those who actually stow the cargo aboard
chance. Aside from their regular chores the ship. In some places it even refers to
they also play the parts of extras and a specialist skilled trade or loading
often understudy for larger roles. supervisor rather than a general
The stage hand counts the following labourer.
skills as career skills: Driving, This role was extremely significant
Mechanics, Stealth and Streetwise. prior to the introduction of the cargo
container, as loads then had to be
securely stacked, made fast item by item
STAGE MAGICIAN / ILLUSIONIST and made about with dunnage to protect
A person who performs on stage, much items from one another and keep the lot
like a stage actor, but instead entertains clear of the bilge. Incompetent
the audience by creating feats of stevedores could lead to the loss of a
illusions and tricks that appear ship as cargo shifted in heavy weather
seemingly impossible or (possibly breaching the hull in extreme
supernatural. The term preferred cases and certainly upsetting the trim),
by the individual performer may or at the very least loss or damage to
vary depending on the effects cargo.
they present (conjurer, The stevedore counts the
hypnotist, escapologist, etc.). following skills as career skills:
Traditionally, magicians Coordination, Mechanics, Operating
never reveal the secrets or and Perception.
methods behind their tricks
and one often has to make
such a commitment prior to STOCK BROKER
being accepted into the acts. Brokers are licensed by the
Magicians may perform for state and approved by the
very small close-up audiences exchange. You may work out of an
up to performing on stage in office or right on the trading
front of very large audiences. floors of one of New York's big
Some use their tricks to boards, Chicago's Commodities Market,
commit frauds as con men or or San Francisco's Pacific Stock
merely cheating at card games. Exchange.
The stage magician (or The stock broker counts the following
illusionist) counts the skills as career skills: Driving,
following skills as career skills: Knowledge, Negotiation and Vigilance.
Deception, Discipline, Stealth and
Vigilance. STUDENT / INTERN
This character may be a student
STEVEDORE enrolled at a college or university, or
A stevedore (derived from the the employee of a company receiving
Spanish for "person who minimal compensation but valuable on-
stuffs") is a person who is employed to the-job training.
The student (or intern) counts the
Strange Aeons
following skills as career the necessary knowledge and training to

skills: Deception, Discipline, make his way in such environments. And
Knowledge and Resilience. help the far more urban-minded folks
he's likely traveling with.
STUNT MAN The survivalist counts the
The film industry following skills as career skills:
employs many stunt Athletics, Ranged [Heavy],
men to simulate falls Resilience and Survival.
from buildings, auto
crashes, and other SWIMMER / DIVER
catastrophes. There is no Most swimmers have had access to pools
stunt man organization nor or suitable lakes while growing up; quite
any regulation of the often they are the children of
industry. Accidents are university athletic coaches. Most
frequent. swimmers are amateurs; there are no
The stuntman professional swimming meets.
counts the The swimmer (or diver) counts the
following skills as following skills as career skills:
career skills: Athletics, Discipline, Perception and
Athletics, Brawl, Resilience.
Driving and Piloting.
SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR
SURVEYOR Another position held almost
Unless one is lucky exclusively by women. Company
enough to land a phone systems are large and
steady job with a large city or building incoming calls must be routed to
contractor, a surveyor has to stay on the the proper party by hand. Short
move, traveling from town to town, state patch cords are used to connect
to state, in search of work. incoming calls with the proper
The surveyor counts the following office. A pleasant phone voice
skills as career skills: Driving, is considered a plus.
Knowledge, Leadership and Perception. Although the phone company still
employs many operators, automatic
SURVIVALIST switching equipment is already being
Beyond civilization, in the farthest installed which handles the vast
reaches of the world, there are places majority of local calls.
where few (if any) sentients have ever The switchboard operator counts the
trodden the ground. Places like these are following skills as career skills: Charm,
ideal hiding places for those fleeing the Cool, Discipline and Mechanics.
law or retribution for their actions.
Places like these are where TALENT AGENT
survivalists thrive. Not everything that Agents work for authors, artists,
happens in the world occurs in cities or actors, producers and others, either
out in space. In fact, most of the selling the artist, or his works.
habitable places of the world are rural The talent agent counts the following
or wilderness in nature. A specialization skills as career skills: Charm, Knowledge,
in survivalist ensures a character has Negotiation and Streetwise.
TAXI DRIVER TENNIS PRO

Drivers may work for large or small Most tennis players are from well-to-do
companies, or possibly own their own cab families and more often than not from
and medallion. Cab companies are set up warmer climates where the sport can be
so that drivers rent cabs and dispatcher played year round. A few pros tour the
service from the company, technically big money circuit, but most hold salaried
making the drivers freelance operators. positions at country clubs where they
Cab rental rats are figured by the provide lessons to well-feathered club
fraction of a mile, or by the fraction members.
of the hour when sitting still. The tennis pro counts the
Drivers are often required to buy following skills as career skills:
their own gasoline. Athletics, Coordination, Perception
In earlier years intense and Resilience.
competition among cab
drivers led to violence, THRILL SEEKER
shootings, and even to Some people are like moths to
cabs being outfitted a flame. For them, the easy life
with iron rams and is no life at all, and they
armor. Most cities now must seek out adventure
make a practice of and danger in order to
bonding each and every feel alive. The stakes
cab, and even limiting the are never high enough
number of medallions the for thrill seekers, who are
city can issue. Taxis are always ready to bet large in
required to be fitted with order to feel the rush of
approved meters, adrenaline pumping through
periodically checked by their veins. Such daredevils
the city's taxi board. are drawn to high-octane
Drivers are usually required sports and activities, and for
to obtain a special license that them, a mountain is a challenge
includes a background check by to master. Foolhardy to a fault,
the police detective bureau. they cannot understand why no
The taxi driver counts the one else is prepared to take
following skills as career skills: the same risks as they do.
Coercion, Driving, Negotiation and The thrill seeker counts the
Streetwise. following skills as career
skills: Athletics, Cool,
TECHNICIAN Driving and Resilience.
Technicians may be trained to work in
X-ray rooms, pathology labs, or other TRACK AND FIELD
specialized areas. Employment as a This includes all the various running,
technician does not strictly require jumping, and throwing events. There are
higher education, though employers often only a few professional events in the
ask for education beyond high school. world and most competitors are amateurs.
The technician counts the following The track and field counts the
skills as career skills: Discipline, following skills as career skills:
Knowledge, Perception and Vigilance. Athletics, Brawl, Cool and Resilience.
Strange Aeons
TRAINER TRIBE MEMBER

Trainers are charged with the In the sense of family allegiance, at
conditioning and physical well- least, tribalism is everywhere. In a
being of the athletes. They are tribe, the primacy of kinship and
usually employed by college or custom is selfevident. A tribal
professional teams. group is nominally relatively
The trainer counts the small. In place of a blanket of
following skills as career skills: law and general individual
Athletics, Coordination, rights, the tribal personality
Leadership and Resilience. defers to personal honor.
Praise, vengeance, gifts and
TRAVELING SALESMAN glory all must be personal to
It is the decade of the the tribe member, and if
entrepreneur and the traveling leaders or enemies are to be
salesman is a part of everyday treated as men of honor, they
life. Some work directly for too must be personally known in
companies and others on some way. The notion of “exile”
consignment, but most live and has real power in such a setting.
die by commission. Some are The tribe member counts the
restricted to certain territories following skills as career skills:
but others are free to roam and Athletics, Cool, Perception and
seek out prospects wherever they Stealth.
might be found. Brushes, vacuum
cleaners, and encyclopedias are UNDERTAKER
only a few of the many items Undertakers are licensed by the
currently sold door-to-door. state. They either own their own
The traveling salesmans funeral parlors or work for
counts the following skills as someone who does.
career skills: Charm, Driving, Negotiation The undertaker counts the
and Streetwise. following skills as career skills:
Charm, Driving, Medicine and Negotiation.
TREASURE HUNTER
A breed similar to prospectors, UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICER
treasure hunters also look to make the Uniformed police are employed by
big strike. More common to the East where cities and towns, by county sheriff's
stories of buried pirate treasure and department, and state police forces as
sunken ships filled with Spanish gold well. The job may be on foot, behind the
abound, a few in the West still search for wheel of a patrol car, or even sitting at
the fabled golden cities sought by the a desk. Most urban officers, however, walk
Conquistadors. Most treasure hunting foot patrol – a beat – either alone or in
requires a team and serious financial pairs. Police forces are organized along
backing. The necessary diving, digging, or military lines including ranks of
other equipment can be expensive. sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and chief,
The treasure hunter counts the among others.
following skills as career skills: The pay being what it is, many officers
Athletics, Driving, Mechanics and work part time as uniformed security
Piloting. guards, or as plainsclothes bodyguards.
In either case, they are allowed to wear these.

their uniforms. The writer counts the following skills
The uniformed police officer counts as career skills: Coordination, Discipline,
the following skills as career skills: Knowledge and Resilience.
Brawl, Driving, Perception and Ranged
[Light]. ZEALOT
Intense and vision-driven, scorning an
UNION ACTIVIST easy life, the zealot agitates for a
Activists are organizers, leaders, and better life for humanity or for some
visionaries – and sometimes malcontents advantage for the group imagined to be
with an axe to grind. In these turbulent the most worthwhile part of humanity.
times union officials find themselves Some fanatics promote their beliefs
caught between big business wishing to through violence; however the
destroy them, politicians alternately peaceable majority may be just as
befriending and condemning them, implacable. All dream of the
communists and socialists trying to vindication of their beliefs.
infiltrate their ranks, and criminal The zealot counts the following
mobs trying to take them over. skills as career skills: Brawl,
The union activist counts the Coercion, Deception and Stealth
following skills as career
skills: Brawl, Coercion, ZOOKEEPER
Negotiation and Streetwise. Zoos are a fixture in all large
U.S. cities and many medium-sized
WESTERN LAWMAN ones. Zookeepers are responsible
The Old West still lives in for the feeding and care of the
certain parts of the country. animals; grounds keepers and
Although train robbers and attendants take care of other
professional gunfighters are chores.
mostly a thing of the past, The zookeeper counts the
cattle rustlers, armed robbers, and following skills as career skills:
just plain “bad folk” are still Charm, Cool, Knowledge and
around. The western lawman is Medicine.
probably a county sheriff or
deputy responsible for a large
area, patrolling in an
automobile, truck, or on
horseback.
The western lawman counts the
following skills as career skills:
Coercion, Driving, Knowledge and
Ranged [Light].
WRITER
A writer can be a struggling novelist,
pulp hack, magazine author, screenplay
writer, song lyricist, poet, a writer of
advertising copy, or any combination of
CHARACTER MOTIVATION
THE WORLD IS INDEED COMIC, BUT THE JOKE IS ON MANKIND
Strange Aeons
The farmstead was eerily quiet; no Motivation includes a character's

birds tweeted, no crickets were chirping, driving forces: what ultimate goal is
in fact there wasn't even the faint sound your character pursuing? What are they
from buzzing gnats. There was something most afraid of? What character trait
very unnatural about the situations. allows them to persevere in the face of
Willard could almost feel that something adversity? What flaws hinder their
was afoul in the very air. ability to pursue their goals?
Slowly the door creaked open, and the Desires, Fears, Strengths, Flaws: these
stale air from inside the farmstead four different facets of Motivation are
rushed out at Willard like the punch described in the GENESYS core rulebook.
from a heavy weight boxer. He had to However, the STRANGE AEONS setting does
avert his face and hold his breath. The not make use of these four Motivations.
air was rancid, reeking of garbage, the Instead, it makes use of a simplified
salty oceanic wind and the smell of an system of Merits and Flaws that add
hermetically sealed basement. additional flavor to your character, and
Willard didn't expect anyone to be also add a minor game mechanic change
here, yet he found himself calling out that makes your character truly unique.
“hello? Is anyone there?” And unlike the rule presented in the
Of course there was no reply. And the GENESYS core rulebook that allows you
stillness outside seemed to be to select a Motivation, you have to
intensified by the quietness inside the randomly roll both your Merit and Flaw
farmstead. in the STRANGE AEONS setting. This is to
enforce that you become forced into
Willard knew every room well and
playing a character that is not
quickly made his way to the kitchen
necessarily just an extension of yourself
room. He stopped outside the wooden door,
set in a roleplaying game setting.
looking down at the brass handle. He
reached out and slowly opened the door
ot the kitchen. MERITS
Here the smell of rancid basement and Merits, as the name suggests, provide
salty seawind seemed to intensify as the boons or advantages. Merits have a
door swung open with a lazy creak. The similar function to backgrounds in that
kitchen table and the four chairs were they flesh out a character via minor
pulled away from their usual location. modifiers to the game mechanics.
And in their stead was strange runes Your character's Merit is one of the
scribbled into the teak floor. The runes best things about them. It's the first
were alien and strange to Willard, and thing you'd put on your character's
resembled nothing he had ever seen résumé, the one word other people use
before. when praising your character, and the
The rancid smell seemed to emanate defining feature that they're known for.
from nowhere and everywhere at the same A Merit is usually a personality trait,
time, and there was nothing visibly in a mental quirk your character possesses
the kitchen that would explain the that sets them apart. What we're thinking
smell. of are personality traits that people are
Willard approached the runes carved born with.
into the floor, squatted down and let his
gaze follow them around in the somewhat
circular shape they made on the floor.
Motivation 43
EXAMPLE MERITS
d100 RESULT
01-02 Acute Sense: the character chooses one of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell,
taste, or touch); when using this sense to discern something about the
environment or when applicable in a skill, the character adds b to the skill
check.
03-04 Ambidextrous: the character is equally adept at using either hand. Add s to
checks when taking an Action with both hands (ie, two-weapon fighting). Also
extremely helpful should the character happen to lose a hand...
05-06 Approachable: the character seems harmless, easy going, and warm to those
around her. Add a to the dice pool for all Charm and Negotiation checks.
07-08 Attractive: the character is physically attractive to members of the opposite
sex. Add b to all Charm, Coercion, or Negotiation skill checks made with
members of the opposite sex.
09-10 Beast Affinity: Animals are unusually drawn to the character, and though he
can't speak with them, he can communicate with them on a limited level using
tone of voice and body language. The character adds s on all Social skill
checks when interacting with animals.
11-12 Bundle of Energy: the character is full of energy. He subsists on five or six
hours’ sleep at night, he finds himself unable to stay in bed any longer. His
days are full of physical activity, and he can work long into the night without
penalty.
13-14 Calm Heart: the character is naturally calm and well-composed, and do not
easily fly off the handle. Add an automatic s on all Cool and Discipline check.
15-16 Cat Napper: Although the character needs six to eight hours’ sleep per night, he
doesn’t need it all at once. He catches his Z’s as and when he can. As long as his
naps total six to eight hours in a 24 hour period – and they usually do unless
he is forcibly denied naps – he can function as normal.
17-18 Child-Like: the character has an aura of child-like innocence (whether he really
is or not). Add b on all Charm skill checks.
19-20 Coldly Logical: While some might refer to this character as a 'cold fish', he has
a knack for separating factual reporting from emotional or hysterical
coloration. He may or may not be emotional himself, but he can see clearly when
others are clouding the facts with their feelings. All Deception checks against
you are increased in difficulty once.
21-22 Cool Demeanor: the character has a cool demeanor in all he does, and counts Cool
as a career skill.
23-24 Crack Driver: the character can drive a car like he is on crack (but can do it
without killing anyone). Reduce the difficulty of all Driving skill checks by
one.
25-26 Crack Shot: the character has a natural knack for firearms. Once per session,
the character may upgrade his Ranged [Heavy] or Ranged [Light] skill check once.
27-28 Danger Sense: The character counts Vigilance as a career skill.
29-30 Daredevil: the character loves to take risks, and are damn good at living
through them. Once per session, the character may reduce the difficulty of any
44 Motivation
Strange Aeons
skill check where a potential failure is hazardous to his health.

31-32 Determined: the characters gains +1 strain threshold.
33-34 Eagle Scout: all those years in the scout troop did pay off, just as your mother
always said. The character counts Survival as a career skill. If this is already
a career skill, add b on all Survival skill checks.
35-36 Excellent Liar: lying is as natural as breathing to the character. Deception is
a career skill. If the character already has Deception as a career skill, he
instead adds an automatic s on all Deception skill checks.
37-38 Fast Reader: the character can read and understand a piece of writing far
faster than most people. Although it can make long journeys by train or
carriage expensive propositions due to the number of books he goes through, it
allows him to quickly extract useful information from anything written in his
native language. Add an automatic s on all Knowledge skill checks.
39-40 Flirt: the character claims that he is a terrible flirt, but that quite
manifestly isn’t true. He is great at it. He is an absolute master of all the
subtle signals that give off the particular combination of promise and denial
that makes teasing so much fun. At his best, he can make members of the
opposite sex, or members of the same sex, putty in his hands. Increase Charm
checks in such circumstances once.
41-42 Funny: the character can make people laugh. His timing and sense of the absurd
are second to none. He is always being invited to parties because he is so much
fun. However, he is also very good at judging the appropriateness of his humor.
Sometimes the right joke can lift the spirits of people when everything seems
to be going against them. So, the character does what he can to make life more
bearable for his fellows, even when the situation seems darkest. When assisting
in a Social skill check, the character adds bb instead of the usual b.
43-44 Gifted: the character is extremely talented in one particular skill. Choose one
skill and add s to all skill checks with that skill, and it becomes a Career
Skill if it is not already.
45-46 Good Judge of Character: the character has an instinct for reading people. He
can make an appraisal of the kind of person someone is after meeting her for a
few seconds, based on little more than gut instinct. He is rarely wrong. Decrease
the difficulty of any Perception skill check based on assessing someone once.
47-48 Harmless: Everyone in the community knows the character, and knows that he is
no threat to their plans. While that sort of estimation may seen insulting, it's
also what's kept him from being killed. No one considers him worth the time to
deal with, and that low opinion keeps him safe. If he starts acting in a way
that demonstrates that he is no longer harmless, others' reactions to you will
likely change as a result.
49-50 Herbalist: the character knows more than the average person about herbcraft,
and gains s to all Healing skill checks made with herbs. Also gains b to
Survival skill checks to find herbs.
51-52 Jack-of-All-Trades: the character has a large pool of miscellaneous skills and
knowledge obtained through your extensive travels, the jobs he has held, or
just all-around know-how. Select one non-career skill and it becomes a career
skill for the character.
53-54 Lead Belly: the character is highly resistant to most poisons and toxins, and
Motivation 45
gains a b on all Resilience skill checks to resist them.

55-56 Light Sleeper: the character awakens instantly when outside stimuli such as
light or noise are present. The character receives b to Perception skill checks
to awaken if the entity approaching is attempting to be stealthy.
57-58 Lucky: the character may reroll any one dice roll (skill check or Initiative
order roll) once per session.
59-60 Martial Artist: increase the damage dealt by the character by +1 when Brawling
an opponent.
61-62 Mechanical Aptitude: the character is naturally adept with all kinds of
mechanical devices. In game terms, add b to all Mechanic skill checks to
understand, repair or operate any kind of mechanical device. Note that this
aptitude does not extend to electronic devices such as computers, and doesn't
help you drive any sort of vehicle.
63-64 Natural Leader: people always rallied to the side of this character. Add
automatic s on all Leadership checks.
65-66 Natural Survivalist: the character is at home in the wilderness, and gains s to
all Survival skill checks when not near civilization.
67-68 Night Sight: the character can see in near-total darkness, and subtracts b from
all skill checks imposed from darkness.
69-70 Nine Lives: fate has granted the character the opportunity to come as close to
final death as anyone can get and still survive. It the character would die
from reaching twice his wound threshold, he may, as an Incidental, spend one
Story Point and be brought back to his maximum wound threshold and recover
from his near death experience. He can do this only once per session.
71-72 Perfect Balance: the character's sense of balance is superb. The narrowest of
ledges holds little fear for him, because he has such a good command of his
physical equilibrium. He is probably a good dancer, as well. This Merit allows
the character to reduce the difficulty of all balance-related Athletics skill
checks once.
73-74 Pillar of the Community: The character is a fine, upstanding person, respected
by people around him. Through participation in local events, helping out with
community groups or helping others, he has become well-liked and trusted by
those who live around him. When he brings them a warning of potential danger
or offer an explanation of strange events, they’re likely to believe him. Add
automatic s on all Leadership skill checks.
75-76 Precognition: the character has glimpses of the future. Though he try to enter
a trance and try to summon a vision this foresight usually comes out of
nowhere, and can be quite shocking in some circumstances. The character can
upgrade any one skill check for free during the session.
77-78 Robust Health: the character has the constitution of an ox. He rarely gets ill,
if ever, and food poisoning is a stranger to him. He doesn’t even get hangovers,
you bastard. Reduce the difficulty of any roll to resist illness or poisoning –
including alcohol poisoning – once.
79-80 Sea Legs: No landlubber, this character is a salty sea dog at heart. He is at
home on a boat, even when traveling rough seas. He suffers no penalty incurred
due to rough seas or unpredictable ship motion on any actions performed while
46 Motivation
Strange Aeons
on board.
81-82 Sexy: the character might not necessarily be that good looking, but there’s
something about the way he moves and acts that exudes sexuality. As a result,
he draws attention from members of the opposite sex, or his own sex, with raw
animal magnetism. He may lower the difficulty of any Social skill check once
when dealing with someone who is attracted to him. If he actively attempts to
direct his charms at a person, he may lower the difficulty twice.
83-84 Soothing Voice: the character has an entrancing voice. Add b to all Charm,
Leadership and Negotiation skill checks.
85-86 Sturdy: whenever the character suffers a Critical Injury, subtract 10 from the
Critical Injury roll (to a minimum of 1).
87-88 Surreal Beauty: the character possess a beauty far beyond that of normal
mortals. People stand in awe of his perfect form. Once per session, the character
may upgrade a s result to a x result on a Charm or Leadership skill check.
89-90 Time Sense: the character has an innate sense of time and are able to estimate
the passage of time accurately without using a watch or other mechanical
device.
91-92 Tough: the character gains +2 wound threshold.
93-94 Unremarkable: the character does not stand out in a crowd. Anyone attempting
to identify or notice the character must add b to their skill check.
95-96 Well Balanced: add b to Athletics and Coordination skill checks when
traversing difficult terrain.
97-98 Well Grounded: the character is so well grounded that very few things truly
phase him. Add b to all skill checks to resist fear.
99-00 Well Traveled: the character is knowledgeable of the ways of the world from
his travels and studies. Once per game session, the character can gain an
automatic s on a skill check to gain a piece of information.
FLAWS
Everyone has an element of themselves
that they're not proud of. Why should
your character be any different? When
someone speaks ill of your character,
this is always the first thing they bring
up. It's also what gets mentioned when
your character's friends say “they're a
great person, but...” That “but” is your
character's Flaw.
Just like your Merit, your Flaw is
primarily a part of your character's
personality. It is a selfish Motivation,
bad habit, or element of personality that
your character wishes they didn't have.
Flaws provide a minor modification to
game mechanics for your character.
Motivation 47
EXAMPLE FLAWS
d100 RESULT
01-02 Addiction: the character is addicted to some substance, such as caffeine,
nicotine, etc. The character will start to crave the substance if he doesn't get
it often enough, and have to make a Hard (ddd) Discipline check every six
hours to avoid giving in to the urge. A failed check results in adding a b to
all skill checks until the character get his fix.
03-04 Airhead: maybe the character has trouble paying attention, maybe he is just
clueless, maybe he just looks like a flake; no matter what, people don't take him
seriously. Add f on all Social skill checks.
05-06 Amnesia: the character has no memory of his past, or at least are missing a
significant portion of it.
07-08 Bad Liar: the character is a horrible liar. Add b to all Deception and Coercion
skill checks.
09-10 Black and White: the character sees all situations in black and white, good and
evil, etc. In situations where this limited, judgmental way of thinking may
hinder his reaction to something or cause him to act socially inappropriate,
increase the difficulty of Social skill checks once.
11-12 Bully: the character tends to push people around when he can get away with it.
This aggression doesn’t necessarily require a physical display; it is often
purely social. He chafes under the leadership of more forceful personalities
and can be a malcontent when he isn’t in charge.
13-14 Chronic Pessimist: the character thinks the glass is half-empty, the water in
the glass is contaminated, and that the glass will probably tip over at any
second. Others practice pessimism out of habit. For this character, it’s an art
form. Nothing can ever go right, especially plans that others propose. The
character is the implacable voice of gloom and doom, always ready to point out
a potential problem no matter how remote a chance it has of coming to pass. Add
automatic f on all Leadership checks.
15-16 Color Blind: the character has a difficult time differentiating colors. For
rolls where coloration and hues may be important, such as Perceptions rolls,
add b to the dice pool.
17-18 Compulsive Speech: ror whatever reason, the character has difficulty sticking
to the rule, “if you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all.” Add automatic
f on all Social skill checks.
19-20 Crazy Old Coot: the character has delved too deeply into the secrets of the
spiritual realm and possibly spent too much time alone in the wilderness. Add
b to all Charm and Negotiation skill checks.
21-22 Creepy: the character is repulsive and more than a little creepy to the opposite
sex. Add f to all Charm and Negotiation skill checks made with members of the
opposite sex.
23-24 Crude: the character is crude, disgusting, and often rank. During most social
situations the character will suffer an additional b to the dice pool.
25-26 Defensive: the character has problems taking responsibility for his actions.
Perhaps he views himself as perfectionist, or maybe he is simply too immature
to accept the blame for failure. When things go wrong, he looks for ways to
48 Motivation
Strange Aeons
blame others and rarely accept blame or criticism for his actions without
contention.
27-28 Disfigured: the character has an injury or physical defect which makes him
perfectly hideous; add an automatic f on all Social skill checks.
29-30 Disturbing Mannerism: the character has a habit or character trait which is
peculiar, gross, or annoying. The character may not even be aware of it - but
boy, everyone else is. Upgrade the difficulty of all Social skill checks once.
31-32 Easily Surprised: the character is easily surprised and taken aback. Add b to
all Vigilance and Perception skill checks.
33-34 Faint of Heart: the sight of gore and blood shocks this character to the core. If
he witness a gruesome scene, he must make a Hard (ddd) Discipline check or
suffer the effects of fear, as detailed on page 243 in the GENESYS core
rulebook.
35-36 Frail: the character has an amazingly weak constitution. Add f to all
Resilience checks.
37-38 Ghoulish Sense of Humor: the character finds humor in situations that make
most people uncomfortable or even nauseated. The character's questionable
taste doesn’t make him particularly resistant to the horror of gruesome sights.
His defense mechanism is simply to belittle the situation or those involved in
an inappropriate way. When confronted with a horribly gory scene or otherwise
uncomfortable situation such as people trying to console each other, the
character tends to crack jokes and sling insults. Increase the difficulty of all
Social skill checks in such situations once.
39-40 Gullible: the character has a lot of trouble separating truth from fiction. He
is not stupid, he just tends to believe what people tells him rather than to
take things with a grain of salt. All Deception checks made against the
character is upgraded once.
41-42 Heavy Sleeper: the character requires a significant amount of light, noise, or
movement in order to awaken. Once awakened, the character suffers an
additional b to all dice rolls for the encounter that awakened him.
43-44 Ignorant: the character is unfamiliar with the wider world at large, and may
not even care. While this character may select and purchase Knowledge skills,
they tend to only focus on elements that interest them. As a result, they suffer
b to all Knowledge skill rolls.
45-46 Illiterate: the character can't read or write. This may make passing yourself
off as that learned professor from Oxford a bit difficult.
47-48 Impaired Sense: the character chooses one of the five senses (sight, hearing,
smell, taste, or touch); when using this sense to discern something about the
environment or when applicable in a skill, the character suffers b to the skill
check.
49-50 Insomniac: For whatever reason, the character has tremendous trouble getting
more than a few hours of sleep. He is often groggy and slow as a result. Add an
automatic f on all Vigilance checks.
51-52 Intolerance: the character has an unreasoning dislike of a certain thing. This
may be an animal, a class of person, a color, a situation, or just about anything
at all. Add an automatic f to all skill checks involving the subject.
Motivation 49
53-54 Lazy: the character is simply lazy, avoiding anything that requires effort on
his part. Preferring to let others do the hard work, he lounges around. For any
action that requires preparation, there's a good chance the character didn’t
prepare properly.
55-56 Low Alcohol Tolerance: Alcohol goes straight to this character's head. While
this can be an advantage when he tries to enjoy a night out on the cheap, it can
be deadly in other situations. Double any penalties the character suffers for
consuming alcohol.
57-58 Low Pain Tolerance: the character has a very low capacity for pain. He turns
into a whimpering, blubbering ball of misery at the first sight of it. Although
the character soaks damage normally, he suffer an additional 1 point of damage
whenever he is injured.
59-60 Lustful: the character can’t resist the erotic advances of the appropriate
gender(s). He is easily seduced and often exhibit very poor judgment when
dealing with sexually attractive people. All Charm checks against you are
increased once.
61-62 Missing Eye: the character is missing the use of an eye; upgrade the difficulty
of all Ranged weapon attacks, as well as other skill rolls subject to GM
discretion.
63-64 Mistaken Identity: people think the character is someone he is not; even if that
person isn't bad, it can still cause the character trouble if they realize he is
not who they think he is.
65-66 Motion Sickness: the character becomes queasy and nauseous on board boats,
when travelling long distances by car or on amusement park rides. Increase the
difficulty of all skill checks he performs by once when dealing with these
conditions.
67-68 Mute: the character is physically unable to speak, and must communicate
through writing or sign language.
69-70 Non-Swimmer: the character never learned to swim, and he has no natural talent
for it. If he ever finds himself in a position where he must try to swim, he can
manage a pitiable dog paddle. Increase the difficulty of any Athletics skill
checks involving swimming once.
71-72 Obese: the character is seriously overweight and large enough that he have
trouble using the seats in most theaters. Increase the difficulty of all
Athletics skill checks once.
73-74 Old Wound: the character suffers from a wound that never fully healed. This
wound counts as an existing Critical Injury whenever the character suffers
another Critical Injury.
75-76 Phobia: the character has a specific phobia, an incredibly powerful fear and
aversion to a specific object of his fear. When confronting the fear, the
character must make a Hard (ddd) Cool check to avoid being affected by fear,
as detailed on page 243 in the GENESYS core rulebook.
77-78 Poor Personal Hygiene: the character often go days without showering, and only
brush his teeth when they start to gain a greenish tinge. He often smells quite
bad, and his breath is atrociously offensive. Increase the difficulty of all
Social skill checks once.
50 Motivation
Strange Aeons
79-80 Sensation Junkie: the character is addicted to sensation, and will do anything
to find new means of stimulation. The character must roll a Hard (ddd)
Willpower check to resist taking the opportunity to try a new kick, difficulty
depending on the situation.
81-82 Short Temper: the character is easily driven to distraction by what would
otherwise be minor failures and other frustrations. If he fails to gain any
uncanceled s on any single skill check during an Action, increase the
difficulty of all subsequent checks by one, cumulatively.
83-84 Shy: the character is distinctly ill at ease when dealing with people and try to
avoid social situations whenever possible. Add b to all Social skill checks.
85-86 Sickly: the character is constantly coughing and wheezing, and he has trouble
shaking colds. He suffered almost every childhood disease imaginable, and he
has only become worse as an adult. When making Resilience checks to avoid
catching a disease or developing an infection, increase the difficulty of the
check by one.
87-88 Slow Healer: for some reason, the character's healing process is slow, and he
subtracts 1 wound of healing from all healing attempts on him with the
Medicine skill, and adds an automatic f on any attempts to heal a Critical
Injury.
89-90 Snob: the character is an arrogant snob. During most social situations, add b to
Charm and Negotiation skill checks.
91-92 Sterile: the character is incapable of reproducing.
93-94 Superstitious: the character fears and distrusts anything associated with the
spiritual or supernatural. Add b to all Charm and Negotiation skill checks
made with someone known to the character to be involved in any spiritual or
supernatural undertakings. The character adds b to all Discipline skill checks
based on spiritual or supernatural fears.
95-96 Too Honest: the character has trouble lying convincingly. Adds automatic f on
all Deception skill checks.
97-98 Twitch: the character has a repetitive motion that he makes in times of stress,
and it’s a dead giveaway as to his identity. Examples include a nervous cough,
constantly wringing his hands, cracking your knuckles and so on.
99-00 Yellow-Bellied: the character lacks courage. Your strain threshold is reduced
by 1, you can never take the first PC slot in combat, and you add b to all
Leadership and Coercion checks. However, your concern for your life enables you
to always find cover wherever you are, and your Ranged Defense is always
increased by 1.
Motivation 51
SKILLS
IN HIS HOUSE AT R'LYEH DEAD CTHULHU WAITS DREAMING
Strange Aeons
Willard retrieved his leatherbound Skills represent what your character

notebook from his bag and started to excels at doing; the more ranks in a
scribble down copies of the strange skill, the better your character performs
runes etched into the wooden floor. He that skill. Anytime your character does
knew that he had to find out the something that has a possibility of
meaning of these alien runes and why failure (and that failure has some
Celine had etched them into the wooden negative consequences for your
floor. If it was even her who had done it. character), your character makes a skill
As he hand lead the pencil across the check to see if they succeed or not.
surface of the paper, it felt oddly The skills are divided into five
familiar to him, as if he had drawn the different groups of skills; combat,
very same runes before and his mind general, knowledge, magic and social. This
knew their exact shapes instinctively. is further detailed in the GENESYS core
When the pencil came to a halt as the rulebook for your reference.
final rune was sketched into his
notebook, a very cold shiver ran down
the back of Willard's neck. It could best
AVAILABLE SKILLS
Playing in the STRANGE AEONS setting
be described as if someone had just means that not all skills listed in the
walked over his grave. And the feeling GENESYS core rulebook are available. The
unsettled Willard to his core, and he skills listed below is the complete skill
wanted nothing more than getting as far list available for player characters.
away from the farmstead as he possibly
could, and as fast as he possibly could.
Willard quickly returned to his Ford
COMBAT SKILLS
Combat skills feature pretty
Model T, entered the driver's seat and
prominently in the STRANGE AEONS
drove away as fast as the vehicle could
setting, as you can hardly barter with
muster and as fast as the gravel road
crazed cultists or the creatures from
would allow. Not once did he look back at
beyond the spheres.
the old farmstead.
• Brawl (BR)
The trip from the farmstead and back
• Gunnery (AG)
to Arkham seemed longer than usual, and
• Melee (BR)
a myriad of thoughts spun around within
• Ranged [Heavy] (AG)
the depth of this mind. Willard hardly
• Ranged [Light] (AG)
took notice of the traffic on the road, as
he absentmindedly returned to Arkham.
He had to bring the notebook and the GENERAL SKILLS
sketching of the alien runes to his good This group of skills represents the
friend Edgar. Perhaps he could find out majority of the actions your character
more about these strange, alien runes by attempts, and is probably the broadest
perusing the extended collection of category of skills in the game.
tomes and books at the Miskatonic • Athletics (BR)
University library, where Edgard worked • Cool (PR)
as a professor of English Literature. • Coordination (AG)
Yes, he had to visit Edgar and ask him • Discipline (WILL)
for his assistance. With that in mind, • Driving (AG)
Willard turned a corner on College • Mechanics (INT)
Street. • Medicine (INT)
Skills 53
• Operating (INT) between characters. When your character

• Perception (CUN) uses these skills, they try to convince,
• Piloting (AG) force, trick, or make a deal for an
• Psychoanalysis (WILL) opposing character to do something your
• Resilience (BR) character wants.
• Skulduggery (CUN) • Charm (PR)
• Stealth (AG) • Coercion (WILL)
• Streetwise (CUN) • Deception (CUN)
• Survival (CUN) • Leadership (PR)
• Vigilance (WILL) • Negotiation (PR)
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS NEW SKILL

Knowledge and information in The STRANGE AEONS setting introduces
roleplaying game can be a tricky subject. a new skill is needed to treat insanity.
Consider how much you know about the
world you live in. Success on a Knowledge PSYCHOANALYSIS (WILLPOWER)
check means your character knew it all Psychoanalysis allows you to help
along, even if you didn't! another person after a bad fright
• Knowledge (INT) or a terrible shock.
Immediate Care: When someone
MAGIC SKILLS suffers an episode of temporary
Magic skill is a unique subset of insanity, you can bring him out of
skill that is included in the it – calming his terror, snapping
STRANGE AEONS setting, although it him out of his stupor, or
comes with a taxing mental strain and whatever else is needed to
slowly corrodes away the sanity of restore the person to the state
the one using it. The magic system in he was in before the temporary
the STRANGE AEONS setting follow insanity. This requires an Action
the rules found on page 210 of and requires an Average (dd)
the GENESYS core rulebook, check to succeed.
although with one major Long-Term Care: Proving long-
difference; the Magic skill term care means treating a
grants access to Attack, mentally disturbed person for a
Augment, Barrier, Conjure, day or more. This requires you to
Curse, Dispel, Heal and Utility. spend up to 4 hours a day doing
The rules for sanity cost of nothing but talking to the
using magic is detailed in the patient. Once a week you can make a
Magic chapter of this Hard (ddd) Psychoanalysis check
sourcebook. to recover Sanity damage suffered
It should be noted that a by the patient. Each uncancelled
character may only take ranks s on your check reduce the
in Magic if it is a career skill suffered Sanity damage by one. A
for him. roll of y on the check indicates
• Magic (INT) that the patient suffers 1
additional point of Sanity damage.
SOCIAL SKILLS You cannot give long-term care to
Social skills govern social interactions yourself.
54 Skills
TALENTS
SEARCHERS AFTER HORROR HAUNT STRANGE, FAR PLACES
It was with a trembling hand that Talents generally represent

Willard handed over the leatherbound specialized techniques that a character
notebook to Edgar. The sun had already has mastered, typically through intense
started to set and cast an eerie orange practice and study. A character is likely
sheen over the town. to be more successful when engaged in
“Are you alright, my friend?” Edgar actions for which they have appropriate
asked, seeing Willard clearly upset and talents.
visibly shaking. Generally, skills are what your
“What? Yes, it is nothing. I am quite character uses to perform a task. If your
alright,” Willard said, dismissing his character wants to climb a wall, they use
friends enquiry. “It must be a cold or the Athletics skill. Talents, on the other
something. I need a favor, please, Edgar. hand, modify how a character uses that
I need you to take a look at the runes skill (such as rerolling a failed
that I sketched in this notebook. If Athletics check when attempting to climb
anyone can shed a light on their meaning that wall). Talents may also modify some
or origin, then you are my best hope.” of your character's other attributes
Without opening the notebook, Edgar (such as changing their wound threshold),
brought Willard to the small western or perform actions normally not allowed
lounge area of the library, where they by the rules (such as ignoring Critical
sat down around an old, massive wooden Injuries).
table. Edgar opened the notebook and Listed below is a complete list of
quickly found the page with the available talents in the STRANGE AEONS
sketched runes. The furrow of his brow setting. For easy refering, all talents
arching. from the GENESYS core rulebook have
also been included in this book.
“Well?” Willard asked, wiping sweat
Each talent belongs in one of five
from his forehead.
tiers, as detailed in the GENESYS core
Edgar lifted a hand to quiet his rulebook. The higher the tier, the more
friend, never lifting his gaze from the XP it costs for your character to
runes sketched in the notebook. Those purchase the talent, and the more
runes. Those shapes and symbols. He had beneficial or powerful the talent will
seen similar ones before, but that was be.
more than a decade ago. But they were Some talents are better than others.
definitely of the same origin. They may have more exciting abilities or
Lifting his gaze from the book, Edgar's just better mechanical boosts for your
face was stern and set in stone. “Do you character. To balance these talents out
know what this is?” he asked in a hush and create an opportunity for characters
tone. to progress toward better abilities, this
“No, that's why...” Willard began. system sets different talents at
“These are believed to be magical different tiers.
runes. Where did you find these?” Edgar Each tier determines how much a talent
enquired, his voice barely a whisper. costs in experience points.
“Out by the farmstead,” Willard
replied, “where Celine...” • Tier 1: Each talent costs 5 XP.
“I fear that there might be something • Tier 2: Each talent costs 10 XP.
amiss. That something sinister has been • Tier 3: Each talent costs 15 XP.
brought to the threshold of Arkham,” • Tier 4: Each talent costs 20 XP.
Edgar muttered, mostly to himself. • Tier 5: Each talent costs 25 XP.
56 Talents
The following is a breakdown of each prerequisites in terms of Tier

talent. Each part of a talent entry availability. Please notice that the GM
conveys specific information. has the final saying on whether or not a
• Name: Every talent has a name, making new talent is available in his or her
it easy for you to refer to the talent, particular campaign, so remember to
and hopefully providing you a bit of check before with the GM before you
colorful description as well! spend all your hard earned experience
• Tier: Each talent belongs in one of five points.
tiers, as detailed in the Genesys Core For easier reference, the talents from
Rulebook. The higher the tier, the more the GENESYS core rulebook are reprinted
XP it costs for your character to in this book. The reason for this is to
purchase the talent. make it far easier and simpler for you,
• Activation: Some talents, once chosen, as a player and GM, to look up
constantly apply to your character; talents without having to juggle
these are passive talents. Toughened, two books.
which increases your character’s wound
threshold, is one such talent. Once
you buy it, your character always
has a higher wound threshold.
Other talents are active, which
means you choose when your
character uses the talent.
Natural, for example, lets you
reroll one check in a game
session, and you choose when your
character uses it. If a talent is
active, it has additional details in
parentheses describing how much
time and effort it takes for your
character to use the talent.
Finally, you can use most talents
only on your character’s turn, but
some talents can be used during
another character’s turn. These
talents have the “out of turn”
descriptor.
• Ranked: Some talents are ranked,
which means your character can
take them more than once.
• Rules: These are the rules that
describe what the talent does.
AVAILABLE TALENTS
These talents are unique to the
STRANGE AEONS setting and are detailed
below. The talents are readily available
to anyone who can fulfill any
57 Talents
Strange Aeons
TALENTS: TIER 1
TALENT RANKED SUMMARY
Adaptable Flanker No Designate one Engaged target, allies gain b against
this foe.
All-Terrain Driver No Ignore penalties for difficult terrain when using
Driving skill.
Bad Cop Yes Spend aa on Coercion or Deception check to upgrade
ally's subsequent Social skill check against the target.
Black Market Contact Yes Reduce rarity of goods by 1 at increase cost by 50%.
Bought Info No Succeed on Knowledge check by spending cash on info.
Brace Yes Remove b from skill check imposed by environment.
Bullrush No Spend aaa or x to knock target prone within one
range band.
Call 'Em No Do not add bb to Aim Maneuvers at specific target.
Catch Off-Guard No Do not suffer imposed t when using improvised melee
weapons.
Catfall Yes Add b to Athletics/Coordination check to reduce fall
damage, and reduce wound and strain damage by 1.
Cave Dweller Yes Remove f from checks to find dangers underground.
Challenge! Yes Force adversaries to target you in combat.
Clever Retort No Add automatic tt to opponent's Social skill check.
Code Breaker Yes Remove b on checks to break codes or decrypt
communications.
Collector of Stories No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to identify creatures.
Complimentary No Add bb when using the Assisting Maneuver instead of
Insight b.
Construction Yes Remove b on checks to build engineering projects.
Specialist
Crack Shot No Opponent's cover does not impose b on ranged attack.
Creative Design Yes Add a on crafting checks, but equal amount of t.
Death or Glory Yes Add b to combat checks against bigger adversaries.
Desperate Recovery No Heal two additional strain at end of encounter if over
half of strain threshold.
Disorienting Spell Yes Disorient target's of your spells.
Disruptive Spell Yes Add b to spellcaster's skill check for next spell.
Duelist No Add b against single opponent, add b if Engaged with
3 or more.
Durable Yes Reduce the result of Critical Injury by 10.
Eldritch Aptitude Yes Add a to Magic skill checks.
Talents 58
Eldritch Defense Yes All spells of a particular type add b when cast at you.
Eldritch Dread No Demoralize victim within Medium range and bestow b on
all combat checks.
Eldritch Senses Yes You can detect the presence of magic through your
natural senses.
Eldritch Strike Yes Add b to Brawl or Melee combat checks.
Expert Tracker Yes Remove b from check to find or follow tracks at 50%
less time.
Extra Ammo No Cannot run out of ammunition of a y result.
Familiar Sky No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to gain useful
information on environment.
Fast Metabolism Yes Heal additional wounds from natural rest.
Forager No Remove bb from skill checks to find food, water and
shelter.
Fox Style No Use Brawn characteristic instead of Willpower for
Coercion checks.
Friend of the Night No Remove b from checks imposed by darkness.
Ghost Steps Yes Throw your movement sounds to originate from other
location.
Good Cop Yes Spend aa on Charm or Negotiation check to upgrade
ally's subsequent Social skill check against the target.
Grit Yes Increase your strain threshold by one.
Hamstring Shot No Halve your Ranged damage to Immobilize your target.
Hidden Storage Yes Hidden storage in vehicle or equipment to hold 1
encumbrance.
Initiate of Pain Yes Add b on combat and Discipline checks when hurt.
Iron Soul No If carrying 2 Encumbrance or less heal all strain at
end of encounter.
Jump Up No Stand up from seated or prone position as an Incidental.
Kill With Kindness Yes Remove b from all Charm and Leadership checks.
Kirin Style No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check for foe add b to combat
checks.
Knack For It Yes Remove bb from any one selected skill.
Know Somebody Yes Reduce rarity of item when purchasing.
Knowledge Yes Spend x to gain additional s on Knowledge checks.
Specialization
Kraken Style No Inflict strain damage with your Brawl attacks.
Let's Ride No Mount or dismount from vehicle/steed as an Incidental.
Listen to This Yes You can perfectly imitate what you have heard.
Mongoose Style No Combat checks against you add b, add b against some
59 Talents
Strange Aeons
opponents.
Museum Worthy No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to gain information on a
relic, ruin or piece of history.
Never Outnumbered Yes Hard (ddd) Coercion check to give all foes in Short
range an automatic t on all skill checks.
Night Owl Yes Add b to Perception checks between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
One With Nature No May use Survival instead of Discipline or Cool to
recover strain.
Painful Blow No Increase difficulty of combat check, on a successful
combat check inflict 2 strain on opponent everytime it
performs a Maneuver.
Parry Yes Suffer strain to parry a Brawl or Melee attack and
reduce the damage before applying Soak.
Party Animal No Add b to all skill checks while intoxicated.
Physician Yes Heal additional strain when using Medicine skill.
Piercing Spell Yes You can ignore Soak value when casting spells.
Plausible Yes Remove b from Coercion and Deception checks.
Deniability
Prone Mastery No Attacks against you while prone do not incur the usual
b bonus.
Proper Upbringing Yes Add a to your Social skill checks.
Quick Draw No Draw or holster item as Incidental, reduce weapon
Prepare quality.
Quick Strike Yes Add b against adversaries who has not yet acted.
Rapid Reaction Yes Add automatic s to Vigilance or Cool check for
Initiative.
Rapid Recovery Yes Heal 1 additional strain after end of an encounter.
Redundant Systems No Easy (d) Mechanics check to use components from
functional item to repair a broken item, without
breaking the functional item.
Researcher Yes Remove b on Knowledge checks, research time reduced
by 50%.
Respected Yes Downgrade Social skill checks with specific factions.
Second Wind Yes Heal strain during an encounter.
Shake It Off No Gain on b all checks if Engaged to ally with Shake It
Off talent.
Signature Vehicle No Increase Mechanics checks on your “Signature Vehicle”.
Silent Spell No Cast spells silently without verbal components.
Silver Palm Yes Negotiation is a career skill, add b to Negotiation
skill checks.
Talents 60
Skilled Jockey Yes Remove b from Driving and Piloting skills.

Smooth Talker Yes Spend x on Charm, Coercion, Deception or Negotiation to
gain additional s.
Solar Powered Yes Add b to Perception checks between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Solid Repairs Yes Repair 1 additional point of hull trauma.
Soothing Tone No Average (dd) Knowledge check to allow animal/beast to
recover additional strain.
Steady Nerves Yes Remove b from Cool and Skulduggery checks.
Steel Soul No Add bb to spells that target you specifically.
Street Slang Yes Suffer strain to add a on Social skill checks with
seedy persons.
Strong Arm No Increase range of thrown weapon by one range band.
Surgeon Yes Heal additional wounds when using Medicine skill.
Swift No Move unhindered through difficult terrain.
Thug No Add b to Initiative and automatic a on Coercion
checks.
Tiger Style No When you inflict a Critical Injury your opponent bleeds
for 2 turns.
Toughened Yes Increase your wound threshold by 2.
Tumble No Suffer 2 strain to move to Short range of Engaged
adversary.
Uncanny Reactions Yes Add b to all Vigilance checks.
Uncanny Senses Yes Add b to all Perception checks.
Undying Fate No Discern wound and strain status of an individual.
Unremarkable No Others add f to checks made to identify you.
Vow of Abstinence No Add bb to Resilience checks against poisons and drugs.
Vow of Chastity No Add b to resist Charm and Coercion checks.
Vow of Purity No Add bb to Resilience checks to resist diseases.
Warrior Instincts Yes Add automatic s to Initiative checks.
Wheel and Deal Yes Gain 10% more dollars on legal dealings.
Wind Stance Yes If you move, add b to combat checks made against you.
Wolf Style No Impose b to opponent and may attempt a knockdown.
TALENTS: TIER 2
Adroitness No Reduce time to perform specific General skill by 25%.
Alluring Yes Add automatic a to all Social skill checks.
61 Talents
Strange Aeons
Animal Expertise Yes Add b on all skills when interacting with animal/beast.
Anticipate Dodge Yes Add b to combat checks against target using Dodge.
Arcanist No Add automatic s on Magic skill checks.
Barrage Yes Add 1 damage to Gunnery and Ranged [Heavy] skill at
Long and Extreme range.
Basic Military No Athletics, Ranged [Heavy] and Resilience skills are
Training career skills.
Blackmail No Spend 1 Story Point to convince NPC to perform a task.
Bullwark No Parry to reduce Brawl/Melee damage on an Engaged ally.
Burly Yes Reduce weapon's Cumbersome quality and Encumbrance by
1.
Child at Heart No Decrease difficulty of Social skill check when
interacting with kids.
Command Yes Add b to Leadership. Affected targets add b to
Discipline checks.
Concussive Attack Yes Spend aa to add b on target's Intellect and
Willpower checks.
Conditioned Yes Remove b from Athletics and Coordination. Reduce
falling damage by one.
Confidence Yes Decrease difficulty of Discipline checks to avoid fear.
Coordinated Assault Yes Automatic a to combat checks per rank in Leadership.
Counteroffer No Negotiation vs Discipline check to stagger a non-nemesis.
Crane Style No Remove b from Guarded Stance, +1 Melee Defense.
Crashing Wave Style No You can immediately follow a disengaging adversary.
Cutting Question No May use Deception skill for making Coercion checks.
Daring Aviator Yes Add t to Driving / Piloting skill check to add equal
number of s.
Debilitating Shot No Spend aa to reduce maximum speed of hit vehicle.
Deceptive Taunt No May force an adversary to focus attacks on character.
Defensive Stance Yes Upgrade difficulty of Brawl and Melee combat checks
against you.
Dirty Tricks No Upgrade adversary's skill check upon a Critical Injury.
Disorient Yes Spend aa to Disorient opponent.
Distracting Behavior Yes Give Engaged opponent's automatic t on skill checks.
Dual Wielder No Decrease difficulty of using two weapons.
Dynamic Fire No Suffer 2 strain to reduce difficulty of Ranged while
Engaged.
Enforcer No When dealing strain damage with Brawl or Melee attempt
Coercion check to demoralize opponent and add b to his
skills.
Talents 62
Exploit Yes Suffer 2 strain to add Ensnare quality to Melee check.

Fan the Hammer No Add Auto-Fire quality to pistol, but immediately run
out of ammo.
Fancy Paint Job No Upgrade all Charm, Deception and Negotiation checks
once within Engaged range of Signature Vehicle.
Fearsome Yes Engaged adversaries must make fear check.
Feral Strength Yes Add +1 damage to Brawl and Melee combat checks.
Fighter's Stance No Suffer 1 strain to ignore penalties of Guarded Stance.
Fine Tuning Yes Reduce 1 additional system strain when reducing system
strain on a vehicle.
Flash of Insight No x on Knowledge checks adds bb to the check.
Fleet of Foot No Take a free movement Maneuver once per encounter.
Freerunning No Suffer 1 strain to move to any location in Short range.
Gearhead Yes Remove from Mechanics, time to apply attachments is 50%
less.
Go Without No Once per session have the right tools for a job.
Grapple No Suffer 2 strain to have adversaries spend 2 Maneuvers
to disengage.
Hard-Headed Yes Daunting (dddd) Discipline check to remove
Staggered or Disoriented status.
Heightened No Give allies b or bb to Perception and Vigilance.
Awareness
Heroic Recovery No Spend 1 Story Point to recover strain equal to specific
characteristic.
Hold Together No Spend 1 Story Point to turn damage on vehicle into
system strain.
Hunter No Ranged [Heavy] and Survival skill become career skills.
Hunter's Quarry No Hard (ddd) Survival check to upgrade attacks against
opponent within Long range.
Impaling Strike No Immobilize opponent on a Critical Injury with a Melee
attack.
Improved Defenses No Average (dd) Survival check to fashion defense.
Inspiring Rhetoric No Average (dd) Leadership check to heal strain on allies.
Inventor Yes Add b to check to construct or modify existing items.
Kitsune Style No Add up to bb on single target's combat checks.
Knockdown No Spend x to knock opponent prone with Brawl or Melee
attack.
Know the Enemy No May make Knowledge check for determining Initiative.
Know-It-All No Perfectly recall an important fact as if having spent 1
Story Point.
63 Talents
Strange Aeons
Know the Ropes No Add b to escape restraints, spend x to free allies in

Short range.
Known Schematic No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to get familiarity with
building or vessel.
Light Step No Cannot accidentally trigger floor traps or mines.
Loom No Add a to Engaged ally's Charm, Deception or
Negotiation check.
Lucky Strike No Spend 1 Story Point to add damage equal to a
characteristic.
Monkey Style No No b to you or b to foes when you are being prone.
Outdoorsman Yes Remove b from difficult terrain movement. Decrease
overland travel time by 50%.
Overstocked Ammo Yes Increase value of Limited Ammo on Signature Vehicle
weapons.
Multiple Opponents No Add b to Brawl and Melee checks when fighting
multiple foes.
One With the Shadows No In shadows or darkness add b to Initiative checks and
all combat checks against you have b.
Opening Tap No Open lock without tools at a twice increased difficulty.
Pack Initiative No Add automatic s to Initiative if ally has Pack
Initiative talent.
Physical Training Yes Add b to Athletics and Resilience checks.
Pride and Joy No Upgrade all Social checks in Short range of Signature
Vehicle.
Quick Draw No Use Quick Draw twice per turn, and reduce the Prepare
(Improved) quality of a weapon by 2.
Rapid Reload Yes Reduce a weapon's Prepare quality to reload.
Reckless Charge No Suffer 2 strain to add ss and tt on Brawl or Melee
attack.
Reconstruct the No Hard (ddd) Perception check to identify physical
Scene characteristics of a person present at scene within 24
hours.
Researcher Yes On successful Knowledge check, character and allies add
(Improved) automatic a to all skill checks.
Resist Disarm No Suffer 2 strain to avoid being disarmed or have weapons
damaged or destroyed.
Sadistic Reward Yes If dealing damage, all attacks against you have a b
penalty.
Scarring Spell No Spells cast against target gain b to skill checks for 24
hours.
Scathing Tirade No Average (dd) Coercion check to inflict strain to
enemies.
Talents 64
Scavenger Yes Remove b from checks to scavenge, reduce time needed

by 50%.
Selective Detonation Yes Spend a on weapon with Blast quality to exclude
person in blast.
Sense Danger No Remove bb from any one skill once per session.
Sense Emotions No Add b to all Charm, Coercion and Deception checks.
Shortcut Yes Add b to checks to catch or escape an opponent.
Side Step Yes Upgrade difficulty of all Ranged combat checks made
against you.
Snapping Turtle No Gain +1 Ranged Defense while using Brawl and having
Style one hand free.
Stalker Yes Add b to all Coordination and Stealth checks.
Stunning Blow No Melee attack may inflict strain damage instead of
wound damage.
Sundering Strike No The cost of triggering Sunder quality is one a less.
Suppressing Fire Yes Spend a on failed combat check to inflict strain on
opponent.
Threaten Yes Suffer 3 strain to inflict strain upon opponent within
Short range.
Time to Go No Spend 1 Story Point to move into cover or out of blast
range of a weapon or explosion.
Tinkerer Yes Add 1 additional hard point to items.
Touch of Fate No Add bb to any one skill check once per session.
Unarmed Parry No May parry Brawl and Melee attacks while unarmed.
Unstoppable No Do not receive Critical Injury on a Critical Injury
result of 01.
Vehicle Combat No Driving, Gunnery and Piloting become career skills.
Training
Widow-Maker No Deal 1 additional damage against Nemesis adversaries,
remove b from Social skills when dealing with Nemesis
adversaries.
TALENTS: TIER 3
Acrobatic Strike No Suffer 3 strain and make a Hard (ddd) Coordination
check to add bb on Brawl or Melee combat check
against an opponent.
Ambush No Add damage equal to Stealth when in from cover.
Animal Companion Yes Gain a special animal companion.
Armor Master No Increase Soak by 1 when wearing armor.
65 Talents
Strange Aeons
Ascetic Caster No Additional a to Brawl checks per rank of Magic.

Augment Healing Yes Add automatic s and a when casting healing spells.
Backstab No Attack unaware adversary for additional damage using
Skulduggery skill instead of Melee.
Bad Press No Hard (ddd) Deception check to reduce strain threshold
of members of a specific faction.
Barrel Roll No Reduce damage to vehicle at the cost of system strain.
Blind Spot No You and allies in Short range add a to combat checks
while benefiting from cover.
Blindsense Yes Ignore b from darkness within Short range.
Bloody Assault No Suffer bb to Melee or Ranged combat check to cause
bleeding wound.
Body Guard Yes Suffer strain to upgrade attacks against an Engaged
ally.
Bullheaded No Add b to fear checks, cannot become Disoriented.
Capital Sendoff No Hard (ddd) Cool check to make 2 vehicles suffer minor
collision.
Center of Being Yes Increase critical rating against you by 1 when wielding
melee weapon with Defensive quality.
Chopshop Expertise Yes Average (dd) Knowledge check to reduce cost and time
of repairs of vehicles.
Chosen Foe Yes Gain b on combat checks and +1 Defense against one
target, bb on combat checks against others and they
add b against you.
Combat Veteran No Add b to Brawl and Discipline checks.
Confidence (Improved) No Spend a on fear check to give allies in Short range
automatic s on the same fear check.
Congenial Yes Suffer strain to downgrade or upgrade difficulty of
Charm or Negotiation checks.
Constant Vigilance No Use Vigilance to determine Initiative.
Counterattack No Activate item quality when using Improved Parry.
Creative Killer No Reduce critical rating by 2 with improvised weapon.
Customized Cooling Yes Increase system strain threshold by 2 on Signature
Unit Vehicle.
Daredevil Yes Add b to skill checks that is of Hard (ddd)
difficulty or greater.
Daring Turn No Suffer 2 strain to negate the effects of Gain the
Advantage.
Defy Death No Upgrade fear checks, allies in Short range gain b to
fear checks.
Disarm No Spend aa or x with Brawl or Melee attack to disarm
Talents 66
opponent.
Disarming Smile Yes Charm check to lower Defense rating of an adversary.
Dodge Yes Suffer strain to upgrade difficulty of combat checks
targeting you.
Double of Nothing No Suffer 2 strain to double the amount of a on a skill
check with increased difficulty of one.
Dual Strike No Suffer 2 strain instead of using aa to hit with
secondary weapon.
Durable Magic Yes Increase difficulty of attempts to dispel your magic.
Eagle Eyes No Increase your weapon's range band by one.
Easy Prey No Suffer 3 strain to add bb to combat checks at
Immobilized foes.
Eldritch Consumption No Add s and a to one spell at the cost of -1 Brawn and 4
strain.
Encouraging Words No Suffer 1 strain to assist Engaged ally's next check.
Eye for Detail Yes Suffer strain to convert s to a on Mechanics check.
Fear the Shadows No Hard (ddd) Deception check to make minion group or
rival flee.
Fearsome Reputation Yes Add a to Coercion skill checks.
Feint Yes Spend x or aaa on a failed Brawl or Melee combat
check to upgrade opponent's combat check.
Field Commander No Average (dd) Leadership check for allies to perform a
Maneuver.
Fire Control No All combat checks made from vehicle count target's
Silhouette as 1 larger.
Flick of the Wrist No Add s and a to combat check if drawing a one-handed
weapon.
Forgot to Count? No Spend tt on enemy's combat check to run out of
ammunition.
Formation Tactics No Hard (ddd) Leadership check to upgrade combat checks
against all allies within Short range.
Fortified Structure Yes Increase hull trauma by 1 on Signature Vehicle.
Freerunning No Suffer 4 strain to move anywhere within Medium range.
(Improved)
Frenzied Attack Yes Suffer strain to upgrade Brawl or Melee combat checks.
Full Stop No Bring piloted vehicle to speed zero immediately at 1
system strain.
Full Throttle No Hard (ddd) Driving / Piloting check to increase top
speed by 1.
Greased Palms Yes Pay 50 dollars to upgrade Social skill check once.
Grenadier Yes Spend 1 Story Point to trigger Blast quality without
67 Talents
Strange Aeons
using aa, increase range of grenades to Medium range.

Harass No Animal companion may forego inflicting damage on foe
to upgrade difficulty of the target's next check
instead.
Hard-Boiled Yes Spend a when recovering strain to recover 1 wound.
Heroic Resilience Yes Spend 1 Story Point to increase Soak.
Heroic Will No Ignore effects of Critical Injuries on two
characteristics.
Hindering Shot Yes Spend 1 Story Point to increase difficulty of Gunnery,
and inflict system strain to a moving vehicle.
Hit the Deck No Increase Soak by 1 against explosive weapons.
Hunter's Quarry No Suffer 2 strain to perform Hunter's Quarry as Maneuver
(Improved) instead of as an Action.
Informant No Reveal a contact who can shed light on a chosen subject.
Inspiring Rhetoric No Allies affected by Inspiring Rhetoric add b to all
(Improved) skill checks.
Interjection No Average (dd) Vigilance check on another character's
failed Social check, add s or f equal to s, and a or
t equal to a.
Intimidating Yes Suffer strain to downgrade or upgrade Coercion checks.
Iron Body Yes Remove b from Coordination and Resilience. Reduce
critical rating on Brawl combat checks by 1.
Lady Killer / No Deal 1 additional damage against members of the
Maneater opposite sex, add b to Social skill checks against
members of the opposite sex.
Larger Project Yes Can have Signature Vehicles of 1 larger Silhouette.
Lethal Blows Yes Add +10 to Critical Injury results.
Life or Death No When at half wound threshold or greater, add b to
combat checks.
Lone Wanderer No All combat checks have b against you, increase your
Encumbrance threshold.
Lucky Start No Suffer 3 strain to re-roll Cool or Vigilance for
Initiative.
Mind Over Matter No Spend 1 Story Point to recover strain equal to
Willpower.
Natural No Choose two skills and re-roll one skill check per session.
Nobody's Fool Yes Increase difficulty of Charm, Coercion and Deception
checks against you.
Opportunist Yes Suffer strain to convert s to a on non-combat skill
check.
Outside the Box No Use other characteristic for making one skill check.
Talents 68
Overwhelm Defenses Yes Spend aa to reduce Defense on vehicle.

Painkiller Yes Heal 1 additional wound when using painkiller.
Specialization
Pack Rat No Items with Encumbrance 2 or less count as half weight.
Parry (Improved) No Spend y or ttt to make parried attack hit the
attacker.
Pin No Opposed Athletics check to Immobilize an Engaged
opponent.
Pinning Fire Yes Opponent within range suffers b to skill checks and 1
strain.
Plausible No Hard (ddd) Coercion check to convince bystander to
Deniability depart.
(Improved)
Point Blank Yes Increase damage with Ranged [Heavy] and Ranged [Light]
at Engaged and Short range.
Point Blank Shot Yes Ignore increased difficulty on ranged weapon in
Engaged range.
Powerful Blast Yes Increase damage by 1 to damage dealt by Blast quality.
Precision Strike No Change a Critical Injury result to Easy (d) result at 1
strain cost.
Preemptive No Spend 1 Story Point to disengage from opponent as out-
Avoidance of-turn Incidental.
Pressure Point No Deal strain damage with Brawl attack, deal additional
strain damage equal to ranks in Medicine.
Pride and Joy No Recover additional strain within your Signature
(Improved) Vehicle.
Resourceful Refit No Average (dd) Mechanics check to scavenge attachment
for parts to construct a new attachment at reduced cost.
Rime Spell Yes Immobilize targets of your spell.
Scathing Tirade No Enemies affected by Scathing Tirade add b to all skill
(Improved) checks.
Seize the Initiative No Hard (ddd) Athletics check to let other PCs take their
turn immediately.
Sense Advantage No Add bb to one NPCs skill check.
Share Pain No Reduce damage on animal companion, the character
suffers the wounds instead.
Shortcut (Improved) No Suffer 2 strain to add s to check during a chase.
Shotgun Surgeon No Wielding a shotgun gives it a Pierce 1 quality for you.
Sixth Sense No Increase Ranged Defense value by 1.
Skilled Teacher Yes Suffer strain to add s to ally's skill check within
Short range.
69 Talents
Strange Aeons
Smart Handling No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to increase Handling of

vehicle of Silhouette 4 or bigger.
Snake Style No Gain Pierce 1 when using Brawl combat checks.
Sound Investments Yes Gain 100 dollars at start of each session.
Staggering Critical No You also Stagger your opponent when inflicting a
Critical Injury.
Stalwart No Forefeit Defense rating to add to Soak value instead.
Stim Application No Increase a characteristic by one by the expense of 4
strain.
Stonewall No Brawl and Melee checks targeting you have b, cannot be
knocked prone by such attacks.
Strong Back Yes Increase Encumbrance threshold by 2.
Studious Plotting No May use Intellect instead of Cunning while navigating
with Streetwise or Survival skill.
Stunning Blow No Spend x to Stagger opponent when dealing strain
(Improved) damage with Brawl or Melee attack.
Sunder Expertise No Damage item two steps instead of one when using Sunder
quality.
Super Slam! No Weapons with Knockdown quality require one less a to
activate.
Superior Reflexes No Increase Melee Defense value by 1.
Talk the Talk No Substitute Knowledge checks with Streetwise skill.
Time to Go (Improved) No Allow 1 ally to perform out-of-turn Maneuver to move
into cover or out of range of an explosion.
Timely Misdirection No Render one opponent unable to make Critical Injuries
against you.
Tricky Target No Count piloted vehicle as one Silhouette lower when
attacked.
Trust the Captain Yes Hard (ddd) Leadership check to increase allies' ranks
in Discipline check within Short range.
Tuned Maneuvering Yes Increase the Handling of Signature Vehicles by 1.
Parts
Twin Warriors No +1 Melee Defense and b to Brawl checks for allies with
this talent.
Twisted Words No Suffer 1 strain to inflict strain on another character's
failed Social skill check.
Up the Ante Yes Win 10% more dollars when gambling.
Utility Belt No Spend 1 Story Point to produce an undocumented item.
Valuable Facts No Add automatic x to ally skill check.
Well-Rounded No Choose 2 skills, they permanently become career skills.
Talents 70
TALENTS: TIER 4
Action Boost Yes Spend 1 Story Point to flip positive die to adjacent
side.
Armor Master No When wearing armor with Soak 2+ increase Defense
(Improved) rating by 1.
Assassin Strike No Spend 1 Story Point to disengage from opponent as
Incidental.
Back-to-Back No Add b to your and allies in Engaged range combat
checks.
Body Guard No When your protected ally is hit, you can suffer the hit
(Improved) instead.
Bolstered Armor Yes Increase Armor value by 1 of Signature Vehicle.
Brilliant Evasion No Make opposed Driving or Piloting check to stop opponent
from attacking your vehicle.
Can't We Talk About No Prevent target from attacking you.
This?
Capital Sendoff No When performing Capital Sendoff targets suffer major
(Improved) collision instead.
Careful Planning No Introduce a “fact” into the narrative as if spent 1
Story Point.
Center of Being No Suffer 1 strain to use Center of Being as an Incidental.
(Improved)
Commanding Presence No Make a Cool vs. Discipline check to make adversary
within Short range leave the encounter.
Comrades In Arms No Hard (ddd) Discipline check to grant you and allies
within Medium range +1 Defense rating.
Dazing Spell No Change wound damage to strain damage on your spells.
Deadeye No Select the outcome of your Critical Injuries within same
severity.
Deadly Accuracy No Add ranks of combat skill as damage to attack.
Death Rage No +2 damage to Brawl and Melee by per sustained Critical
Injury.
Defensive Yes Increase Melee and Ranged Defense Rating by 1.
Defensive Driving Yes Add b to combat checks against vehicle piloted by you.
Delay Spell No Delay a spell up to 5 turns or set a trigger condition.
Discredit No Hard (ddd) Deception check to upgrade character's
Social skill check.
Distracting Behavior No Distracting Behavior Maneuver adds automatic tt on
(Improved) NPC skill checks if targeting your allies.
Don't Shoot! No Cannot be targeted by combat checks on a Hard (ddd)
71 Talents
Strange Aeons
Charm check.
Double or Nothing No Doubles up the remaining s after resolving a skill
(Improved) check.
Double-Talk No Spend aa or x on Charm or Deception check to
Disorient opponents within Short range.
Dreadful Carnage No Hard (ddd) Coercion check when incapacitating an
enemy to Stagger foes in Short range.
Eldritch Life No Average (dd) Magic check to lower damage if exceeding
threshold.
Enduring Yes Increase your Soak Rating by 1.
Extend Spell No Extend a spell one range band without upgrading
difficulty.
Fearsome Spell No Spend aa on Magic check to cause targets to make a
fear check.
Field Commander No Spend x on Field Commander to let ally take an Action.
(Improved)
Flurry of Blows No Suffer strain to add Linked quality to Brawl or Melee
attack.
Formation Tactics No Reduce difficulty of Formation Tactics to Average
(Improved) (dd). Spend x or aaaaaa to have effect last
the entire encounter.
Fortune Favors the No Suffer 2 strain to move GM Story Point to Player Story
Bold Point pool.
Full Throttle No Suffer 1 strain to perform Full Throttle as a Maneuver,
(Improved) and reduce difficulty to Average (dd).
Heroic Defiance No Delay one harmful condition until end of next turn.
How Convenient! No Hard Mechanics (ddd) check to have one device
spontaneously fail.
In the Know No Make opposed Deception vs. Vigilance check to have
target NPC believe false intelligence.
Incite Rebellion No Hard (ddd) Cooercion check to make minions and rivals
become rebellious.
Inspiring Rhetoric No Use Inspiring Rhetoric as a Maneuver instead of as an
(Supreme) Action.
It's Not That Bad No Hard (ddd) Medicine check to prevent ally from
gaining Critical Injury.
Jury Rigged Yes Modify a personal weapon or armor.
Knockdown Spell No Spend aa to knock target of your spell prone.
Life or Death No Upgrade your combat checks when you are at are
(Improved) wounded to half or more of your wound threshold.
Lingering Spell No Spells lasts for one additional turn.
Mad Inventor No Cobble together a function item from spare parts.
Talents 72
Mantis Style No Reduce your Critical Rating by one with Brawl checks.
Mercurial Strike No May attack opponent that disengage from you with a
melee weapon.
Moving Target Yes If you have already acted this turn increase Ranged
Defense rating.
Not Today No Spend 1 Story Point to prevent Signature Vehicle from
being destrouyed.
Offensive Driving No Suffer system strain to upgrade target's Driving check.
Overbalance No Spend y or ttt on Engaged foe's combat check to
Stagger foe.
Owl Style No Use Brawl ranks instead of Stealth, negate adversary's
Defense Rating.
Panther Style No Engaged enemies with ranged weapons must upgrade
combat checks one additional time.
Persistent Attacker Yes Spend aa on successful combat check to upgrade next
combat check against the same adversary.
Pinning Fire No Affect additional targets with Pinning Fire.
(Improved)
Precise Aim Yes Suffer strain to reduce adversary's Defense rating.
Precision Strike No Change a Critical Injury result to Average (dd) result
(Improved) at the cost of 2 strain.
Prey On the Weak Yes Add +1 damage against Disoriented targets.
Pride and Joy No Reduce Silhouette of Signature Vehicle by 2, to a
(Surpreme) minimum of 0.
Prime Positions Yes You and allies in Short range gain +1 Soak when in
cover.
Prophetic Aim No While aiming, y cannot result in hitting an Engaged
ally.
Pyromaniac No Increase Burn quality by +1 on weapon with Burn
quality.
Rain of Death No Ignore the increased difficulty due to Auto-fire
quality.
Reflexive Psychosis No Spend a Story Point to double your Soak value.
Reinforced Frame No Signature Vehicle gains Massive 1 quality, Critical
ratings on weapons against the vehicle count as 1
higher.
Resolve Yes Suffer 1 less strain when voluntarily suffering strain.
Savage Sweep No Increase difficulty of Brawl or Melee combat check and
spend aa to strike an additional Engaged opponent.
Savvy Negotiator No Hard (ddd) Negotiation check to make observers see
opponent's sides as maliciously unreasonable.
Scathing Tirade No Use Scathing Tirade as a Maneuver instead of as an
73 Talents
Strange Aeons
(Supreme) Action.
Second Chances Yes Select positive dice and re-roll them.
Seen a Lot of Things No Spend aaa to attempt a new Knowledge check next
turn on a failed attempt.
Showboat No Suffer 2 strain to gain x on success or y on failure on
a check while in a vehicle.
Sniper Shot Yes Increase ranged weapon's range by 1 range band by
upgrading the difficulty of the skill check.
Sorry About the Mess No Decrease Critical Rating against foe that has not yet
acted.
Spitfire No Additional hit with two weapons can be dealt to other
target.
Spray and Pray No Deal only 50% damage to allies accidentally hit in
combat.
Steady Aim No Do not lose the benefit of Aim Maneuver by performing
other Maneuvers or Actions.
Stim Application No Stim Application is an Incidental instead of an Action.
(Improved) Reduce the strain cost of using the Stim Application
Incidental to 1.
Street Smarts Yes Formidable (ddddd) Streetwise or Knowledge check
to get vital clue from GM.
Supporting Evidence Yes Add automatic a to Charm, Deception, Leadership or
Negotiation checks when assisting an ally.
Targeted Firepower No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to grant allies in Short
range automatic a on attacks against target.
That's How It's Done Yes Suffer 1 strain to give allies in Short range automatic
a on usage of the same skill.
Third Time's the No Re-roll one negative die.
Charm
Traumatic Spell No Your spells instills nightmares that prevents wound
and strain recovery.
True Aim Yes Benefit from aiming and upgrade your ranged combat
check.
Trust No One No Suffer 1 strain to add automatic t when targeted by a
Social skill check. Take immediate Maneuver as out-of-
turn Incidental on a y.
Unbelievable Luck No If sufficient Story Points in the player's pool add b to
all skill checks.
Unrelenting No Suffer 4 strain to make a second Brawl or Melee attack
against the same adversary at increased difficulty.
Unrelenting Skeptic No Add automatic f to check when targeted by Deception.
Weak Foundation No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check for you and your allies
Talents 74
to add automatic s or aa on combat checks targeting

the structure.
Wise Warrior No Spend 1 Story Point to use any characteristic for a
combat check.
Works Like a Charm No Use Presence instead of other characteristic for skill
check.
TALENTS: TIER 5
Absorb Spell No Attempt to absorb spell cast at you to upgrade your
own spell power.
Action Boy No Add an additional Story Point to the player pool.
Action Surge No Spend 1 Story Point to perform an additional Maneuver
or Action.
Agent 47 No Roll twice for Critical Injury and select one result
while hidden.
Armor Master No Suffer 3 strain to reduce result of Critical Injury by
(Surpreme) 10 per Soak.
Baleful Gaze No Spent 1 Story Point to upgrade opponent's combat check
within Medium range.
Biggest Fan No Hard (ddd) Charm check to turn NPC into biggest fan.
Body Guard No May protect Engaged characters equal to ranks in
(Surpreme) Resilience.
Comrades In Arms No Spend x or aaa for you an ally to gain +1 Soak
(Supreme) rating.
Coordinated Dodge No Spend 1 Story Point to add f to combat checks against
you.
Critical Mastery No Spend 1 Story Point to inflict two effects on a Critical
Injury result.
Crushing Blow No Suffer 4 strain to give Melee weapon Breach 1 and
Knockdown.
Custom Loadout No Add mount for weapon on Signature Vehicle.
Dedication Yes Increase a characteristic by 1 point, to a maximum of 5.
Double or Nothing No Double all x and y on Double or Nothing Incidental
(Surpreme) result.
Dumb Luck No Suffer 3 strain to spend aaa to change y result to
x result.
Eldritch Heritage No Add x or y to next Knowledge or Magic skill check.
Evasion No While in Guarded Stance attempt to negate a single
successful Brawl or Melee attack against you.
Finish Him! No Incapacitate any adversary that is Staggered.
75 Talents
Strange Aeons
Friendly Foe No Spend 1 Story Point to change y to f on combat check

to avoid hitting an ally Engaged with target.
Full Throttle No Full Throttle increases vehicle's top speed by 2, not 1.
(Supreme)
Furious Spell No Deal additional damage with spells equal to ranks in
Magic.
Heavy Hitter No Add Breach 1 quality to attack with Ranged [Heavy] or
Gunnery.
Indomitable No Spend 1 Story Point to prolong your incapacitation
until next turn.
Inspiring Leadership No Hard (ddd) Leadership check to give allies in Short
range automatic s.
Intense Focus No Suffer 1 strain to upgrade skill check once.
Just Kidding! No Spent 1 Story Point to ignore y on Social skill check of
ally within Short range.
Let's Talk This Over No Daunting (dddd) Charm check to turn potential
combat encounter into Social encounter.
Life or Death No Life or Death activates when taking wounds equal to
(Supreme) one quarter of wound threshold.
Master No Reduce the difficulty of one skill by two.
Master Demolitionist No Spend a or x to extend Blast quality to Short range.
Master Driver/Pilot No Suffer 2 strain to perform vehicle Action as Maneuver
instead.
Master Grenadier No Reduce a cost to activate Blast quality.
Master Instructor No Suffer 2 strain for ally in Short range to have ranks
in Discipline equal to your ranks in Discipline.
Master Merchant No Suffer 2 strain to buy or sell goods at an additional
25% of cost.
Mind Over Body No May attempt to heal 2 Critical Injuries in a week.
Most Impressive No Spend x on any skill to give allies in Short range
automatic a.
Now the Master No Immitate one talent of another character.
Precision Strike No Suffer 3 strain to change a Critical Injury result to a
(Supreme) Hard (ddd) result.
Quicken Spell No Cast one spell as an Incidental.
Retribution No Spend 1 Story Point to automatically strike adversary
that hits an ally within Medium range of you.
Ricochet No Spend y on opponent's attack to have the attack
ricochet back and hit the attacker instead.
Ruinous Repartee No Inflict strain upon one opponent, you heal the same
amount of strain.
Talents 76
Seize the Moment No Spend Story Point to attack an adversary on Critical

Injury from ally.
Stim Application No Increase additional characteristic on a x result.
(Supreme)
Superhuman Skill No Spend 1 Story Point to change y to s equal to ranks in
the skill.
The Stars Are Right! No Daunting (dddd) Knowledge check to upgrade Magic
skill check.
Thorough Assessment No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to gain additional b.
Trivial Knowledge No Roll twice for Knowledge check and use the better of
the two.
Unmatched Fortune No Spend 1 Story Point to set aside a x and roll one more
c die.
Unrelenting Skeptic No Spend 1 Story Point when targeted by a failed
(Improved) Deception check to add y to the result.
Whirlwind No Suffer 4 strain to increase difficulty of Brawl or Melee
combat check and hit all Engaged adversaries.
Wise Warrior No Allow ally in Short range to use the same characteristic
(Improved) for attack.
Zealous Fire No Heal 2 strain whenever the GM spends 1 Story Point.
TALENT DESCRIPTIONS spend one Story Point and suffer 3 strain

as an out-of-turn Incidental to absorb
The rest of chapter four details each the spell instead. The character must
individual talent in great detail. Each attempt a Discipline check with a
talent is presented on the list in difficulty determined by the opponent
alphabetical order, not by tier order. spellcaster's Magic skill. Furthermore,
for every uncanceled aa generated on
ABSORB SPELL the opponent's spellcasting check, a b is
Tier: 5 added to your check to absorb the spell.
Activation: Passive (Incidental, Out-of- If your Discipline check is successful you
Turn) absorb the magical force of the spell
Ranked: No without it taking effect, and you can
Your character must have at least one harness it to upgrade your own
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. spellcasting ability that you perform
You can absorb magical energy and use before the end of your next turn.
it to power your own spells. This is one of
the most powerful and dangerous ACROBATIC STRIKE
abilities a student of the arcane arts
Tier: 3
can learn. It is the ability to take pure
Activation: Active (Action)
eldritch power and reshape it, bending it
Ranked: No
to your will in a way no bookbound
Your dexterous maneuvers and skilled
wizard could ever truly understand.
acrobatics allow you to slip past a foe's
When a character with this talent is
defenses and deliver an accurate strike
affected by a spell, he may choose to
against him. You must attempt at a Hard
77 Talents
Strange Aeons
(ddd) Coordination check as part of ADAPTABLE FLANKER

your attack. Whether or not this Tier: 1
Coordination check succeeds or fails, you Activation: Active (Incidental)
suffer 3 strain. If you succeed, you gain Ranked: No
a bb bonus on the Brawl or Melee When you and an ally team up against
combat check that you make against that a foe, you know how to maximize the
foe as long as the attack occurs before threat your ally poses to ruin your
the end of your current turn. target's defenses. As an Incidental, you
designate a single opponent as the target
ACTION BOY (GIRL) of this talent. When you are in Engaged
Tier: 5 range with the chosen target, you grant a
Activation: Passive b to combat checks other make against
Ranked: No this particular target.
Action Boy (or Action Girl depending on
your character's gender) allows you to ADROITNESS
add an additional Story Point to the Tier: 2
player pool. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
ACTION BOOST When first acquired, choose a General
Tier: 4 skill. When making a check with that
Activation: Active (Incidental) skill, reduce the time required by 25%.
Ranked: Yes The GM may determine that this talent
You have the ability to may not be used with certain skills
alter your luck drastically or activities.
in dire circumstances. Spend
one Story Point to flip a ADVERSARY
positive dice to any Tier: None
adjacent side. For each Activation: Passive
rank beyond the first, Action Ranked: No
Boost applies to an additional Upgrade the difficulty of any
positive die. combat checks targeting this
character once per rank of
ACTION SURGE Adversary.
Tier: 5 This talent is only accessible to
Activation: Active NPCs.
(Incidental)
Ranked: No AGENT 47
You can spend 1 Story Tier: 5
Point to take an extra Activation: Active (Incidental)
Action or Maneuver in a Ranked: No
turn, either before or after Whenever you score a Critical
your regular actions. This Injury with an attack while you are
would allow you to surpass hidden, you may roll twice for a
the limitation of 2 Critical Injury effect and select
Maneuvers per turn. whichever you prefer.
Talents 78
ALL-TERRAIN DRIVER it may still perform inconvenient actions

Tier: 1 such as scratching furniture, consuming
Activation: Passive rations, and marking territory). Once per
Ranked: No turn in structured encounters, your
Do not suffer usual penalties for character may spend one Maneuver to
driving through difficult terrain when direct their animal in performing one
using the Driving skill. Action and one Maneuver during your
character’s turn. The animal must be
within hearing and visual range of your
ALLURING character (generally Medium range) to do
Tier: 2 this. Otherwise, the animal does not
Activation: Active (Action) contribute to the encounter. The specifics
Ranked: Yes of its behavior are up to you and your
Others have an inexplicable urge to GM.
believe your every word. Add automatic For every additional rank of Animal
a to Charm, Coercion, Deception, Companion your character has, increase
Leadership and Negotiation skill checks the allowed Silhouette of the companion
per rank of Alluring. by one (this may mean your character gets
a new companion, or their companion
AMBUSH grows in size).
Tier: 3 This talent can also change in flavor
Activation: Active (Maneuver) depending on the nature of your game
Ranked: No setting. While an animal companion may
Once per turn while benefiting from make sense in many settings, in a
cover, may make the Ambush Maneuver. futuristic setting it may make more sense
Add damage equal to Stealth skill to one for the “animal” to be a robot or drone,
hit of next successful combat check for example.
against a target within Short range
before the end of the turn. ANIMAL EXPERTISE
Tier: 2
ANIMAL COMPANION Activation: Passive
Tier: 3 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Passive Add b per rank of Animal Expertise to
Ranked: Yes all checks when interacting with beast or
Your character creates a bond with a animals (including combat checks). Add +10
single animal approved by your GM. This to Critical Injury results against beasts
animal must be Silhouette 0 (no larger or animals per rank of Animal Expertise.
than a mid-sized dog). The bond persists
as long as your character chooses, ANTICIPATE DODGE
although at your GM’s discretion, the Tier: 2
bond may also be broken due to abusive Activation: Active (Incidental)
treatment or other extenuating Ranked: Yes
circumstances. Your knowledge of mobility and your
As long as the bond persists, the attack prowess allow you to thwart
animal follows your character, and you elusive opponents. You automatically
dictate the animal’s overall behavior know whether a creature you can is
(although, since the animal is only benefiting from the Dodge talent. You
bonded with the character, not dominated,
79 Talents
Strange Aeons
gain a b bonus per rank of Anticipate the Armor Master incidental. If he does
Dodge on combat checks against a target he reduces the Critical Injury result
that is using the Dodge talent. This that he suffers by 10 per point of his
bonus cannot exceed the ranks of Dodge Soak, to a minimum of 1.
the creature is using.
ASCETIC CASTER
ARCANIST Tier: 3
Tier: 2 Activation: Active (Incidental)
Activation: Passive Ranked: No
Ranked: No Your character must have at least one
Your character must have at least one rank in Magic to benefit from this
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. You practice an unusual martial
talent. Your family has studied eldritch art that mixes self-taught spellcasting
secrets for hundreds of years. You spent and unarmed attacks to great effect.
your childhood in private libraries that Whenever you make a successful Brawl
held secret, eldritch tomes, and this combat check, you add an automatic a to
early education gives you a great the roll per rank of Magic that you have.
breadth of knowledge. Add automatic s
to all Magic skill checks. ASSASSIN STRIKE
Tier: 4
ARMOR MASTER Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 3 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive After making a successful Brawl or
Ranked: No Melee check, may spend a Story Point to
When wearing armor, increase total disengage from an opponent as an
Soak value by 1. Incidental.
ARMOR MASTER (IMPROVED) AUGMENT HEALING

Tier: 4 Tier: 3
Activation: Passive Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Ranked: No Ranked: Yes
Your character must have purchased Your character must have at least one
the Armor Master talent to benefit from rank in Magic to benefit from this
this talent. When wearing armor with a talent. Your healing spells are more
Soak value of 2 or higher, increase effective. Whenever you use a healing
Defense by 1. spell, you add an automatic s and a to
your skill check per rank of Augment
ARMOR MASTER (SUPREME) Healing to successfully cast the healing
Tier: 5 spell.
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
Turn) BACK-TO-BACK
Ranked: No Tier: 4
Your character must have purchased Activation: Passive
the Armor Master (Improved) talent to Ranked: No
benefit from this talent. Once per turn, While engaged with one or more allies,
when the character suffers a Critical your character and allies they are
Injury, he may suffer 3 strain to take Engaged with add b to combat checks. If
Talents 80
one or more allies Engaged with your BALEFUL GAZE

character also have the Back-to-Back Tier: 5
talent, the effects are cumulative to a Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
maximum of bb. Turn)
Ranked: No
BACKSTAB When targeted by combat check from
Tier: 3 within Medium range, may spend a Story
Activation: Active (Action) Point to upgrade the difficulty of the
Ranked: No check a number of times equal to ranks in
Your character may use this talent to Coercion.
attack an unaware adversary using a
Melee weapon. A Backstab is a Melee BARRAGE
attack, and follows the normal rules for Tier: 2
performing a combat check (see page 101 Activation: Passive
of the GENESYS core rulebook), using the Ranked: Yes
character's Skuduggery skill instead of Add 1 damage per rank of Barrage to
Melee. If the check succeeds, each one hit of successful attack while using
uncanceled s adds +2 damage (instead of Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery skills at Long
the normal +1). or Extreme range.
BAD COP BARREL ROLL

Tier: 1 Tier: 3
Activation: Passive Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
Ranked: Yes Turn)
May spend aa from a Deception or Ranked: No
Coercion check to upgrade ability of a Your character can only use this
single ally’s subsequent Social talent while piloting an airplane of
Interaction check against the target a Silhouette 3 or less. When your vehicle
number of times equal to ranks in Bad suffers a hit from a ranged combat check,
Cop. after damage is calculated but before
Armor is applied, your character may
BAD PRESS have their vehicle suffer 3 system strain
Tier: 3 to use this talent. Then, reduce the
Activation: Active (Action) damage suffered by a number equal to
Ranked: No their ranks in Piloting.
Once per session, choose an
organization and make a Hard (ddd) BASIC MILITARY TRAINING
Deception check. On success, organization Tier: 2
members have their strain thresholds Activation: Passive
reduced by 1, plus 1 per sss, until the Ranked: No
end of the session. When he does this, the Athletics, Ranged [Heavy], and
player must explain how the PC Resilience are now career skills for your
disseminated the propaganda such that it character.
has affected his targets. The chosen
organization must be narrow and cohesive
enough to be affected by bad publicity.
81 Talents
Strange Aeons
BIGGEST FAN BLINDSPOT

Tier: 5 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Action) Activation: Passive
Ranked: No Ranked: No
Once per session, may take a Biggest Your character, and allies within Short
Fan Action; make a Hard (ddd) Charm range, add automatic a to combat checks
check to turn one NPC into the they make while benefiting from cover.
character’s biggest fan. The exact effects
of this vary depending on the NPC and BLINDSENSE
the situation. They can include Tier: 3
drastically decreasing the difficulty of Activation: Passive
Social Interaction skill checks the Ranked: Yes
character makes targeting his biggest As long as your character can hear, you
fan, the fan being willing to perform may ignore b imposed by darkness or
minor or even significant favors for the blindness within Short range. Each
character, or the character even becoming additional rank increases range.
a reoccurring ally in the narrative. At
the CM’s discretion, this talent may not
be able to target certain NPCs whose BLOODY ASSAULT
adversarial nature is vital to the plot, Tier: 3
or NPCs who would be unable to Activation: Active (Incidental)
appreciate the character’s work. Ranked: No
Sacrificing accuracy, you can
inflict bloody wounds that are
BLACK MARKET CONTACT slow to heal. You can choose to
Tier: 1
take a bb penalty on all
Activation: Active (Incidental)
Melee or Ranged combat
Ranked: Yes
checks to inflict 1 wound of
When purchasing illegal
bleed damage with your attack,
goods, may reduce rarity by 1 per
in addition to the normal
rank of Black Market Contacts,
damage dealt by the weapon. A
increasing cost by 50 percent of
creature continues to take
base cost per reduction.
bleed damage every turn at the
start of its turn, and cannot
BLACKMAIL soak this bleed damage.. Bleed
Tier: 2 damage can be stopped by an
Activation: Active (Incidental, Average (dd) Medicine check
Out-of-Turn) or through any magical
Ranked: No healing. Bleed damage from
When an NPC exceeds his this talent does not stack
strain threshold, may spend 1 with itself. You must choose to
Story Point to convince that NPC use this talent before making the
to perform a single task of combat check, and its effects last
choice instead. until your next turn (although
the bleeding lasts until healed,
as normal).
Talents 82
BODY GUARD BOUGHT INFO

Tier: 3 Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Activation: Active (Action)
Ranked: Yes Ranked: No
Once per turn, may suffer a number of When making a Knowledge skill check,
strain no greater than ranks in Body your character can instead use this
Guard to use this talent. Choose one ally talent to spend an amount of dollars
Engaged with your character; until the equal to fifty times the difficulty of
end of your character's next turn, the check and automatically succeed on
upgrade the difficulty of all combat the knowledge check with one uncanceled
checks targeting that ally a number of s (instead of rolling). At your GM’s
times equal to the strain suffered. discretion, your character may not be
able to use Bought Info if the
BODY GUARD (IMPROVED) information is particularly sensitive or
Tier: 4 difficult to find, or buying it doesn’t
Activation: Passive make narrative sense.
Ranked: No
Your character must have purchased BRACE
the Body Guard talent to benefit from Tier: 1
this talent. Once per session, when an Activation: Active (Maneuver)
ally protected by the Body Guard Ranked: Yes
Maneuver suffers a hit, suffer the hit As a Maneuver, the character may Brace
instead. himself. This allows a character to
remove b per rank of Brace from the
BODY GUARD (SUPREME) next skill check based on changing
Tier: 5 conditions, inclement weather, unstable
Activation: Passive surfaces, zero gravity, heavy gravity, or
Ranked: No other disruptive physical obstacles that
Your character must have purchased would make a skill check more difficult.
the Body Guard (Improved) talent to
benefit from this talent. Body Guard BRILLIANT EVASION
Maneuver may protect a number of Tier: 4
Engaged characters up to ranks in Activation: Active (Action)
Resilience. Ranked: No
Once per vehicle encounter, your
BOLSTERED ARMOR character may take Brilliant Evasion
Tier: 4 Action. Select 1 opponent and make
Activation: Passive Opposed Driving or Piloting check to stop
Ranked: Yes opponent from attacking character for
Your character must have purchased rounds equal to Agility.
the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit
from this talent. Increase the Armor BULLHEADED
value of Signature Vehicle by 1 per rank Tier: 3
of Bolstered Armor. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Your stubbornness and determination is
legendary. You are exceptionally
83 Talents
Strange Aeons
headstrong and difficult to sway from CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS?

your course. You add b to skill checks Tier: 4
against fear effects. Furthermore, you Activation: Active (Action)
cannot become Disoriented. Ranked: No
Your character can use this talent to
BULLRUSH make an opposed Charm or Deception
Tier: 1 versus Discipline check targeting a
Activation: Active (Incidental) single non-nemesis adversary within
Ranked: No Medium range. If the check succeeds, the
When your character makes a Brawl or target cannot attack your character (or
Melee combat check after using a perform hostile actions against your
Maneuver to engage a target, you may character) until the end of their next
spend aaa or x to use this talent to turn. You may spend aa to increase the
knock the target prone and move them up length of the effect by one additional
one range band away from your character. turn, and spend x to extend the benefits
to all of their identified allies within
BULLWARK Short range.
Tier: 2 The effect ends immediately if your
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- character or a known ally attacks the
Turn) target. In addition, your GM may rule
Ranked: No that some targets are immune to this
Your character must have purchased ability. An automated sentry turret, for
the Parry talent to benefit from this example, has no interest in resolving a
talent. While wielding a weapon with the conflict through talking, nor would
Defensive quality, your character may someone consumed by rage and the desire
use Parry to reduce the damage of an for revenge against your character.
attack targeting an Engaged ally.
CAPITAL SENDOFF
BURLY Tier: 3
Tier: 2 Activation: Active (Action)
Ranked: Yes Take a Capital Sendoff Action
Reduce any wielded weapon’s targeting two vehicles at Close range;
Cumbersome quality and Encumbrance make a Hard (ddd) Cool check to cause
rating by a number equal to ranks in the targets to suffer a minor collision.
Burly to a minimum of 1.
CAPITAL SENDOFF (IMPROVED)
CALL 'EM Tier: 4
Tier: 1 Activation: Passive
Ranked: No Your character must have purchased
Do not add bb to combat checks due to the Capital Sendoff talent to benefit
the use of the Aim Maneuver if targeting from this talent. When performing a
a specific object or location. Capital Sendoff, the targets suffer a
major collision instead.
Talents 84
CAREFUL PLANNING Defensive quality, your character may

Tier: 4 perform a Center of Being maneuver.
Activation: Active (Incidental) Until the beginning of your character’s
Ranked: No next turn, whenever an enemy makes a
Once per game session, the character melee attack targeting them, the critical
can choose to introduce a “fact: or rating of the enemy’s weapon counts as 1
additional context directly into the higher per rank of Center of Being.
narrative as if he had spent a Story
Point. CENTER OF BEING (IMPROVED)
Tier: 4
CATCH OFF-GUARD Activation: Passive
Tier: 1 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive Your character must have purchased
Ranked: No the Center of Being talent to benefit
Foes are surprised by your skilled use from this talent. Suffer 1 Strain to use a
of unorthodox and improvised weapons. Center of Being Maneuver as an
You do not suffer any t penalties for Incidental.
using an improvised Melee weapon.
CHALLENGE!
CATFALL Tier: 1
Tier: 1 Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Activation: Passive Ranked: Yes
Ranked: Yes Once per encounter, your character may
When rolling Athletics or Coordination use a Maneuver to use this talent to
to reduce damage from falling, add b. In choose a number of adversaries within
addition, reduce damage and strain Short range no greater than your
suffered from a fall by 1 per rank of character's ranks in Challenge! (a minion
Catfall. group counts as a single adversary for
this purpose). You have to succeed on a
Coercion check against the adversaries to
CAVE DWELLER make use of the talent. Until the
Tier: 1 encounter ends or your character is
Activation: Passive incapacitated, these adversaries add b
Ranked: Yes to combat checks targeting your
After your character makes a character and bb to combat checks
Perception, Vigilance, or Knowledge check targeting other characters.
to notice, identify, or avoid a threat in a
cavern, subterrean ruin, or similar
location, your character cancels a number CHILD AT HEART
of uncanceled f no greater than your Tier: 2
character's ranks in Cave Dweller. Activation: Active (Incidental)
Ranked: No
The Child at Heart talent improves
CENTER OF BEING your interactions with children (and even
Tier: 3 some adults at the GMs option), allowing
Activation: Active (Maneuver) you to decrease the difficulty on a
Ranked: Yes single Social interaction skill check
While wielding a weapon with the involving a child.
85 Talents
Strange Aeons
CHOPSHOP EXPERTISE Once per encounter, your character may

Tier: 3 use this talent to add automatic aa to
Activation: Active (Action) another character’s Social skill check.
Ranked: Yes
Your character may make an Average CODE BREAKER
(dd) Knowledge check when at a dry Tier: 1
dock, mechanics garage, etc. with suitable Activation: Passive
personnel and equipment to conduct Ranked: Yes
repairs to a vehicle, or to add You remove b per rank of Codebreaker
attachments or modifications to one. If from your attempts to break codes or
successful, the cost and time for repairs decrypt communications.
is reduced by 20% for each rank of
Chopshop Expertise to a minimum of 100 COLLECTOR OF STORIES
dollars and one day. Tier: 1
CHOSEN FOE Ranked: No
Tier: 3 You've heard so many tales of
Activation: Active (Incidental) legendary monsters that you remember
Ranked: Yes all sorts of gory details. When you
At the expense of attention to attempt a Hard (ddd) Knowledge
other distractions, you focus on a check to identify a creature or to
single opponent to give learn its special powers or
you a decided vulnerabilities.
advantage while fighting
against him. Once during your COMBAT VETERAN
turn, as an Incidental, you can Tier: 3
designate a single opponent. Activation: Passive
You gain on b per rank of Ranked: No
Chosen Foe on all combat checks Add b to all Brawl and Discipline
you make against this opponent. skill checks.
You also gain 1 Defense Rating
against this opponent, this
doesn't increase with ranks in COMMAND
Chosen Foe, however. The effects Tier: 2
last until the end of your next Activation: Passive
turn. Ranked: Yes
In exchange, you take bb on Add b per rank of Command when
combat checks against other making Leadership checks. Affected
opponents, and other opponents targets add b to Discipline
gain a b on combat checks checks for next 24 hours.
against you.
COMMANDING PRESENCE
CLEVER RETORT Tier: 4
Activation: Active (Incidental, Ranked: No
Out-of-Turn) Once per session, may take
Ranked: No Commanding Presence Action;
Talents 86
make an opposed Cool vs. Discipline check 1 turn. For each rank beyond the first in
to force target within Short range to Concussive Attack, you extend the
leave the encounter. duration by 1 turn.
COMPLIMENTARY INSIGHT CONDITIONED

Tier: 1 Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Activation: Passive
Turn) Ranked: Yes
Ranked: No The character removes b per rank of
You get more out of having skills that Conditioned from his Athletics and
work well together with others. You add Coordination checks. He reduces the
bb when using the assist option, instead damage and strain suffered from falling
of the normal b. by 1 per rank of Conditioned.
COMRADES IN ARMS CONFIDENCE

Tier: 4 Tier: 2
Once per encounter, make a Hard May decrease difficulty of Discipline
(ddd) Discipline check. If successful, checks to avoid fear by 1 per rank of
your character plus one ally per s Confidence, to a minimum of Easy (d).
within Medium range gains +1 Defense for
the remainder of the encounter. Effects CONFIDENCE (IMPROVED)
end if affected targets move beyond Tier: 3
Medium range. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
COMRADES IN ARMS (IMPROVED) Your character must have purchased
Tier: 5 the Confidence talent to benefit from
Activation: Passive this talent. May spend a on a fear check
Ranked: No to steady the nerves of allies making the
Your character must have purchased same fear check. If the character does so
the Comrades in Arms talent to benefit each ally within Short range who makes
from this talent. Spend x or aaa the fear check adds automatic s equal
when performing Comrades in Arms to also to the character’s rank in Confidence.
gain +1 Soak or give one affected ally +1
Soak. CONGENIAL
Tier: 3
CONCUSSIVE ATTACK Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 2 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Active (Incidental) May suffer a number of strain to
Ranked: Yes downgrade difficulty of Charm or
Your attacks can damage your Negotiation checks or upgrade difficulty
opponent's ability to think clearly. On a when target by Charm or Negotiation
successful attack you can spend aa to checks, by an equal number Strain
imposes a b penalty on the target's suffered this way cannot exceed ranks in
Intellect and Willpower skill checks for Congenial.
87 Talents
Strange Aeons
CONSTANT VIGILANCE COUNTERATTACK

Tier: 3 Tier: 3
Ranked: No Turn)
May always use Vigilance when making Ranked: No
checks to determine Initiative. Your character must have purchased
the Improved Parry talent to benefit
CONSTRUCTION SPECIALIST from this talent. When your character
Tier: 1 uses the Improved Parry talent to hit an
Activation: Passive attacker, they may also activate an item
Ranked: Yes quality of the weapon they used as if
Your character removes one b per rank they had generated aa on a combat
of Construction Specialist from checks check using that weapon.
made to construct bases, defense works,
positions, fortifications, tunnels, COUNTEROFFER
bunkers, and similar combat engineering Tier: 2
projects. Activation: Active (Action)
Ranked: No
COORDINATED ASSAULT Once per session, your character may
Tier: 2 use this talent to choose one non-nemesis
Activation: Active (Maneuver) adversary within Medium range and make
Ranked: Yes an opposed Negotiation versus Discipline
Once per turn, your character may use check. If successful, the target becomes
this talent to have a number of allies Staggered until the end of their next
engaged with your character equal to turn.
your ranks in Leadership add a to all At your GM’s discretion, you may spend
combat checks they make until the end of x on this check to have the adversary
your character’s next turn. The range of become an ally until the end of the
this talent increases by one band per encounter. However, the duration of this
rank of Coordinated Assault beyond the may be shortened or extended depending
first. on whether your GM feels your offer is
appealing to the adversary and whether
your character follows through on their
COORDINATED DODGE offer!
Tier: 5
Ranked: No CRACK SHOT
Your character must have purchased Tier: 1
the Dodge talent to benefit from this Activation: Passive
talent. When targeted by a combat check, Ranked: No
may spend 1 Story Point to add f equal You are skilled at making well-placed
to ranks in Coordination to the combat shots at targets behind cover. When you
check. make a Ranged combat check against an
opponent behind cover, the target's cover
does not give you any b on your combat
check.
Talents 88
CRANE STYLE before combat begins, the style you are

Tier: 2 in persists until you spend an Incidental
Activation: Active (Incidental) to switch to a different combat style. For
Ranked: No example, if you have the Monkey Style
Crane style focuses on defense and and Crane Style, you can use an
agile counterattacks. Practitioners are Incidental to adopt Monkey Style at the
known for graceful, one-legged stances start of one turn, and then by another
and folding arm techniques that mimic a Incidental at the start of your next
crane's enormous wings. turn, you could adopt Crane Style.
You do not take the usual b penalty
on attack rolls for Guarded Stance. While CREATIVE DESIGN
using this style and Guarded Stance, you Tier: 1
gain an additional +1 Melee Defense while Activation: Passive
fighting unarmed using Brawl skill only. Ranked: Yes
As an Incidental, you can enter the As part of resolving a successful
stance employed by the fighting style. crafting check, your character may also
Although you cannot use a style talent apply a result equivalent to spending a
before combat begins, the style you are number of a equal to their ranks in
in persists until you spend an Incidental Creative Design. The GM may then apply a
to switch to a different combat style. For result equivalent to the same number of
example, if you have the Mantis Style t.
and Tiger Style, you can use an
Incidental to adopt Tiger Style at the CREATIVE KILLER
start of one turn, and then by another Tier: 3
Incidental at the start of your next Activation: Passive
turn, you could adopt Mantis Style. Ranked: No
Reduce the critical rating of
CRASHING WAVE STYLE improvised weapons by 2 (to a minimum of
Tier: 2 1).
Turn) CRITICAL MASTERY
Ranked: No Tier: 5
Someone skilled in this unarmed Brawl Activation: Active (Incidental)
style jostles and pulls her opponents Ranked: No
about, inspired by the power of ocean Your Critical Injuries cause two
waves churning upon the shore. You additional effects. When you score a
relentlessly push your enemies around, as Critical Injury, you can spend a Story
the sea moves those within and upon it Point, and you can apply the effects of
against their will. When an opponent two Critical Injuries in addition to the
disengages from you and moves away from damage dealt. You must roll twice to
your position, you can take 3 strain and determine the effects of the Critical
immediately follow the opponent, even if Injuries. Note that you do not add +10 to
you have used your Maneuvers for this the second Critical Injury from the first
turn. determined result when using this talent.
As an Incidental, you can enter the
stance employed by the fighting style.
Although you cannot use a style talent
89 Talents
Strange Aeons
CRUSHING BLOW DAREDEVIL

Tier: 5 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Incidental) Activation: Active (Incidental)
Once per session after Once per session, when performing a
rolling a Melee attack but skill check of Hard (ddd) or higher
before resolving the difficulty, you add b to your roll
for every rank of Daredevil your
check, your character
character has.
may suffer 4 strain to
use this talent. While
resolving the check, the
DARING AVIATOR
Tier: 2
weapon gains the Breach
1 and Knockdown item Ranked: Yes
qualities. Before your character makes a
Driving or Piloting check, they may
CUSTOM LOADOUT add a number of t to the results to
Tier: 5 use this talent to add an equal
Activation: Passive number of s. The number may not
Ranked: No exceed your character’s ranks in
Your character must have Daring Aviator.
purchased the Signature
Vehicle talent to benefit DARING TURN
from this talent. May add one Tier: 3
mount for a weapon or piece Activation: Active (Maneuver)
of equipment (approved by Ranked: No
the GM). When an opponent has Gained the
Advantage on a vehicle being
CUSTOMIZED COOLING piloted, may spent 2 strain
UNIT perform a Daring Turn Maneuver to
Tier: 3 remove the effects.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes DAZING SPELL
the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit Activation: Active (Maneuver)
from this talent. Increase the system Ranked: No
strain threshold of Signature Vehicle by Your character must have at least one
2 per rank of Customized Cooling Unit. rank in Magic to benefit from this
talent. You can daze creatures with the
CUTTING QUESTION power of your spells. You can modify a
Tier: 2 spell to daze a creature damaged by the
Activation: Active (Incidental) spell. When a creature takes damage from
Ranked: No this spell, you can change the wound
Once per encounter, when making a damage to strain damage instead. Spells
Coercion skill check, the character may that do not inflict damage do not benefit
use Deception skill instead. from this talent.
Talents 90
DEADEYE DEBILITATING SHOT

Tier: 4 Tier: 2
After your character inflicts a Upon successful attack with a vehicle
Critical Injury with a ranged weapon and weapon, may spend aa to reduce the
rolls the result, your character may maximum speed of the target by 1 until
suffer 2 strain to use this talent. Then, the end of the next turn.
you may select any Critical Injury of the
same severity to apply to the target DECEPTIVE TAUNT
instead. Tier: 2
DEADLY ACCURACY Ranked: No
Tier: 4 Once per session, may make Deceptive
Activation: Passive Taunt Action. Make opposed Deception
Ranked: No check. If successful, one adversary must
Choose one combat skill. The character attack the character during adversary’s
may add his ranks in that combat skill as next turn.
additional damage to one hit of a
successful attack made with that skill DEDICATION
made with non-vehicle weapons. Tier: 5
Activation: Passive
DEATH OR GLORY Ranked: Yes
Tier: 1 Each rank of Dedication increases one
Activation: Passive of your character’s characteristics by
Ranked: Yes one. This talent cannot increase a
Even when facing a larger foe, you characteristic above 5. You cannot
aren't afraid to take great risks in order increase the same characteristic with
to finish the fight. You add b to your Dedication twice.
combat checks when you fight an
opponent that is at least one Silhouette DEFENSIVE
bigger than you are. Tier: 4
Activation: Passive
DEATH RAGE Ranked: Yes
Tier: 4 Each rank of Defensive increases your
Activation: Passive character’s Melee Defense and Ranged
Ranked: No Defense by one.
Your character adds +2 damage to Brawl
and Melee attacks for each Critical DEFENSIVE DRIVING
Injury they are currently suffering. Tier: 4
(Your GM may also impose additional Activation: Passive
penalties on Social skill checks your Ranked: Yes
character makes if they are suffering Increase the Defense of any vehicle
Critical Injuries due to their frenzied your character pilots by one per rank of
behavior.) Defensive Driving.
The specifics of this talent require the
91 Talents
Strange Aeons
optional vehicle rules, on page 220 in the

spells that affect areas can use this
GENESYS core rulebook. If your game does trigger condition).
not use these rules, this talent adds b • It activates on your turn after 5 turns
per rank to combat checks targeting your pass.
character’s vehicle or your character If you choose one of the first two
while piloting it. triggers and the conditions are not met
within 5 turns, the spell activates
DEFENSIVE STANCE automatically on the fifth turn. Only
Tier: 2 area and personal spells can be delayed.
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Any decisions you would make about the
Ranked: Yes delayed spell, including combat checks,
Once per turn, your character may designating targets, or determining or
suffer a number of strain no greater shaping an area, are decided when the
than their ranks in Defensive Stance to spell is cast. Any effects resolved by
use this talent. Then, until the end of those affected by the spell, are decided
your character’s next turn, upgrade the when the delay period ends.
difficulty of all Brawl and Melee combat You suffer 3 strain when you empower a
checks targeting your character a number spell with the Delay Power talent.
of times equal to the strain suffered.
DESPERATE RECOVERY
DEFY DEATH Tier: 1
Ranked: No Before your character heals strain at
You fear nothing. Not the horror that the end of an encounter, if their strain
stalk the dark corners of the Earth, not is more than half of their strain
death, not the unknown, nothing. You are threshold, they heal two additional
upgrade your Discipline check on all strain.
fear effects, and you confer a b to fear
checks to all allies within Short range. DIRTY TRICKS
Tier: 2
DELAY SPELL Activation: Active (Incidental)
Ranked: No
Tier: 4
After your character inflicts a
Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Critical Injury on an adversary, they may
Ranked: No
use this talent to upgrade the difficulty
Your character must have at least one
of that adversary's next skill check.
rank in Magic to benefit from this
talent. You can cast spells that go off up
to 5 turns later. You can cast spells as a DISARM
delayed spell. A delayed spell doesn't Tier: 3
activate immediately. When you cast the Activation: Passive
spell, you choose one of three trigger Ranked: No
mechanisms: May spend x or aa with a successful
• The spell activates when you take a Brawl or Melee check to disarm an
Maneuver to activate it. opponent.
• It activates when a creature enters the
area that the spell will affect (only
Talents 92
DISARMING SMILE DISRUPTIVE SPELL

Tier: 3 Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Action) Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Ranked: Yes Ranked: Yes
Take the Disarming Smile action; Your character must have at least one
succeed at an opposed Charm check rank in Magic to benefit from this
against a target within Short range to talent. Your magical energies cling to
lower all defenses of a target by ranks enemies, interfering with their
in Disarming Smile until the end of the spellcasting. Spellcasting targets
encounter. affected by a spell infused with your
Disruptive Spell talent add b to their
DISCREDIT next cast spell using Magic skill per
Tier: 4 rank of Disruptive Spell. This effect last
Activation: Active (Action) until the end of the target's next turn.
Ranked: No
Once per encounter, take the Discredit DISTRACTING BEHAVIOR
Action, make a Hard (ddd) Deception Tier: 2
check to upgrade the difficulty of one Activation: Active (Maneuver)
character’s social checks once, plus once Ranked: Yes
for every aa, until the end of the Make a Distracting Behavior Maneuver
encounter. and suffer strain no greater than ranks
in Deception. Until the beginning of next
DISORIENT turn, equal number of Engaged NPC’s
Tier: 2 suffer t on checks. Range increases with
Activation: Passive additional ranks.
Ranked: Yes
After hitting with combat check, may DISTRACTING BEHAVIOR
spend aa to Disorient target for (IMPROVED)
number of turns equal to ranks in Tier: 4
Disorient. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
DISORIENTING SPELL Your character must have purchased
Tier: 1 the Distracting Behavior talent to
Activation: Active (Maneuver) benefit from this talent. The Distracting
Ranked: Yes Behavior Maneuver inflicts tt on NPC’s
Your character must have at least one checks when NPC’s target character’s
rank in Magic to benefit from this allies.
talent. You can disorient creatures with
your spells. You can modify a spell to DODGE
disorient a creature damaged by the Tier: 3
spell. When a creature takes wound Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
damage from this spell, they become Turn)
Disoriented for a number of turns equal Ranked: Yes
to your ranks in Disorienting Spell. When your character is targeted by a
You suffer 3 strain when you empower a Gunnery, Melee, Ranged [Heavy] or Ranged
spell with the Disorienting Spell talent. [Light] combat check, they may suffer a
93 Talents
Strange Aeons
number of strain no greater than their the Double or Nothing (Improved) talent
ranks in Dodge to use this talent. Then, to benefit from this talent. When
upgrade the difficulty of the combat performing the Double or Nothing
check targeting your character a number Incidental, also double the number of x
of times equal to the strain suffered. and y.
DON'T SHOOT! DOUBLE-TALK

Tier: 4 Tier: 4
Once per session as an Spend aa or x from a
Action, make a Hard (ddd) successful Charm or Deception
Charm check. On a success, check to Disorient a number of
cannot be target of combat opponents within Short range
checks until the end of the equal to your character’s
encounter or until making a Presence for the remainder of
combat check. the turn and the next two
turns.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
Tier: 3 DREADFUL CARNAGE
Activation: Passive Tier: 4
Ranked: No Activation: Active (Incidental)
Suffer 2 strain to perform the Ranked: No
Double or Nothing Incidental to Incapacitating or slaying an
increase the difficulty of the next enemy demoralizes your other
check by one. Then, after canceling nearby foes. Whenever you
opposing symbols, double the amount cause an enemy to exceed his
of remaining a. wound threshold, you can
make a Hard (ddd)
DOUBLE OR NOTHING Coercion check to stagger
all enemies Short range as
(IMPROVED) an Incidental. Enemies
Tier: 4
that cannot see both you
Activation: Passive
and the enemy you
Ranked: No
incapacitated are
Your character must have purchased unaffected.
the Double or Nothing talent to benefit
from this talent. When performing the
Double or Nothing Incidental, after DUAL STRIKE
canceling opposing symbols, also double Tier: 3
the amount of remaining s. Activation: Active (Incidental)
Ranked: No
When resolving a combined check to
DOUBLE OR NOTHING (SUPREME) attack with two weapons in combat, your
Tier: 5 character may suffer 2 strain to use this
Activation: Passive talent to hit with the secondary weapon
Ranked: No
(instead of spending aa).
Your character must have purchased
Talents 94
DUAL WIELDER DURABLE MAGIC

Tier: 2 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Your character may use this talent to Your character must have at least one
decrease the difficulty of the next rank in Magic to benefit from this
combined combat check (see Two-Weapon talent. Your spells are much harder to
Combat, on page 108 in the GENESYS core counter or destroy than normal. When an
rulebook) they make during the same turn opponent attempts to dispel magic that
by one. has been cast by you, you increase the
difficulty once per rank of Durable
DUELIST Magic.
Tier: 1 You suffer 3 strain when you apply
Activation: Passive this talent to the magic that you cast.
Ranked: No
Your character adds b to his Brawl DYNAMIC FIRE
and Melee combat checks while Engaged Tier: 2
with a single opponent. Your character Activation: Active (Incidental)
adds b to his Brawl or Melee combat Ranked: No
checks while engaged with three or more When making a Ranged [Heavy] or
opponents. Ranged [Light] attack while engaged with
an opponent, may suffer 2 strain to
DUMB LUCK reduce the difficulty of the Ranged
Tier: 5 combat check by one, to a minimum of Easy
Activation: Active (Maneuver) (d).
Ranked: No
You can survive situations that should EAGLE EYES
kill you. When you roll a y result on Tier: 3
any skill check, you can spend aaa Activation: Active (Incidental)
from the same skill check to change the Ranked: No
y result to a f result. Using this Once per encounter before making a
talent is taxing on your system and costs ranged combat check, you may use this
you 3 strain, and you can only use once a talent to increase your weapon’s range by
per session. one range band (to a maximum of Extreme
range). This lasts for the duration of the
combat check.
DURABLE
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive EASY PREY
Ranked: Yes Tier: 3
Your character reduces any Critical Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Injury result they suffer by 10 per rank Ranked: No
of Durable, to a minimum of 01. Your character may suffer 3 strain to
use this talent. Until the start of your
character's next turn, your character and
allies within short range add bb to
combat checks against Immobilized
targets.
95 Talents
Strange Aeons
ELDRITCH APTITUDE resistance towards different types of

Tier: 1 magic.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes ELDRITCH DREAD
Your character must have at least one Tier: 1
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. Activation: Active (Maneuver)
You have a knack for magical endeavors. Ranked: No
You add automatic a to all skill checks Your character must have at least one
made with Magic skill per rank of rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
Magical Aptitude. You can unsettle an enemy, filling his
mind with whispers of nightmare. You
ELDRITCH CONSUMPTION have the ability to demoralize a single
Tier: 3 opponent within Medium range of you.
Activation: Active (Incidental) This requires a Maneuver. Your victim
Ranked: No takes a b penalty on combat checks when
Your character must have at least one he targets you. The effect lasts until
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. you select a new target or until your
You can sacrifice your physical health to victim moves out of range.
strengthen a spell. This process leaves
you wracked with pain, but the enhanced ELDRITCH HERITAGE
energy you draw from the spell might Tier: 5
provide the margin between victory and Activation: Active (Incidental)
defeat. Once per day as an Incidental, Ranked: No
you can grant the next spell you cast an Your character must have at least one
automatic s and a. You must cast and rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
complete this spell on the same turn that You are descended from a long line of
you use an Incidental to activate this seekers and keepers of lore most dreaded,
talent. In return, you take a -1 penalty feared and forbidden. Your lineage is
to your Brawn characteristic for 12 tainted with things better left
hours and instantly suffer 4 strain. unmentioned and buried in the past.
Once per turn, as an Incidental, when
ELDRITCH DEFENSE you attempt a Knowledge or Magic skill
Tier: 1 check, you may suffer 3 strain to delve
Activation: Passive into your Eldritch Heritage. If the
Ranked: Yes Knowledge or Magic skill check succeeds,
Your character must have at least one you add x to the result. However, if the
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. check fails, you add y instead. The x or
Choose a type of magic (attack, augment, y added this way do not include the
barrier, conjure, curse, dispel, heal or usual s or f that are a part of them,
utility). You can resist spells from that only the beneficial or negative effects
type of magic better than normal. All of the symbol.
spells of this type cast at you suffer a
b penalty per rank of Eldritch Defense
against you. Alternatively, you may also
select a new type of magic when you add
another rank to this particular talent,
allowing you to spread out your natural
Talents 96
ELDRITCH LIFE You can channel eldritch energy into

Tier: 4 your Brawl or Melee attacks. When you
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- activate this talent, you can channel
Turn) eldritch energy into a single attack. You
Ranked: No add b per rank of Eldritch Strike.
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. ENCOURAGING WORDS
You are able to survive otherwise deadly Tier: 3
injuries by supplementing your life Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
force with eldritch energy. When an Turn)
attack would cause you to exceed your Ranked: No
wound threshold, you can immediately, as After an Engaged ally fails a check,
an out-of-turn Incidental, make an may suffer 1 strain to assist that ally’s
Average (dd) Magic check. For every s next check this encounter as an out-of-
you generate, you reduce the damage turn Incidental.
taken by one. However, you suffer 3
strain immediately when you use this ENDURING
talent, plus an additional strain for Tier: 4
every wound you reduce the taken Activation: Passive
damage, and any uncanceled t can be Ranked: Yes
used by the GM to further increase the Each rank of Enduring increases your
amount of strain that you suffer. character’s Soak value by one.
ELDRITCH SENSES ENFORCER

Tier: 1 Tier: 2
Activation: Passive Activation: Active (Incidental)
Your character must have at least one You are skilled at causing fear in
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. those you brutalize. Whenever you deal
You have developed your awareness far strain damage with a Brawl or Melee
beyond the mundane senses. You can feel combat check, you can make an Coercion
the presence of magic and other arcane check to demoralize your target as an
effects without the aid of magic. As an Incidental. If you are successful, the
Incidental you can feel the auras of target suffers b to skill checks for a
magical effects within Engaged range, number of turns equal to aa on the
however you suffer 3 strain when you do combat check, minimum of 1 turn.
so. Every rank you have in Eldritch
Senses, beyond the first rank, increases
the range band to which you can sense EVASION
magic. Tier: 5
Turn)
ELDRITCH STRIKE Ranked: No
Tier: 1 Your speed, agility, and talent for
Activation: Active (Incidental) intelligent fighting allow you to avoid
Ranked: Yes your opponent's blows. You take careful
Your character must have at least one stock of an opponent and slip away from
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent. his blow just as he commits to the attack.
97 Talents
Strange Aeons
While in Guarded Stance, you can attempt talent.

to negate a single Brawl or Melee attack,
as an Incidental. To do so, you EXTRA AMMO
must make a Brawl or Melee Tier: 1
attack (depending on if you Activation: Passive
are unarmed or armed) attack Ranked: No
roll and beat the attacker's Cannot run out of ammo due to a y
result. A tie falls in favor of result. Items with Limited Ammo
the attacker. quality run out of ammo as normal.
EXPERT TRACKER EYE FOR DETAIL

Tier: 1 Tier: 3
Ranked: Yes Ranked: Yes
You remove b per rank After making a Mechanics check, may
of Expert Tracker from suffer strain up to ranks in Eye for
your checks to find or follow Detail to convert that many s to
tracks. Survival checks made
a.
to track targets take 50% less
time than normal (this does
not decrease with additional FAMILIAR SKY
ranks of Expert Tracker). Tier: 1
Ranked: No
EXPLOIT Once per session, may perform a
Tier: 2
Familiar Sky maneuver; make a Hard
(ddd) Knowledge check to reveal
Ranked: Yes
the current type of environment
When your character makes a
and other useful information.
combat check with a Melee weapon,
they may suffer 2 strain to use
this talent to add the Ensnare FAN THE HAMMER
quality to the attack. The rating Tier: 2
of the Ensnare quality is equal to your Activation: Active (Incidental)
character's ranks in Exploit. Ranked: No
Once per encounter before making a
combat check with a pistol (your GM has
EXTEND SPELL the final say on whether a weapon is a
Tier: 4
pistol or not), your character may use
this talent to add the Auto-fire quality
Ranked: No
to the pistol when resolving the check. If
your character does, the weapon runs out
rank in Magic to benefit from this
of ammo exactly as with an Out of Ammo
talent. You can cast your spells farther
result (see page 104 in the GENESYS core
than normal. You can alter a spell to
rulebook).
increase one range band without having
to upgrade the difficulty.
However, you suffer 3 strain when you
empower a spell with the Extend Spell
Talents 98
FANCY PAINT JOB FEARSOME SPELL

Tier: 2 Tier: 4
Activation: Passive Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Your character must have purchased Your character must have at least one
the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
from this talent. Upgrade all Charm, Your spells inspire great fear in those
Deception, and Negotiation checks made in harmed by them. When a creature takes
Engaged range of Signature Vehicle once. damage from a Fearsome Spell, you can
spend aa from your spell combat check
FAST METABOLISM to force anyone affected by the spell to
Tier: 1 make a fear check. The difficulty of the
Activation: Passive fear check is determined by a spent on
Ranked: Yes your Magic check, not including the aa
You recover faster than normal. You required to trigger the fear check, to a
recover one additional wound per day of minimum of Easy (d) difficulty.
natural rest per rank of Fast Metabolism. You suffer 3 strain when you active
the Fearsome Spell talent.
FEAR THE SHADOWS
Tier: 3 FEINT
Activation: Active (Action) Tier: 3
Ranked: No Activation: Passive
Once per session, may make a Hard Ranked: Yes
(ddd) Deception check to force a single Spend x or aaa generated on a
minion group or rival to flee the missed Brawl or Melee attack to upgrade
encounter. difficulty of opponent’s next attack
targeting character by ranks in Feint.
FEARSOME
Tier: 2 FERAL STRENGTH
Ranked: Yes Activation: Passive
When an non-nemesis adversary becomes Ranked: Yes
Engaged with the character, the Add +1 damage to Brawl and Melee
character may force the adversary to combat checks per rank in Feral Strength.
make a fear check, with the difficulty
equal to the character’s ranks in FIELD COMMANDER
Fearsome. Tier: 3
FEARSOME REPUTATION Ranked: No
Tier: 3 Your character may use this talent to
Activation: Passive make an Average (dd) Leadership check.
Ranked: Yes If successful, a number of allies equal to
Add a to results of Coercion checks your character’s Presence may
equal to ranks in Fearsome Reputation. immediately suffer 1 strain to perform
one Maneuver (out of turn). If there are
any questions as to which allies take
their Maneuvers first, your character is
99 Talents
Strange Aeons
the final arbiter. FIRE CONTROL

Tier: 3
FIELD COMMANDER (IMPROVED) Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Tier: 4 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive Take the Fire Control Maneuver; all
Ranked: No combat checks made from current vehicle
Your character must have purchased count their target’s Silhouette as one
the Field Commander talent to benefit higher than normal until the beginning
from this talent. When your character of next turn.
uses the Field Commander talent, your
character affects a number of allies FLASH OF INSIGHT
equal to twice the character’s Presence. Tier: 2
In addition, you may spend x to allow Activation: Passive
one ally to suffer 1 strain to perform an Ranked: No
Action, instead of a Maneuver. When your character generates x on a
Knowledge skill check, roll bb and add
FIGHTER'S STANCE the results to the check, in addition to
Tier: 2 spending the x as usual.
Ranked: No FLEET OF FOOT
When making a combat check, if your Tier: 2
character has performed the Guarded Activation: Passive
Stance Maneuver this turn, you may Ranked: No
suffer 1 strain to ignore the penalties You are extraordinarily swift. Once per
of the Guarded Stance Maneuver. encounter, you are allowed to take a free
Maneuver for moving. This free Maneuver
FINE TUNING does not count towards the number of
Tier: 2 Maneuvers you have or will take in the
Activation: Passive specific given turn. This benefit only
Ranked: Yes applies if you are wearing no armor or
When reducing the amount of system light armor and not over-encumbered.
strain a vehicle suffers, reduce 1
additional system strain per rank of Fine FLICK OF THE WRIST
Tuning. Tier: 3
FINISH HIM! Ranked: No
Tier: 5 With a single motion, you can draw a
Activation: Active (Incidental) light weapon and make a devastating
Ranked: No attack. If you draw a one-handed weapon
You can take advantage of an enemy's and make a combat check with it in the
debilitated state to attempt a coup de same turn, you can catch your opponent
grace. You can deliver a coup de grace to off-guard, and you add s and a to your
staggering targets, and instantly put the combat check against that one target. You
target 1 wound above its wound may use this talent only once per turn
threshold. Note that the GM may overrule and once per opponent during any single
the use of this talent on certain cruicial encounter. You can use this talent with
Nemesis characters vital to the plot. the Quickdraw talent.
Talents 100
FLURRY OF BLOWS FORMATION TACTICS (IMPROVED)

Tier: 4 Tier: 4
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Activation: Passive
Perform the Flurry of Blows Maneuver, Your character must have purchased
suffering strain up to your ranks in the Formation Tactics talent to benefit
Coordination to gain the Linked quality from this talent. Reduce the difficulty
with a rating equal to the amount of of Formation Tactics to Average (dd).
strain suffered on your next Brawl or Spend x or aaaaaa to have the
Melee combat check this turn. effect last until the end of the
encounter.
FORAGER
Tier: 1 FORTIFIED STRUCTURE
Your character removes up to bb from Ranked: Yes
any skill checks they make to find food, Your character must have purchased
water, or shelter. Checks to forage or the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit
search the area that your character from this talent. Increase the hull
makes take half the time they would trauma threshold of Signature Vehicle by
normally. 1 per rank of Fortified Structure.
FORGOT TO COUNT? FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD

Tier: 3 Tier: 4
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Activation: Active (Incidental)
Turn) Ranked: No
Ranked: No Once per session as an Incidental,
When an opponent makes a ranged suffer 2 strain to flip one GM Story
combat check, you can spend tt from Point to a Player Story Point.
that check to use this talent to cause
their weapon to run out of ammo (see page FOX STYLE
104 in the GENESYS core rulebook), as Tier: 1
long as the weapon can normally run out Activation: Active (Incidental)
of ammunition. Ranked: No
This crafty unarmed Brawl style
FORMATION TACTICS improves its practitioners’ chances to
Tier: 3 feint and to avoid sneaky tactics
Activation: Active (Action) employed by their foes, and also expands
Ranked: No their ability to deploy other devious
Make a Hard (ddd) Leadership check. and dirty tricks. Your martial training
If successful, choose a number of allies helps you manipulate foes. While using
within Short range equal to generated. this style, you can use your Brawn
Upgrade the difficulty of attacks characteristic in place of your Willpower
against these allies once until the end when you use Coercion.
of your character’s next turn. As an Incidental, you can enter the
101 Talents
Strange Aeons
before combat begins, the style you are conditions. Remove b from environmental
in persists until you spend an Incidental modifiers due to low-light conditions.
to switch to a different combat style. For
example, if you have the Mantis Style FRIENDLY FOE
and Tiger Style, you can use an Tier: 5
Incidental to adopt Tiger Style at the Activation: Active (Incidental)
start of one turn, and then by another Ranked: No
Incidental at the start of your next Your knack for picking foe from friend
turn, you could adopt Mantis Style. in frantic ranged combat allows you to
spend a Story Point to downgrade a y to
FREERUNNING f and thus avoid accidentally hitting
Tier: 2 your allies Engaged with your allies.
Ranked: No FULL STOP
Suffer 1 strain when making a move
Tier: 3
Maneuver to move to any location
within Short range.
Ranked: No
When piloting a vehicle, the character
FREERUNNING (IMPROVED) may take the Full
Tier: 3 Stop Maneuver to
Activation: Active (Incidental) immediately reduce the
Ranked: No speed of the vehicle to zero.
Your character must have The vehicle then suffers 1
purchased the point of system strain for
Freerunning talent to every point of speed it had
benefit from this talent. before stopping.
Suffer 4 strain when
making a move Maneuver to FULL THROTTLE
move to any location within
Tier: 3
Medium range.
Ranked: No
FRENZIED ATTACK While driving or flying, your
Tier: 3 character may use this talent to
Activation: Active (Incidental) make a Hard (ddd) Piloting or
Ranked: Yes Driving check. If successful, the
When making a Brawl or Melee top speed of the vehicle increases
combat check, suffer a number of by one (to a maximum of 5) for a
strain to upgrade the attack an number of rounds equal to your
equal number of times. The strain character’s Cunning.
suffered may not exceed ranks in The specifics of this talent
Frenzied Attack. require the optional vehicle rules,
on page 220 in the GENESYS core
FRIEND OF THE NIGHT rulebook. If your game does not use
Tier: 1 these rules, this talent simply
Activation: Passive makes the vehicle go much faster
Ranked: No than normal, with the specifics up to
Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light your GM.
Talents 102
FULL THROTTLE (IMPROVED) GHOST STEPS

Tier: 4 Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Action) Activation: Active (Incidental)
Your character must have purchased Your footsteps echo strangely and no
the Full Throttle talent to benefit from longer betray your location. Thanks to
this talent. Suffer 1 strain to attempt your knowledge of acoustics you can,
Full Throttle as a Maneuver and decrease should you choose, cause the sound of
its difficulty to Average (dd). your footsteps (as well as breathing and
the rustle of gear) to issue forth from
FULL THROTTLE (SUPREME) any direction and location within Short
Tier: 5 range. With a successful Stealth check,
Activation: Passive enemies are not aware of your true
Ranked: No location and believe the Ghost Steps to
Your character must have purchased be real. On a failed Stealth check,
the Full Throttle (Improved) talent to enemies are aware of your real location
benefit from this talent. When and hear your Ghost Steps for what they
performing Full Throttle, top speed are, echoes. Ghost Steps does not work
increases by 2 instead of 1. when underwater.
For every rank you have of Ghost
Steps, you can extend the range by one
FURIOUS SPELL range band.
Tier: 5
Ranked: No
GO WITHOUT
Your character must have at least one Tier: 2
rank in Magic to benefit from this Activation: Active (Incidental)
talent. Your spells seethe with the Ranked: No
ferocious intensity of your blood-red Once per session, count as having the
rage. A Furious Spell that deals wound right tools for the job when performing
damage inflict an additional damage per the next skill check this turn.
rank of your Magic skill.
You suffer 3 strain when you activate GOOD COP
this talent to empower your spell. Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
GEARHEAD Ranked: Yes
Tier: 2 May spend aa from a Charm or
Activation: Passive Negotiation check to upgrade ability of
Ranked: Yes a single ally’s subsequent Social
The character removes b per rank of Interaction check against the target a
Gearhead from his Mechanics checks. In number of times equal to ranks in Good
addition, time to install attachments to Cop.
armor or weapons takes 50% less time.
GRAPPLE
Tier: 2
Ranked: No
Your character may suffer 2 strain to
103 Talents
Strange Aeons
use this talent. Until the start of your HARASS

character's next turn, enemies must spent Tier: 3
two Maneuvers to disengage from your Activation: Active (Incidental)
character. Ranked: No
GREASED PALMS the Animal Companion talent to benefit
Tier: 3 from this talent. Whenever the
Activation: Active (Maneuver) character’s animal companion makes a
Ranked: Yes successful combat check against a target,
Before making a Social skill check, may it may forgo inflicting damage to
spend up to 50 dollars per rank of upgrade the difficulty of the target’s
Greased Palms to upgrade the ability of next check once instead.
the check once for every 50 spent.
HARD-BOILED
GRENADIER Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Incidental) Ranked: Yes
Ranked: Yes When recovering strain after an
When your character makes a ranged encounter, may spend a up to ranks in
combat check with a weapon that has the Hard-Boiled to recover 1 wound per a
Blast item quality, you may spend one spent.
Story Point to use this talent to trigger
the weapon’s Blast quality, instead of HARD-HEADED
spending aa (even if the attack misses). Tier: 2
In addition, your character treats Activation: Active (Action)
grenades as having a range of Medium. Ranked: Yes
When Staggered or Disoriented, perform
GRIT the Hard Headed Action; make a Daunting
Tier: 1 (dddd) Discipline check to remove
Activation: Passive status. The difficulty is once reduced per
Ranked: Yes rank of Hard Headed.
Each rank of Grit increases your
character’s strain threshold by one. HEAVY HITTER
Tier: 5
HAMSTRING SHOT Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 1 Ranked: No
Activation: Active (Action) Once per session, spend x on a
Ranked: No successful Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery
Once per turn, your character may use check to add the Breach 1 quality to the
this talent to perform a Ranged combat attack, or increase an existing Breach
check against one non-vehicle target rating by 1.
within range of the weapon used. If the
check is successful, halve the damage
inflicted by the attack (before reducing
damage by the target’s Soak). The target
is Immobilized until the end of its next
turn.
Talents 104
HEIGHTENED AWARENESS HEROIC WILL

Tier: 2 Tier: 3
Ranked: No Turn)
Allies within Short range of your Ranked: No
character add b to their Perception and When you purchase this talent for your
Vigilance checks. Allies Engaged with character, choose two characteristics. You
your character add bb instead. may spend a Story Point to use this
talent to have your character ignore the
HEROIC DEFIANCE effects of all Critical Injuries on any
skill checks using those two
Tier: 4
characteristics until the end of the
current encounter. (Your character still
Turn)
suffers the Critical Injuries; they just
Ranked: No
ignore the effects. See page 114 of the
You struggle on when others would
GENESYS core rulebook.)
fall. Once per encounter as an Incidental
you can delay the onset of one harmful
condition or affliction (such as HIDDEN STORAGE
staggered, disoriented, and so on), Tier: 1
including permanent and instantaneous Activation: Passive
conditions. Activating this talent delays Ranked: Yes
the onset of the condition until the end Gain hidden storage in vehicles or
of your next turn, after which time the equipment that holds items with total
condition takes its normal effect. This encumbrance equal to ranks in Hidden
talent has no effect on hit wound Storage.
damage, strain damage or characteristic
damage. HINDERING SHOT
Tier: 3
HEROIC RECOVERY Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 2 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Active (Incidental) Spend a story point and increase the
Ranked: No difficulty of next Gunnery check by 1. If
When your character acquires this check deals damage, target vehicle
talent, choose one characteristic. Once suffers system strain equal to speed
per encounter, you may spend one Story when it moves for a number of turns
Point to use this talent to have your equal to ranks in Hindering Shot.
character heal strain equal to the rating
of the chosen characteristic. HIT THE DECK
Tier: 3
HEROIC RESILIENCE Activation: Passive
Tier: 3 Ranked: No
Activation: Active (Incidental) Your extensive familiarity with
Ranked: Yes explosives allows you to ignore a portion
Immediately after being hit by an of their damage. You increase your Soak
attack but before suffering damage, rating by 1 against all explosive
spend 1 Story Point to increase Soak by weapons.
ranks in Heroic Resilience.
105 Talents
Strange Aeons
HOLD TOGETHER HUNTER'S QUARRY (IMPROVED)

Tier: 2 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Activation: Passive
Turn) Ranked: No
Ranked: No Your character must have purchased
Spend 1 Story Point to perform a Hold the Hunter’s Quarry talent to benefit
Together incidental immediately after from this talent. Suffer 2 strain to
vehicle takes damage to turn it into perform Hunter’s Quarry Action as a
system strain. Maneuver.
HOW CONVENIENT! IMPALING STRIKE

Tier: 4 Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Action) Activation: Active (Incidental)
Once per session, your character may When your character inflicts a Critical
use this talent to make a Hard (ddd) Injury with a Melee weapon, until the end
Mechanics check. If successful, one device of the target's next turn they may use
involved in the current this talent to Immobilize the target (in
encounter (subject to your GM’s addition to the other effects of the
approval) spontaneously fails. Critical Injury).
This can be because of your
character’s actions, or it can IMPROVED DEFENSES
simply be incredibly Tier: 2
convenient timing! Activation: Active (Action)
Ranked: No
HUNTER Your character may attempt an
Tier: 2 Average (dd) Survival check to
Activation: Passive fashion small defenses using
Ranked: No scavenged materials. If the check
Ranged [Heavy] and is successful, the structure
Survival are now career can provide cover for up to 4
skills for your character. characters for the rest of the
encounter. Your character may
HUNTER'S QUARRY spend aa or x from the check to
Tier: 2 increase the Ranged Defense the
Activation: Active (Action) structure provides to 2.
Ranked: No
Take Hunter’s Quarry IN THE KNOW
Action, make a Hard (ddd) Tier: 4
Survival check to upgrade Activation: Active (Action)
the ability of all attacks made Ranked: No
against a target within Long Once per session, make an opposed
range until the end of the Deception vs Vigilance check with the
character’s next turn. difficulty downgraded a number of times
equal to your ranks in Deception to
have a target NPC believe specific
false intelligence.
Talents 106
INCITE REBELLION INSPIRING LEADERSHIP

Tier: 4 Tier: 5
Activation: Active (Action) Activation: Active (Action)
Once per session, may take an Incite Make a Hard (ddd) Leadership check.
Rebellion Action; make a Hard (ddd) If successful, a number of allies not
Coercion check to cause a number of exceeding your character’s Presence
minionr or rivals up to ranks in Coercion within Short range add s to their next
to become rebellious until the end of the skill check.
encounter.
INSPIRING RHETORIC
INDOMITABLE Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Ranked: No
Turn) Your character may use this talent to
Ranked: No make an Average (dd) Leadership check.
Once per encounter, when your For each s the check generates, one ally
character would be incapacitated due to within Short range heals one strain. For
exceeding their wound or strain each a, one ally benefiting from
threshold, you may spend a Story Point to Inspiring Rhetoric heals one additional
use this talent. Then, your character is strain.
not incapacitated until the end of their
next turn. If your character reduces INSPIRING RHETORIC
their strain or wounds to below their
threshold before the end of their next (IMPROVED)
turn, they are not incapacitated. Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
INFORMANT Your character must have purchased
Tier: 3
the Inspiring Rhetoric talent to benefit
from this talent. Allies affected by your
Ranked: No
character’s Inspiring Rhetoric add b to
Once per session, may reveal a contact
all skill checks they make for a number
who can shed light on a chosen subject.
of turns equal to your character’s ranks
in Leadership.
INITIATE OF PAIN
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
INSPIRING RHETORIC (SUPREME)
Tier: 4
Ranked: Yes
The first time you take wound damage
Ranked: No
in any combat, you gain a b bonus on
combat checks, and Discipline checks
the Inspiring Rhetoric (Improved) talent
against fear effects for 1 turn per rank
to benefit from this talent. Your
of Initiate of Pain.
character may choose to suffer 1 strain
to use the Inspiring Rhetoric talent as a
Maneuver, instead of as an Action.
107 Talents
Strange Aeons
INTENSE FOCUS IRON BODY

Tier: 5 Tier: 3
Before making a skill check, may Remove b per rank of Iron Body from
perform the Intense Focus maneuver. Coordination and Resilience checks.
Suffer 1 strain and upgrade the ability Reduce the critical rating of Brawl
of the skill check once. attacks by 1 per rank of Iron Body (to a
minimum of 1).
INTERJECTION
Tier: 3 IRON SOUL
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Tier: 1
Turn) Activation: Passive
After another character makes a Social If you are carrying items that total 2
skill check, suffer 3 strain to take an Encumbrance or less (after factoring in
Interjection Incidental make an Average reductions such as for armor being worn),
(dd) Vigilance check to add s or f at the end of the encounter you heal all
equal to s, and a or t equal to a to strain that you are currently suffering.
the check. If a character normally carries items
that total more than 2 Encumbrance but
INTIMIDATING discards or otherwise loses those items
Tier: 3 temporarily, the GM can rule that the
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- character still does not gain the
Turn) benefits of Iron Soul.
Ranked: Yes
May suffer a number of strain to IT'S NOT THAT BAD
downgrade difficulty of Coercion checks, Tier: 4
or upgrade difficulty when targeted by Activation: Active (Action)
Coercion checks, by an equal number. Ranked: No
Strain suffered this way cannot exceed Once per session when an ally would
ranks in Intimidating. suffer a Critical Injury, may take an It’s
Not That Bad action; make a Hard (ddd)
INVENTOR Medicine check to stop the ally from
Tier: 2 gaining the Critical Injury when you are
Activation: Active (Incidental) within Engaged range.
Ranked: Yes
When your character makes a check to MONGOOSE STYLE
construct new items or modify existing Tier: 1
ones, use this talent to add a number of Activation: Active (Incidental)
b to the check equal to ranks of Ranked: No
Inventor. In addition, your character may This unarmed Brawl style, originating
attempt to reconstruct devices that they humbly from the folk traditions of
have heard described but have not seen disparate peoples, represents several
and do not have any kinds of plans or similar unarmed fighting arts practiced
schematics for. around the world. Regardless of
variations in technique, all practitioners
Talents 108
have a fluid fighting stance that cost on its Critical, or any single other
emphasizes rapid, powerful kicks. The effect by one to a minimum of one; or
style's constant motion and graceful increase armor’s Ranged or Melee Defense
footwork lead many to mistakenly view by one. Alternatively, he can decrease
practitioners as highly skilled dancers, the Encumbrance of the item by two to a
a misconception that has allowed the minimum of one. The bonus only applies so
technique to be taught in secret, the long as the character is using the item.
hidden weapon of the downtrodden and If the item is ever lost or destroyed, the
the oppressed. Openly martial versions of character may apply Jury Rigged to a
this style lose some of the dancelike new personal weapon or piece or armor.
qualities but retain the style's
extraordinary kicking techniques and JUST KIDDING
agility. Tier: 5
While using this style, attacks against Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
you take a b penalty. Further, you add a Turn)
b against opponents that are yet to act Ranked: No
in this encounter. Once per turn as an incidental spend 1
As an Incidental, you can enter the Story Point to ignore y generated on a
stance employed by the fighting style. Social skill check by the character or
Although you cannot use a style talent any ally in Short range.
before combat begins, the style you are
in persists until you spend an Incidental
KILL WITH KINDNESS
example, if you have the Monkey Style Tier: 1
and Tiger Style, you can use an Activation: Passive
Incidental to adopt Monkey Style at the Ranked: Yes
start of one turn, and then by another You remove b per rank of Kill with
Incidental at the start of your next Kindness from your Charm and Leadership
turn, you could adopt Tiger Style. checks.
JUMP UP KIRIN STYLE

Tier: 1 Tier: 1
Once per turn during your character’s The school of the kirin employs
turn, your character may use this talent critical observations as weapons against
to stand from a prone or seated position opponents. Practitioners catalogue a foe's
as an Incidental. weaknesses and seek the perfect moment
to strike, ensuring that no movement or
effort is ever wasted. Popular among
JURY RIGGED those rare orders that blend monastic
Tier: 4 training with arcane study, kirin style is
Activation: Passive sometimes practiced by practicers of
Ranked: Yes magic who seek to hone their bodies along
The character chooses one personal with their minds.
weapon or piece of armor per rank of While using this unarmed Brawl style,
Jury Rigged. He may increase the damage you can spend an Incidental to make a
of the weapon by one; decrease the a Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to identify
109 Talents
Strange Aeons
a single creature. If you succeed at the stance employed by the fighting style.
check, while using this style, you add a Although you cannot use a style talent
b to all combat checks the creature before combat begins, the style you are
makes against you. These bonuses last for in persists until you spend an Incidental
as long as you use this style. If you cease to switch to a different combat style. For
combat with the creature during this example, if you have the Kirin Style and
time and resume it later, you can attempt Panther Style, you can use an Incidental
the check again. to adopt Kirin Style at the start of one
As an Incidental, you can enter the turn, and then by another Incidental at
stance employed by the fighting style. the start of your next turn, you could
Although you cannot use a style talent adopt Panther Style.
in persists until you spend an Incidental KNACK FOR IT
to switch to a different combat style. For Tier: 1
example, if you have the Snake Style and Activation: Passive
Tiger Style, you can use an Incidental to Ranked: Yes
adopt Tiger Style at the start of one When you purchase this talent for your
turn, and then by another Incidental at character, select one skill. Your
the start of your next turn, you could character removes bb from any checks
adopt Snake Style. they make using this skill.
Each additional time you purchase
KITSUNE STYLE this talent for your character, select
Tier: 2 two additional skills. Your
Activation: Active (Incidental) character also removes bb
Ranked: No from any checks they make
Pulling from the trickster using these skills. You cannot
habits of kitsune, this style select combat (or magic) skills
focuses on when choosing
duping and skills for
incapacitating foes in the this talent.
heat of combat. Your quick
movement and trickery allow KNOCKDOWN
you to catch opponents off Tier: 2
guard. While using this Activation: Passive
unarmed Brawl style, you can Ranked: No
attempt to perform a dirty trick After hitting with a Brawl
in place of an attack at the end or Melee attack, may spend a
of a charge. As part of a x to knock the target prone.
Maneuver that you use for
movement, you can attempt an
Average (dd) Coercion check to KNOCKDOWN SPELL
impose a b penalty on a single Tier: 4
opponent. You are able to Activation: Active (Maneuver)
impose a second b to the same Ranked: No
opponent if you use a second Maneuver Your character must have at least one
for moving as well, and must attempt a rank in Magic to benefit from this
second Coercion check. talent. You can cast spells that knock
As an Incidental, you can enter the creatures off their feet. Knockdown Spell
Talents 110
knocks any creature caught in its area KNOW THE ROPES

prone if you spend aa from your Magic Tier: 2
check. Flying creatures affected by a Activation: Passive
successful knockdown spell are forced Ranked: No
down one range band. Add b to checks made to escape from
You suffer 3 strain when you empower a restraints equal to ranks in
spell with Knockdown Spell. Skullduggery. Spend x to free all other
allies within Short range.
KNOW SOMEBODY
Tier: 1 KNOWN SCHEMATIC
Activation: Active (Incidental) Tier: 2
Ranked: Yes Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Once per session, when attempting to Ranked: No
purchase a legally available item, your Once per session, may perform the
character may use this talent to reduce Known Schematic Maneuver; make a Hard
its rarity by one per rank of Know
(ddd) Knowledge check. Success grants
Somebody.
familiarity with a building, vessel or
vehicle's design.
KNOW THE ENEMY
Tier: 2 KRAKEN STYLE
Activation: Passive
Tier: 1
Ranked: No
May use a Knowledge skill check,
Ranked: No
instead of Cool or Vigilance, when making
You savagely squeeze and twist when
checks to determine Initiative.
grappling. This grappling unarmed Brawl
style mimics the powerful crushing blows
KNOW-IT-ALL of the many-tentacled kraken. This style
Tier: 2 focuses on pulverizing holds around a
Activation: Active (Incidental) creature’s chest, limbs, and throat. If you
Ranked: No succeed on a Brawl combat check against
Once per session, perfectly recall an any target while using this style, you
important fact previously learned as if can inflict strain damage instead of
a Story Point had been spent. wound damage.
KNOWLEDGE SPECIALIZATION stance employed by the fighting style.
Tier: 1 Although you cannot use a style talent
Activation: Passive before combat begins, the style you are
Ranked: Yes in persists until you spend an Incidental
When making a Knowledge skill check, to switch to a different combat style. For
may spend a x result to gain additional example, if you have the Mongoose Style
s equal to ranks in Knowledge and Tiger Style, you can use an
Specialization. Incidental to adopt Tiger Style at the
start of one turn, and then by another
Incidental at the start of your next
turn, you could adopt Mongoose Style.
111 Talents
Strange Aeons
LADY KILLER / MANEATER If successful, the combat encounter

Tier: 3 instead becomes a Social encounter, with
Activation: Active (Incidental) the PCs attempting to convince their
Ranked: No opposition to back down, come around to
This talent allows you to deal increase their viewpoint, or accept a compromise.
any damage dealt to the opposite sex of The GM is the final arbiter of how the
whatever gender your character is by one situation resolves without violence (or
point. Furthermore, you also gain a b to how the combat encounter continues if
all Charm, Coercion, Deception, Leadership the character’s check is unsuccessful).
and Negotiation checks you make against
members of the opposite sex. LETHAL BLOWS
Tier: 3
LARGER PROJECT Activation: Passive
Tier: 3 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Passive Add +10 per rank of Lethal Blows to
Ranked: Yes any Critical Injury results inflicted on
Your character must have purchased opponents.
from this talent. Signature Vehicle can LIFE OR DEATH
have a Silhouette 1 larger per rank of Tier: 3
Larger Project. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
LET'S RIDE When your character suffers wounds
Tier: 1 equal to half of their wound threshold
Activation: Active (Incidental) or greater, add b to all combat checks
Ranked: No they make.
Once per round during your character's
turn, your character can use this talent LIFE OR DEATH (IMPROVED)
to mount or dismount from a vehicle or Tier: 4
animal, or move from one position in a Activation: Passive
vehicle to another (such as from the Ranked: No
cockpit to a gun turret) as an Incidental. Your character must have purchased
In addition, if your character suffers a the Life or Death talent to benefit from
Short-range fall (see page 112 in the this talent. When your character suffers
GENESYS core rulebook) from a vehicle or wounds equal to half of their wound
animal, they suffer no damage and land threshold or greater, upgrade the
on their feet. ability of all combat checks they make
once. This replaces the normal effects of
LET'S TALK THIS OVER Life or Death.
Tier: 5
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- LIFE OR DEATH (SUPREME)
Turn) Tier: 5
Once per game session, when a combat Ranked: No
encounter against one or more sentient Your character must have purchased
beings is about to begin, the character the Life or Death (Improved) talent to
make a Daunting (dddd) Charm check. benefit from this talent. The effects of
Talents 112
Life or Death activate when your time up to 1 hour later with such clarity
character takes wounds equal to one that any individuals hearing the
quarter of their wound threshold, description are treated as if they had
instead of half. heard the sound themselves. For every
rank of Listen to This beyond the first,
LIGHT STEP you can extend the duration with
Tier: 2 another hour.
Activation: Passive This trick is particularly useful if
Ranked: No you overhear a conversation but don't
You are incredibly light on your feet understand the language spoken, since it
and make very little noise in comparison allows you to repeat it verbatim to an
to others. With the Light Feet talent you ally who might be able to translate.
cannot risk accidentally setting off or
triggering floor traps or mines, LONE WANDERER
regardless of knowing there are there or Tier: 3
not. Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
LINGERING SPELL Who needs friends anyway? When you
Tier: 4 are by yourself all attacks against you
Activation: Active (Incidental) suffer b and you can carry additional
Ranked: No Encumbrance equal to half your Brawn
Your character must have at least one rating (rounded down).
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
You spell clings to existence, slowly LOOM
fading from the world. You may cause an Tier: 2
instantaneous spell that affects an area Activation: Passive
to persist until the beginning of your Ranked: No
next turn. Those already in the area When an ally Engaged with the
suffer no additional harm, but other character makes a successful Charm,
creatures or objects entering the area Deception, or Negotiation check, the
are subject to its effects. A Lingering character adds a per rank in Coercion to
Spell with a visual manifestation the ally’s check.
obscures vision, providing b to skill
checks made by or against anyone in the LUCKY START
area of effect. Tier: 3
You suffer 3 strain when you imbue Activation: Active (Incidental)
your magic with the Lingering Spell Ranked: No
talent. Sometimes your luck overcomes a slow
natural reaction. At the expenditure of 3
LISTEN TO THIS strain, you can re-roll your Initiative
Tier: 1 check (Cool or Vigilance according to the
Activation: Active (Action) situation and dictated by the GM). You
Ranked: Yes must keep the result of the re-rolled
You can perfectly repeat to others Initiative check.
what you hear. Whenever you make a
successful Perception check to hear a
noise, you can describe that sound any
113 Talents
Strange Aeons
LUCKY STRIKE RARITY DIFFICULT

Tier: 2 0-2 Easy (d)
3-4 Average (dd)
Ranked: No
When your character purchases this 5-6 Hard (ddd)
talent, choose one characteristic. After 7 Daunting (dddd)
your character makes a successful combat
check, you may spend one Story Point to 8 Formidable (ddddd)
use this talent to add damage equal to 9+ Impossible
your character’s ranks in that
characteristic to one hit of the combat
check.
MANTIS STYLE
Tier: 4
MAD INVENTOR Ranked: No
Tier: 4 Based on the hunting techniques of the
Activation: Active (Action) praying mantis, practitioners of this
Ranked: No unarmed Brawl style fight with their
Once per session, your character hands turned down to emulate the
may use this talent to make a insect's sharp grasping forelimbs.
Mechanics check to attempt to Mantis style uses precise, accurate
cobble together the functional strikes to pinpoint an opponent's
equivalent of any item using spare vital areas, such as eyes, throat, and
parts or salvage. The difficulty pressure points.
of the check is based on the While using this style, you gain
item’s rarity; see the table reduce the Critical Rating of
below. your unarmed Brawl attacks.
Your GM will modify the As an Incidental, you can
check based on the enter the stance employed by
circumstances and might decide the fighting style. Although
that some items simply can’t be you cannot use a style talent
created with what’s available (if before combat begins, the style
you are being held in a prison you are in persists until you
cell, for instance). Your GM may spend an Incidental to switch
spend y on the check to to a different combat style. For
indicate the item ends up being example, if you have the Efreeti
dangerous to the user and Style and Snapping Turtle Style,
anyone around them in some you can use an Incidental to
way. For instance, a pistol adopt Efreeti Style at the start
might explode instead of of one turn, and then by another
running out of ammo, or a Incidental at the start of your
breathing mask might make next turn, you could adopt
the user light-headed. Snapping Turtle Style.
Talents 114
MASTER MASTER INSTRUCTOR

Tier: 5 Tier: 5
Activation: Active (Incidental) Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
Ranked: No Turn)
When you purchase this talent for your Ranked: No
character, choose one skill. Once per turn, Once per turn, suffer 2 strain to allow
your character may suffer 2 strain to use an ally within Short range to count as
this talent to reduce the difficulty of having the same number of ranks in
the next check they make using that Discipline as your character for the next
skill by two, to a minimum of Easy (d). Discipline check the ally makes.
MASTER DEMOLITIONIST MASTER MERCHANT

Tier: 5 Tier: 5
When resolving an attack from a When buying or selling goods, may
personal scale explosive or ordinance suffer 2 strain to sell for 25% more or
weapon, your character may spend a or buy for 25% less.
x to have the weapon’s Blast quality
affect all characters within Short range MERCURIAL STRIKE
(rather than Engaged). If the weapon Tier: 4
normally affects all characters within Activation: Active (Incidental)
Short range, then the range of the effect Ranked: No
is increased to Medium range instead. With a single motion, you draw your
weapon and slash at an opponent. Any
MASTER DRIVER/PILOT time an opponent disengages from you,
Tier: 5 and if you are unarmed, you may draw
Activation: Passive Melee weapon, as an Incidental, and
Ranked: No immediately make an attack against the
Once per turn when driving, piloting, opponent. You can only use this talent
or operating a vehicle, may suffer 2 once in a turn sequence though.
strain to perform any vehicle Action as a
Maneuver. MIND OVER BODY
Tier: 5
MASTER GRENADIER Activation: Passive
Tier: 5 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive Your body heals faster than most
Ranked: No others, and you are allowed to attempt to
Decrease the a cost to activate the heal two Critical Injuries per week,
Blast quality on any attack by 1 to a instead of one as per normal healing
minimum of 1. rules.
MIND OVER MATTER

Tier: 3
Ranked: No
You may spend 1 Story Point to recover
115 Talents
Strange Aeons
strain equal to your Willpower rating. this turn, increase Ranged Defense by 1
per rank of Moving Target.
MONKEY STYLE
Tier: 2 MULTIPLE FOES
Renowned for its speed and agility, Ranked: No
monkey unarmed Brawl style blends Your character adds b to his Brawl
jumping strikes, rolling blows, and and Melee combat checks when engaged
ground fighting into a continuous with multiple opponents. This includes
onslaught aimed at disorienting and single groups of multiple minions.
damaging an opponent through superior
mobility. MUSEUM WORTHY
While using this style, you do not Tier: 1
suffer b on Brawl attack rolls nor do Activation: Active (Action)
opponents gain any b while you are Ranked: No
prone. Further, you can crawl and stand Once per session, take Museum Worthy
up from lying prone as an Incidental if Action, make a Hard (ddd) Knowledge
you succeed at a Daunting (dddd) check to ascertain information regarding
Athletics check. a relic, ruin, or piece of history.
NATURAL
before combat begins, the style you are Tier: 3
in persists until you spend an Incidental Activation: Active (Incidental)
to switch to a different combat style. For Ranked: No
example, if you have the Mongoose Style When your character purchases this
and Tiger Style, you can use an talent, choose two skills. Once per session,
Incidental to adopt Tiger Style at the your character may use this talent to
start of one turn, and then by another reroll one skill check that uses one of
Incidental at the start of your next those two skills.
turn, you could adopt Mongoose Style.
NEVER OUTNUMBERED
MOST IMPRESSIVE Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Incidental) Ranked: Yes
Ranked: No You can demoralize multiple enemies.
Spend x from any skill check to allow You can perform the Never Outnumbered
a number of allies not exceeding your Maneuver and attempt a Hard (ddd)
character’s Presence within Short range Coercion check to demoralize all
add a to their next check. opponents within Short range whom can
see you. If you succeed, all opponents add
an automatic t to all skill checks until
MOVING TARGET the end of their next turn.
Tier: 4 For every rank of Never Outnumbered
Activation: Passive you extend the duration by one
Ranked: Yes additional turn.
If the character has already acted
Talents 116
NIGHT OWL the difficulty of target’s next Driving

Tier: 1 check that many times.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes ONE WITH NATURE
You are a creature of the night! Gain Tier: 1
b to Perception per rank of Night Owl Activation: Active (Incidental)
between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Ranked: No
When in the wilderness, your character
NOBODY'S FOOL may make a Simple (–) Survival check,
Tier: 3 instead of Discipline or Cool, to recover
Activation: Passive strain at the end of an encounter (see
Ranked: Yes page 117 of the GENESYS core rulebook).
May upgrade difficulty of incoming
Charm, Coercion, or Deception checks once ONE WITH THE SHADOWS
per rank of Nobody’s Fool. Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
NOT TODAY Ranked: No
Tier: 4 You are adept at fighting in darkness.
Activation: Active (Incidental) Whenever you begin combat within an
Ranked: No area of darkness or shadowy
Your character must have purchased illumination, you gain a b on your
the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit Initiative check.
from this talent. Once per session, spend When in shadowy illumination or low-
a Story Point to save Signature Vehicle light conditions, all attacks against you
from destruction. have a b on all combat checks.
NOW THE MASTER OPENING TAP

Tier: 5 Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental) Activation: Active (Action)
Once per session, you may choose any ”No time to waste on tools – a sharp tap
one character in the current encounter should pop that lock!” As an Action, you
and one talent that the target character can make a Skulduggery check with an
possesses. For the remainder of the upgraded twice difficulty (which is
encounter, you count as having that determined by the lock) by tapping a lock
talent. If you select a ranked talent, you with a hard, blunt object such as the
count as having ranks in that talent pommel of a weapon. You don't take any
equal to the number of ranks in that additional penalty for making the check
talent that the target possesses. without tools.
You can use this trick any number of
times per day until you fail an
OFFENSIVE DRIVING Skulduggery check made in this way.
Tier: 4 After a failure, you can't use Opening
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Tap again until after you have rested
Ranked: No for 8 hours.
As a Maneuver, suffer system strain up
to vehicle’s highest Defense to upgrade
117 Talents
Strange Aeons
OPPORTUNIST resolved, the character may spend y or

Tier: 3 ttt to Stagger the attacker until the
Activation: Active (Incidental) end of the attacker’s next turn.
Ranked: Yes
When your character purchases this OVERSTOCKED AMMO
talent, choose one non-combat skill. When Tier: 2
you roll a check using this skill, you may Activation: Passive
suffer strain up to ranks in Opportunist Ranked: Yes
to convert that many s into a. Your character must have purchased
OUTDOORSMAN from this talent. Increase the value of
Tier: 2 the Limited Ammo quality of any weapons
Activation: Passive mounted on Signature Vehicle by 1 per
Ranked: Yes rank of Overstocked Ammo.
You remove b per rank of Outdoorsman
from your checks to move through terrain OVERWHELM DEFENSES
or to manage terrain or environmental Tier: 3
effects. Decrease overland travel times Activation: Active (Incidental)
by 50% (this does not decrease with Ranked: Yes
additional ranks of Upon unsuccessful attack with a
Outdoorsman). vehicle weapon, may spend aa
per rank of Overwhelm Defenses.
OUTSIDE THE BOX Reduce the defense in the
Tier: 3 targeted zone by 1 for every
Activation: Passive aa spent.
Ranked: No
Choose one OWL STYLE
characteristic Tier: 4
when purchasing Activation:
this talent. Once Active
per session, make (Incidental)
one skill check Ranked: No
using that You take advantage of
characteristic basic training in skills that
rather than the affect movement to enhance
characteristic those skills through
linked to that skill. combat ability. You can
move with the quiet grace
OVERBALANCE of an owl. While using this
Tier: 4 unarmed Brawl style, you
Activation: Passive can use your ranks in Brawl
Ranked: No in place of your ranks in
Whenever an enemy Stealth when you make
Engaged with the Stealth checks. Foes that fail their
character makes a Perception checks and don’t otherwise
combat check, after notice you do not add their Defense
the attack is Rating to your first attack against them.
Talents 118
As an Incidental, you can enter the from the combat check, the target suffers
stance employed by the fighting style. 2 strain each time they perform a
Although you cannot use a style talent maneuver until the end of the encounter.
in persists until you spend an Incidental PAINKILLER SPECIALIZATION
example, if you have the Snake Style and Activation: Passive
Kirin Style, you can use an Incidental to Ranked: Yes
adopt Kirin Style at the start of one When your character uses painkillers
turn, and then by another Incidental at (or their equivalent, depending on the
the start of your next turn, you could setting), the target heals one additional
adopt Snake Style. wound per rank of Painkiller
Specialization. The sixth painkiller and
PACK INITIATIVE beyond each day still has no effect.
Tier: 2
Activation: Passive PANTHER STYLE
Ranked: No Tier: 4
You can coordinate your Initiative Activation: Active (Incidental)
with your allies. If you and an ally both Ranked: No
have the Pack Initiative talent, you add Students of the panther throw caution
an automatic s to your Initiative check to the wind as they weave recklessly
(applying to both Cool or Vigilance among their foes. Those who master the
checks for Initiative) per ally that has style turn their unrivaled mobility into
the Pack Initiative talent, not including a weapon, striking their enemies with a
yourself. series of swift retaliatory strikes.
While using this unarmed Brawl style,
PACK RAT opponents in Engaged ranged of you that
Tier: 3 attack you with a Ranged combat check
Activation: Passive must upgrade the difficulty of their
Ranked: No combat check one additional time because
You are efficient at arranging your of your style.
inventory in general. This makes it much As an Incidental, you can enter the
easier to carry that little extra you've stance employed by the fighting style.
always needed. This is useful for Although you cannot use a style talent
characters with low Brawn. Any items before combat begins, the style you are
that have an Encumbrance of 2 or less in persists until you spend an Incidental
now weighs half their normal weight for to switch to a different combat style. For
you. example, if you have the Fox Style and
Kirin Style, you can use an Incidental to
PAINFUL BLOW adopt Kirin Style at the start of one
Tier: 1 turn, and then by another Incidental at
Activation: Active (Incidental) the start of your next turn, you could
Ranked: No adopt Fox Style.
When your character makes a combat
check, you may voluntarily increase the
difficulty by one to use this talent. If
the target suffers one or more wounds
119 Talents
Strange Aeons
PARRY you add b to all your skill checks.

Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- PERSISTENT ATTACKER
Turn) Tier: 4
Ranked: Yes Activation: Passive
When your character suffers a hit from Ranked: Yes
a Brawl or Melee combat check, after Once you find a target's weak point,
damage is calculated but before Soak is you can easily strike it again. If your
applied (so immediately after Step 3 of attack successfully hits your intended
Perform a Combat check, page 102 of the target, you can spend aa from your
GENESYS core rulebook), your character attack to increase your next attack
may suffer 3 strain to use this talent to against the same target, as long as the
reduce the damage of the hit by two plus attack is within the following turn. You
their ranks in Parry. This talent can can upgrade the next combat check once
only be used once per hit, and your per rank of Persistent Attacker.
character needs to be wielding a Melee
weapon. PHYSICAL TRAINING
Tier: 2
PARRY (IMPROVED) Activation: Passive
Tier: 3 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Add b per rank of Physical Training
Turn) to Athletics and Resilience skill checks.
Ranked: No
Your character must have purchased PHYSICIAN
the Parry talent to benefit from this
Tier: 1
talent. When your character suffers a hit
Activation: Passive
from a Brawl or Melee combat check and
Ranked: Yes
uses Parry to reduce the damage from
When making a Medicine check to help a
that hit, after the attack is resolved,
character heal wounds, the target heals 1
you may spend y or ttt from the
additional strain per rank of Physician.
attacker’s check to use this talent. Then,
your character automatically hits the
attacker once with a Brawl or Melee PIERCING SPELL
weapon your character is wielding. The Tier: 1
hit deals the weapon’s base damage, plus Activation: Active (Maneuver)
any damage from applicable talents or Ranked: Yes
abilities. Your character can’t use this Your character must have at least one
talent if the original attack rank in Magic to benefit from this
incapacitates him. talent. Your studies have helped you
develop methods to overcome defenses.
When you cast a spell infused by the
PARTY ANIMAL Piercing Spell talent you ignore 1 point
Tier: 1
of the target's Soak value per rank of
Activation: Passive
Piercing Spell.
Ranked: No
You suffer 3 strain when you use this
You are such a Party Animal that you
talent.
no longer suffer the withdrawal effect
from alcohol addiction. While intoxicated
Talents 120
PIN the Plausible Deniability talent to

Tier: 3 benefit from this talent. Take a
Activation: Active (Action) Plausible Deniability Action makes a
Ranked: No Hard (ddd) Coercion check to convince
Take Pin Action; make an opposed one bystander equal to your Willpower to
Athletics check to Immobilize an Engaged depart quietly.
opponent until the end of the character’s
next turn. Spend x to extend duration POINT BLANK
one turn. Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
PINNING FIRE Ranked: Yes
Tier: 3 Add 1 damage per rank of Point Blank
Activation: Active (Action) to damage of one hit of successful attack
Ranked: Yes while using Ranged [Heavy] or Ranged
Select a target within range of your [Light] skills at Short range or Engaged.
currently wielded ranged weapon and
make a Pinning Fire Action. Until the POINT BLANK SHOT
start of your next turn, the targeted Tier: 3
character adds b to their checks for Activation: Passive
each rank of Pinning Fire, and suffers 1 Ranked: Yes
strain. You are adept at firing against
opponents at Engaged range. Ignore one
PINNING FIRE (IMPROVED) difficulty increase to your ranged
Tier: 4 combat check when Engaged with
Activation: Active (Action) opponents per rank of Point Blank Shot.
Ranked: No
Your character must have the Pinning POWERFUL BLAST
Fire talent to benefit from this talent. Tier: 3
When making a Pinning Fire Action, you Activation: Passive
may affect a number of targets equal to Ranked: Yes
ranks of Pinning Fire. Increase damage dealt by Blast
quality by +1 per rank of Powerful Blast.
PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
Tier: 1 PRECISE AIM
Ranked: Yes Activation: Active (Maneuver)
You remove b per rank of Plausible Ranked: Yes
Deniability from your Coercion and Once per turn, may perform Precise Aim
Deception checks. Maneuver. Suffer a number of strain no
greater than ranks in Precise Aim, then
PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY reduce target’s Melee and Ranged Defense
by that number.
(IMPROVED)
Tier: 3
Ranked: No
121 Talents
Strange Aeons
PRECISION STRIKE result to any Hard (ddd) Critical

Tier: 3 Injury result. Combat checks to
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- activate this talent cannot be made
Turn) with any weapons.
Ranked: No
When you inflict a Critical PREEMPTIVE AVOIDANCE
Injury with a Brawl or Melee Tier: 3
attack, you may suffer 1 Activation: Active (Incidental,
strain to change the result Out-of-Turn)
to any Easy (d) Critical Ranked: No
Injury result. May spend 1
Additionally, whenever Story Point to disengage from
you defeat a minion or Engaged enemy as an out-of-
rival NPC, you may turn Incidental.
always choose to do so
by nonlethal means, even if PRESSURE POINT
the environment or Tier: 3
exceptional circumstances Activation: Active (Incidental)
would normally make that Ranked: No
very difficult or impossible. When your character makes an
unarmed Brawl check targeting a
PRECISION STRIKE living opponent, they may use this
(IMPROVED) talent to deal strain damage instead of
Tier: 4 wound damage, and inflict additional
Activation: Active strain damage equal to their ranks in
(Incidental, Out-of-Turn) Medicine.
Ranked: No
Your character must have PREY ON THE WEAK
purchased the Precision Strike talent to Tier: 4
benefit from this talent. Once per turn, Activation: Passive
when the character inflicts a Critical Ranked: Yes
Injury with a Brawl or Melee weapon, she Add +1 damage to one hit of successful
may suffer 2 strain to change the result combat checks against Disoriented
to any Average (dd) Critical Injury targets per rank of Prey on the Weak.
result.
PRIDE AND JOY
PRECISION STRIKE (SUPREME) Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Ranked: No
Turn) Your character must have purchased
Ranked: No the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit
Your character must have purchased from this talent. Your character's
the Precision Strike (Improved) talent to Signature Vehicle, with a Silhouette
benefit from this talent. Once per game of 4 or greater, becomes their “Pride and
session, when the character inflicts a Joy” vehicle. Upgrade the ability of all
Critical Injury with an unarmed attack, Social skill checks your character makes
she may suffer 3 strain to change the while within Short range of the
Talents 122
Signature Vehicle once. PROPER UPBRINGING

Tier: 1
PRIDE AND JOY (IMPROVED) Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 3 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Passive When your character makes a social
Ranked: No skill check in polite company (as
Your character must have purchased determined by your GM), they may suffer
the Pride and Joy talent to benefit from a number of strain to use this talent to
this talent. While inside your character’s add an equal number of a to the check.
Pride and Joy, recover +1 strain whenever The number may not exceed your
recovering strain and spend on checks character’s ranks in Proper Upbringing.
made to recover strain to allow an ally
also within the vehicle to recover 1 PROPHETIC AIM
strain. Tier: 4
Activation: Passive
PRIDE AND JOY (SUPREME) Ranked: No
Tier: 4 While benefiting from an Aim Maneuver,
Activation: Active (Incidental) y from the character’s Ranged checks
Ranked: No cannot cause attacks to hit allies
Your character must have purchased Engaged with the target.
the Pride and Joy (Improved) talent to
benefit from this talent. Once per session PYROMANIAC
while inside your character’s Pride and
Tier: 4
Joy, reduce its Silhouette by 2 (to a
Activation: Passive
minimum of 0) for the remainder of the
Ranked: No
turn and the following turn.
Some people just want to watch the
world burn. Your attacks with fire
PRIME POSITIONS weapons that possess the Burn quality
Tier: 4 increase its Burn rating quality by +1.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes QUICK DRAW
When this character or an ally in Short
Tier: 1
range takes cover, he increases Soak
Activation: Passive
against ranged attacks by 1 per rank of
Ranked: No
Prime Positions until he leaves that
Once per turn on your character’s turn,
cover.
they may use this talent to draw or
holster an easily accessible weapon or
PRONE MASTERY item as an Incidental. Quick Draw also
Tier: 1 reduces a weapon’s Prepare rating by one,
Activation: Passive to a minimum of one.
Ranked: No
You are skilled at attacking from a QUICK DRAW (IMPROVED)
prone position. Opponents gain no bonus
Tier: 2
b on attacks against you while you are Activation: Passive
prone. Ranked: No
123 Talents
Strange Aeons
the Quick Draw Talent to benefit from number of s to a Vigilance or Cool check
this talent. May use Quick Draw twice per they make to determine Initiative order.
turn. This also allows you to reduce the The number may not exceed your
prepare rating by 1 additional point, to character’s ranks in Rapid Reaction.
a minimum of one.
RAPID RECOVERY
QUICK STRIKE Tier: 1
Activation: Passive Ranked: Yes
Ranked: Yes When healing strain after an
Your character adds b for each rank encounter, heal 1 additional strain per
of Quick Strike to any combat checks they rank of Rapid Recovery.
make against any targets that have not
yet taken their turn in the current RAPID RELOAD
encounter. Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
QUICKEN SPELL Ranked: Yes
Tier: 5 You can reload weapons such weapons
Activation: Active (Incidental) and firearms quickly. Every rank of
Ranked: No Rapid Reload reduces the Prepare
Your character must have at least one quality of a weapon by 1, to a minimum of
rank in Magic to benefit from this 0.
talent. You can cast spells in a fraction
of the normal time. Casting a quickened RECKLESS CHARGE
spell is an Incidental. You can perform Tier: 2
an Action normally, even casting another Activation: Active (Incidental)
spell, in the same turn as you cast a Ranked: No
quickened spell. After using a Maneuver to engage an
You suffer 4 strain when you empower a adversary, your character may suffer 2
spell with the Quicken Spell talent. strain to use this talent. They then add
ss and tt to the results of the next
RAIN OF DEATH Brawl or Melee combat check they make
Tier: 4 this turn.
Activation: Action (Maneuver)
Ranked: No RECONSTRUCT THE SCENE
Perform the Rain of Death Maneuver to Tier: 2
ignore the increased difficulty due to Activation: Active (Action)
the Auto-fire quality of attacks made Ranked: No
this turn. Perform the Reconstruct the Scene
Action; make a Hard (ddd) Perception
RAPID REACTION check to identify the physical
Tier: 1 characteristics of person present at the
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- scene within 24 hours.
Turn)
Ranked: Yes
Your character may suffer a number of
strain to use this talent to add an equal
Talents 124
REDUNDANT SYSTEMS Researcher).

Tier: 1
Activation: Active (Action) RESEARCHER (IMPROVED)
Ranked: No Tier: 2
Once per session, may take a Redundant Activation: Passive
Systems Action; make an Easy (d) Ranked: Yes
Mechanics check to harvest components Your character must have purchased
from a functioning device to repair a the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit
broken one without breaking the first from this talent. On a successful
device. Knowledge check, character and allies
gain automatic a per rank of Researcher
REFLEXIVE PSYCHOSIS on checks to act on those facts until the
Tier: 4 end of his next turn.
Turn) RESIST DISARM
Ranked: No Tier: 2
Your character must have one mental Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
disorder or be insane to benefit from Turn)
this talent (something that is quite Ranked: No
likely to happen in the STRANGE AEONS Suffer 2 strain to avoid being
setting). In the face of adversity, you disarmed or have weapon damaged or
withdraw into the haunted corridors of destroyed.
your mind. As an Incidental, by spending
a Story Point, you can double your Soak RESOLVE
value for 1 turn. After using this talent, Tier: 4
you are Disoriented until the end of your Activation: Passive
next turn. Ranked: Yes
When a character involuntarily
REINFORCED FRAME suffers strain, he suffers 1 less strain
Tier: 4 per rank of Resolve to a minimum of 1.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No RESOURCEFUL REFIT
the Signature Vehicle talent to benefit Activation: Active (Action)
from this talent. Signature Vehicle gains Ranked: No
Massive 1: when making an attack May perform the Resourceful Refit
targeting the vehicle, the Critical rating Action, make an Average (dd) Mechanics
of any weapon used counts as 1 higher. check to scavenge an old attachment to
construct a new one, reducing its price by
RESEARCHER that of the dismantled attachment.
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive RESPECTED
Ranked: Yes Tier: 1
You remove b per rank of Researcher Activation: Passive
from your Knowledge checks. Researching Ranked: Yes
takes 50% less time (this does not When first acquired, choose one social
decrease with additional ranks of
125 Talents
Strange Aeons
group. The character downgrades the Creatures damaged by your spells with
difficulty of Social skill checks to the cold descriptor become Immobilized.
interact with members of that social The frost of your cold spell clings to the
group a number of times equal to his target, impeding it for a short time. A
ranks in Respected. The social group Rime Spell causes creatures that takes
affected must be approved by the GM, but cold damage from the spell to become
possibilities include institutions of immobilized for a number of turns equal
higher learning, law-enforcement to your ranks in Rime Spell.
agencies, a specific biker gang, etc. When you empower a spell with the
Rime Spell talent, you suffer 3 strain.
RETRIBUTION
Tier: 5 RUINOUS REPARTEE
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out- Tier: 5
of-Turn) Activation: Active (Action)
Once per turn when an Once per encounter, your
adversary attacks an ally character may use this talent
within Medium range, your to make an opposed Charm or
character may spend one Coercion versus Discipline
Story Point to use this talent to check targeting one character
automatically hit that enemy once within Medium range (or within
with a weapon your character is earshot). If successful, the
wielding, if the enemy is within the target suffers strain equal to
weapon’s range. The hit deals the twice your character’s Presence,
weapon’s base damage, plus any plus one additional strain per s.
damage from applicable talents or Your character heals strain equal
abilities. to the strain inflicted.
If incapacitated due to this
RICOCHET talent, the target could flee the
Tier: 5 scene in shame, collapse in a
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out- dejected heap, or throw themself
of-Turn) at your character in fury,
Ranked: No depending on your GM and the
What goes around comes around! nature of your character’s witty
Any enemy's ranged attacks will barbs.
sometimes ricochet back and
hit the shooter instead. You SADISTIC REWARD
may spend y from an enemy's attack pool Tier: 2
to have the attack ricochet back to the Activation: Passive
shooter and resolve the attack normally. Ranked: Yes
Your mind and body are fortified by
RIME SPELL harming others. If you deal damage to a
Tier: 3 living creature, all attacks that target
Activation: Active (Maneuver) you suffer b per rank of Sadistic
Ranked: Yes Reward until the beginning of your next
Your character must have at least one turn.
rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
Talents 126
SAVAGE SWEEP SCATHING TIRADE

Tier: 4 Tier: 2
Increase difficulty of Brawl or Melee Your character may use this talent to
check once to perform Savage Sweep make an Average (dd) Coercion check. For
Action. May spend aa to hit an each s the check generates, one enemy
additional Engaged target (you cannot within Short range suffers 1 strain. For
strike the same target twice with Savage each a, one enemy affected by Scathing
Sweep). Tirade suffers 1 additional strain.
SAVVY NEGOTIATOR SCATHING TIRADE (IMPROVED)

Tier: 4 Tier: 3
While engaged in a debate or argument, Your character must have purchased
make a Hard (ddd) Negotiation check. If the Scathing Tirade talent to benefit
successful, a number of bystanders or from this talent. Enemies affected by
observers equal to your Presence sees one your character’s Scathing Tirade add b
of the opponent’s points (chosen by your to all skill checks they make for a
character) as maliciously unreasonable. number of rounds equal to your
The GM has the final say as to whether character’s ranks in Coercion.
bystanders could see a point as
unreasonable, based on who those SCATHING TIRADE (SUPREME)
bystanders are and what the point is. In
Tier: 4
these cases, the GM can suggest a modified
version of that argument that would be
Ranked: No
more believable.
the Scathing Tirade (Improved) talent to
SCARRING SPELL benefit from this talent. Your character
Tier: 2 may choose to suffer 1 strain to use the
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Scathing Tirade talent as a Maneuver,
Ranked: No instead of as an Action.
rank in Magic to benefit from this SCAVENGER
talent. Your emotion-affecting magic Tier: 2
causes psychic trauma in your opponents.
Activation: Passive
When you successfully attack a creature
Ranked: Yes
with a scarring spell, for the next 24
The character removes b equal to the
hours all spells targeting that creature
character's ranks in Scavenger from
gains a b to spell skill checks. The
checks made to find or scavenge items or
effect from multiple scarring spells
gear. These checks could include
don't stack.
Negotiation, Perception, or other checks,
You suffer 3 strain when you apply the
depending on circumstances and the GM's
Scarring Spell talent to your spells.
discretion. Such skill checks take half
their normal time (this does not decrease
with multiple ranks in Scavenger).
127 Talents
Strange Aeons
SECOND CHANCES Melee attack against that opponent.

Tier: 4
Activation: Active (Incidental) SELECTIVE DETONATION
Ranked: Yes Tier: 2
Once per encounter choose a number of Activation: Active (Incidental)
positive dice equal to ranks in Second Ranked: Yes
Chances and re-roll them. When using a weapon with the Blast
quality spend a to exclude 1 target
SECOND WIND that would be affected by the explosion,
Tier: 1 up to ranks in Selective Detonation.
Ranked: Yes SENSE ADVANTAGE
Once per encounter, your character may Tier: 3
use this talent to heal an amount of Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
strain equal to their ranks in Second Turn)
Wind. Ranked: No
Once per session, may add bb to one
SEEN A LOT OF THINGS NPC’s skill check.
Tier: 4
Activation: Passive SENSE DANGER
Ranked: No Tier: 2
Whenever your character fails a Activation: Active (Incidental)
Knowledge check, they may spend aaa Ranked: No
to roll the check again during their next Once per game session, the character
turn. may remove bb from any one skill check.
SEIZE THE INITIATIVE SENSE EMOTIONS

Tier: 3 Tier: 2
Once per session, as a Maneuver, may Add b to all Charm, Coercion, and
make a Hard (ddd) Athletics check. On Deception checks.
success, other Player Characters may take
their turns immediately. SHAKE IT OFF
Tier: 1
SEIZE THE MOMENT Activation: Passive
Tier: 5 Ranked: No
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- You support your allies and help them
Turn) recover from crippling effects. When you
Ranked: No are in Engaged range to one or more
You are poised to pounce whenever one allies who also have this talent, you
of your allies scores a telling blow. When gain a bonus b on all skill checks.
an ally inflicts a Critical Injury against
an opponent that you are within Engaged
range of, you can spend a Story Point and
immediately make an out-of-turn Brawl or
Talents 128
SHARE PAIN use this talent before rolling your

Tier: 3 check.
Turn) SIDE STEP
Ranked: No Tier: 2
Your character must have purchased Activation: Active (Action)
the Animal Companion talent to benefit Ranked: Yes
from this talent. May perform the Share Once per turn, your character may
Pain Incidental when animal companion suffer a number of strain no greater
suffers wounds. Reduce wounds suffered than their ranks in Side Step to use this
to half, then character suffers wounds talent. Until the end of your character’s
equal to number reduced. next turn, upgrade the difficulty of all
ranged combat checks targeting your
SHORTCUT character a number of times equal to the
Tier: 2 strain suffered.
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes SIGNATURE VEHICLE
During a chase, add b per rank in Tier: 1
Shortcut to any checks made to catch or Activation: Passive
escape an opponent. Ranked: No
Choose one vehicle with a silhouette of
SHORTCUT (IMPROVED) 3 or lower that your character owns. This
Tier: 3 vehicle is your character’s “Signature
Activation: Passive Vehicle.” Upgrade the ability of all
Ranked: No Mechanics checks made to work on the
Your character must have purchased vehicle once. If the vehicle ever lost or
the Shortcut talent to benefit from this destroyed, the character may apply
talent. When engaging in a chase or race, Signature Vehicle to a new vehicle that
may suffer 2 strain to add s equal to meets the requirements.
ranks in Shortcut to the check.
SILENT SPELL
SHOTGUN SURGEON Tier: 1
Ranked: No You can cast your spells without
When using shotguns, regardless of making any sound. A silent spell can be
ammunition used, treat the shotgun as if cast with no verbal components. Spells
it had the Pierce 1 quality. without verbal components are not
affected.
You suffer 3 strain when you empower a
SHOWBOAT spell with the Silent Spell talent.
Tier: 4
Ranked: No
SILVER PALM
When making a check in a vehicle, may Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
suffer 2 strain to gain x on success or
Ranked: Yes
y on failure. You must declare that you
You are no stranger to haggling and
129 Talents
Strange Aeons
the art of the deal. Negotiation becomes the check to a maximum handling of +4. x
a career skill when you select the Silver can be spent to extend the effect until
Palm talent. Furthermore, you add b to the end of the encounter.
Negotiation checks per rank of Silver
Palm. SMOOTH TALKER
Tier: 1
SIXTH SENSE Activation: Active (Incidental)
Tier: 3 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Passive When first acquired choose 1 skill;
Ranked: No Charm, Coercion, Deception, or
The character gains +1 Ranged Defense. Negotiation. When making checks with
that skill spend x to gain additional s
SKILLED JOCKEY equal to ranks in Smooth Talker.
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive SNAKE STYLE
Ranked: Yes Tier: 3
You remove b per rank of Skilled Activation: Active (Incidental)
Driver from your Driving and Piloting Ranked: Yes
checks. Snake unarmed Brawl style
emphasizes quick, shifting movements.
SKILLED TEACHER Its practitioners normally hold their
Tier: 3 hands flat with the fingers together
Activation: Active (Incidental, to mimic the head of a snake. Able
Out-of-Turn) to strike when least expected,
Ranked: Yes snake stylists are known for
Before an ally within Short opportunism and blinding
range makes a skill check, if speed.
that ally has fewer ranks in While using the Snake Style
that skill than your character talent, you gain Pierce 1 quality
does, your character may suffer a on your Brawl combat checks.
number of strain no greater As an Incidental, you can enter
than ranks in Skilled Teacher the stance employed by the
to add an equal number of s fighting style. Although you
to the ally’s check. cannot use a style talent before
combat begins, the style you are
in persists until you spend an
SMART HANDLING Incidental to switch to a different
Tier: 3 combat style. For example, if you
Activation: Active (Action) have the Kirin Style and Panther
Ranked: No Style, you can use an Incidental to
Once per session, while aboard a adopt Kirin Style at the start of one
vehicle of Silhouette 4 or higher, turn, and then by another Incidental
your character may make a Smart at the start of your next turn, you
Handling Action; making a Hard could adopt Panther Style.
(ddd) Knowledge check. If successful,
until the start of the next turn, the
vehicle’s handling increases by
two plus one per a scored on
Talents 130
SNAPPING TURTLE STYLE hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental) SOLID REPAIRS
Ranked: No Tier: 1
The snapping turtle style emphasizes Activation: Passive
active defense with one hand. Students of Ranked: Yes
the unarmed Brawl style utilize a The character repairs one additional
variety of locks, grabs, and circular point of hull trauma per rank of Solid
blocks to protect themselves, as well as Repairs whenever he repairs a vehicle.
employing a debilitating clutch.
While using the Snapping Turtle Style SOOTHING TONE
talent with at least one hand free, you Tier: 1
gain a +1 Ranged Defense. Activation: Active (Action)
As an Incidental, you can enter the Ranked: No
stance employed by the fighting style. Once per encounter, take a Soothing
Although you cannot use a style talent Tone Action; make an Average (dd)
before combat begins, the style you are Knowledge check to allow a beast to
recover strain equal to s.
example, if you have the Tiger Style and
Crane Style, you can use an Incidental to SORRY ABOUT THE MESS
adopt Crane Style at the start of one Tier: 4
turn, and then by another Incidental at Activation: Passive
the start of your next turn, you could Ranked: No
adopt Tiger Style. Decrease the Critical Rating of a
weapon by 1 (to a minimum of 1) against
targets that have not yet acted this
SNIPER SHOT encounter.
Tier: 4
Ranked: Yes SOUND INVESTMENTS
Once per turn before making a non- Tier: 3
thrown Ranged attack, the character may Activation: Passive
perform the Sniper Shot Maneuver. Sniper Ranked: Yes
Shot increases the maximum range of his At the start of each session, gain 100
ranged weapon up to one range band per dollars for each rank of Sound
rank. For each rank beyond the normal Investments.
maximum of the weapon, upgrade the
difficulty of the check by one (this is in SPITFIRE
addition to the increased difficulty of Tier: 4
the shot due to longer range). Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
SOLAR POWERED After a successful combined check with
Tier: 1 two Ranged [Light] weapons, additional
Activation: Passive hits can be allocated to other targets
Ranked: Yes within range of the weapon.
Catch some rays! Gain b to Perception
per rank of Solar Powered between the
131 Talents
Strange Aeons
SPRAY AND PRAY STEADY AIM

Tier: 4 Tier: 4
Activation: Active (Incidental) Activation: Passive
Spray 'n Pray reduces the damage you Your character does not lose the
do to your companions by 50% - rounded benefits of the Aim Maneuver if they
down. In other words, you only do half of perform other Maneuvers (including
your normal damage to allies that you moving) or Actions. Your character does
accidentally or actively hit in combat lose the benefits of the Aim Maneuver if
situations, from a y result, for example. the encounter ends.
STAGGERING CRITICAL STEADY NERVES

Tier: 3 Tier: 1
Activation: Passive Activation: Passive
Your Critical Injuries leave your You remove b per rank of Steady
opponents reeling. When you successfully Nerves from Cool and Skulduggery checks.
inflict a Critical Injury, the target is
also Staggered for 1 turn. STEEL SOUL
Tier: 1
STALKER Activation: Passive
Tier: 2 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive You are especially resistant to magic.
Ranked: Yes You add bb penalty on all spells and
Add b per rank of Stalker to all spell-like abilities that target you
Coordination and Stealth checks. specifically.
STALWART STIM APPLICATION

Tier: 3 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of- Activation: Active (Action)
Turn) Ranked: No
Ranked: No You may take the Stim Application
You adopt a defensive stance that Action. To perform this Action, you must
allows you to absorb and redirect hits. have access to drugs, a medpac, or
When you are the target of a combat painkillers. You make an Average (dd)
check, but before the dice are rolled and Medicine check. If successful, one ally
the result calculated, you can opt to you are Engaged with (including
forefeit your Defense Rating and instead yourself) increases one characteristic of
add it to your Soak instead. For example, your choice by one for the remainder of
if you have Melee Defense rating of 2 you the encounter, and suffers four strain. A
can negate this and increase your Soak single character's individual
by 2 points against a Brawl or Melee characteristic may each only be increased
attack. Or if you have Ranged Defense 1, once by Stim Application during an
you could negate this to improve your encounter.
Soak value by 1 against ranged attacks.
Talents 132
STIM APPLICATION (IMPROVED) STREET SMARTS

Tier: 4 Tier: 4
Your character must have purchased Once per session, may take a Street
the Stim Application talent to benefit Smarts Action; make a Formidable
from this talent. When performing the (ddddd) Streetwise or Knowledge
Stim Application it becomes an Incidental check to learn one vital clue from the
instead of an Action. You may increase GM. Reduce the difficulty once per rank
the difficulty of the Medicine check to of Street Smarts.
Hard (ddd) as an Incidental. If you do
so, the target of the talent suffers one STRONG ARM
strain instead of four. Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
STIM APPLICATION (SUPREME) Ranked: No
Tier: 5 Treat thrown weapons as if they had
Activation: Passive one step greater range, to a maximum of
Ranked: No Medium range.
the Stim Application (Improved) talent to STRONG BACK
benefit from this talent. When Tier: 3
performing the Stim Application Activation: Passive
Incidental, each x may be spent to Ranked: Yes
increase an additional characteristic by Increase your Encumbrance threshold
one. value by 2 per rank of Strong Back.
STONEWALL STUDIOUS PLOTTING

Tier: 3 Tier: 3
All Melee and Brawl attacks that When making a Streetwise or Survival
target you suffer a b to the attack dice skill check to navigate, the character
pool, and you cannot be knocked prone by may use Intellect instead of Cunning.
such attacks.
STUNNING BLOW
STREET SLANG Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental) Ranked: No
Ranked: Yes When making a Melee combat check, may
When making a Social skill check in inflict damage as strain instead of
criminal or dubious company, may suffer wounds. However, Soak does still apply.
a number of strain no greater than ranks
in Street Slang to add an equal number
of a to the check.
133 Talents
Strange Aeons
STUNNING BLOW (IMPROVED) SUPERHUMAN SKILL

Tier: 3 Tier: 5
Your character must have purchased When purchased, choose a skill. Once
the Stunning Blow talent to benefit from per session, when rolling y on a check
this talent. When dealing strain damage with that skill, spend a Story Point to
with Brawl or Melee combat checks, may remove the y and replace it with a
spend x to Stagger target for 1 turn per number of s equal to ranks in that
x. skill.
SUNDER EXPERTISE SUPERIOR REFLEXES

Tier: 3 Tier: 3
Each aa your The character gains +1 Melee
character spends to Defense.
activate a weapon’s Sunder
quality damages the SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
target item two steps, Tier: 4
instead of one. Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes
SUNDERING STRIKE When assisting an ally with a
Tier: 2 Charm, Deception, Leadership, or
Activation: Active Negotiation check, add a automatic
(Incidental) per rank of Supporting Evidence.
Ranked: No
You can sunder your foes' SUPPRESSING FIRE
weapons more easily. Whenever Tier: 2
you attempt to active a Activation: Passive
Sunder effect as part of a Ranked: Yes
combat check, you require one The character and each ally within
less a to activate the Short range may spend a on their
effect, to a minimum of a. failed combat checks to inflict one
strain on the target per rank of
SUPER SLAM! Suppressing Fire. Each character can
Tier: 3 only activate this effect once per
Activation: Passive turn.
Ranked: No
All Brawl and Melee weapons that have SURGEON
the Knockdown quality require one less Tier: 1
a to activate on a combat check, to a Activation: Passive
minimum of one a. Ranked: Yes
When your character makes a Medicine
check to heal wounds, the target heals
one additional wound per rank of
Talents 134
Surgeon. THE STARS ARE RIGHT!

Tier: 5
SWIFT Activation: Active (Action)
Tier: 1 Ranked: No
Activation: Passive Your character must have at least one
Ranked: No rank in Magic to benefit from this talent.
Your character does not suffer the You know how to enchance your magic
penalties for moving through difficult through careful observation of the moon,
terrain (they move through difficult stars and planets. Once per session, you
terrain at normal speed without spending may attempt a Daunting (dddd)
additional Maneuvers). Knowledge check. You can increase your
spellcasting ability for 24 hours on a
TALK THE TALK succesful check. This means that you can
Tier: 3 upgrade any Magic skill checks once
Activation: Active (Incidental) during this 24 hour period.
Ranked: No
When about to make a Knowledge skill THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM
check, the character may spend one Story Tier: 4
Point to substitute Knowledge with Activation: Active (Incidental)
Streetwise. The GM may suitable embellish Ranked: No
any information gathered due to a One or more of the gods must be smiling
success on the check to reflect its upon you. Once per encounter you can
possible criminal and underworld origins. select one negative die and re-roll it.
You must keep the result of the re-roll,
TARGETED FIREPOWER even if it is not as good as the first roll.
Tier: 4 You suffer 3 strain when you activate
Activation: Active (Action) the Third Time's the Charm talent.
Ranked: No
Once per session, identify one enemy THOROUGH ASSESSMENT
target and make a Hard (ddd) Tier: 5
Knowledge check. If successful, for the Activation: Active (Action)
rest of the encounter, allies within Short Ranked: No
range of your character add one a to Once per session, take a Thorough
attacks against the target equal to s Assessment Action: make a Hard (ddd)
generated on the check. Knowledge check to gain s equal to that
can be distributed during the session.
THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE
Tier: 4 THREATEN
Ranked: Yes Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
May suffer 1 strain on successful skill Turn)
check to add a to the same skill check Ranked: Yes
made by a number of allies equally to After an adversary within Short range
Willpower within Short range during the of your character resolves a combat
next turn. Range increases with ranks. check that deals damage to one of your
character's allies, your character may
suffer 3 strain to use this talent to
135 Talents
Strange Aeons
inflict a number of strain on the TIME TO GO

adversary equal to your character's Tier: 2
ranks in Coercion. The range of this Activation: Active (Maneuver)
talent increases by one band per rank of Ranked: No
Threaten beyond the first. The character may spend 1 Story Point
to perform a move Maneuver as an
THUG Incidental to attempt to move into cover
Tier: 1 or out of the blast range of a weapon or
Activation: Passive explosion.
Ranked: No
You have a knack for getting the jump TIME TO GO (IMPROVED)
on the competition and pushing other Tier: 3
people around. While others debate, you Activation: Active (Maneuver)
act. You gain b to Initiative checks, and Ranked: No
also a a bonus to Coercion skill checks. Your character must have purchased
the Time to Go talent to benefit from
TIGER STYLE this talent. When activating Time to Go,
Tier: 1 allow one Engaged ally to also perform
Activation: Active (Incidental) an out-of-turn move Maneuver as an
Ranked: No Incidental to attempt to move into cover
This unarmed Brawl style seeks to or out of the blast range of a weapon or
emulate the power and fury of the great explosion.
tiger. Practitioners use their hands like
claws, perfecting overpowering double TIMELY MISDIRECTION
hand strikes and driving attack chains. Tier: 3
While using this style, whenever you Activation: Active (Maneuver)
score a Critical Injury with your Ranked: No
unarmed Brawl strike, your opponent also You can divert an opponent's attention
takes 1 point, which cannot be soaked, of to avoid its attacks. If you succeed on a
bleed damage at the start of his next two Deception check to feint in combat, which
turns. requires a Maneuver, your opponent can't
As an Incidental, you can enter the make a Critical Injury on you until the
stance employed by the fighting style. start of its next turn.
TINKERER
example, if you have the Monkey Style Activation: Passive
and Mantis Style, you can use an Ranked: Yes
Incidental to adopt Monkey Style at the May add 1 additional hard point to a
start of one turn, and then by another number of items equal to ranks in
Incidental at the start of your next Tinkerer. Each item may only be modified
turn, you could adopt Mantis Style. once.
Talents 136
TOUCH OF FATE Silhouette 1 lower when being attacked.

Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Incidental) TRIVIAL KNOWLEDGE
Ranked: No Tier: 5
Once per game session, the character Activation: Passive
may add bb to any one skill check. Ranked: No
You have the ability to dredge up
TOUGHENED obscure knowledge in appropriate
Tier: 1 situations. Whenever you make a
Activation: Passive Knowledge check, roll twice and use the
Ranked: Yes better of the two results.
Each rank of Toughened increases your
character’s wound threshold by two. TRUE AIM
Tier: 4
TRAUMATIC SPELL Activation: Active (Maneuver)
Tier: 4 Ranked: Yes
Activation: Active (Maneuver) Once per turn, before the character
Ranked: No makes a ranged combat check, he may
Your character must have at least one perform a True Aim Maneuver. By
rank in Magic to benefit from this performing this Maneuver, the character
talent. Creatures harmed by your spells gains all the benefits for aiming and
relive their torments in nightly terrors. also upgrades his attack roll once per
A Traumatic Spell causes lingering rank of True Aim.
memories of pain and suffering in
creatures harmed by it. When a creature TRUST NO ONE
is successfully affected by your spell, Tier: 4
the next time it sleeps it must make a Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
Discpline check (difficulty equals your Turn)
ranks in Magic skill) or be affected by Ranked: No
nightmares. Each time the target fails When targeted by a Social skill check,
its check, it must check again the suffer 1 strain to add automatic f to
following night or be affected by the check. If the check fails with y,
another nightmare, though it add b to your character may immediately perform
its Discpline check each night after the a Maneuver as an out-of-turn Incidental.
first. A creature troubled by nightmares
in this manner does not recover wounds or TRUST THE CAPTAIN
strain from natural rest. A successful Tier: 3
Discipline check negates further Activation: Active (Action)
nightmares and ends the effect. Ranked: Yes
You suffer 3 strain when you apply Make a Hard (ddd) Leadership check.
Traumatic Spell talent to a spell. If successful, for the rest of the
encounter allies within Short range
TRICKY TARGET increase their ranks in Discipline by an
Tier: 3 amount equal to ranks in Trust the
Activation: Passive Captain.
Ranked: No
Count vehicle piloted as having a
137 Talents
Strange Aeons
TUMBLE TWISTED WORDS

Tier: 1 Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Incidental) Activation: Active (Incidental, Out-of-
Ranked: No Turn)
While engaged with one or more Ranked: No
adversaries, may suffer 2 strain to move When an incoming Social skill check
to Short range as an Incidental, generates tt or y, may suffer 1 strain
and thus circumventing having to as an Incidental to inflict strain equal
disengage from opponents. to ranks in Coercion on speaker.
TUNE MANEUVERING PARTS UNARMED PARRY

Tier: 3 Tier: 2
Your character must May Parry while unarmed. When your
have purchased the Signature character suffers a hit from a Brawl or
Vehicle talent to benefit from Melee combat check, after damage is
this talent. Increase the calculated but before Soak is applied
Handling of Signature (so immediately after Step 3 of
Vehicle by 1 per rank of Perform a Combat Check, page 102 in
Tuned Maneuvering Parts. the Genesys Core Rulebook), your
character may suffer 3 strain to use
TWIN WARRIORS this talent to reduce the damage of
Tier: 3 the hit by two. This talent can only
Activation: Passive be used once per hit, and your
Ranked: No character does not need to be
Some martial arts schools wielding a Melee weapon.
teach their students to fight in
teams, one martial artist using UNBELIEVABLE LUCK
aggressive techniques and the Tier: 4
other fighting defensively, the Activation: Passive
better to keep opponents off Ranked: No
balance. For each ally, to a The powers of fortune truly smile
maximum of two, who possess on you more than most others. As
this talent, is fighting using long as there are at least Story
the Brawl skill and is within Points equal to the number of
Short range of you, you benefit from a +1 player characters excluding
bonus to Melee Defense and also add a b yourself in the player pool, you gain a
to Brawl combat checks. No two characters b bonus on all skill checks that you
may benefit from the same bonus make.
simultaneously but any character can For example a gaming group with 5
change the bonuses (including the player characters (obviously not
bonuses of their allies) on their turn as including the GM) require a minimum of 4
a Maneuver. Story Points in the player's pool for you
to benefit from the Unbelievable Luck
talent.
Talents 138
UNCANNY REACTIONS UNRELENTING

Tier: 1 Tier: 4
Add b per rank of Uncanny Reactions Once per turn after resolving a
to all Vigilance checks. successful Brawl or Melee combat check,
your character may suffer 4 strain to use
UNCANNY SENSES this talent to make an additional attack
Tier: 1 as an incidental against the same target.
Activation: Passive Increase the difficulty of the combat
Ranked: Yes check once if this attack uses a
secondary weapon, or by two if the attack
Add b per rank of Uncanny Senses to
uses the same weapon.
all Perception checks.
UNDYING FATE UNRELENTING SKEPTIC

Tier: 4
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Ranked: No
When targeted by a Deception check,
As an Incidental, you can determine
how close creatures are to death. This the character automatically adds f to
extraordinary ability can be used at the check equal to ranks in Vigilance.
will. The GM will tell you what the
status is of one specific creature that UNRELENTING SKEPTIC
you can see, in terms of wounds and (IMPROVED)
strain and its threshold. You take a b Tier: 5
penalty to your next skill check after Activation: Active (Incidental)
having used the Undying Fate talent. Ranked: No
UNMATCHED FORTUNE the Unrelenting Skeptic talent to
Tier: 5 benefit from this talent. When targeted
Activation: Active (Incidental) by a Deception check that fails, may
Ranked: No spend 1 Story Point to add y to results.
By some odd twist of fate or grain of
luck you gain an extra edge when you UNREMARKABLE
need it the most. You can spend a Story Tier: 1
Point to set aside any x result on a Activation: Passive
skill check and roll a new c in its Ranked: No
place. Other characters add f to any checks
For every c you generate on your made to find or identify your character
roll, even on newly added dice, you roll a in a crowd.
new c to your skill check. However, any
subsequent x results only count as s UNSTOPPABLE
results. Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
If a Critical Injury roll is 1 or
139 Talents
Strange Aeons
reduced to 1, do not receive the Critical VOW OF ABSTINENCE

Injury. Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
UP THE ANTE Ranked: No
Tier: 3 You have taken a sacred vow to abstain
Activation: Passive from alcoholic beverages, drugs,
Ranked: Yes stimulants such as caffeine, and
When gambling win 10% more dollars intoxication. You gain a bb bonus on
per rank of Up the Ante. Resilience checks against poisons and
drugs (as long as you are subjected to a
UTILITY BELT drug unwillingly).
Tier: 3 To fulfill your vow, you must not
Activation: Active (Incidental) consume intoxicating, stimulating,
Ranked: No depressant, or hallucinogenic substances,
Spend 1 Story Point to perform a including alcohol, caffeine, and other
Utility Belt Incidental; produce an drugs. If you intentionally break your
undocumented item (maximum 1 vow, you immediately and irrevocably
encumbrance) or weapon (with Limited lose the benefit of this talent. You may
Ammo One quality) from a tool belt or a not take another talent to replace it. If
satchel. you break your vow unintentionally (a
drug slipped into your drink, for
example), you lose the benefit of this
VALUABLE FACTS talent until you perform a suitable
Tier: 3 penance.
Ranked: No
Once per encounter, the character may VOW OF CHASTITY
make a Hard (ddd) Knowledge check. If Tier: 1
successful, the character may add x to Activation: Passive
any one check made by an allied Ranked: No
character during the encounter. The You have taken a sacred vow to refrain
subsequent check should relate in some from marriage and sexual intercourse.
way to the facts the character learned, You gain a b bonus on attempts to resist
or the player should come up with an Charm and Coercion checks.
explanation for why the information the To fulfill your vow, you must abstain
character learned is instrumental in the from any sexual contact with any other
success of the ally’s check. creature. If you intentionally break
your vow, you immediately and
irrevocably lose the benefit of this
VEHICLE COMBAT TRAINING talent. You may not take another feat to
Tier: 2 replace it. If you break your vow
Activation: Passive unintentionally (being raped, for
Ranked: No example), you lose the benefit of this
Driving, Gunnery and Piloting become talent until you perform a suitable
career skills. penance.
Talents 140
VOW OF PURITY encounter, your character and all allies

Tier: 1 add automatic s or aa to all combat
Activation: Passive checks made targeting the structure
Ranked: No (your character’s choice).
You have taken a sacred vow to avoid
contact with dead flesh. You add bb to WELL-ROUNDED
Resilience checks to resist diseases. Tier: 3
To fulfill your vow, you must avoid all Activation: Passive
contact with dead creatures, including Ranked: No
meat cooked for food. You may not touch Choose any two skills. They
fallen foes. You may fight the living permanently become career skills for
dead, but must purify yourself as soon as your character.
possible afterward. You may touch dead
characters in order to restore them to WHEEL AND DEAL
life, but for no other purpose. If you Tier: 1
fight the living dead or accidentally Activation: Passive
touch dead flesh, you must purify Ranked: Yes
yourself in a special ritual that When selling good legally, gain 10%
requires 1 hour. If you intentionally more dollars per rank of Wheel and Deal.
break your vow, you immediately and
irrevocably lose the benefit of this
talent. You may not take another talent WHIRLWIND
to replace it. If you break your vow Tier: 5
unintentionally, you lose the benefit of Activation: Active (Action)
this talent until you perform a suitable Ranked: No
penance. Your character may suffer 4 strain to
use this talent to make a Brawl or Melee
attack against the engaged adversary
WARRIOR INSTINCTS who is hardest to hit (as determined by
Tier: 1 the GM), increasing the difficulty by one.
Activation: Passive If the combat check succeeds, each
Ranked: Yes adversary Engaged with the character
You were born with a warrior's suffers one hit from the attack, that
instincts and intuition. You add s to deals base damage plus damage equal to
Initiative checks per rank of Warrior the total s scored on the check.
Instinct.
WIDOW-MAKER
WEAK FOUNDATION Tier: 2
Activation: Active (Action) Ranked: No
Ranked: No You're charming... and dangerous!
Once per game session, your character Nemesis adversaries suffer an additional
may identify one bunker, weapon wound in combat whenever you deal
emplacement, or other fixed combat damage, and you can remove a b from
structure (subject to the GM’s approval) Charm, Coercion, Deception, Leadership
and then take a Weak Foundation Action; and Negotiation checks when dealing with
make a Hard (ddd) Knowledge check. If the nemesis adversaries.
successful, until the end of the
141 Talents
Strange Aeons
WIND STANCE WOLF STYLE

Tier: 1 Tier: 1
Your erratic movements make it This Brawl style seeks to emulate the
difficult for enemies to pinpoint your tenacity and savagery of the vicious
location. If you take at least one wolf. It focuses on tripping or penalizing
Maneuver to move one range band, you an opponent’s movement. While in this
add b per rank of Wind Stance to all unarmed Brawl style, you hamper foes
combat checks made against you until the that turn their backs on you. For every 3
beginning of your next turn. points of uncanceled or unsoaked damage
you deal to the target, you impose a b to
WISE WARRIOR all of its skill checks until the end of
Tier: 4 its next turn. If you deal 6 or more
Activation: Active (Incidental) damage, you can also spend a or x to
Ranked: No knock the opponent prone.
Once per turn when making a combat As an Incidental, you can enter the
check, you may perform a Wise stance employed by the fighting style.
Warrior Incidental to spend 1 Story Although you cannot use a style talent
Point and use any characteristic before combat begins, the style you are
for the check. in persists until you spend an
Incidental to switch to a different
combat style. For example, if you
WISE WARRIOR have the Crane Style and Fox Style,
(IMPROVED) you can use an Incidental to adopt
Tier: 5 Crane Style at the start of one
Activation: Passive turn, and then by another
Ranked: No Incidental at the start of your
Your character must next turn, you could adopt Fox
have purchased the Style.
Wise Warrior talent
to benefit from this WORKS LIKE A CHARM
talent. When you Tier: 4
perform the Wise Activation: Active (Incidental)
Warrior Incidental, Ranked: No
one ally at Short range Once per game session, the
may use the same character can choose to make one
characteristic that you skill check using Presence rather
used in the Wise Warrior than the characteristic linked to
Incidental for the next that skill. When he does this, he
combat check the ally must explain how, in this
makes before the end of particular instance, his social
your next turn. ability helps him overcome this
challenge.
Talents 142
ZEALOUS FIRE
Tier: 5
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Each time your Game Master spends a
Story Point, your character heals 2
strain.
143 Talents
1920'S SLANG
WHAT HAS RISEN MAY SINK, AND WHAT HAS SUNK MAY RISE.
Edgar looked up at his friend. “I must While the contents of this chapter does
study these runes. Would it be alright if indeed add a great level of authenticity
I keep your notebook until I have to the game, if the players and the GM –
translated them?” especially the GM – can incorporate the
“Of course. Of course,” Willard replied. slang and expressions used during the
A single bead of sweat trailed down 1920's in the game sessions, it is not a
along the left side of the forehead. “But requirement. Nor is it a necessity in
I beg you to make haste. Because I fear order to enjoy the STRANGE AEONS
that every moment I linger, Celine slips setting any less.
further and further into whatever Neither players nor the GM are
dementia is tormenting her.” expected or required to memorize all the
Edgar noddedd. “I will ring you on the terms used during the 1920's, but peruse
telephone, the moment I have completed through the chapter and be inspired. It
the translations.” is recommended that the GM, in
Willard stood up and extended his particular, does get familiar with this
hand to Edgar. “I will await your chapter, because it is a valuable source
phonecall then.” of flavor that can be added to non-
player characters during social
“Until then,” Edgar replied, stood up
encounters where there is talking back
and shook hands with Willard.
and forth.
Gathering his belongings, Willard made
way for the exit of the library. He
heard the dull, repetitive thrumming of A...
heavy rain falling on the glass windows Ab-so-lute-ly: affirmative, yes.
high above. He looked up, the sky was Absent treatment: dancing with a timid
black as night, and rain water cascaded partner.
down the glass. Air tight: very attractive.
“Willard...” an indistinctive voice Airedale: an unattractive man.
called out, neither male nor female, in a Alarm clock: a chaperone.
mere faint whisper from somewhere down All wet: incorrect.
one of the aisles of countless books. And how!: I strongly agree!
Ankle: to walk, i.e.. “Let's ankle!"
Startled, Willard quickly turned
Applesauce: flattery, nonsense, i.e.. “Aw,
towards the sound. There was no one
applesauce!"
there. He gazed to the left and right.
Attaboy!: well done!; also, Attagirl!
There was no one anywhere to be seen.
Though he could hear muttered
conversation in the room beyond. He took B...
two tentative steps towards the aisle. Baby: sweetheart. Also denotes something
“Hello?” he called out. of high value or respect.
There was no reply. Only the constant Baby grand: heavily built man.
thrumming of the falling rain above. He Baby vamp: an attractive or popular
stepped halfway down the aisle, yet he female, student.
saw no one. Heard no one. “Hello? Anyone Balled up: confused, messed up.
there?” he asked. But still no reply. Baloney: nonsense!
Must be my imagination, Willard Banana oil!: I doubt that!
thought. He turned on his heel and made Bank's closed: no kissing or making out
his way back to the lobby and headed i.e. “Sorry, mac, bank's closed."
for the front door of the library. Bearcat: a fiery girl.
145 1920's Slang

Strange Aeons
Beat it: scram, get lost. Bunny: a term of endearment applied to

Beat one's gums: idle chatter. the lost, confused, etc. Often coupled
Bee's knee's: terrific; a fad expression. with “poor little."
Dozens of “animal anatomy" variations Bus: any old or worn out car.
existed such as: elephant's eyebrows, Butt me: I'll take a cigarette.
gnat's whistle, eel's hips, etc.
Beef: a complaint or to complain. C...
Beeswax: business, i.e. "None of your Cake-eater: a lady's man.
beeswax." Canceled stamp: a shy girl at a dance or
Bell bottom: a sailor party.
Bent: drunk. Caper: a criminal act or robbery.
Berries: (1) perfect (2) money. Carry a Torch: to have a crush on someone.
Bible Belt: area in the South and Midwest Cash: a kiss.
where Fundamentalism flourishes. Cash or check?: do we kiss now or later?
Big cheese: important person. Cast a kitten: to have a fit. Used in both
Big six: a strong man; from auto humorous and serious situations. i.e. “Stop
advertising, for the new and powerful six tickling me or I'll cast a kitten!" Also,
cylinder engines. “have kittens."
Big timer: a charming and romantic man. Cat's meow: great, also “cat's pajamas" and
Billboard: a flashy man or woman. "cat's whiskers".
Bimbo: a tough guy. Cat's Pajamas: Same as cat's meow.
Bird: general term for a man or woman, Charlie: a man with a mustache.
sometimes meaning “odd," i.e. “What a Chassis: the female body.
funny old bird." Cheaters: eye glasses.
Blind Date: going out with someone you do Check: Kiss me later.
not know. Chewing gum: double-speak, or ambiguous
Blooey: the condition when one has gone talk.
to pieces. Chin music: gossip.
Bluenose: an excessively puritanical Choice bit of calico: attractive female,
person, a prude, Creator of “the Blue student.
Nozzle Curse." Chopper: a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, due
Blotto: drunk, especially to an extreme to the damage its heavy .45 caliber
Blow: (1) a crazy party (2) to leave. rounds did to the human body.
Blue serge: a sweetheart. Chunk of lead: an unattractive female,
Bootleg: illegal liquor. student.
Breezer: a convertible car. Ciggy: cigarette.
Bronx Cheer: a loud spluttering noise, Clam: a dollar.
used to indicate disapproval. Same as Coffin varnish: bootleg liquor, often
raspberry. poisonous.
Bug-eyed Betty: an unattractive girl, Copacetic: excellent.
student. Crasher: a person who attends a party
Bull: (1) a policeman or law-enforcement uninvited.
official, including FBI. (2) nonsense (3) to Crush: infatuation.
chat idly, to exaggerate. Cuddler: one who likes to make out.
Bump off: to murder, to kill.
Bum's rush, the: ejection by force from an
establishment. D...
Bunk: nonsense. Daddy: a young woman's boyfriend,
especially if he's rich.
1920's Slang 146

Daddy-o: a term of address. Fella: fellow. As common in its day as

Dame: a female. Did not gain widespread “man," “dude," or “guy" is today. “That
use until the 1930's. John sure is a swell fella."
Dapper: a Flapper's dad. Fire extinguisher: a chaperone.
Darb: a great person or thing. "That Fish: (1) a college freshman (2) a first
movie was darb." timer in prison.
Dead soldier: an empty beer bottle. Flapper: the modern woman of the 1920s.
Deb: a debutant. Flat tire: a bore.
Declaration of independence: a divorce. Flivver: a Ford Model T; after 1928, also
Dewdropper: a young man who sleeps all could mean any broken down car.
day and doesn't have a job. Floorflusher: an insatiable dancer.
Dick: a private investigator. Coined Flour lover: a girl with too much face
around 1900, the term finds major powder.
recognition in the 20's. Fly boy: a glamorous term for an aviator.
Dimbox: a taxi. For crying out loud!: same usage as today.
Dimbox jaunt: a taxi ride. Four-flusher: a person who feigns wealth
Dogs: feet. while mooching off others.
Doll: an attractive woman. Frame: to give false evidence , to set up
Dolled up: dressed up. someone.
Don't know from nothing: doesn't have any Fried: drunk.
information.
Don't take any wooden nickels: don't do G...
anything stupid. Gams: legs.
Dope: drugs, esp. cocaine or opium. Gatecrasher: see “crasher".
Doublecross: to cheat, stab in the back. Gay: happy or lively.
Dough: money. Get-up: an outfit.
Drugstore cowboy: a well-dressed man who Get a wiggle on: get a move on, get going.
loiters in public areas trying to pick up Get in a lather: get worked up, angry.
women. Giggle water: booze.
Dry up: shut up, get lost. Gigolo: dancing partner.
Ducky: very good. Gimp: cripple; one who walks with a limp.
Dud up: to dress up. Gangster Dion O’Bannion was called Gimpy
Dumb Dora: an absolute idiot, a dumbbell, due to his noticeable limp.
especially a woman; flapper. Gin mill: a seller of hard liquor; a cheap
speakeasy.
E... Glad rags: "going out on the town"
Earful: enough. clothes.
Edge: intoxication, a buzz. i.e. “I've got an Go chase yourself: get lost, scram.
edge." Gold-digger: a woman who pursues men for
Edisoned: questioned. their money.
Egg: a person who lives the big life. Goods, the: (1) the right material, or a
Embalmer: a bootlegger. person who has it (2) the facts, the truth,
i.e. “Make sure the cops don't get the
F... goods on you."
Face stretcher: an old woman trying to Goof: (1) a stupid or bumbling person, (2) a
look young. boyfriend, flapper.
Fag: a cigarette. Goofy: in love.
Father Time: any man over 30. Greenland: a park.
147 1920's Slang

Strange Aeons
Grubber: one who borrows cigarettes. Iron: a motorcycle, among motorcycle

Grummy: depressed. enthusiasts.
Grungy: envious. Iron one’s shoelaces: to go to the
restroom.
H... Ish kabibble: a retort meaning “I should
Hair of the dog: a shot of alcohol. care."
Half seas over: drunk, also “half under." It: Sex appeal. Actress Clara Bow was the
Handcuff: engagement ring. ‘it’ girl.
Hard-boiled: tough, as in, a tough guy, ie:
“he sure is hard-boiled!" J...
Harp: an Irishman. Jack: money.
Hayburner: (1) a gas guzzling car (2) a Jake: great, ie. "Everything's Jake."
horse one loses money on. Jalopy: a dumpy old car.
Heavy sugar: a lot of money. Jane: any female.
Heebie-jeebies: “the shakes," named after Java: coffee.
a hit song. Jeepers creepers: exclamation.
Heeler: a poor dancer. Jerk soda: to dispense soda from a tap;
Hen coup: a beauty parlor. thus, “soda jerk".
High hat: a snob, haughty, Jitney: a car employed as a private bus.
unapproachable. Fare was usually five-cents; also called
Hike: a walk. a “nickel."
Hip to the jive: cool, trendy. Joe: coffee.
Hit on all sixes: to perform 100 per cent; Joe Brooks: a perfectly dressed person;
as “hitting on all six cylinders"; perhaps student.
a more common variation in these days of John: a toilet.
four cylinder engines was “hit on all Joint: establishment or club, usually
fours". See “big six". selling alcohol.
Hokum: nonsense. Juice joint: a speakeasy.
Hooch: booze.
Hood: hoodlum. K...
Hooey: nonsense. Kale: money.
Hoof: to walk. Keen: appealing.
Hoofer: dancer or chorus girl. Killjoy: a solemn person.
Hope chest: pack of cigarettes. Kisser: mouth.
Hopped up: under the influence of drugs. Kneeduster: skirt.
Hopper: a dancer. Know one's onions: to know one's business
Horn in: to get into a dance without an or what one is talking about.
invitation.
Hot dawg!: Great!
Hot sketch: a card or cut-up. L...
Hotsy – Totsy: pleasing. Lalapazaza: a good sport.
Lay off: cut the nonsense.
Left holding the bag: (1) to be cheated
I... out of one's fair share (2) to be blamed
I have to go see a man about a dog: “I've for something.
got to leave now," often meaning to go Let George do it: a work evading phrase.
buy whiskey. Level with me: be honest.
Icy mitt: rejection. Limey: a British soldier or citizen, from
Insured: engaged.
1920's Slang 148

World War I. Oliver Twist: a skilled dancer.

Line: a false story, as in “to feed one a On a toot: a drinking binge.
line." On the lam: fleeing from police.
Lip stick: a cigarette. On the level: legitimate, honest.
Live wire: a lively person. On the up and up: on the level.
Lollygagger: an idle person. Orchid: an expensive item.
Ossified: drunk.
M... Owl: a person who's out late.
Mad money: carfare home to be used by a
flapper if she has a fight with her date. P...
Manacle: wedding ring. Palooka: (1) a below-average or average.
Mazuma: money. boxer (2) a social outsider.
Meringue: personality. Panic: to produce a big reaction from
Mick: a derogatory term for Irishmen. one's audience.
Middle Aisle: To marry. Panther sweat: whiskey.
Milquetoast: a very timid person. Peppy: vigorous, energetic.
Mind your potatoes: mind your own Percolate: (1) to boil over (2) As of 1925,
business. to run smoothly; “perk".
Moll: A gangster's girl. Pet: necking.
Mooch: to leave. Petting pantry: movie theater.
Moonshine: homemade whiskey. Petting party: one or more couples making
Mop: a handkerchief. out in a room or auto.
Mrs. Grundy: a priggish or extremely Piffle: baloney.
tight-laced person. Piker: (1) a cheapskate (2) a coward.
Munitions: face powder. Pill: (1) a teacher (2) an unlikable person.
Pinch: to arrest. Pinched: to be arrested.
N... Pinko: liberal.
Neck: to kiss passionately. Pipe down: stop talking.
Necker: a girl who wraps her arms around Prom-trotter: a student who attends all
her boyfriend's neck. school social functions.
Nerts!: I am amazed! Pos-i-lute-ly: affirmative, also “pos-i-
Nifty: great, excellent. tive-ly".
Nobody Home: describes some one who is Prune pit: anything that is old-
dumb. fashioned.
Noodle juice: tea. Punch the bag: small talk.
Not so good!: I personally disapprove. Pushover: a person easily convinced.
Now you're on the trolley!: now you've got Putting on the ritz: after the Ritz Hotel
it, now you're right. in Paris (and its namesake Caesar Ritz);
doing something in high style. Also
“ritzy."
O...
Oh yeah!: I doubt it!
Oil burner: a person who chews gum. Q...
Old boy: a male term of address, used in Quilt: a drink that warms one up.
conversation with other males. Denoted
acceptance in a social environment. Also R...
“old man," “old fruit." “How's everything Rag-a-muffin: a dirty or disheveled
old boy?" individual.
149 1920's Slang

Strange Aeons
Rain pitchforks: a downpour. opinion.

Razz: to make fun of. Stilts: legs.
Real McCoy: a genuine item. Streeted: thrown out of a party.
Regular: normal, typical, average; Struggle: modern dance.
“Regular fella." Struggle Buggy: the backseat of a car.
Reuben: an unsophisticated country Stuck on: having a crush on; in love.
bumpkin. Also “rube”. Stutter bus: a truck.
Rhatz!: How disappointing! Sugar daddy: older boyfriend who showers
Ritzy: Elegant (from the hotel). girlfriend with gifts.
Rock of Ages: a woman over the age of 30. Swanky: (1) good (2) elegant.
Rub: a student dance party. Swell: (1) good (2) a high class person.
Rubes: money or dollars.
Rummy: a drunken bum. T...
Take someone for a ride: to take someone
S... to a deserted location and murder them.
Sap: a fool, an idiot. Very common term in Tasty: appealing.
the 20s. Teenager: not a common term until. 1930;
Says you: a reaction of disbelief. before then, the term was “young adults."
Scram: ask someone to leave immediately. Ten cent box: a taxi cab.
Scratch: money. Tell it to Sweeney: tell it to someone
Screaming meemies: the shakes. who'll believe it.
Screw: get lost, get out, etc. Occasionally, Tight: attractive.
in pre 1930 talkies (such as The Broadway Tin Pan Alley: the music industry in New
Melody) screw is used to tell a character York, located between 48th and 52nd
to leave. Streets.
Screwy: crazy; “You're screwy!" Tomato: a female.
Sheba: one's girlfriend. Torpedo: a hired thug or hitman.
Sheik: one's boyfriend.
Shiv: a knife. U...
Simolean: a dollar. Unreal: special.
Sinker: a doughnut. Upchuck: to vomit.
Sitting pretty: in a prime position. Upstage: snobby.
Skirt: an attractive female.
Smarty: a cute flapper.
Smoke-eater: a smoker. V...
Smudger: a close dancer. Vamp: a seducer of men, an aggressive
Snake charmer: a woman involved in flirt.
bootlegging. Voot: money.
Sockdollager: an action having a great
impact. W...
So's your old man: a reply of irritation. Water-proof: a face that doesn't require
Speakeasy: a bar selling illegal liquor. make-up.
Spiffy: an elegant appearance. Weasel: a young man who steals a girl
Spill: to talk. from her boyfriend.
Splifficated: drunk. Wet blanket: see Killjoy.
Spoon: to neck, or at least talk of love. Wife: dorm roommate, student.
Squirrel: to hide. What's eating you?: what's wrong?
Static: (1) empty talk (2) conflicting Whoopee: wild fun.
1920's Slang 150

Windsucker: a braggart.
Woof! Woof!: ridicule.
Wurp: a killjoy.
X...
-
Y...
You slay me!: that's funny!
Z...
Zozzled: drunk.
151 1920's Slang

CULTISTS
ULTIMATE HORROR OFTEN PARALYSES MEMORY IN A MERCIFUL WAY
As Willard stepped outside the main Humans often worship the alien
door, the chilling wind battered against entities of the Lovecraft mythos. These
him and the cold rain assaulted him, humans are usually primitive, sometimes
threatening to soak through his thick, mutated, and always are a bit deranged.
cotton coat. Lovecraft rarely emphasizes them, yet
“Above he watches, yet below he awaits. often suggests them; this chapter will
What you have lost will come back to guide GMs in entity worship and entity
haunt you thrice over,” a man's voice worshippers.
called out, clearly intoxicated, as a man Worship may take any of several forms,
fell upon his shoulder. but in general the worshippers admit
Willard grabbed a hold of the their inferiority to the entities they
drunkard and held him at an arms worship, sacrifice something to the
length. “What did you say?” he enquired. entities to show their respect and
The drunkard looked at him, unable to submission, and occasionally receive
focus on his eyes. Cakes of dried vomit something in return. There are usually
clung to his long, shaggy beard. And the presiding officials, commonly called
scent of moonshine permeated the very priests, and there are always sacred
air around him. “Huh, Mista? What?” he ceremonies and rituals which are
stuttered. “Let go of me, or I shall call followed during worship. These forms are
the police!” followed by the cultists of the Lovecraft
mythos as well, and these points are
Willard let go of the drunkard, yet
detailed in the following section.
persisted in his enquiry. “What you just
The mortal cultists are most often the
said. What did you mean by that, good
enemies which the players will encounter.
Sir?”
There are several reasons for this,
The drunkard muttered something primarily the fact that they are the
incoherently and started down the stairs most common and most visible part of the
and into the rain. He slipped halfway alien presence. Also, these cultists are
down the stairs and fell heavily on his usually the holders of some knowledge,
back. magical spells (especially of protection),
Willard rushed to his side, paying no or magical items which are valuable to
heed to the rain. “Are you alright, Sir?” the player characters. Finally, any
he asked. player characters who have gained
A flash of lightning lit up the dark knowledge of what they are up against
skies for a mere instant. And at that will try to keep as far away from the
very instant Willard saw something that main entities as possible, but will
could only be described as pure horror continue relentlessly to wage war
paint across the drunkards face. He against them. This means the destruction
raised a finger towards the sky and of the deranged worshippers wherever
pointed. “Look!” he exclaimed. possible, either through the theft of
Willard gaze trailed along the their sacred or protective items or
drunkard's finger and up into the sky. through the actual death of the
The rain was getting into his eyes, and it individuals. It is also most likely that
seemed to have intensified in its the worshipped entities will use their
ferocity. But he saw nothing but dark mortal pawns to attempt to destroy the
skies and a carpet of heavy rain falling intrusive player characters.
from the darkened skies above. What had
spooked the drunkard so?
153 Cultists
Strange Aeons
GENERAL NOTES ON the entity worshipped.

Initiates or worshippers of the cult
CULTS will also be deranged by having viewed
The cults of the alien “gods” or of the ceremonies and manifestations, but
their inferior races all have facets in they will not have lost all mental
common. faculities through voluntary
They are led by a priest. This priest subjugation to the cult.
may have other assistants with powers If any player character decide to join
similar, though generally weaker or less the cult, they of course will go
developed, than his. The priests will permanently insane when they exceed
know, perhaps, minor protective spells their sanity threshold. No priest will
creatured by the GM and a summon or two. trust a recent convert with any valuable
The summon will be for the god information, and probably will wait
worshipped, and perhaps also for calling until the player character's permanent
the right kind of race that serves the insanity proves his eternal devotion.
god. The priests might know the spells to Thus you can see that the common band
dispel such creatures, as well. of worshippers are also quite insane. This
Priests also may be a good source for is characterized by their fanatical
minor treasures and magical items which devotion to their religion. They
could be useful to player characters in are also likely to be as
the future. They might have magical frightened of the priests and
books or scrolls for their spells, or leaders as they are of the “gods”.
might have amulets
of protection or
communication.
PRIMITIVE CULTS
Many stories present
Whatever is decided, a primitive peoples as having
priest always should have been transfixed by these
the force needed to cow a creatures or entities in ages
congregation and lead the past, continuing their
ceremonies. unholy worship in the dark
Priests are, almost by corners of the world. This is
definition, permanently quite likely since any
insane. They have devoted civilized peoples or
themselves to worship of the “god” organized religion would do
and have viewed it many times, everything possible to
losing sanity points with each suppress such insanity.
viewing. By the time they become Remember that it would be
effective priests, they are quite different to penetrate such
mad. uncivilized regions, and that
It is possible that the priests hostile inhabitants could make
maintain the ability to act, it even more difficult. Not all
rather than go into one of the natives may be hostile. Most of
states designated by the them may despise the cultists
insanity, because they as much as do the player
voluntarily began the worship characters. The natives may
of the “god”. Notice that this appeal to the players for
does not protect their sanity, assistance and offer aid in
it only makes them into slaves of return.
Cultists 154
The GM and players should not infer possible, but unlikely to appeal to
that humans who putatively are insane “gods” without being accompanied
uncivilized also are necessarily by senseless brutality and meaningless
unsophisticated about the way of life loss. Such creatures inevitably deserve
their land demands. It takes brains, the destruction which the players will
skill, and guts to survive in a wild attempt to deliver.
environment. Any common farmer in his
own realm is more likely to be tougher
and better able to cope than the best- BENEFITS TO THE
educated and best-equipped outsider. WORSHIPPERS
The unimaginable benefits derived
NON-HUMAN from worshipping insane beliefs are left
to the perverted minds of the
WORSHIPPERS worshippers, but we can imagine that
In some places there are cults they believe themselves somehow “chosen”
consisting of non-human or mutated by the “god” for some greater glory.
human creatures. These monsters always It is likely that worshippers know all
are kept well-hidden and their too well the real dangers of the monster
ceremonies are kept a great secret. and receive some protection, limited or
Even so, their priests will be quite full, for their support. The priest will
insane, their ceremonies wild and always benefit most, his assistants derive
frightening, and the worshippers the next greater benefits, and the
fanatical beyond all reason. worshippers get the least.
SACRIFICES COSTS OF WORSHIP

It is quite likely that the cults will For whatever benefits they receive, or
sacrifice living humans to their think they receive, the worshippers of
outrageous “gods”. This provides the these foul entities all suffer certain
motivation for hundreds of pulp stories. results for their misguided piety.
The sacrificial ceremonies may have All worshippers are, by definition,
the victim be any random human. It may insane after a few services. As such they
be someone picked for certain lose all individual identity, and then
characteristics, whether it is blonde hair come under the control of the GM.
or a true devotion to the “god” being They are generally quite fanatical,
worshipped. The rites will always be a capable of great actions when in a frenzy
full ceremony requiring all the but quite unlikely to be capable of
participants to generate enough frenzied intelligent actions, especially after or
and insane energy to summon the monster. during their profane services or when
The victim may be thrown into the ring spurred on by their priest or “god”.
of summoning, given to a servant who They become pawns of manipulative
flies away with the prize, or be ripped to priests or alien “gods” who have no
shreds by the worshippers. Or it may be regard for the worshipper' beliefs,
simply that the servants of the “god” desires, or intentions.
will appear to the summons and go In general, they lead sub-human lives
through and destroy random members of of vile motive and of desperate
the congregation. meaninglessness. As reward for their
Other items of sacrifice are always lives and souls, worshippers receive
155 Cultists
Strange Aeons
small tokens from their priests and

“god”; such rewards are illusory
compared to the cost. The constant anger
of the worshippers comes from their
unconscious realization of the cheat –
and their inability to do anything about
it.
Cultists 156
GEAR AND EQUIPMENT
I AM WRITING THIS UNDER AN APPRECIABLE MENTAL STRAIN
Strange Aeons
If the recent events were not ominous An investigator (or hero) is only as
enough, then the mere happenings of good as the gear he is outfitted with,
today were indeed taking a toll on right? Outfitting yourself with the
Willard's psyche. He felt drained of all right gear for the situation can make the
energy, and needed to rest badly. difference between life and death. So
He helped the drunkard to his feet, better not be stingy when stocking up on
before watching the bearded man make equipment.
his way down Church Street. The darkness From protective armor, sharp knives,
seemed to welcome the drunkard into its sturdy pistols and hunting rifles, to
embrace quicker than should be possibly backpacks and flashlights, equipment is
normal, and Willard lost sight of the essential to every investigator.
man within a short time. This chapter details the core essential
The rain was soaking through Willards equipment that a hero could use, but it is
clothes, making him damp and cold. He hardly a complete and extensive list. And
pulled up the collar of his cotton jacket you, as the GM, should feel free to add to
and quickly made it to his Ford Model T. the lists, as your specific setting
His gaze shifted towards the sky once require.
more. The dark and heavy clouds covered Furthermore, this chapter also deals
the gibbous moon, leaving Arkham with any other essential equipment that
sheathed only in the artificial light could come in handy for the
from the occasional lamp post. investigators trying to make their way in
Another bolt of lightning flashed the face of cosmic dread.
across the sky, following by the long,
deep rumble of thunder, almost sounding
like the growl of some gargantuan
STARTING MONEY
The GENESYS core rulebook specifies
predator. that a newly created character starts
As Willard turned the corner of out with 500 currency to spend on
Church Street and Garrison Street, he personal gear, see page 51 of the GENESYS
noticed two distinct people standing on core rulebook. However, given the fact
the far away corner, as the headlights that the STRANGE AEONS setting is set to
of his Ford Model T momentarily take place during the 1920s, the
illuminated them, before they once again character does not start with 500
was left in the darkness of the street dollars, as that would be quite excessive.
and engulfed by the seemlessly Instead, the starting amount of dollars
persistent rain. There was something odd for a new character is 100 U.S. dollars.
about them, almost as if they were both
hunched over and peering right at him
as his automobile turned the corner. ITEM RARITY
Shrugging it off as being nothing more The item rarity rules are detailed on
than an overactive imagination playing pages 82 and 83 in the GENESYS core
tricks on him, Willard wanted nothing rulebook. However, the STRANGE AEONS
more than to get home and change out of setting does impose a little change on
his wet clothes and sit down with a big these rules, in the sense that the world
glass of whiskey that he had purchased is now a place of scavenging and very
at a jacked up price from a more than little new is being produced, which means
questionable man at one of the nearby that items are harder to come by and are
farmsteads. thus a greater commodity. In game
mechanic terms, that means that items
Gear and Equipment 158

Strange Aeons
have an increased rarity, which will

already be added to the rarity listings WEAPONS
on the various gear lists in this chapter. Weapons come in a great variation and
But remember, that rarity is usually the suits many different purposes.
listed rarity when attempting to trade The weapon a character uses says
or barter in terms of acquiring the something about who he or she is. You
desired item. probably want to equip your character
Remember that these are guidelines, with both a melee weapon and a ranged
and you as the GM have the authority to weapon. If you can't afford both your
make changes to the existing rarities melee weapon of choice and your ranged
depending on the needs of your weapon of choice, decide which is more
particular campaign and setting. important to the character.
The weapons in the STRANGE AEONS
setting function similar to the weapons
ITEM QUALITIES found in the modern setting (as detailed
The following item qualities from the on page 166 of the GENESYS core
GENESYS core rulebook are available in rulebook).
the STRANGE AEONS setting. In the STRANGE AEONS setting, if a
ranged combat check generates ttt or
• Accurate (Passive) y that result may be spent to cause the
• Auto-Fire (Active) weapon to run out of ammo.
• Blast (Active)
• Breach (Passive) WEAPON CHARACTERISTICS
• Burn (Active) The following are a weapon's
• Concussive (Active) characteristics:
• Cumbersome (Passive) Name: The short version of the
• Defensive (Passive) manufacturer's name and the weapon's
• Deflection (Passive) model designation. Alternate official
• Disorient (Active) military designations may be given in the
• Ensnare (Active) weapon description.
• Guided (Active) Skill Used (SKILL): Skill denotes the
• Inaccurate (Passive) skill that is required for employing the
• Inferior (Passive) weapon in combat. Skills also can
• Knockdown (Active) determine whether a weapon requires one
• Limited Ammo (Passive) or two hands to wield. “Heavy” versions
• Linked (Active) of the skill means the weapon takes two
• Pierce (Passive) hands to use, and the “Light” version of
• Prepare (Passive) the skill means it can be used with one
hand. Gunnery weapons always require
• Reinforced (Passive)
two hands to use.
• Slow-Firing (Passive)
Damage (DAM): Damage is the damage
• Stun (Active)
inflicted by the individual weapon. This
• Stun Damage (Passive) is the minimum damage inflicted with
• Sunder (Active) this weapon hits. Each s the combat
• Superior (Passive) check generates adds one point of damage
• Unwieldy (Passive) to this base damage rating.
• Vicious (Passive) Some weapons (including most Brawl and
Melee weapons) have a “+” in front of

their base damage. This means you add category worse abroad, although the
your character's Brawn rating to this details vary widely. The GM needs to
value. apply common sense; obviously a pistol
Critical Rating (CRIT): Critical rating manufactured in Germany will be more
indicates the number of a required to common in its native Germany than in the
trigger Critical Injuries using this USA, Mexico, or Transylvania.
weapon. If the weapon's Critical rating Hard Points (HP): When customizing a
triggers, the character rolls percentile weapon, there are only so many
dice on Table I.6-10: Critical Injury improvements you can add. Each weapon
Result in the GENESYS core rulebook, on has a certain number of hard points. See
page 115 to determined the effect on the page 206 of the GENESYS core rulebook
target. A Critical Injury can only be for further details on attachments.
triggered on a successful hit that Special: These are the qualities or
inflicts wounds on the target. other special rules each weapon possesses.
Some weapons and talents modify this More in-depth descriptions of these
Critical roll, potentially making a qualities can be found on page 86 of the
Critical Injury more or less effective. In GENESYS core rulebook, while rules
addition, a character can only generate specific to a certain weapon are detailed
one Critical Injury per hit on a target. in the weapon's individual description.
However, if the check generates enough
a to trigger the Critical rating of the ASSAULT RIFLE
weapon multiple times, the character can While clattering, hard-hitting assault
choose to add +10 to the Critical roll for rifles are ostensibly military weapons,
each trigger after the first. More on they can and often do fall into the
Critical Injuries can be found on page hands of gangs, crime syndicates, and
114 of the GENESYS core rulebook. insurgents. The assault rifle presented
Range: The range of the weapon. Range here is a basic AR- or AK-pattern rifle
is measured in several broad range bands. like those carried throughout the world.
Melee weapons usually require the The Autofire quality is the primary
attacker to be Engaged with the target. thing that separates these weapons from
Ranged weapons have ranges listed as other types of rifles, although they can
Short, Medium, Long, or Extreme. See pages be fired on semiautomatic as well (your
102 and 105 in the GENESYS core rulebook character may choose whether or not to
for more information. use Auto-fire). Assault rifles do roughly
Encumbrance (ENC): Encumbrance is an the same damage as other “long guns.”
abstract measurement of how heavy and The assault rifle is military issue only
awkward something is to carry and and is highly illegal.
transport. The higher the Encumbrance,
the more difficult the item is to carry.
More details on Encumbrance can be found
AXE
The axe is a wooden handled weapon
on page 84 of the GENESYS core rulebook.
with a heavy steel head intended for
Price: The price of the weapon on the
firefighting use. It has a broad finely
open market. Price is given in US dollars
sharpened front blade and a sharp pick
($) circa 1925.
point on the rear of the head. The long
Rarity: The rarity of the item to find
hardwood handle allows for sweeping
a specific weapon in the USA, before
attacks at reasonable distance.
modifiers (see page 82 of the GENESYS
Originally designed for breaking down
core rulebook). Rarity is at typically one
walls and doors, this weapon can inflict
160 Gear and Equipment

Strange Aeons
severe damage to a soft target. The axe represent a roll of quarters.

requires two hands for being used
properly. CHAIN
A chain is a serial assembly of
BASEBALL BAT connected pieces, called links, typically
This is a long, smooth wooden bat, made of metal, with an overall character
typically made of ash, for use in the similar to that of a rope in that it is
sport of baseball. Under MLB regulations, flexible and curved in compression but
a baseball bat cannot exceed 2.61 inches linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension.
in diameter at the widest point, can be no A chain may consist of two or more links.
longer than 42 inches, and must be a
single solid piece. COMBAT KNIFE
A large knife designed for both combat
BB GUN and survival purposes. It has a long,
The BB gun is a BB gun that resembles clip-point blade with serrations along
the Winchester rifle of Western movies. the back intended for cutting rope and
The BB gun fires pellets. small branches. The knife uses a fast
swing stabbing and slashing motion when
BOOMERANG used. Models include commando knives and
This “throwing-stick” is intended for bowie knives.
killing or wounding small game. In the
hands of an expert, the specially curved CROSSBOW
stick will come back to the user's general Uncommon in the 1920s, a few are built
vicinity if he misses the target; a by custom craftsmen in the U.S. and
successful throw means that the Europe. Others will simply be relics or
boomerang hits the target and drops to antiques pulled down from their
the ground. On a missed Ranged [Light] customary spot over the fireplace. Nearly
check, the character can spend aa on silent, they are slow to fire. Reloading a
the check to have the boomerang return light crossbow requires the user to place
to within Engaged range of the thrower. his foot in a stirrup and cock the weapon
by pulling the string back with both
BOW hands.
Of tall, single-curve design, modern
bows are little changed from the DYNAMITE STICK
ancestral English long bow (composite Dynamite is a high explosive,
bows and recurves do not appear until consisting of nitroglycerin mixed with
the mid to late 1930s). Although awkward the absorbent substance kieselguhr.
and impossible to conceal, they do have Strictly speaking, dynamite is
the advantage of silence. nitroglycerin-soaked absorbent, pressed
into sticks. Available in single sticks
BRASS KNUCKLES with safety fuses, to be lit and thrown,
Brass knuckles are very simple or as a bundle with a timing device for
weapons: chunks of brass designed to slip use as a bomb. Dynamite is especially
over your fingers and add power to your helpful for clearing cave-ins, and can
punches. Brass knuckles really are simple blow most doors apart.
weapons, and this profile could also

FLAMETHROWER Stealth check.

A flamethrower is a mechanical
incendiary device designed to project a HAND GRENADE
long, controllable stream of fire. The standard thrown explosive device
Most military flamethrowers use used by militaries worldwide, the
flammable liquid, but commercial fragmentation (or frag) grenade causes a
flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure lethal blast sending metal shrapnel
propane and natural gas, which is flying in all directions. Fragmentation
considered safer as they both die out grenades are generally simple and
faster and are easier to put out. In effective. Useful against groups of
comparison, a liquid flamethrower's fuel unarmored enemies, or for hitting enemies
sticks to its targets and is mostly oil around corners by banking grenades off
based and thus harder to put out with walls.
water. They are used by the military and
by people needing controlled burning HATCHET
capacity, such as in agriculture (e.g., It is a hand-axe with a wooden handle
sugar cane plantations) or other such for chopping wood and limbs alike. It is
land management tasks. They can be wielded with one hand.
designed to be either carried by the
operator or mounted on a vehicle.
The flamethrower is military issue HEAVY MACHINEGUN
only and is highly illegal. These deadly weapons are designed to
destroy light machinery, armored targets,
or opponents in light cover. Heavy
FLARE GUN machineguns are truly support weapons.
The flare gun is a break-action single- They are set up on tripods and require a
shot weapon that is not designed to deal two-man team, with one soldier serving as
direct damage, but instead to summon the gunner and the other feeding the
nearby sentients for assistance. Firing a ammunition belts to the weapon.
flare directly at an enemy will cause a Heavy machineguns are far too
small amount of damage, but virtually unwieldy to fire effectively without a
every other weapon will yield better tripod, unless the bearer has truly
results in the heat of battle. remarkable strength. Setting up a tripod
weapon requires the crew to spend three
GAS GRENADE Actions. The cost of the weapon includes a
A non-lethal grenade that lets out a tripod.
cloud of gas/smoke upon detonation. The heavy machinegun is military issue
Whether it was to be used as smokescreen only and is highly illegal.
cover or flammable gas is unknown. Smoke
grenades are used as both signaling HEAVY PISTOL
devices and to provide concealment. A The ubiquitous pistol is the go-to
chemical reaction of different agents, solution for law enforcement, sport
when mixed and ignited, produce either shooting, self-defense, and criminal
colored smoke as a signaling device, or a activity throughout the world. Heavy
dense cloud of chemical smoke to screen pistols are the big, bulky hand cannons
for concealment. that show up in movies in the hands of
Anyone using a gas grenade for hiding cops on the edge or great big heroes.
is allowed one free upgrade on his or her

Strange Aeons
HOLDOUT PISTOL shooting, self-defense, and criminal

The ubiquitous pistol is the go-to activity throughout the world. The light
solution for law enforcement, sport pistol listing is for a basic, medium-
shooting, self-defense, and criminal caliber pistol: a 9 mm or .38 caliber
activity throughout the world. Holdout weapon, for example.
pistols are light sidearms that are easy
to operate and handle. It could be a .22 MACHETE
caliber pistol, for example. Easily A machete is a large, long, sharp knife,
hidden, a character adds a b to checks designed to hack through vegetation.
for hiding a holdout pistol. They make handy melee weapons too.
HUNTING RIFLE MORTAR

Hunting rifles are nearly as This device fires a high-trajectory
ubiquitous as pistols in developed high-explosive shell which can reach
countries with a long history of hunting targets out of the line-of-sight of the
and sporting. These rifles have long weapon. It requires at least a crew of
barrels and are often fitted with long- two, and careful training is needed to
range telescopic sights to increase their use it at all properly. Because ot its
performance and accuracy. high trajectory, it cannot be fired at
ranges within Engaged and Short.
KNIFE The mortar is military issue only and
Knives come in many types, some is highly illegal.
designed specifically for combat; common
types include pocketknives, switchblades, NUNCHUKS
and hunting knives. Also of Asian origin nunchuks are
basically a pair of clubs connected by a
LIGHT MACHINEGUN short chain. Difficult to use for those
Light machineguns are support weapons untrained with them.
for military and mercenary units. They
feature a high rate of fire and are PETROL BOMB
designed to suppress and injure The petrol bomb, also known as the
unarmored personnel. The hail of bullets gasoline bomb, fire bomb, or simply
produced by these rapid-firing weapons Molotov after the Winter War, is a
is often enough to force enemies to the generic name used for a variety of
ground. The light machinegun is small improvised incendiary weapons. They are
enough to be easily carried and deployed frequently used by rioters due to the
by one man. A light machinegun dred relative ease of production. They
rounds of ammunition on belts, it is easy typically consist of some form of easily
to understand why these weapons are best breakable vessel or container, often a
used defensively. glass bottle, filled with a highly
The light machinegun is military issue flammable mixture of gasoline or napalm
only and is highly illegal. mixed with surfactants or other
thickening agents, with a wick, often of
LIGHT PISTOL cloth, soaked in a slowly burning
The ubiquitous pistol is the go-to combustible liquid like kerosene that
solution for law enforcement, sport penetrates through the sealed opening of
the vessel.

PIPE GUN recoil, even the loud clack-clack noise of

A crude, homemade weapon that does not working a pump action make these
have the accuracy of a factory produced weapons an assault on everyone’s senses.
firearm. A y reult on a Ranged [Light] The stat line is for a basic pump or
combat check may be spent to destroy the semi-automatic hunting weapon with
pipe gun. buckshot. Shotguns possess the Blast
quality due to the cloud of shot they
fire and the Knockdown quality due to
REVOLVER the concussion of their blast (and,
Revolvers are powerful double-action honestly, the Rule of Cool).
sidearms with swing-out cylinders. The
revolver is reloaded by swinging out the
cylinder to the left side and pushing the
SICKLE
ejector rod to the rear, thereby ejecting A curve-bladed reaping tool for
any remaining shells. Then inserting six shorter grains and grasses. It is used
new cartridges and snap the cylinder one-handed.
closed again.
SINGLE-SHOT SHOTGUN
SAP A single shotgun, also called a
Also called a blackjack, this weapon is “scattergun,” is a firearm designed to
a flexible leather truncheon with a shoot a multitude of lead or steel balls
lead-filled striking end. It's a popular of varying sizes, greatly increasing the
weapon among criminals and thugs. weapon's hit potential. This makes it very
effective at hunting game. However, the
accuracy and power found at close range
SAWED-OFF SHOTGUN starts to diminish as the target gets
The sawed-off shotgun is a break farther away.
action, 12 gauge shotgun with most of the
original barrel and stock removed to
make it smaller and more easily
SLEDGEHAMMER
concealed at the expense of range. A sledgehammer is used in heavier
Pulling the trigger fires both barrels at working conditions, such as industrial
once, unleashing 14 pellets instead of areas or for breaking ground. It requires
the typical 7. two hands to wield.
SCYTHE SNIPER RIFLE

The massive two-handed reaping tool of While they vary by service and
peasantry everywhere. country, all sniper rifles are designed to
fire high-caliber, high-velocity rounds
over long distances.
SHOTGUN The sniper rifle entry here is a basic
When you really want to make an dedicated sniper rifle. The range is
impression in a firefight, a shotgun is a extreme to represent its ability to reach
great way to go. Pulling a pistol from a farther than even regular hunting
hidden pocket just doesn’t have the same rifles. Sniper rifles possess the Accurate
dramatic effect as, say, drawing a lever- and Pierce qualities to reflect their
action 10 gauge out of a box of roses in excellent balance and specialized rounds.
slow motion. The flat thump of the They do, however, have a smaller
report, the muzzle flash, the shocking magazine, hence the Limited Ammo quality.

Strange Aeons
SPEAR have a pointed tip on the blade, and tend

Although a simple weapon, a spear is to be straighter; slashing swords have a
easy to wield and allows the user to keep sharpened cutting edge on one or both
some distance from an opponent. Hence, sides of the blade, and are more likely to
spears don't have very high damage, but be curved. Many swords are designed for
the Accurate 1 quality represents their both thrusting and slashing.
ease of use. In addition, the Defensive 1
quality represents their usefulness at THROWING STAR
keeping someone at arm's reach. A spear Of Asian origin, throwing stars are of
requires two hands to use. flat metal, armed with a variety of
points, barbs, and cutting edges. Throwing
SUBMACHINE GUN stars are also known as shurikens.
Submachine guns (SMGs) use pistol-
caliber ammunition and a high rate of VARMINT RIFLE
fire to provide a whole lot of damage The varmint rifle is a low-powered
capacity in a small, easy-to-use package. hunting rifle, designed for hunting
They are popular among criminals, police, varmint and small game. It utilizes a
and special forces operators the world magazine-fed bolt-action system and
over. is chambered for 5.56mm caliber
The SMG presented here is rounds.
a typical 9 mm weapon that
might be used by a drug
lord’s bodyguard. It deals
the same damage as a light
pistol, since they share
calibers. It can fire full
auto, so it has the Auto-fire
quality. Even when it doesn’t
fire on full auto, we imagine
each “shot” is actually
several bullets, and so it has a
lower Critical rating to
represent the sheer amount of
lead it puts in the air.
SWORD
A sword is a bladed weapon
intended for slashing or
thrusting that is longer than a
knife or dagger. The precise
definition of the term varies
with the historical epoch or
the geographic region under
consideration. A sword consists
of a long blade attached to a
hilt. The blade can be straight
or curved. Thrusting swords

WEAPONS OF THE 1920s

NAME SKILL DAM CRIT RANGE ENC PRICE / HP SPECIAL
RARITY
BRAWL WEAPONS
Brass Knuckles Brawl +1 4 Engaged 1 1/2 1 Disorient 1
Chain Brawl 0 4 Engaged 2 2/2 1 Ensnare 1
Sap Brawl +1 4 Engaged 1 0,50 / 2 1 Stun Damage
MELEE
Axe Melee +3 4 Engaged 2 10 / 2 1 Vicious 1
Baseball Bat Melee +2 3 Engaged 2 5/3 1
Combat Knife Melee +1 3 Engaged 1 7/3 1 Vicious 1
Hatchet Melee +2 3 Engaged 1 5/2 1
Knife Melee +1 3 Engaged 1 3/2 1
Machete Melee +2 3 Engaged 1 15 / 3 1 Vicious 1
Nunchuks Melee +1 3 Engaged 1 6/4 1
Scythe Melee +2 4 Engaged 3 10 / 2 2 Pierce 1
Sickle Melee +1 4 Engaged 1 5/2 1 Pierce 1
Sledgehammer Melee +2 4 Engaged 3 7/3 2 Knockdown
Spear Melee +2 4 Engaged 2 10 / 3 1 Accurate 1,
Defensive 1
Sword Melee +3 2 Engaged 1 20 / 4 1
RANGED WEAPONS
Assault Rifle Ranged [Heavy] 8 3 Long 4 100 (R) / 8 2 Auto-Fire
BB Gun Ranged [Heavy] 2 5 Short 2 35 / 3 1
Boomerang Ranged [Light] +0 4 Short 1 2/4 1
Bow Ranged [Heavy] 5 3 Medium 2 35 / 6 1 Unwieldy 2
Crossbow Ranged [Heavy] 5 3 Medium 3 50 / 7 2 Prepare 1
Flamethrower Ranged [Heavy] 8 2 Short 6 150 (R) / 7 3 Blast 8, Burn 3
Flare Gun Ranged [Light] 6 3 Long 1 20 / 4 1 Burn 2,
Inaccurate 2,
Limited Ammo 1,
Prepare 1
Heavy Gunnery 12 3 Long 8 750 (R) / 8 4 Auto-Fire,
Machinegun Cumbersome 4,
Pierce 2, Vicious
2
Heavy Pistol Ranged [Light] 6 3 Medium 2 40 / 4 1
Holdout Pistol Ranged [Light] 4 3 Short 1 20 / 4 1
Hunting Rifle Ranged [Heavy] 8 3 Long 4 35 / 5 2 Accurate 1,
Limited Ammo 2
Light Ranged [Heavy] 10 3 Long 6 650 (R) / 7 3 Auto-Fire,
Machinegun Cumbersome 2,

Strange Aeons
Pierce 2, Vicious
2
Light Pistol Ranged [Light] 5 4 Short 1 30 / 4 1
Pipe Gun Ranged [Light] 5 5 Short 1 20 / 3 1 Inaccurate 1
Revolver Ranged [Light] 6 3 Short 1 35 / 4 1 Limited Ammo 6,
Vicious 1
Sawed-Off Ranged [Heavy] 8 3 Short 1 45 / 4 1 Blast 4,
Shotgun Inaccurate 1,
Knockdown,
Vicious 2
Shotgun Ranged [Heavy] 8 3 Short 3 60 / 4 2 Blast 4,
Knockdown,
Vicious 2
Single-Shot Ranged [Heavy] 8 3 Short 3 35 / 4 2 Blast 4, Limited
Shotgun Ammo 1,
Knockdown,
Vicious 2
Sniper Rifle Ranged [Heavy] 9 2 Extreme 4 150 / 7 2 Accurate 2,
Limited Ammo 4,
Pierce 2
Submachine Gun Ranged [Light] 5 3 Medium 2 200 / 5 1 Auto-Fire
Throwing Star Ranged [Light] +0 4 Short 0 1/5 0
Varmint Rifle Ranged [Light] 7 3 Long 4 50 / 5 2 Accurate 1
EXPLOSIVES AND ORDNANCE
Dynamite Stick Ranged [Light] 6 3 Short 1 0,75 / 6 0 Blast 8, Limited
Ammo 1
Gas Grenade Ranged [Light] - - Short 1 10 / 4 0 Limited Ammo 1
Hand Grenade Ranged [Light] 8 4 Short 1 2/5 0 Blast 6, Limited
Ammo 1
Mortar Gunnery 12 3 Long 2 200 (R) / 6 1 Blast 6,
Inaccurate 2,
Prepare 1,
Vicious 1
Petrol Bomb Ranged [Light] 6 3 Short 1 0,5 / 4 0 Blast 6, Burn 3,
Limited Ammo 1,
Prepare 1
AMMUNITION buckshot). Many other projectile loads

are available as well.
Unless mentioned otherwise, all The price listed for each type of
firearms except shotguns are assumed to special ammunition is the multiplier cost
fire Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) projectiles – that an investigator must apply to an
this means a lead bullet covered by a ordinary set of “extra ammo” (see
steel or copper jacket. Shotguns are Miscellaneous Gear later on in this
assumed to fire Buckshot – nine to 28 chapter).
lead pellets of 8.4-mm diameter (No.00
buckshot) to 6.1-mm diameter (No.4

ARMOR PIERCING (AP) everywhere.

This ammunition fires projectiles with
a hard core of steel to penetrate armor. ROCK SALT
Against living targets, these are less A home-made load for shotgun
effective as they often cleanly cartridges, rock salt is popular to scare
penetrate. Halve the Soak rating against off dogs. It will not break the skin
an attack with AP rounds, but also halve except at close distance and does no
the damage that penetrates. In the 1920s, damage beyond Engaged range. At
AP rounds are legal everywhere, but are Engaged range, it deals half damage,
only available for rifles and regardless of gauge, and the shooter may
machineguns. spend aa on the Ranged [Light] combat
check to Disorient the target shot for 1
BIRDSHOT turn. Rock salt shells are not sold;
This employs lighter and smaller replacing the shot in a shotshell with
pellets than those fired in buckshot rock salt requires an Average (dd)
shells – typically, 3.8-mm diameter (No.2 Mechanics check.
birdshot) to 1.8-mm diameter (No.10
birdshot). Birdshot does only half the TRACER
rolled damage with shotguns. Ammunition Tracer rounds have a small amount of
found in a farm house, hunting cabin, burning material such as phosphorous or
etc., will usually be birdshot. magnesium in the projectile’s base. Upon
firing, this is ignited, marking the path
HOLLOW-POINT (HP) of the projectile as a fiery streak. The
This covers all projectiles that expand main purpose is to aid aiming, but tracer
massively upon entering a living being, rounds can also set fire to a target.
causing larger wound channels, at the The one using the tracer ammunition
cost of penetration depth. Soft-point can spend aa on his ranged combat
lead bullets, home-made “Dumdum” check to either give himself a b bonus
bullets, and similar designs are subsumed to his next combat check against the same
here in addition to true “mushrooming” target, or be can use aa to deal fire
hollow-points. Hollow-point projectiles damage to the target, in addition to the
are available in most rifle and handgun ordinary ballistic damage. The fire
calibres. Increase Damage by +2, but damage is equal to one point of
double the Soak value of the target unsoakable fire damage per a beyond
against them. the aa required to trigger the effect.
Due to their different bullet shape,
hollow-points cause failures to feed in AMMUNITION
many semiautomatic and full-automatic NAME PRICE RARITY
weapons of the time. A result of tt on
Armor Piercing x2 5
a ranged combat check results in the
weapon jamming and the wielder must Birdshot x1 2
spend a Maneuver to clear the jam. They Hollow-Point x1,1 4
are best used in revolvers and manually- Rock Salt x1 2
loaded rifles. This ammunition is banned Tracer x1,5 5
for use in warfare by the Hague
Convention (1899), but legal for hunting,
police service, and self-defence

Strange Aeons
WEAPON ATTACHMENTS Use With: A bayonet can be attached to

any type of slugthrower firearm (pistol
The world is seemingly filled with or rifle).
inventive survivors that have figured Modifiers: The weapon can now be used as
out how to kitbash and modify just about a melee weapon with the following stats;
anything. In addition to the Item • Bayonet: (Melee; Damage +2; Critical 3;
Attachments and Hard Points alternate
Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1).
rules (page 206 of the GENESYS core
Hard Points Required: 1.
rulebook), the STRANGE AEONS setting has
several more attachments to modify
weapons and armor. But for good measure BIPOD MOUNT
and easy reference, the ones from the A bipod (a folding, two-legged stand)
GENESYS core rulebook have been can be attached to the barrel of a
included in this book as well. firearm. The legs stabilize the firearm
To go with these rules, the STRANGE and take up some of its weight.
AEONS setting includes a list of basic Use With: This attachment can be applied
weapon attachments designed to be as to any Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery weapon.
broad as possible. Modifiers: If the user spends one
preparation Maneuver to deploy the
bipod, the weapon’s Cumbersome or
BALANCED HILT Unwieldy qualities are reduced by 2, to a
This attachment represents modifying a
minimum of 0, and the weapon’s
melee weapon’s balance (particularly
Encumbrance is reduced by 2, to a
around the hilt or haft) to make it easier
minimum of 0, while the user fires from a
to control. This kind of attachment makes
crouched or prone position (or can brace
sense for any setting (even futuristic
the bipod against something solid).
combat knives can benefit from being
finely weighted or balanced).
Use With: This attachment can be applied
to any one-handed weapons that use the CUSTOM GRIP
Melee. A skilled tinkerer can tailer a weapon
Modifiers: The weapon gains the Accurate to perfectly fit its wielder's hand. A
1 quality, or increases any existing custom grip is crafted to uniquely match
Accurate quality by 1. (If the weapon has its owner, allowing the weapon to act as
the Inaccurate quality, it reduces that an extension of the wielder's body. While
quality’s rating by 1 to a minimum of 0, the weapon fits perfectly in the hands of
instead.) its owner, others who try to use it find
Hard Points Required: 1. the grip uncomfortable or the weapon
off-balance. A finely customized grip is
the hallmark of a master weaponsmith.
BAYONET Use With: This attachment can be applied
The bayonet is a blade attached to the
to any weapon with a handle.
underside barrel of any weapon. A tried
Modifiers: Remove b from all combat
and true method of making a melee
checks the weapon's owner makes using
weapon ready at a moment's notice, most
this weapon. Anyone other than the owner
weapons can either support a bayonet or
instead adds bb to all combat checks
can be modified to do so. Even handguns
made with it.
can be retrofitted to have a stabbing
implement attached to
them.

EXTENDED BARREL increases difficulty of combat checks to

This attachment extends the barrel (or hit targets at ranges beyond short by
makes similar modifications) to make the one.
weapon fire farther. Hard Points Required: 1.
to any Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), or FOREARM GRIP
Gunnery weapons (you may exclude Little more than a vertical handgrip
weapons such as grenades, or weapons affixed below the barrel of a rifle-sized
that fire self-propelled ammo such as weapon, forearm grips are a popular
missile launchers). modification among mercenaries, designed
Modifiers: The weapon’s range increases to give the user better control over the
by one range band, to a maximum of weapon.
Extreme range. The weapon gains the Use With: This attachment can only be
Cumbersome 2 quality, or increases its used on rifles (but not shotguns, SMGs or
existing Cumbersome quality by 2. machine guns).
Hard Points Required: 2. Modifiers: Decrease the additional
difficulty of making Ranged [Heavy]
EXTENDED MAGAZINE checks with this weapon while Engaged to
The ammunition capacity of many an additional d (rather than dd).
ballistic weapons can be modified to Hard Points Required: 1.
carry more rounds.
Use With: This attachment can be used for HAIR TRIGGER
any Ranged [Light] or Ranged [Heavy] A “hair trigger” represents a
slugthrower without the Limited Ammo modification that allows the user to fire
quality. a weapon very quickly, although this can
Modifiers: The weapon can only suffer the be at the expense of accuracy.
“Runs Out of Ammo" effect with a y or Use With: This attachment can be applied
ttt result. to any pistol.
Hard Points Required: 1. Modifiers: When the user makes the first
combat check with this weapon in an
FILED FRONT SIGHT encounter, add s and t to the results.
An old assassin's trick, this is the Hard Points Required: 1.
simple act of removing the front sight of
a pistol by filing it off. A common INTEGRATED ILLUMINATOR
modification to light pistols, filing down Operating in darkness is never ideal,
the weapon's front sight allows it to be but there are several ways to compensate
drawn more quickly from its holster, and for one's lack of night vision. The
reduces the possibility of it becoming simplest, perhaps, is to integrate a single
snared on clothing. Unfortunately, while spotlight, similar in most respects to a
this modification makes for easy high-powered flashlight, along the
concealment and drawing, it also reduces length of a ranged weapon's barrel. In
the weapon's accuracy, as it effectively addition to providing illumination in
makes it impossible to aim with any dark conditions, high-powered spotlights
amount of precision. have the potential to blind enemies.
Use With: This modificaiton may only be Use With: This attachment can be applied
applied to pistols. to any ranged weapon that could
Modifiers: Innate Talent (Quick Draw), logically benefit from a spotlight.

Strange Aeons
Modifiers: Removes up to bb due to with any Ranged [Heavy] rifle or shotgun

darkness on any checks to use this weapon that does not possess the Cumbersome
against targets within Short range. quality.
Hard Points Required: 1. Modifiers: The weapon's skill changed to
Ranged [Light], but add b to any combat
MARKSMAN BARREL check made while firing the weapon one-
This barrel is nearly two meters long handed. The weapon's range is reduced to
and made of lightweight materials. It not Medium if longer.
only increases the weapon's range, but Hard Points Required: 1.
also its accuracy. The trade-off for this
increased range and accuracy is a weapon RAZOR EDGE
that's slightly awkward to use and This attachment represents sharpening
nearly impossible to conceal due to the a blade to a razor edge, then reinforcing
length of the barrel. or treating that edge so that it can
Use With: This modification may only be withstand repeated blows.
applied to rifles. Use With: This attachment can be applied
Modifiers: Increases the weapon's range to any close combat weapon that has a
by one range band, the weapon gains the blade.
Cumbersome 2 quality. Modifiers: The weapon gains the Pierce 2
Hard Points Required: 2. quality, or increases any existing Pierce
quality by 1. The weapon also decreases
PAIRED WEAPONS its Crit rating by 1, to a minimum of 1.
Many investigators wield a pistol in Hard Points Required: 1.
each hand, and some even prefer to pair a
blade with a pistol. This weapon REMOVED SAFETY FEATURES
modification balances a pair of weapons, By removing or deactivating weapon
allowing the wielder to use them in safeties and other features, a gun can
perfect tandem. more easily be drawn and readied for
Use With: This attachment can only be combat. Of course, these safety features
applied to one-handed weapons. are in place for a reason, and weapons
Modifiers: Must be applied to two weapons modified in such a way tend to be more
at the same time. Reduce the a required accident prone.
to hit with the secondary weapon when Use With: This attachment can be applied
two-weapon fighting with this pair of to any Ranged [Light] or Ranged [Heavy]
weapons by 1. weapon that could logically have such
Hard Points Required: 1 (per weapon). elements to remove.
Modifiers: Adds b to the first combat
PISTOL GRIP check made with the weapon during an
A pistol grip replaces the stock or encounter. The GM may spend y or tt
other grip on a long arm with one like from any combat check to have the
that of a pistol, allowing it to be fired weapon misfire; it runs out of ammunition
one-handed. Most firearms feature a and inflicts 4 strain on the wielder.
pistol-like grip by defeault, in which Hard Points Required: None.
case this attachment makes additional
modifications to make the weapon better- SERRATED EDGE
suited to one-handed use. Adding jagged sawteeth to a bladed
Use With: This attachment can be used weapon means the wounds it makes are

particularly brutal and damaging. being modified by a master craftsman to

Use With: This attachment can be applied be better than other examples of its
to any close combat weapon that has a type.
blade. Use With: This attachment can be applied
Modifiers: The weapon gains the Vicious 1 to any weapon.
quality, or increases any existing Vicious Modifiers: The weapon gains the Superior
quality by 1. quality.
Hard Points Required: 1. Hard Points Required: 1.
SHORTENED BARREL SUPPRESSOR

Shortened barrels are a handy Firearms and ordinary slugthrowers
modification used by spies and anyone emit an audible crack when fired. The
needing to conceal the fact that they are suppressor is made for a firearm muzzle,
carrying a weapon. Little more than a making the weapon virtually silent.
replacement barrel shorter than the Use With: This attachment can only be
standard one, this attachment makes used with ordinary slugthrowers such as
concealing a pistol easier, and can pistols, SMGs and rifles.
improve the speed of a quick draw. Modifiers: Adds bb to any Perception or
Use With: This attachment can only be Vigilance checks made to locate a
applied to Ranged [Light] pistol weapons. concealed shooter firing the silenced
Modifiers: Reduces the difficulty of firearm.
checks made to conceal this weapon by Hard Points Required: 1.
one. Reduces range by one range band to a
minimum of short. If already Short, add TELESCOPIC SIGHT
b to attack checks. A telescopic sight magnifies a target,
Hard Points Required: 1. allowing the user to shoot targets that
they could normally barely be able to
STRIPPED DOWN see (futuristic versions may use special
By removing redundant components and enhanced optics, rather than simple
stripping down the body, it is possible to lenses).
significantly reduce the weight and Use With: This attachment can be applied
profile of a weapon. A weapon modified to any ranged weapon that could
this way is more easily carried and logically benefit from the addition of a
transported, and can be better hidden telescopic sight.
under a coat or among other equipment. Modifiers: The user reduces the
Use With: This attachment can be used difficulty of ranged combat checks made
with any Ranged [Light] or Ranged [Heavy] with this weapon at Long and Extreme
weapon. range by 1.
Modifiers: Decrease the weapon's Hard Points Required: 1.
Encumbrance by 1 (to a minimum of 1). Add
b to a character's Perception check to TRIPOD MOUNT
find the weapon when it is hidden. Like a bipod, the tripod mount is a set
Hard Points Required: 3. of three folding legs that deploy from
the center of the weapon to provide a
SUPERIOR WEAPON stable stand to fire from.
CUSTOMIZATION Use With: This attachment can be applied
This simply represents the weapon to any Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery weapon

Strange Aeons
with an Encumbrance of 4 or more. can be fired with a pressure-sensitive

Modifiers: If the user spends two palm trigger or a particular wrist
preparation Maneuvers to deploy the motion.
tripod, the weapon’s Cumbersome or Use With: This attachment can be applied
Unwieldy qualities are reduced by 3, to a to any Ranged [Light] weapon.
minimum of 0, and the weapon’s Modifiers: The weapon can be worn on the
Encumbrance is reduced by 4, to a user's wrist, allowing him to use his
minimum of 0. The weapon may not be hands without interference.
moved (except to pivot on the tripod Hard Points Required: 2.
mount) once it has been set up. The user
must spend two preparation Maneuvers to WEAPON ATTACHMENTS
take the tripod down. NAME PRICE RARITY
Balanced Hilt 10 5
Bayonet 15 3
WEAPON HARNESS
A weapon harness helps a user carry a Bipod Mount 25 3
particularly heavy weapon by taking up Custom Grip 50 6
part of the weight. Extended Barrel 10 5
Use With: This attachment can be applied Extended Magazine 20 4
to any Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery weapon
Filed Front Sight 5 0
or ranged weapons that require two hands
to wield. Forearm Grip 25 2
Modifiers: The weapon decreases its Hair Trigger 15 4
encumbrance by 2. Integrated Illuminator 20 4
Marksman Barrel 120 5
Paired Weapons 30 5
WEIGHTED HEAD
Adding extra weight to the head of a Pistol Grip 40 4
blunt weapon lets the wielder strike Razor Edge 12,5 7
with greater impact and do more damage. Removed Safety Features 25 3
Use With: This attachment can be applied Serrated Edge 7,5 3
to any close combat weapon that deals
bludgeoning or crushing damage (not one Shortened Barrel 25 4
with a cutting edge). Stripped Down 25 5
Modifiers: The weapon increases its Superior Weapon 100 7
damage by 2. The weapon gains the Customization
Cumbersome 2 quality, or increases its Suppressor 75 5
existing Cumbersome quality by 1. Telescopic Sight 20 4
Tripod Mount 40 4
WRIST MOUNT Weapon Harness 2.5 2

A wrist mount ensures that the user Weighted Head 25 3
always has a weapon read while keeping Wrist Mount 25 5
his hands free. Many users choose wrist
mounts as a way to pack further
firepower, while it is simply an aestethic
choice for some. Wrist-mounted weapons

ARMOR to a minimum of zero.

Price: The price of the armor on the
Many military forces provide body open market. Price is given in US dollars
armor to their members, as do police ($) circa 1925.
departments. Even private individuals Rarity: The rarity of the item to find
can buy it, although it tends to be a specific type of armor in the USA,
expensive. before modifiers (see page 82 of the
Your armor protects you in combat, but GENESYS core rulebook). Rarity is at
it can also slow you down. Armor isn't the typically one category worse abroad,
only fashion statement a character can although the details vary widely. The GM
make, but it's a big one. needs to apply common sense.
ARMOR CHARACTERISTICS ARMORED CLOTHING

Every piece of armor is defined Lightweight ballistic fiber weave
through the following characteristics. makes these garments almost impossible
Armor also shares some characteristic to detect as armor. It doesn’t provide as
categories with weapons. much protection as real armor, but it’s
Name: This indicates the name or type available in a wide variety of styles.
of the specific armor. Attempts to spot that the clothing is an
Defense (DEF): The armor's Defense adds
armored variety is done with a b
b equal to the Defende rating directly penalty to the Perception check
to the attacker's dice pool. This reflects
the armor's ability to deflect damage
away from the wearer's body. ARMORED JACKET
The Defense rating of armor sets the The most popular armor solution on the
user's Defense at a certain value, while streets comes in all styles imaginable. It
other abilities and talents may then offers good protection without catching
increase the user's Defense rating. too much attention. But don’t think of
Soak: A suit of armor's Soak is added to wearing one to a dinner party. Anyone
the wearer's Soak value and you subtract attempting to discern this being an
the total Soak from any damage suffered. armored jacket has a b penalty to the
If an attack causes 10 damage, for Perception check.
example, a Soak of 2 plus a Brawn of 2
reduces the damage incurred by four; COLD SUIT
leaving a total of six points of damage. This suit is designed to keep the
Hard Points (HP): When customizing a wearer toasty and dry, this suit has
suit of armor, there are only so many three layers: an inner layer that
improvements you can add. Each armor has transfers moisture away from the skin, a
a certain number of hard points. See page middle insulating layer, and an outer
206 of the GENESYS core rulebook for waterproof and windproof shell. The full
further details on attachments. suit also includes heated boots, a hood,
Encumbrance (ENC): Each suit of or and a facemask with polarizing lenses.
discrete piece of armor has a listed Flexible gloves keep the fingers toasty
Encumbrance value. However, armor's full while still allowing for maximum manual
Encumbrance rating only comes into play dexterity. Wearing a cold suit in subzero
when a suit or piece of armor is carried environments bestows a b bonus to all
instead of worn. When armor is worn, it's Resilience checks to ward off the effects
Encumbrance rating is reduced by three, of the frigid environment.

Strange Aeons
CONCEALABLE VEST suits that conceal snipers and forward

Standard issue in many police forces, observers. A suit is little more than a
this vest provides maximum protection in baggy shirt and pair of trousers covered
a garment that can be worn all day long in countless strips of fabric, clumps of
under regular clothing. While it may go grass, and other detritus. Since ghillie
unnoticed by a quick glance, it is usually suits are designed to obscure rather than
visible to anyone looking closely for it, protect, they have a single point of
granting a bb penalty on Perception Defense but no Soak.
checks to notice the armor. Characters trying to spot someone
wearing a ghillie suit upgrade the
difficulty of their check once.
FIRE RESISTANT SUIT
This bulky, silver-coated suit provides
excellent resistance to fire and heat, but
HEAVY COAT
does not protect against any other type This Wild West style duster has been
of damage. It is used primarily by fire consistently popular on the mean streets
fighters. Wearing the fire resistant suit of the world’s sprawls for the past
allows the wearer to upgrade Resilience thirty years. Besides its protective
checks against extreme heat once. traits, the armored trenchcoat provides a
Furthermore, the fire resistant suit has b penalty to Perception check to spot
a Soak value of 4 against fire damage. items hidden underneath.
FLAK VEST LEATHER JACKET

Most militaries, police departments, This armor is represented by a heavy
and people in a war zone use flak vests. leather biker's jacket. A number of other
These are made from lightweight impromptu armors, such as a football
polymers and ballistic fabrics and pads and a baseball catcher's pads, offer
provide decent protection from small similar protection and game statistics.
arms and shrapnel (as represented by the
vest’s Soak value).
GHILLIE SUIT
Ghillie suits are simple camouflage
ARMOR
NAME DEFENSE SOAK HARD POINTS ENCUMBRANCE PRICE RARITY
Armored Clothing +1 0 1 2 15 6
Armored Jacket 0 +1 1 1 15 6
Cold Suit 1 0 1 3 20 5
Concealable Vest 1 0 1 2 20 5
Fire Resistant Suit 0 0 1 3 20 4
Flak Vest 0 +2 2 3 50 6
Heavy Coat 0 +1 2 3 20 4
Ghillie Suit 1 0 0 1 10 5
Leather Jacket 0 +1 0 1 15 4

ARMOR ATTACHMENTS LOW-FRICTION COATING

Low-friction coatings
The STRANGE AEONS setting also
includes a list of basic armor work by lowering the coefficient of
attachments to go with these rules. Again, friction against solid armor plates. With
these are designed to be as broad as the addition of such a coating, the
possible. surface of armor becomes almost
impossible to grip or seize. In addition,
glancing blows from melee weapons are
CUSTOM FIT often unable to find purchase, which
Although standard “off-the-shelf” diminishes the damage they cause as they
armor can provide invaluable protection, slide off. The only downside to the
it can also prove bulky or awkward, even coating is that it can make working on
after adjustments. For those who require the armor more difficult, as tools must
their armor to feel like a second skin, scramble for a grip on its slick surface.
personalized customization can make a Use With: This attachment can only be
drastic difference. Such work requires a applied to armor with hard surfaces.
skilled armorer, but it can make body Modifiers: Increases the armor's Melee
armor a much more enticing option for
Defense by +1. Adds bb to Mechanics
some.
checks to modify or maintain the armor.
to any armor.
Modifiers: Remove b from Athletics and
Stealth checks while wearing the armor. POCKETED ARMOR
Hard Points Required: 1. This modification adds a series of
pouches, bags and carrying loops to the
armor in key areas. These additions makes
INTEGRATED HOLSTERS it easier for the wearer to carry a
By mounting their holsters into the greater amount of equipment.
framework of their armor, combatants can Use With: This attachment can be applied
ensure no one can catch them unarmed. to any type of armor.
Not only does the wearer have easy access Modifiers: Increase the Encumbrance
to these weapons at all times, but threshold of the character by 2.
powered servos and other systems can be Hard Points Required: 1.
set up to assist the wearer in drawing or
stowing these weapons more rapidly. A
character with a fully tooled set of QUICK SHED
integrated holsters has access to a Armor, especially heavy armor, takes
hidden arsenal that can overwhelm most time to put on and take off. Though
foes. putting armor on remains a chore, taking
Use With: This attachment can be used it off – especially in an emergency
with any armor. situation – is expedited with the quick-
Modifiers: Increases Encumbrance by 4. shed attachment. By installing several
The character may holster up to 2 quick-release latches at strategic
weapons of Encumbrance 3 or lower in the locations, suits of armor can be quickly
armor. While holstered, these weapons do removed by the wearer.
not count towards the character's Use With: This attachment can only be
Encumbrance value. applied to armor with an encumbrance of
Hard Points Required: 2. 3 or higher.
Modifiers: As a Maneuver, the wearer may

Strange Aeons
shed the armor. Armor removed in this SUPERIOR ARMOR

fashion must be reassembled before the
wearer can don it again. Reassembly CUSTOMIZATION
requires several minutes and an Average Any piece of armor can benefit from
(dd) Mechanics check. retooling at the hands of a superior
Hard Points Required: 1. craftsman. A skilled armorsmith can add
improved protective plating to increase
the protection a piece of armor offers,
REINFORCED PLATING even as he decreases its weight and bulk.
This attachment represents adding Of course, such delicate and exacting
extra layers of armor or using stronger work can make the armor less
materials to reinforce the armor. customizable in other respects.
Use With: This attachment can be applied Use With: This attachment can be used
to any armor that uses hardened plates with any armor.
for protection. Modifiers: Grants the armor the Superior
Modifiers: The armor gains the Reinforced quality.
quality. The armor also increases its Hard Points Required: 1.
Encumbrance by 1.
Hard Points Required: 2. ARMOR ATTACHMENTS
NAME PRICE RARITY
SHADOW COATING Custom Fit 40 4
Most suits of armor can be modified to
enable the wearer to reduce the chance Integrated Holsters 30 5
of being detected while sneaking. This is Low-Friction Coating 75 6
accomplished through painting the armor Pocketed Armor 20 3
dark colors to blend in with shadows, and
Quick Shed 65 4
placing noise dampening materials in key
areas of the armor to reduce friction and Reinforced Plating 800 8
noise. Shadow Coating 20 6
Use With: This attachement can be applied Sturdy Armor 200 5
to any armor. Superior Armor Customization 100 7
Modifiers: Add b to all Stealth checks
made while wearing the armor.
STURDY ARMOR
Most armors can have their protective
qualities increased by adding more
plates or layers. This comes at a slight
consequence of weight and flexibility.
Use With: This attachment can only be
applied to armor that has a Soak value.
Modifiers: Increase the armor’s Soak
rating by +1 and the Encumbrance by +2.

CLOTHING small mustache is noteworthy.

Men's shirts still have detachable
Although clothing fads are many, collars and cuffs although 1920s collars
ranging from raccoon coats to bell- are soft compared to their stiff
bottom pants to flapper's dresses, the predecessors of earlier times. It is well
majority of Americans dress more into the next decade before the inclusion
conservatively. Business meetings and of rayon makes fabrics durable enough
other professional engagements are no that collars and cuffs no longer need be
place for 'elephant' pants with huge, 30- periodically replaced.
inch cuffs. Such are for the young, not This decade sees the introduction of
the professional. lighter colors and fabrics in men's
While dramatically more casual than clothing and warm weather clothing
prior times, formalities are still grows popular: the white linen dinner
observed. Both sexes wear hats and gloves jacket, white flannel trousers, Panama
when leaving the house to shop or attend hat or straw boater are now perfectly
church. Cloth handkerchiefs are carried, acceptable at many occasions.
and shirts are starched and ironed. Only Coats are worn long and loose. The
laborers and cowhands wear denim jeans. popular raccoon coat, introduced for
The rules of appropriate dress are known driving and attending winter football
to all well-bred people and as the middle games, is later replaced by less bulky,
class increases its spending power, it is deep pile camel hair coats.
increasingly difficult to distinguish During the day a felt hat or a derby is
class simply by clothing. worn with a suit; a soft cap is sufficient
for attending sporting events. Top hats
MEN'S STYLES usually accompany formal evening wear.
The most dramatic change in men's
clothing occurred around the turn of the MEN'S CLOTHING
century when the modern business suit
NAME PRICE
was adopted as standard attire for the
working professional. A properly dressed Bathing Suit 3,45
man wears a dark suit, white shirt, tie, Batwing Bow Tie 0,55
dark shoes and socks. Pants are held up Broadcloth Dress Shirt 1,95
with suspenders, the points of shirt Canvas Bathing Shoes 0,75
collars held down by a pin. Walking
sticks are not yet uncommon and a true Cashmere Dress Suit 18,50
gentleman always wears a hat and gloves. Chesterfield Overcoat 19,95
Evening attire may be informal: a tuxedo Corduroy Norfolk Suit 9,95
with unstarched shirt and cummerbund or Cufflinks 0,40
cotton pique vest, or fully formal with
Dog Fur Overcoat 37,50
tails, starched shirt, and vest.
Inspired by the growing interest in Felt Fedora 4,95
sports, men's clothing of the 1920s is Hiking Boots 7,25
loosely fitted, providing ease of Lace-Bottom Breeches 4,95
movement. Undershirts and shorts are
Leather Belt 1,35
fast replacing the old union suit, and
wristwatches are now more common than Leather Work Shoes 4,95
chains and fobs. Short hair and Necktie, Silk 0,50
cleanshaven faces are the rule – even a Outdoor Coat 9,95

Strange Aeons
Oxford Dress Shoes 6,95 of crepe de chine or silk jersey. At first

Sealskin Fur Cap 16,95 simple, unadorned garments, they are soon
enhanced with lace, embroidery, and
Shaker Sweater 7,69
applique. Slips of the same materials are
Shirt, Pecale 0,79 worn as required. One newspaper report
Shoes With Cleats 5,25 claims the typical working girl spends
Silk Four-in-Hand Tie 0,96 almost 40% of her earnings on underwear.
The current fashion silhouette
Slacks, White Flannel 8
features a lithe, longwaisted look.
Sock Garters 0,39 Hemlines through the decade first move
Straw Hat 1,95 up to the bottom of the knee, then down
Suit, Mohair 13,85 to the ankle, then back to the knee. By
Suspenders 0,79
1930 the mid-calf length is established,
remaining the favored daytime length
Sweatshirt 0,98 until World War II. High hemlines are
Union Suit, Forest Mills 0,69 particularly popular with flappers,
Wool Golf Cap 0,79 though much of society views them as
Worsted Wool Dress Suit 17,95 little less than scandalous. But women of
all classes have adopted new
freedoms: smoking and drinking in
WOMEN'S FASHIONS public, wearing make-up, exposing
Women's fashions have undergone bare arms after dark, and clipping
the most dramatic change. The brassiere their hair short.
has replaced the corset and the Bobbed and the shingle
'natural' silhouette has become hairstyles are the rage.
fashionable. Longwaisted dresses Bobby pins are introduced to
with short skirts – and even shorter keep hair from falling into
hair – are in dramatic contrast to one's eyes, or to achieve the
prior decades where women stood desired curl on the
stiffly erect with long hair piled forehead. For those who
high, rigid collars, cinched waists, keep their hair long the
hems inches from the floor, and popular hair-do is the chignon,
ankles protected by boots. Today's or bun at the back of the
woman moves at too fast a pace to head. Makeup, previously
let her clothes slow her down. scorned by all but
The World War provided many women prostitutes and actresses, is
with the opportunity to work outside now popular with ladies of
the home for the first time and they all social classes.
were quick to discover that their Of the several types of
high collars, full sleeves, and popular hats, the tight
corsets were an impediment, and long fitting, undecorated felt
hair that tumbled into machinery a cloche covering the entire
distinct danger. After the War many head is the signature design
women went back to their homes, but of the era. Introduced by
few returned to the corset. the French designer Reboux,
The biggest revolution is in lingerie. its popularity quickly eclipses
The corset is replaced with brassiere the beret, the big chapeau, and
and panties, or chemise and knickers the tricorn.

A larger hand bag is needed to carry Pleated Skirt, Silk 7,95

cosmetic cases and cigarettes and is Outdoor Boots 2,59
added to the daytime ensemble of dress,
Outdoor Knee-Length Knickers, Khaki 1,79
coat, hat and gloves. Pumps have replaced Jean
boots, and feature a variety of straps,
Outdoor Knee-Length Knickers, Linen 2,98
buckles and heels.
Daytime clothing is usually dark and Outdoor Knee-Length Knickers, Wool 2,98
muted but evening styles sparkle. Not Tweed
only are hemlines leaping to the knee, Outdoor Shirt, Khaki Jean 1,79
necklines plunge front and back, and Outdoor Shirt, Linen 2,98
arms are left bare. Trains from the hip, Outdoor Shirt, Wool Tweed 2,98
or other ornament, are common fashion.
Rayon Elastic Corset 2,59
Front hems often remain at the knee
while back hems dip low to the floor. Satin Charmeuse 10,95
Evening colors offer an array of pinks, Satin Turban-Style Hat 3,69
reds, yellows, oranges and purples, and Shoes, Pumps 1,29
the allwhite ensemble is introduced. At
Silk Crepe Frock 13,95
the beginning of the decade, velvets,
crepe, and lace are common, with new Silk Handbag 4,98
synthetics – especially velvets – becoming Silk Hose (3 pairs) 2,25
popular later. Ornaments of fringe, Silk Taffeta Frock 10,95
tassels, or beaded embroidery are
Snug Velour Hat 4,44
favorites. The long pearl necklace is
popular in the evening, along with Spike-Heeled Parisian Shoes 4,45
turbans of gold or silver. Tweed Jacket. Fully Lined 3,95
Velour Coat with Fur Trim 39,75
WOMEN'S CLOTHING Worsted Wool Sweater 9,48
NAME PRICE
Bathing Cap 0,40
Bathing Suit 4,95
Belted Rain Coat, Cotton 3,98
Belted Rain Coat, Schappe Silk 8,98
Bloomers, Silk 3,98
Blouse, Cotton 1,98
Brown Fox Fur Coat 198
Canvas Bathing Shoes 0,54
Chic Designer Dress 90+
Cotton Crepe Negligee 0,88
Dress Hair Comb 0,98
Embroidered Costume Slip 1,59
French Repp Dress 10,95
Gingham Dress 2,59
Khaki Leggings (Ankle to Knee) 0,98
Leather One-Strap Slippers 0,98

Strange Aeons
MISCELLANEOUS GEAR from a number of manufacturers but the

field is clearly dominated by the
Gear is a catchall term for anything Eastman Kodak Company. Kodak Brownies
that isn't weapons or armor. Generally, are available in four models, producing
gear needs fewer rules than either of prints sized between 2 1/4 x3 1/4 inches
those. Listed here is the most essential of and 2 7/8 x4 7/8 inches.
gear that an investigator could find to All snapshot film is black & white.
come in handy. This list is far from Flashbulbs are not yet available and
complete, as that would be far to shooting indoors usually requires special
extensive of a list, and you can add items lighting or flash powder, and an Average
as needed to your specifict campaign.
(dd) Mechanics check. Light meters,
tripods, lenses, and various filters are
BACKPACK also available.
Backpacks are indescribably useful to
the traveler in the Wasteland. Most are CANTEEN
simple textile constructs with a number
This standard military canteen is
of compartments and external pouches
constructed from rugged synthetics and
good for carrying tools, survival
housed in a canvas cover available in a
equipment, trophies, or anything else a
variety of uniform specifications and
user could desire. More advances models
camouflage patterns. The military-issue
are reinforced, built from advanced
canteen holds 1,5 liters of liquid.
textiles, and may have lightweight
internal supports that allow for the
easy carrying of incredible weights. CIGARETTES
Backpacks increase the wearer's A pack or packet of cigarettes is a
encumbrance threshold by 4. rectangular container, mostly of
paperboard, which contains cigarettes.
BEER
Beer is an addictive alcoholic drink CIGARS
commonly found throughout every A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and
settlement and community. fermented tobacco leaves made to be
Characters drunk on beer add smoked. They are produced in a wide
an automatic a to Brawl and Presence variety of sizes and shapes. It comes in a
skill checks, and an automatic t to all cigar box; cigar boxes are made of wood,
Intellect skill checks. cardboard or paper.
BINOCULARS CLIMBING GEAR

Binoculars are rugged imaginng Climbing gear is a catchall term for
systems to magnify far-off objects for tools used to scale and abseil steep or
their users. They are reliable and sturdy. sheer surfaces. Whether a character is
Binoculars magnify objects up to five attempting to scale a stony cliff or the
kilometers away. There are countless of smooth transparisteel facade of an office
binocular brands available, though most tower, climbing gear is essential for
of the differences are purely cosmetic. anyone who needs to gain access to
otherwise-unreachable places. Most sets
of climbing gear include a few coils of
CAMERA rope or cable, a hook or adhesive
Cheap snapshot cameras are available attachment, and a number of pitons,

picks, hammers, and other tools used to make-up, contact lenses. In addition,
secure lines. The climbing gear grants disguise kits contain basic camouflage
the user a bonus b to Athletics check paints for use in various environments to
made for climbing. help a user blend more easily into the
surrounding. Using a disguise kit grants
COMPASS a b penalty to Perception checks to
A compass relies on the Earth's recognize the character.
magnetic field to determine the direction
of magnetic north. A compass grants its ELECTRIC TORCH
user a s bonus on Survival checks made Electric torches are small, directional,
to navigate. handheld light sources used in many
applications. They project a beam of
CONCEALMENT HOLSTER bright light and can illuminate objects
These compact holsters built at respectable ranges, most often out to
for small, light handguns are designed to Medium range.
fit the contours of the carrier's body
and mask his presence from even EXTRA CLIP
determined observation and surveillance. This is exactly what it sounds like: an
Concealment holsters are available in a extra clip of ammunition for a specific
variety of forms, allowing them to be type of ranged weapon.
worn high on the belt, under the arm, in If your character has an extra clip,
the small of the back, or on an ankle. they may spend a Maneuver to reload and
These holsters add b to Perception continue to use their weapon if it runs
checks to discover the presence of the out of ammo. This uses up the extra clip.
concealed weapon, but may only hold (You can’t use this to reload weapons with
pistols. the Limited Ammo quality, as they
usually have special costs for their
DICTAPHONE reloads or are one-use weapons.)
Recording tape has not yet been
invented. Records are made by recording FIELD RATION PACK
direct to a master disc. The only portable Ration packs are typically bland,
recording machines available are flavorless affairs comprising a calorie-
dictating machines like those made by dense meal packed with necessary
Dictaphone, Inc. The recording medium is nutrients and vitamins in a small, easily
a wax cylinder, rotated by a hand- portable bag or box. They employ a built-
cranked spring mechanism similar to a in chemical heater, and generally consist
record player. of a main entree, sides, and a dessert.
The operator speaks into a horn, the Also included are disposable eating
signal recorded onto the cylinder. utensils and small, single-serving
Playback is handled in a similar manner. packets of spice and condiments. Each
Cylinders can be reused. A special device ration pack is good for one meal.
shaves them smooth, erasing past
recordings and leaving a fresh surface FIREARMS MAINTENANCE KIT
for the next recording. A set of tools to clean and maintain a
weapon after use, including brush, pull-
DISGUISE KIT through, small bottle of lubricant, etc.
Disguise kits are simple collections of Each calibre requires its own kit. Without

Strange Aeons
proper maintenance, a firearm’s Malf can MAP

worsen considerably. The firearms A map can tell you where you’re going
maintenance kit grants the user an and what to expect when you get there.
automatic s on all Mechanics checks used Road atlases can be purchased for most
for repairing and maintaining firearms. major metropolitan areas, detailing every
street in the entire region. A map grants
HANDCUFFS the wielder a b bonus on Survival checks
Handcuffs are simple restraints used made to navigate.
to keep prisoners subdued and
manageable. MILITARY PACK
Breaking free from a set of handcuffs This is a standard military-issue
requires either brute force or feats of backpack used to stow and carry tents,
agility and flexibility. The difficulty rations, canteens, excavation tools, and
varies by the make and model of the all manner of other gear the soldier
handcuff, but the most common restraints needs in the field. It is constructed of
require a Daunting (dddd) Athletics durable and lightweight materials able
or Coordination check to escape. to withstand a broad range of
environmental conditions while adding as
KEROSENE LANTERN little as possible to the soldier's load.
These lamps have been around for The military packs are available in a
years. They throw a soft yellow light in variety of uniform specifications and
all directions and burn from 4-8 hours on camouflage patterns.
a single filling. Risky devices, they may This pack increases the user's
explode if dropped or turned upside encumbrance capacity by 6, but has the
down. If submerged they must be Cumbersome 2 quality.
disassembled, cleaned and dried, both
wick and fuel replaced. PAINKILLERS
This is the profile for a painkiller,
LIQUOR which is the generic term we use for a
Liquor is a classification of alcoholic consumable, quick-healing item. Being
beverages that all have a high alcohol able to quickly heal a number of wounds
percentage in it. Liquor includes rum, is important to the system; it lets you
scotch, vodka and whiskey. keep your character moving when they
Being drunk on liquor gives the would otherwise be eliminated, and it
recipient an automatic a to Brawn and tempers the lethality of combat.
Presence checks, and also incurs an Although these items mechanically heal
automatic t on all Intellect checks. wounds, thematically they can help your
character get back on their feet in any
LOCKPICK SET number of ways, depending on the setting.
A STRANGE AEONS setting treats these as
A lockpick set includes picks and
painkillers, allowing your character to
tension bars for opening locks operated
ignore minor injuries and keep going.
by standard keys. A lockpick set allows a
Using a painkiller requires one
character to make Skulduggery checks to
Maneuver for your character to apply it
open mechanical locks (deadbolts, keyed
either to themself or to another engaged
entry locks, and so forth) without
character. The painkiller is consumed in
further penalty.
the process, and the character

immediately heals 5 wounds. While a light. Anyone struck with a road flare
character can use multiple painkillers, takes 4 points of fire damage.
this provides diminishing returns. Each
painkiller after the first heals one ROPE
wound fewer. A second painkiller heals 4 This is a profile for a length of rope:
wounds, a third heals 3, and so on. Using a maybe a coil of woven hemp, or maybe a
sixth painkiller in a day has no further high-tech nylonclimbing rope. Rope
effect. doesn’t come with any unique rules. The
After one day, the lingering effects of only rule associated with it is that often
the painkillers wear off, and the it is the right tool for the job.
character may use painkillers again with
their normal effect (this means a
character can consume up to five SKETCH PAD
painkillers a day, each day). See page 116 A sketchbook is a book or pad with
in the Genesys Core Rulebook for more blank pages for sketching and is
information on painkillers and healing. frequently used by artists for drawing
or painting as a part of their creative
process. Sketchbooks come in a wide
PORTABLE MEDKIT variety of shapes and sizes, with varied
A well-equipped portable medkit comes covers, and differing numbers of pages.
with everything someone might need to
treat all manner of injuries, from bullet
wounds to broken legs. SLEEPING BAG
A portable medkit allows your This lightweight sleeping bag rolls up
character to perform Medicine checks to compactly. It can keep a character warm
heal wounds and Critical Injuries even in severe weather and can also
without penalty. The inclusion of modern double as a stretcher in an emergency.
drugs adds automatic s to the check
results. TENT
Found in larger survival kits and sold
RESPIRATOR separately by a number of vendors, tents
Designed to allow a being to breathe in are portable shelters used to provide
atmospheres that are typically protection from the elements. Depending
dangerous to them, respirators are some on the model, a tent can hold one to six
of the most common pieces of survival individuals, and can be made from any
gear in existence. The respirator is a material.
simple respirator plug and face mask
that can filter toxins and airborne THERMAL CLOAK
pathogens. Most are bulky and Thermal cloaks are versatile pieces of
uncomfortable to wear for long periods. equipment that can be worn or used as a
blanket and provide protection from
ROAD FLARE extreme heat and extreme cold. Use of a
Road flares are small chemical sticks thermal blanket or cloak removes up to
that produce a brilliant red light. They bb from any checks made to handle
are lit by striking the cap against the extreme heat or cold.
stick. A road flare lasts for an hour
before becoming completely consumed and TOOL KIT
fills a 5-foot square with flickering red From small precision tools used to

Strange Aeons
repair vehicles and machinery to huge Handcuffs - 3,35 4

rolling boxes used to maintain buildings, Kerosene Lantern 1 1,39 2
tool kits are an essential piece of
Liquor - 0,5 2
equipment. Whether general kits used for
maintainance or custom-built sets for Lockpick Set - 14,90 6
specific jobs, tool kits offer their users Map - 4,95 2
a wide variety of necessary tools for Military Pack 1 9,95 5
getting the job done. With the proper
Painkillers - 4,95 3
tools, there is little that a skilled and
inventive technician can't accomplish if Portable Medkit 2 14,90 5
given the time and circumstances. Tool Respirator 1 4,95 3
kits allow mechanics and technicians to Road Flare - 0,27 1
perform most mechanical checks to repair Rope 1 8,60 2
devices.
Sketch Pad - 0,25 1
UTILITY BELT Sleeping Bag 2 3,65 2

A utility belt is a common item for Tent 4 11,48 3
those where quick access to tools and Thermal Cloak 2 5,06 5
gear is a necessity. Their contents will Tool Kit 4 14,90 4
vary with their user and their planned
Utility Belt - 1,99 4
actions. Some belts even have weapon
holsters.
Utility belts increase the character's
encumbrance threshold by 1.
MISCELLANEOUS GEAR
NAME ENC PRICE RARITY
Backpack - 3,45 2
Beer - 0,2 2
Binoculars 1 28,50 3
Camera 1 4,49 5
Canteen 1 1,69 3
Cigarettes, Pack - 0,10 1
Cigars, Box - 2,29 3
Climbing Gear 2 14,90 4
Compass - 2,85 4
Concealment Holster - 4,95 5
Dictaphone - 39,95 5
Disguise Kit 2 14,90 6
Electric Torch 1 1,35 5
Extra Clip - 4,95 3
Field Ration Pack - 1,99 4
Firearms Maintenance 2 14,90 4
Kit

LODGING AND REAL Hotel, Fleabag (Rent per Night)

Hotel, Good (Rent per Night)
0,75
9
ESTATE Hotel, Luxury (Rent per Night) 30+
Lodging or a holiday accommodation is
House (Rent per Month) 55
a type of residential accommodation.
People who travel and stay away from House (Rent per Year) 1000
home for more than a day need lodging House, Average (8 Rooms, Purchase) 2900+
for sleep, rest, food, safety, shelter from House, Large (10 Rooms, Purchase) 7000+
cold temperatures or rain, storage of
House, Town (6 Rooms, Purchase) 6000
luggage and access to common household
functions. YMCA (Rent per Night) 5
Lodgings may be self-catering, in which
case no food is provided, but cooking
facilities are available.
Lodging is done in a hotel, motel,
hostel, inn or hostal, a private home
(commercial, i.e. a bed and breakfast, a
guest house, a vacation rental, or non-
commercially, with members of
hospitality services or in the home of
friends), in a tent, caravan/camper (often
on a campsite).
Residential real estate may contain
either a single family or multifamily
structure that is available for
occupation or for non-business purposes.
Residences can be classified by if and
how they are connected to neighbouring
residences and land. Different types of
housing tenure can be used for the same
physical type. For example, connected
residences might be owned by a single
entity and leased out, or owned
separately with an agreement covering
the relationship between units and
common areas and concerns.
LODGING
NAME PRICE
Apartment, Average (Rent per Week) 10
Apartment, Good (Rent per Week) 40
Country House (13 Rooms, 2 Barns, 20000
Purchase)
Bungalow (4 Rooms, Purchase) 3100
Flat (Rent per Week) 12,50
Hotel, Average (Rent per Night) 4,5

TRANSPORT & TRAVEL
I AM PROVIDENCE, AND PROVIDENCE IS MYSELF
As Willard slumped down in his old A wide variety of transportation forms

couch and poured himself a large glass are available to serve the needs of the
of whiskey, he leaned back in the traveler. Those most important are
comfortable seating of the couch and described below.
listened to the thrumming of the
persistent rain. Every now and again a
flash of lightning would light up the
GETTING AROUND
dark sky, followed by what was some of TOWN
the most long-lasting rumbles of As long as an investigation stays
thunder that Willard had ever heard. confined to a single community,
“Not a good night to be outside transportation poses little or no
tonight,” he said to himself, before problem. Most American towns, even those
sipping on the whiskey. He was by no as small as 5,000 people or less, offer
means a connoisseur of liquors, by it some form of mass transit. In towns or
took no expert to tell that this was villages smaller than this the
moonshine hooch, pure and simple. investigator finds need of little more
The living room was sparsely lit and than his own two legs.
Willard felt the onsetting exhaustion of
today's events starting to creep up on BUSSES AND TROLLEYS
him. He leaned forward. sipped from the Electric trolleys, powered by either
glass once again and looked out the overhead wires or rails in the ground,
living room window. A torrent of water have been around since before the turn
was running down the glass. of the century and by 1902 replacing
For some reason he was unable to get horse drawn omnibuses in almost every
the strange runes out of his mind. Yet he city. Termed a “light-rail" system,
had no clue as to their meaning, origin surface-route trolleys are now in danger
or purpose. Hopefully Edgar could shed of being replaced by more efficient and
some much needed light upon the mystery. flexible gasoline-powered buses. Despite
Willard sighed heavily and slumped back this, the cities of Boston, Chicago, New
into the embrace of the couch. He sipped York, and Philadelphia all retain
from the whiskey once more and didn't extensive systems featuring high-speed
even try to fight the wave of slumber routes on elevated tracks or through
that was fast approaching and underground tunnels. Trolley buses,
threatening to sweep him away. electrically powered buses running from
Willard's sleep was troubled by overhead trolley lines, are a halfway
unsettling nightmares strange, shadowy step between light rail and buses. Most
creatures would chase him down narrow American buses are single-deck models,
corridors; corridors that often ended in although larger cities like New York are
dead ends. These malignant creatures making use of double-deck versions.
bore upon him with writhing tentacles
and impossibly long arms that ended in BUS AND TROLLEY FARES
talons. Trolley and bus fare before 1920 was 5
If anyone had observed Willard asleep cents. By the end of the decade 10 cents
sitting upright in the couch, they would is the universal norm. The price allows
have heard the unnerving mutters of the rider to travel the length of the
eldritch words alien to this world from line; transfers are available if more
his lips. than one line is required to reach a
188 Transport & Travel

Strange Aeons
destination, costing either 1 or 2 cents. Rates vary, but are generally higher
Transfer use is usually limited by date, in large cities. Typical is an opening
a certain time period, and/or the number charge of 15 cents (the flag drop), then a
of times used. distance charge of 5 cents a mile. A clock
Hours of operation are dictated by the keeps the meter ticking at a slow pace,
needs of the community. Small towns often even when the taxi is stuck in traffic. A
suspend operation in early evening, after waiting taxi charges $2 an hour.
the close of business hours. Larger Taxi drivers service all levels of the
communities might maintain reduced community and are often a good source of
service until 10 PM or midnight. The local information, both general and
largest cities run their transit systems specific. A tip of 5-10% is considered
round the clock, increasing and customary.
decreasing the number of runs as needs
dictate. THE BICYCLE
Young, healthy investigators may want
TAXI CABS to consider a bicycle. Weighing 35 pounds
Taxi cabs are common to all American or less, these durable vehicles are
towns, large and small. Even communities capable of safely transporting up to ten
with as few as 2,000 people often have times their own weight. Current bicycle
one or two independent operators. Large design is based on the “safety" model
cities, such as New York, have several cab that appeared in the late 19th century
companies fielding competing fleets. Cab and replaced the original “ordinary"
stands, with waiting taxis, are usually design with its gigantic front wheel and
found in front of hotels, railway tiny rear wheel. Pneumatic tires have
stations, and other such locations. A been standard for decades and three-
phone call to the cab company brings a speed gear systems were long ago
cab to your door, usually within 10-30 perfected, their range now extended by
minutes. Radios are not yet common to reversible hubs and cranks featuring
taxicabs and drivers must contact their different sized sprockets. European
dispatchers by phone, or in person. bicycles are usually equipped with hand
Special telephones linked directly to the operated, front-rim or caliper-style
cab companies can be found at cab stands, brakes. American designs favor the rear
bus stations, or other places. They can be wheel “coaster" brake, operated by
used by drivers or customers. reversing the direction of the pedals.
European racing-styled bicycles cost
TAXI RATES from $50-$100 or more. Some weigh as
Taxis charge set rates, prescribed by little as 15 pounds, but they may be
the local community and based on limited in use. European designs are
distance traveled and time spent in the intended for the narrow, twisting, paved
cab. Mechanical meters with timers and roads found in cities and on alpine
spring-driven clocks automatically routes. If the investigator intends to
compute the rate. Meters can be tampered spend any time at all on the dirt and
and consequently are periodically gravel back roads of America, the
checked and certified by the local taxi “roadster" style bicycle sold and
board. Ford and Chevrolet build special developed by such U.S. manufacturers as
versions of their autos for Yellow and Schwinn and Elgin is recommended. Wide
Checker, the two largest American taxi tires, solid and heavy frames, and broad
companies. cow-horn style handlebars prevail under
Transport & Travel 189

conditions where more delicately tuned federally-funded highway system that

models are rattled and shaken apart. spans the width and breadth of America.
A deluxe model American bicycle with The fledgling aviation industry,
steel rims, tool kit with pump, luggage practically non-existent at the end of
rack, and battery-powered light and the War, by the end of the decade has
horn, costs $40-$50. Cheaper models can be become the most promising form of future
had for under $20. Tandem bicycles, built transport. The following sections discuss
for two, are still popular. Some have a commonly available forms of
lowered frame in the second seat to allow transportation on land, at sea, and in the
for women's skirts. air.
A bicycle requires no skill to operate,
and it allows the character to INTER-URBAN TROLLEYS
effectively take two Maneuvers for Although only a minor form of
moving at the cost of one Maneuver, thus commercial transportation, this system
letting him travel a longer distance in a deserves mention. An extension of city
shorter time. systems, these electrically powered light
rail trains are most common in the East.
MOTORIZED BICYCLES Linking major cities at central terminals,
Motorized bicycles are a popular they allow a passenger to transfer from
choice. Small gasoline engines, usually one to another, touring up and down the
mounted in the frame or over the front East Coast, and as far inland as
fender, drive the front wheel through a Cleveland or Detroit. The inter-urbans
clutched belt. Pedaling is necessary to generally run 24 hours a day, seven days
start the engine, and to assist climbing a week. Expanding bus lines have
steeper hills. On level ground a rendered this form of transportation
motorized bicycle can cruise at speeds of nearly obsolete and by the end of the
15-20 mph. decade many lines are discontinued.
The inter-urbans are smooth, quiet, and
LICENSING feature scenic routes along the coast and
Most cities require the registration Great Lakes. With good connections a
and licensing of bicycles, whether traveler can often make as many as 250
motorized or not (a practice generally miles a day. Rates vary, but the average
dropped in the latter half of the cost of travel is approximately 6 cents a
century). Operator's licenses are not mile.
required.
BUS LINES
GETTING OUT OF TOWN Research into the development of
larger frame vehicles during the War
Sooner or later the time comes when resulted in designs that allow for the
every investigator needs to get out of safe and transport of large numbers of
town. Whether investigating a case, passengers. A rapidly improving highway
conducting research, escaping local system has made commercial long-distance
authorities, or simply in need of a bus service a viable alternative to rail.
vacation, the options are many. A vast By 1926 there are bus lines linking all
rail system links the country, now major cities, and by 1928 through service
rivalled by a rapidly expanding long- from New York to San Francisco, fresh
distance bus industry. The popularity of drivers taking the wheel every six to
the personal automobile has led to a eight hours. Greyhound is already

Strange Aeons
emerging as a major force in the in rail yards, but experiments with both
industry. dieselcompressed air and diesel-electric
Early in the decade bus travel is locomotives have so far shown little
bumpy, often crowded, and decidedly less promise.
pleasant than rail travel. By the end of Although freight mileage improves
the decade the bus lines have responded slightly over the decade, passenger
with larger, more comfortable coaches mileage drops by more than 30%. Still the
featuring curtained windows, reclining fastest, safest, and surest way to travel,
seats, and onboard toilet facilities. The the railroads have responded to the
observation bus, developed in California, decrease in business by improving the
features a raised passenger section quality of their equipment and service,
offering unobstructed views while hoping to attract customers.
allowing for extra cargo space beneath.
Slower than either rail or the inter- PASSENGER TRAINS
urbans, bus lines offer markedly cheaper Pullman coaches are the most popular
rates as well as service to many areas not type of passenger coach in America,
accessed by rail. The smallest cities comprising nearly one-quarter of all the
usually feature a bus terminal, or at passenger rolling stock in the country.
least an official stop in front of a Featuring foldup berths, Pullmans are
downtown restaurant or hotel. Despite offered in wide variety, with differing
improvements bus travel is still less combinations of sleeping berths and
reliable than rail, suffering more sealed compartments. The latest Pullman
frequently from mechanical breakdowns, model, the “Overnight Car" features 14
accidents, and bad weather conditions. individual rooms, each with fold-down
bed and private toilet. The Pullman
FARES company also owns and operates 21
Short route bus travel between special 'business coaches' that may be
population centers averages about 20-25 leased by corporations or individuals.
mph and costs roughly 4 cents a mile. These feature beds, private dining
Long-distance travel averages 250-300 facilities, desks, and other amenities as
miles a day and cost about 4 cents a mile. required
Through buses on long-distance express Aside from the Pullman cars, a long-
routes make as many as 750-800 miles a distance passenger train might also
day, cost 6 cents a mile. include an Observation Car with open
compartments and a rear, open-air deck
RAIL TRAVEL with chairs, Club Cars with card tables,
reading material, and attendants, and
Although suffering from government dining, buffet, and cafe cars.
control and increasingly stiff
competition from the bus lines, the U.S.
rail system is still operating at or near FARES
its peak. With nearly a quarter-million The cost of rail travel varies,
miles of rail, U.S. rail companies operate depending on the wants and needs of the
nearly half the world's total rail individual. Commuter hops of two hours
mileage. The steam locomotive is king, and or less feature little more than a fairly
seems likely to remain so. A few electric comfortable seat and access to a snack
locomotives are in operation, and some bar. Running between major urban centers
light-duty oil-electric models do service and to outlying areas, cost is about 4
cents a mile. Average speed, with

frequent stops, is about 20-25 mph. (not including handling time).

Longer journeys, regular runs of less Investigators traveling a crosscountry
than fifteen hours, usually feature passenger route and hauling equipment
dining coaches and club cars. Cost is beyond the normal luggage limits may be
about 5 cents a mile for tourist charged express rates for additional
accommodations, 7 cents a mile for freight.
private, more comfortable, first-class
compartments. Frequent stops for mail
and freight limit average speeds to AUTOMOBILES
about 25-30 mph. The personal automobile has changed
Overnight and longer journeys require the face of America. By 1929 there are
Pullman cars along with the necessary 23,121,000 automobiles on American roads,
attendants, conductors, and porters, all 612,000 in New York City alone. The U.S.
increasing the cost. Stops are infrequent currently manufactures 85% of all
and a fast 'Special' can make from 850- automobiles produced in the world, and
1,100 miles a day, traveling from New owns 75% of the world's vehicles. By 1918
York to San Francisco in just three days. New York has erected its first traffic
Rates vary depending upon the type of light and by the end of the 1920s One-
accommodations desired: 6 cents a mile forWay streets, No Left Turns, and No
a simple Pullman; 8 cents a mile for a Parking zones are the norm. City streets
small private compartment for two; and are resurfaced in macadam and compounds,
10 cents a mile or more for a First-Class pure asphalt limited to use in the
room with private toilet, a car porter wealthier neighborhoods where a quiet
and other luxuries. Pullman will lease road surface is considered important. The
one of their private cars for $1.50 per use of concrete, particularly on main
mile, with a minimum charge of $75.00 a thorough-fares, is showing good results.
day. Porters are extra. When Henry Ford first designed his
A few very rich individuals own their original Model T he intended a practical
own private rail cars. A standard 70-foot design that would serve society forever.
Pullman coach can be purchased for By the 1920s, however, the “Tin Lizzie"
$27,000-$33,000. Custom outfitting and has been hopelessly outclassed by
furnishings are, of course, additional. stylish, powerful vehicles with a wide
Hauling by train costs $1 per mile. range of options. Closed cars, once the
rarity, now account for 80% of all sales,
and by mid-decade exotic colors such as
FREIGHT SHIPMENTS Arabian Sand and Versailles Violet are
Equipment can also be transported. available. Although fluid-driven,
Regular freight costs about 10 cents per automatic transmissions still lie in the
hundred pounds, per hundred miles. A future, modern automobiles feature
motorcycle costs about 60 cents per hydraulic brakes, electric starters,
hundred miles, an automobile $2.50 to $5 cigarette lighters, and tachometers.
per hundred miles, a loaded coffin about Although Henry Ford prefers to stick
70 cents per hundred miles. Freight moves with just a single design – the 'T,' then
at an average of 200-250 miles per day. the 'A' – most auto companies have begun
Express service is available – fast but the practice of announcing new models
expensive. Rates are double normal every year, premiering them in the fall
freight, or a little more, but delivery accompanied by much fanfare.
time is much shorter, express freight Although a few electric and steam-
traveling at up to 1000 miles per day powered cars are still produced in small

Strange Aeons
numbers, there is no doubt that gasoline increased to as much as 20 mph if the

engines have proven themselves superior. route confines itself to well-maintained
Automobiles use the extended Vehicle and paved roads. Driving more than eight
Rules that are presented on pages 220 hours is fatiguing. Without rest, an
through 231 in the GENESYS core investigator's Driving skill begins to
rulebook. suffer.
Auto touring is the American way. Over
DRIVING IN AMERICA fifteen million vehicles visit our
At the beginning of the decade speed national forests in 1926; by comparison,
limits are generally low. Typically, less than two million people visit by
Illinois set limits of 15 mph in other means. The popularity has given
residential areas, 10 mph in built-up rise to a camping equipment industry, and
areas, and 6 mph on curves. On country the 'auto camp.'
roads limits were generally 20 mph,
though New York and California allowed AUTO CAMPS
30. By 1931 top speed limits are generally Long-distance auto touring often
35 to 40 mph. requires overnight stays. Hotels are
often too expensive, and usually
AUTO TOURING inconveniently located in a downtown
The rapidly-growing popularity of the area near rail and bus lines. Auto camps
automobile urged the federal government are found right along the highway, often
to organize an interstate highway system. near city limits (but outside them, where
Seventeen through routes now span the business regulations are less stringent).
country, comprising over 96,000 miles of They offer easy access to the highway,
improved roads. By 1924 over 31,000 miles gasoline and other necessities.
is already paved with concrete, the rest First appearing around 1910, auto
at least graded and drained, if not paved camps were originally no more than
with macadam. By the end of the decade, marked off areas of ground with room for
nearly 80% of the system is complete. a tent and automobile. Later, small sheds
Routes are marked by numbered shields: a replaced open ground. At 50 cents a night
standardized system of warning and per head, auto tourers were expected to
information signs that is already being provide their own lights, stove,
adopted by several states. The system furniture, etc. After 1925 most auto camp
claims that 90% of the U.S. population is cabins charged $1 a night per person, a
now within ten miles of a federal fee that includes an iron bed with straw
highway. mattress, benches, running water, and a
Regardless, this still leaves nearly gas hot plate. Towels, sheets, and
three million miles of roads in the hands blankets are available at additional
of state and county agencies. The quality cost. By the mid-20s over 5000 of these
and condition of these roads varies establishments are found across the
depending on local finances and the country.
amount of use the road receives. Major Auto camps soon gained a seedy
thoroughfares are surfaced with macadam reputation. Usually located on the
or other compounds. Major rural roads are outskirts of a city, they often become
graded and reasonably drained. Many havens for bootleggers, gypsies, and
roads are sorely neglected. prostitutes. Add to this the rumor that
Average touring speed (with stops) is some camps rent “by the hour" and their
about 15 mph, although this could be reputation is further sullied. In the

1930s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover A few selected models are described in
publicly calls for the closing of all detail below, followed by a list of
auto camps, an unsuccessful campaign. others, both American and imports.
LICENSING AUSTIN SEVEN

Automobiles must be registered in the The Austin 7 is an economy car that was
state of the investigator's residence. A produced from 1922 until 1939 in the
metal license plate is issued at the time United Kingdom by Austin. It was
of registration. Operators must have a nicknamed the “Baby Austin" and was at
valid driver's license, also issued by the that time one of the most popular cars
state. produced for the British market and sold
well abroad. Its effect on the British
CHOOSING AN market was similar to that of the Model T
Ford in the US, replacing most other
AUTOMOBILE British economy cars and cyclecars of the
Although gasoline powered cars are the early 1920s. It was also licensed and
standard, a few steam and electric- copied by companies all over the world.
powered vehicles are still available. The very first BMW car, the BMW Dixi, was
Stanley, producer of the famous 'Stanley a licensed Austin 7, as were the original
Steamer' doesn't go bankrupt until 1927, American Austins. In France they were
and the Milburn Electric car, although made and sold as Rosengarts. In Japan,
silent and clean, has a limited cruising Nissan also used the 7 design as the basis
range of about thirty miles, and a top for their first cars, although not under
speed limited to 40 mph. licence. This eventually led to a 1952
New car prices in the late 1920s range agreement for Nissan to build and sell
from $280 for one of the last Ford Model Austins in Japan under the Austin name.
T's, to $10,000 or more for luxury and
performance vehicles. Manufacturers have
already created a network of franchised
dealerships and the market is
Control Skill: Driving.
competitive. Prices can be bargained. Most
Complement: 1 driver.
dealerships in large cities handle only
Passenger Capacity: 3.
one make of automobile, but smaller
Consumables: None.
communities with less potential business
Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
often combine dealerships, though seldom
Production Year: 1923.
marketing direct competitors. A
Price/Rarity: 825 / 7.
combination Ford and Cadillac dealership
Weapons: None.
might be found in a small town like
Arkham, Massachusetts. Imported, vehicles
can sometimes be ordered through a U.S. BENTLEY 3-LITRE
importer, but these outlets are far and The Bentley 3 Litre was a car chassis
few between and may require a visit to manufactured by Bentley. The company's
the nearest large city. Dealerships also first it was developed from 1919 and
provide warranty maintenance as well as made available to customers'
regular mechanical repairs. Used cars are coachbuilders from 1921 to 1929. The
plentiful and available but, with little Bentley was very much larger than the
regulation, it is the heyday of the shady 1368 cc Bugattis that dominated racing
used car salesman. Caveat emptor. at the time, but double the size of engine

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and strength compensated for the extra Weapons: None.

weight.
BUICK MASTER SIX
The Buick Master Six is an automobile
built by Buick from 1925 to 1928. Before
Control Skill: Driving. then, Buick was using the 6 cylinder 242
Complement: 1 driver. engine in their high-end cars and a 4-
Passenger Capacity: 4. cylinder engine in their smaller, less-
Consumables: None. expensive cars, but for 1925 they dropped
Encumbrance Capacity: 10. the 4 cylinder engine and designed a
Production Year: 1920. small 6, which they called the Standard
Price/Rarity: 9,000 / 6. 6, to replace that end of the market. They
Weapons: None. coined the name “Master Six” for the
high-end cars, now powered by the 255
engine released the year before.
BMW DIXI
The Dixi was the first car made by BMW.
Dixi was the brand name of cars made
by Automobilwerk Eisenach (Eisenach car
factory) starting in 1904. In the Control Skill: Driving.
difficult economic climate of the 1920s Complement: 1 driver.
the company found it hard to sell its Passenger Capacity: 4.
6/24 and 9/40 models. So the manufacturer Consumables: None.
decided to enter the small car market, Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
and in 1927 signed a licensing agreement Production Year: 1925.
with the Austin Motor Company to build a Price/Rarity: 1,495 / 5.
variant of the Austin 7. A production Weapons: None.
level of 2000 cars a year was agreed
upon, and Dixi paid Austin a royalty on BUICK MODEL D-45
each vehicle produced. The significance of Buick to America’s
Apart from being left-hand drive and automobile industry cannot be
using metric fasteners, the car was overstated. While David Dunbar Buick
nearly identical to the Austin. Body started the enterprise, the marque plays
styles available were coupé, roadster, an important role in the biographies of a
tourer, and sedan with a few chassis number of the most influential names in
going to external coachbuilders. Most America’s automotive industry during the
cars left the factory as tourers. early 20th century.
The 1917 Buick D-45 Touring Car was
built in one of the lowest production
years in Buick’s history, constrained by
Control Skill: Driving. WWI supply allocations. Powered by the
Complement: 1 driver. six-cylinder version of Buick’s famous
Passenger Capacity: 1. valve-in-head engine, its 45-hp output
Consumables: None. made it a dynamic performer for the era.
Price/Rarity: 1,225 / 6.

Control Skill: Driving. The Type 51 was also the first left-hand
Complement: 1 driver. drive Cadillac – all previous models had
Passenger Capacity: 4. been right-hand drive, which was
Consumables: None. continued as an option.
Weapons: None.
CADILLAC SERIES 314 Passenger Capacity: 4.
Called the ‘new nintey degree Cadillac’ Consumables: None.
the Series 314 had an all-new V8 engine Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
with an engine displacement of 314 cu. in. Production Year: 1915.
At the time Cadillac never really gave Price/Rarity: 2,240 / 4.
this model a proper name and simply Weapons: None.
referred to all their cars as Cadillac.
At the time Cadillac advertised “Fifty
body styles and types – Five hundred CADILLAC TYPE V-63
color and upholstery combinations.” The The Cadillac Type V-63 is a large
large array of available options meant luxury automobile that was introduced
that no two cars were a like. in September 1923 by Cadillac as a 1924
Throughout a production that lasted model, replacing the previous Type 61. It
from Aug 1925 until September 1927, used the GM C platform and was replaced
50,000 cars were produced. by the Cadillac Series 355.
The V-63 used an improved version of
the L-head V8 engine that made Cadillac
famous. The main innovation was a cross-
plane crankshaft which improved balance
Control Skill: Driving. and smoothness. This design required
Complement: 1 driver. complex mathematical analysis, and was
Passenger Capacity: 4. simultaneously patented by Peerless.
Consumables: None. Both companies agreed to share the
Encumbrance Capacity: 10. innovation, which has now become common.
Production Year: 1925. Another innovation in the V-63 was front-
Price/Rarity: 3,195 / 5. wheel brakes.
Weapons: None. A line of “Custom" bodies was added for
1925, but the vehicle was otherwise
CADILLAC TYPE 51 largely unchanged. The line was
The Cadillac Type 51 is a large, refreshed for 1926 as the Series 314.
luxurious automobile that was
introduced in September 1914 by Cadillac
as a 1915 model. It was Cadillac's first V8
automobile, replacing the four-cylinder Control Skill: Driving.
Model 30. All of these models used a new Complement: 1 driver.
L-head V8 engine, one of the first V8 Passenger Capacity: 4.
engines ever mass-produced and a Consumables: None.
substantial differentiator for the Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
marque. All bodies were built by Fisher.

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Production Year: 1924. Consumables: None.

Price/Rarity: 3,950 / 5. Encumbrance Capacity: 20.
Weapons: None. Production Year: 1929.
CHEVROLET CAPITOL Weapons: None.
Chevrolet is part of General Motors
and a direct competitor to Ford. CHEVROLET MODEL K
Production figures topped 239,000 in The 1925 Chevrolet Series K was a much-
1927. where it was also first introduced. improved new model for Chevy, which it
The Capitol is available in two-door and needed after making do with a little-
four-door models and although capable changed model in 1924 Series F.
of reaching speeds of up to 50 mph, the Still on a 103-inch wheelbase, the 1925
early models are equipped with rear Chevrolet Series K carried an nicely
brakes only. Four-wheel braking is modified version of Chevy's familiar 171-
introduced in 1928. cubic-inch four-cylinder engine. It
developed 26 horsepower, and a single
dry plate clutch replaced the obsolete
cone clutch. Chevy engineers also
replaced the car's quarter-elliptic rear
Control Skill: Driving. springs with modern semi-elliptic units.
Complement: 1 driver. Chevrolet axles had always been
Passenger Capacity: 4. notoriously weak, and customers knew it.
Consumables: None. So a new semi-floating rear axle with
Encumbrance Capacity: 10. one-piece “banjo" casing was installed. It
Production Year: 1927. was borrowed from the abandoned Copper-
Price/Rarity: 695 / 4. Cooled model. Brakes were new 11-inch-
Weapons: None. diameter pieces, but still operated only
on the rear wheels.
CHEVROLET INTERNATIONAL Finished with Duco paint in different
MODEL AC TRUCK colors depending on model, Series K
Four versions of this widely-used light bodies were a little roomier than those
truck are offered for sale: the Sedan of the Series F. Five body styles went on
Delivery, the Pickup, the Canopy or sale: roadster, touring, coupe, coach, and
Screen, and the Panel version. Standard sedan.
equipment includes four-wheel brakes
and three-speed manual transmission.
Optional front and rear bumpers, heater,
cigar lighter, and wire wheels can be Control Skill: Driving.
special ordered. The roadster pickup is Complement: 1 driver.
fitted with a slip-in pickup box or cargo Passenger Capacity: 4.
carrier. Consumables: None.
Control Skill: Driving. Weapons: None.

CHEVROLET MODEL M cheaper than Buick cars. Chrysler

The 1923 Chevrolet Series M Copper- immediately had the company develop new
Cooled was an automobile made to be models. Chrysler engineers went to
completely air-cooled by Chevrolet in overdrive to deliver the all-new F58 in
1923. It was designed by Charles F. 1925 and full production started in 1926.
Kettering, head engineer of Delco By 1926, Chrysler was making a name for
Electronics, the General Motors research itself and entered the Indianapolis 500
division wing in Dayton, Ohio. The for the first time.
automobile used a body style from its The Model F58 was already coming out
predecessor, but incorporated an air- of the assembly line in December 1925. It
cooled engine. Air cooling, as opposed to featured a direct driveline that has
water-based cooling, was much more based off the Maxwell designs. The F58
practical in a sense because it did not name was derived from its smooth 58 mph
require a radiator, nor the piping that cruising speed.
came with it. Although air cooling was This 5-passenger convertible is powered
not new to the time period, it was new to by a 4-cylinder engine with an 186 cubic
engines of that scale. The Copper-Cooled inch displacement and is able to produce
Chevrolet was in fact a feasible project; 38 horsepower without any problem. The
however, the final product did not live engine is connected to a 3-speed manual
up to the standards that Kettering had transmission that is attached to a floor
imagined. The car dangerously overheated shifter, standard clutch, and a shaft
in hot weather, and posed a safety drive.
hazard to the drivers. Only a few made it
to the sales floor, only to be recalled
and destroyed by Chevrolet. The 1923
Chevrolet Series M Copper-Cooled Control Skill: Driving.
consumed extensive amounts of resources Complement: 1 driver.
to develop and was a failure in the end. Passenger Capacity: 5.
Consumables: None.
Control Skill: Driving. Price/Rarity: 1,045 / 5.
Complement: 1 driver. Weapons: None.
Consumables: None. CITRÖEN B2
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. The Citroën B2 is the second model
Production Year: 1923. produced by Citroën. It is therefore the
Price/Rarity: 695 / 4. second European car to have been
Weapons: None. constructed according to modern mass
production technologies. It was produced
CHRYSLER MODEL F-58 at André Citroën's factory in central
In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler stepped up Paris between May 1921 and July 1926.
to rescue the dying Maxwell Motor The new car offered more power, the
Company and renamed it into the Chrysler size of its 4-cylinder engine now being
Corporation. Chrysler wanted his company increased to 1,452 cc. The car was
to build a mass produced car that had sometimes known as the Citroën 10HP (or
better quality than Ford cars but 10CV), the HP in the suffix being a

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reference to its fiscal horsepower, a that no less than General George S.

number computed according to the Patton himself took it into battle in
cylinder diameters and used to define its Mexico against the troops of Pancho
taxation class. In terms of engine power, Villa. The Model 30 sold over 45,000 in
maximum output was listed as 20 bhp at 1914 to 1915 alone and launched Dodge as
2,100 rpm, which translated into a the third best in the industry in its
claimed top speed of 72 km/h (45 mph). first full year of production.
Power reached the rear wheels via a
three speed manual transmission. There
was no synchromesh.
Advertised fuel consumption of 8
litres per 100 km converts into a Control Skill: Driving.
remarkable 26 MPG (using US gallons) or Complement: 1 driver.
more than 31 MPG (British gallons). The Passenger Capacity: 4.
car quickly gained a reputation for Consumables: None.
robustness and economy. Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
Weapons: None.
Control Skill: Driving. DUSENBERG J

Complement: 1 driver. A vehicle for the truly discriminating,
Passenger Capacity: 1. like all Dusenbergs it was handmade by
Consumables: None. skilled craftsmen using only the finest
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. materials. The Dusenberg J was
Production Year: 1921. introduced in 1929. The liquid-cooled
Price/Rarity: 800 / 7. eight-cylinder engine could power the
Weapons: None. car to a top speed of 118 mph,
accelerating from 0 to 99 mph in twenty-
DODGE MODEL 30 one seconds, despite its great weight.
The Model 30 was a touring car that Aside from the usual instrumentation,
was powered by a 3.4-litre inline four- the Dusenberg could be ordered with an
cylinder L-head engine that produced altimeter, barometer, and gauges to
35bhp. The engine was paired with a 3- monitor tire pressure, oil changes,
speed manual sliding gear transmission radiator water level, and brake fluid
which was revolutionary at the time. The levels. Coachwork was custom, and often
car had an all steel body when most of done by craftsmen outside Dusenberg.
the industry was using steel panels with
wooden frames. Another innovation was
using 12V charging system when 6V was
the industry standard.
The Model 30, when compared to Ford’s Control Skill: Driving.
Model T, had more horsepower (35bhp vs Complement: 1 driver.
20bhp), a steel body and better Passenger Capacity: 4.
transmission (the Model T used a Consumables: None.
planetary design). This made the Model 30 Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
a popular car for its power and Production Year: 1929.
reliability. The car was so reputable Price/Rarity: 20,000 / 6.

Weapons: None. and manual transmission with two

forward speeds and one reverse. Three
FORD MODEL A separate pedals control the transmission
When unveiled in 1927, over a million brake, the reverse gear and car brake,
people jammed Ford Motor Company and the shifting of gears. The throttle is
headquarters in New York trying to see a lever mounted on the steering wheel.
the new Ford intended to replace the With its sometimes dangerous hand
venerable Model T. With four doors, an crank and inefficient, speed-dependent
open top, and a three-speed transmission, lighting system, the 'T' is finally forced
the 'A' was a manifest improvement over out of production in 1927.
its predecessor. However, it never gains
the fame nor dominates the market like
its forebear.
Control Skill: Driving. Consumables: None.
Complement: 1 driver. Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
Passenger Capacity: 3. Production Year: 1908.
Consumables: None. Price/Rarity: 360 / 3.
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. Weapons: None.
Price/Rarity: 450 / 4. FORD MODEL TT
Weapons: None. The Ford Model TT is a truck made by
Ford. It is based on the Ford Model T, but
FORD MODEL T with a heavier frame and rear axle,
The “Tin Lizzie" was conceived by Henry giving it a rating of 1 short ton.
Ford as a car that would never become When first produced in 1917, the Model
obsolete. A simple and efficient vehicle, TT was sold as a chassis with the buyer
the basic design was continually updated, supplying a body. Starting in 1924, the
owners installing their own upgrades as truck was available with a factory-
they choose. During a production run produced body.
from 1908-1927 over fifteen million were
produced.
The Model T was an 'everyman's car,'
capable of carrying as many as six Control Skill: Driving.
passengers. Possessed of excellent Complement: 1 driver.
handling (for its day), the car is easily Passenger Capacity: 1.
maintained; most repairs can be Consumables: None.
performed by the amateur mechanic. First Encumbrance Capacity: 20.
priced at $900, the cost eventually Production Year: 1923.
dropped below $300 in later years. Aside Price/Rarity: 490 / 5.
from the basic vehicle, the Model T can be Weapons: None.
ordered as a delivery vehicle, ambulance,
or cargo carrier. Speedster and Roadster
models were also produced.
The 'T' sports a four-cylinder engine

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HISPANO-SUIZA 15T ALFONSO took its place and small “saddle lamps"
are now mounted on the cowl. An industry
XIII first was Hudson's new steering wheel
One of the most famous marques of all constructed of a hard rubber shell and a
time, Hispano-Suiza was founded in solid steel core. Formed with finger
Barcelona, Spain in 1904, its name scallops it is colored ebony black to
(literally, Spanish-Swiss) recognising match the finish of the instrument panel.
both its place of origin and the The spark, throttle, light and horn
contribution made by its chief designer, controls are placed at the steering
the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt. wheel's center. In place of the
Lightweight, narrow and with a transmission lock previously used, the
centrally positioned engine, the Alfonso hudson is now equipped with an
XIII can be considered the archetypal electrolock ignition system. The Model S
sports car. In 1911 the four-cylinder line Hudsons were mounted on a 118-1/2
engine was enlarged from 2.6 to 3.6 litres, inch wheelbase and are available in
gaining a four-bearing crankshaft in the standard and custom form.
process, and in 1913 a four-speed gearbox
adopted. The maximum power output of
64bhp was delivered at a lowly 2,300rpm,
and with a top speed of around 120km/h
(75mph), the Alfonso XIII one of the Control Skill: Driving.
fastest road vehicles of its day. Progress Complement: 1 driver.
was arrested by means of a handbrake Passenger Capacity: 4.
operating two drums on the rear axle, Consumables: None.
and a foot-operated transmission brake. Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
Production continued until 1918 by which Production Year: 1927.
time around 600 Alfonsos had been built. Price/Rarity: 1,175 / 6.
Weapons: None.
IDEAL STUTZ BEARCAT

Control Skill: Driving. Essentially, the Bearcat was a shorter,
Complement: 1 driver. lighter version of the standard Stutz
Passenger Capacity: 1. passenger car's chassis. It was originally
Consumables: None. powered by a 390-cubic-inch, 60-
Encumbrance Capacity: 10. horsepower straight-four engine
Production Year: 1912. produced by the Wisconsin Motor Company.
Price/Rarity: 4,000 / 7. Common with racing and sports cars of
Weapons: None. the period, it featured minimal bodywork
consisting of a “dog house" hood, open
bucket seats, a tiny “monocle" windscreen
HUDSON MODEL S in front of the driver, and a cylindrical
The hudsons are handsome automobiles. fuel tank on a short rear deck.
The use of a higher and more slender Production Bearcats differed from the
radiator, vertical engine louvers and factory “White Squadron" racers by
larger, parabolically shaped headlights having fenders, lights and a trunk.
give them a stately, almost aristocratic
appearance. With the moto-meter moved to
the dash, a sculptured hood ornament

Control Skill: Driving. Control Skill: Driving.

Complement: 1 driver. Complement: 1 driver.
Passenger Capacity: 1. Passenger Capacity: 3.
Consumables: None. Consumables: None.
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
Production Year: 1912. Production Year: 1928.
Price/Rarity: 2,000 / 6. Price/Rarity: 7,750 / 7.
Weapons: None. Weapons: None.
LANCIA LAMBDA 214 OLDSMOBILE 43-A

This Italian-built motor car debuted in The Oldsmobile Model 43-A was produced
1923 with many features new to the from 1921 through 1923 and would be the
industry. Rather than the common pressed company's final four-cylinder model
steel chassis, the designers opted for a until the 1976 Starfire.
monocoque hull built up from hollow The 1923 Model 43-A was available in
steel pressings. A four-door, closed-top three different touring models, a
vehicle, the 214 could reach speeds of 125 roadster, and four separate closed
mph. versions. Of the 19,114 examples produced
that year, 926 of those were the four-
passenger Brougham or Opera Coupe. It
had seating for four occupants with the
rear seats accessed via a folding front
Control Skill: Driving. seat. A compartment adjacent to the rear
Complement: 1 driver. seat is believed to be used for storage of
Passenger Capacity: 10. champagne and other similar items during
Consumables: None. Prohibition.
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. The Model 43-A came standard with
Production Year: 1923. artillery-type wheels made of hickory, a
Price/Rarity: 4,050 / 7. heater, and a dome light. A grate in the
Weapons: None. floor allowed for the transfer of heat
from the exhaust piping.
MERCEDES-BENZ SS
The SS is an expensive sport and racing
car produced by Daimler-Benz of
Stuttgart, Germany. First appearing in
1928. Normally a fourdoor, open-top car, a Control Skill: Driving.
specially-produced two-seater has won a Complement: 1 driver.
number of races in Europe and South Passenger Capacity: 4.
America. Carefully hand-crafted, fewer Consumables: None.
than 300 of the entire series are Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
manufactured by 1934. Production Year: 1923.
Weapons: None.

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PACKARD TWIN SIX Encumbrance Capacity: 10.

The Twin Six, introduced in 1916, is Production Year: 1921.
noted for its superb acceleration and a Price/Rarity: 6,000 / 6.
top speed of 70 mph. Prices begin at $2600 Weapons: None.
for the two-seat runabout, higher for the
five-passenger versions, and topping at PONTIAC 6-27
$4440 for the seven-seat limousine. All of the Series 6-27 vehicles rested
Available in closed-top or open models, on a wheelbase of 110-inches and had a
standard equipment includes a Warner length of 151.25-inches. All were powered
speedometer, a Waltham clock, complete by an L-head, cast-iron block, six-
tool kit, and power tire pump. cylinder engine that displaced 186.5
cubic-inches and produced 40 horsepower.
The bodies were designed by Fisher and
featured a honeycomb radiator with
Indian head mascot. All were given cowl
Control Skill: Driving. lamps as standard equipment. The
Complement: 1 driver. bodystyles introduced part-way through
Passenger Capacity: 6. the year had mild changes. One of the
Consumables: None. bigger changes was the addition of body
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. colors; the early 1926 models were
Production Year: 1916. offered in only a few colors. The coup was
Price/Rarity: 2,950 / 4. finished in light Sage Green with Faerie
Weapons: None. Red striping. The Coach bodystyles were
painted in Arizona gray.
PIERCE-ARROW
In 1920, Pierce-Arrow decided to
introduce a new model which would form
the basis of their entire model lineup.
This new chassis, at 138 inch wheelbase, Control Skill: Driving.
would be the only chassis, available with Complement: 1 driver.
10 factory body styles. The dual-valve 6- Passenger Capacity: 4.
cylidner engine was redesigned with Consumables: None.
mono-bloc construction and produced 38 Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
horsepower. The steering wheel was moved Production Year: 1926.
to the left side and bodies were made of Price/Rarity: 825 / 5.
14 gauge aluminum. Traditional Pierce- Weapons: None.
Arrow quality continued with each engine
run in, disassembled, inspected and RENAULT AX
reassembled for more testing before The Renault AX was an automobile
shipment to the customer. manufactured by Renault. It was
produced between 1908 and 1914 and was
mostly used by cab drivers.
The AX had a 2-cylinders straight
engine with a displacement of 1,060 cc
Control Skill: Driving. and a power of 8 kW. Its maximum speed
Complement: 1 driver. was 34 mph (55 km/h). The vehicle weighed
Passenger Capacity: 5. 750 kg.
Consumables: None.

England, and Springfield, Massachusetts

in the United States. There were several
differences in specification between the
English and American Phantoms.
Control Skill: Driving. One major improvement over the Silver
Complement: 1 driver. Ghost was the new pushrod-OHV straight-6
Passenger Capacity: 1. engine. Constructed as two groups of
Consumables: None. three cylinders with a single detachable
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. head, the engine was described by Rolls-
Production Year: 1909. Royce as producing “sufficient" power.
Weapons: None.
ROLLS-ROYCE MODEL 40/50

SILVER GHOST Complement: 1 driver.
Rolls-Royce features autos Passenger Capacity: 4.
manufactured individually, rather than Consumables: None.
mass-produced. The Silver Ghost, fast for Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
it time, is also noted for its exceptional Production Year: 1925.
quiet and comfort. Only the chassis and Price/Rarity: 10,800 / 7.
power trains are made by Rolls-Royce; the Weapons: None.
bodies are built to specification by
various coachmakers in England and the
U.S. From 1907-1925, 6,173 Silver Ghosts STUDEBAKER DICTATOR
were produced. Studebaker was formerly a carriage
maker, now switched to automobiles. The
Dictator series, introduced in 1928, was
produced in the tens of thousands and
available in ten different models
Control Skill: Driving. ranging from a two-passenger business
Complement: 1 driver. coupe to a five-passenger Royal Tourer.
Passenger Capacity: 5. The Dictator features standard spare
Consumables: None. tire lock, speedometer, windshield washer,
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. and shock absorbers and is available in
Production Year: 1907. closed-top or open versions.
Weapons: None.
ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM I Control Skill: Driving.

Introduced in 1925, the New Phantom Complement: 1 driver.
was Rolls-Royce's second 40/50 hp model. Passenger Capacity: 4.
To differentiate between the 40/50 hp Consumables: None.
models, Rolls-Royce named the new model Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
“Phantom" and renamed the old model Production Year: 1927.
“Silver Ghost". The Rolls-Royce Phantom Price/Rarity: 1,165 / 4.
was Rolls-Royce's replacement for the Weapons: None.
original Silver Ghost.
The Phantom was built in Derby,

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STUDEBAKER LIGHT SIX MODEL Ford Model T 1908 360 3
EJ Ford Model TT 1923 490 5

The Light Six, Model EJ, continued into Hispano-Suiza 15T 1912 4,000 7
1922 with only minor change. Cowl lamps Alfonso XIII
that resembled miniature coach lights Hudson Model S 1927 1,175 6
were added. Also new was an air Ideal Stutz Bearcat 1912 2,000 6
ventilator on the top of the cowl. Lancia Lambda 214 1923 4,050 7
Reverse curve style rear fenders were
also adopted. A crank case breather tube Mercedes-Benz SS 1928 7,750 7
was a technical improvement. Oldsmobile Model 43- 1923 1,345 4
A
Packard Twin Six 1916 2,950 4
Pierce-Arrow 1921 6,000 6
Control Skill: Driving. Pontiac 6-27 1926 825 5

Complement: 1 driver. Renault AX 1909 500 7
Passenger Capacity: 4. Rolls-Royce Model 1907 6,750 6
Consumables: None. 40/50 Silver Ghost
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. Rolls-Royce Phantom 1925 10,800 7
Production Year: 1920. I
Price/Rarity: 1,485 / 5. Studebaker Dictator 1927 1,165 4
Weapons: None.
Studebaker Light Six 1920 1,485 5
Model EJ
AUTOMOBILES
NAME YEAR PRICE RARITY
Austin Seven 1923 825 7
Bentley 3-Litre 1920 9,000 6
BMW Dixi 1928 1,225 6
Buick Master Six 1925 1,495 5
Buick Model D-45 1917 1,020 4
Cadillac Series 314 1925 3,195 5
Cadillac Type 51 1915 2,240 4
Cadillac Type V-63 1924 3,950 5
Chevrolet Capitol 1927 695 4
Chevrolet 1929 545 5
International Model
AC Truck
Chevrolet Model K 1925 525 3
Chevrolet Model M 1923 695 4
Chrysler Model F-58 1926 1,045 5
Citröen B2 1921 800 7
Dodge Model 30 1917 835 5
Dusenberg J 1929 20,000 6
Ford Model A 1927 450 4

MOTORCYCLES maintenance, more so than most

automobiles, even including adjustments
Motorcycles are an exciting option for to fuel and lubrication while riding.
the young and reckless. Although Total-loss oil systems and manual spark
generally less reliable than automobiles, retards mean an investigator using a
requiring more maintenance, and motorcycle for regular transportation
unsuitable during inclement weather,
should have an Average (dd) Mechanics
they are affordable, quick and
skill check, or suffer the risk of being
maneuverable – and not necessarily bound
occasionally stranded with a broken
to travel on established roads. Top
chain, wet magneto, or other routine
speeds on the larger models are
problem. It should be noted that
comparable or superior to most
although most medium and large-
automobiles and the standing-start
displacement motorcycles are powered by
acceleration of even smaller models can't
four-cycle engines, a few smaller models
be touched. Under good conditions they
use the two-cycle engine design. Although
handle turns faster than automobiles,
simpler, with fewer moving parts, two-
although this advantage quickly
cycle engines require their own special
disappears in the presence of rain, snow,
maintenance, not the least of which
ice or mud. Deceleration from medium and
requires mixing lubricating oil with the
slow speeds is superior to most
gasoline. Failure to do so results in a
automobiles due to the motorcycle's
ruined engine.
reduced mass, however, braking systems on
Motorcycles use the extended Vehicle
many production motorcycles are
Rules that are presented on pages 220
notoriously inefficient at high speeds,
through 231 in the GENESYS core
the usual single rear brake quickly
rulebook.
overheating and fading into nothingness.
Front suspensions are of differing
designs of various efficiencies; rear PASSENGERS
suspensions are non-existent on American Most motorcycles have room for a
motorcycles, resulting in a 'hardtail' passenger to be carried on a pillion seat
design and a bone-jarring ride. The world mounted behind the rider's saddle.
top speed record for motorcycles in 1927 Detachable and permanent sidecars, large
is 121 mph – with sidecar, 110 mph. enough to carry one or two passengers, or
It was not until the War that a few hundred pounds of equipment can
motorcycle design and engineering be purchased for $24.95 to $66.95. However,
received the attention it deserved. The adding a sidecar to the motorcycle reduce
perfection of chain drive systems and its Handling by -1, but it also increase
reliable counter-shaft transmissions its Hull Trauma Threshold by 1. The
have helped make this vehicle a viable military has experimented with mounting
form of transportation. Traditionally light and medium machine guns on
used by the military and courier sidecars, fired by the passenger. The
services, the mounted motorcycle added weight of sidecar and passenger
policeman is today a common sight in drastically reduce acceleration and
American cities and on highways. The deceleration, and radically affect
powerful large-displacement Indians and handling. No longer able to lean into a
Harley-Davidsons are a choice of police turn, the motorcycle must be slowed and
departments across the nation, and turned, more in the manner of an
around the world. automobile.
Motorcycles require frequent

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LICENSING operated by a hand pump. Ignition was

Motorcycles must be registered as a achieved with a Splitdorf Magneto and
vehicle and bear a license plate. A valid the fuel system featured an Amac
driver's license is required to legally automatic carburettor. The silencer was
operate a motorcycle on any public street made from cast aluminium and the frame
or highway. was a tubular 'diamond' construction,
with Brampton bi-flex front forks, which
had an unusual two way movement, and
CHOOSING A quickly detachable wheels.
MOTORCYCLE
Numerous makes of American
motorcycles have come and gone, leaving
four major manufacturers currently Control Skill: Driving.
dominating the market: Cleveland, Complement: 1 driver.
Excelsior, Harley-Davidson, and Indian. Passenger Capacity: 0.
Much smaller than the auto companies, a Consumables: None.
customer, for a price, can request custom Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
designs, alterations, and even high- Production Year: 1912.
powered production racers. Price/Rarity: 100 / 5.
Weapons: None.
AJS MODEL D
The AJS Model D is a British motorcycle BMW R32
made by A. J. Stevens & Co. Ltd in The BMW R32 was the first motorcycle
Wolverhampton between 1912 and 1925. produced by BMW under the BMW name. An
With production halted by the First aircraft engine manufacturer during
World War AJS managed to develop the World War I, BMW was forced to diversify
Model D into a popular sidecar machine after the Treaty of Versailles banned
and it was eventually replaced by the the German air force and German aircraft
larger capacity AJS Model E. manufacture. BMW initially turned to
In 1905 the Stevens Motor industrial engine design and
Manufacturing Company built a V-twin manufacturing.
motorcycle powered by a JA Prestwich The R32 had a tubular steel frame with
Industries Ltd motor, with leading-link twin downtubes that continued under the
front forks and a swinging fork at the engine to the rear wheel. The front fork
rear. A new company, A J Stevens & Co had a trailing link design suspended by
(AJS), was founded in 1909 to manufacture a leaf spring, similar to the forks used
motorcycles and at the 1912 London by Indian at the time. The rear wheel was
Motorcycle show they launched the 698cc rigidly mounted. In the original First
side valve AJS Model D. Featuring Series, Braking was accomplished solely
cylinders at 50 degrees and chain drive with a “dummy rim" on the rear wheel
to a three speed countershaft gearbox with two padded brake shoes set within
with a hand gear change, the original it. One would be operated by the, now
engines had quickly removable cylinder traditional, right hand lever and the
heads but after problems with oil leaks a other by use of a heel actuated lever on
more permanent head was specified for the right side. Later years would reroute
1913. The side valve engine was the front right lever and cable to a
lubricated by a 'total loss' system front drum brake.

The R32 established the boxer-twin, 45 cubic inches), had an inlet-over-

shaft-drive powertrain layout that BMW exhaust top end. The cylinders were
would use until the present. BMW used formed by one casting and the top end by
shaft drives in all of its motorcycles another. The transmission housing was
until the introduction of the F650 in cast integral with the lower end, but the
1994 and continues to use it on their gears could be removed through the side
boxer-twin motorcycles. of the transmission, a feature unique to
this design.

Complement: 1 driver. Control Skill: Driving.
Passenger Capacity: 0. Complement: 1 driver.
Consumables: None. Passenger Capacity: 0.
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. Consumables: None.
Production Year: 1919. Encumbrance Capacity: 0.
Price/Rarity: 525 / 6. Production Year: 1919.
Weapons: None. Price/Rarity: 125 / 4.
Weapons: None.
CLEVELAND 4-45
In 1912, William Henderson started EXCELSIOR SUPER X
production of the first of his two The Excelsior Super X was a motorcycle
excellent inline fours, the Henderson. He manufactured by the Excelsior Motor
followed it up in late 1919 with the Ace. Manufacturing & Supply Company from
Fours were more expensive and more 1925 to 1931. It was the most famous
complicated than singles or twins, and Excelsior motorcycle manufactured by
were by extension purchased by people that company and was the first American
with more money than the average forty-five cubic inch motorcycle.
motorcyclist — and police departments. In The design of the Super X was a
1925, when Cleveland’s directors decided considerable departure from its
to retool for a Four, many police predecessors at Excelsior. Where earlier
departments were putting their Excelsiors had an enclosed primary chain
patrolmen on Henderson or Ace fours. The transmitting power from the engine to a
big, solid Henderson was especially separate gearbox, the Super X had the
popular with motor cops, although it was engine and transmission together in a
heavy. The people at Cleveland thought single crankcase, using a helical gear to
they could do better. power the transmission directly from the
Cleveland’s first try at a four was engine. The Super X also marked the
designed by L.E. Fowler, and sold no return of leading-link forks on Excelsior
better than the 4-stroke single. It was motorcycles, which had earlier switched
underpowered and it didn’t handle well. to trailing-link forks similar to those
Company finances most likely took used by Indian but with coil springs
another hit. Refusing to give up, the instead of Indian's quarter-elliptic leaf
company hired Everett DeLong, an springs.
understudy to Arthur Lemon, the chief
engineer of Ace, and asked him to draw a
four. This bike, the 4-45 (four cylinders,

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its 1917 models. Styling changes were few

during those years, the most notable
occurring in 1920 when the headlight and
horn switched places. V-twins still
Control Skill: Driving. displaced the same 61 cubic inches (1,000-
Complement: 1 driver. cc) as before, though a 74-cubic-inch
Passenger Capacity: 0. (1,200-cc) model joined the line for 1921.
Consumables: None.
Weapons: None. Control Skill: Driving.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON BA Passenger Capacity: 0.
The 1927 Harley-Davidson BA was a Consumables: None.
single-cylinder motorcycle that was Encumbrance Capacity: 0.
economical but sold poorly. Two versions Production Year: 1920.
of the single were offered: a flat-head Price/Rarity: 250 / 4.
with eight horsepower and an overhead- Weapons: None.
valve variant producing twelve
horsepower. HARLEY-DAVIDSON JD
Though economical to buy and run, The 1925 Harley-Davidson JD motorcycle
Harley's 21-cubic-inch single never sold introduced Harley's familiar tear-drop-
particularly well during its ten-year shaped fuel tank. Sidecars were popular
production run. accessories of the day as these vehicles
often served as a family's primary form
of motorized transportation.
With the 1925 Harley-Davidson JD, the
venerable motorcycle company made great
Control Skill: Driving. strides in modernizing its machines – at
Complement: 1 driver. least from the standpoint of styling.
Passenger Capacity: 0. A new frame placed the saddle three
Consumables: None. inches lower than before, wider but
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. smaller-diameter tires gave the bike a
Production Year: 1927. huskier look, and the fuel tank took on a
Price/Rarity: 200 / 5. rounded teardrop shape. Color choices,
Weapons: None. however, remained the same as they had
since 1917: anything the customer wanted,
HARLEY-DAVIDSON 20-J as long as it was Olive Drab.
The 1920 Harley-Davidson 20-J sported Since Harleys still lacked rear
the olive paint that first came in 1917. suspension, riders appreciated the softer
Styling changes were few during those fork springs and new contoured saddle,
years. The most notable came in 1920 when the latter of which also offered six-
the headlight and horn switched places. position height adjustment.
V-twins still displaced the same 61 cubic The shift lever was moved farther
inches. forward along the side of the tank for
The 1920 Harley-Davidson 20-J sported convenience, and a fork-mounted tool kit
the olive paint Harley switched to with made a debut appearance.

Weapons: None.
INDIAN SCOUT
Consumables: None. The Indian Scout is a motorcycle built
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. by the Indian Motocycle Company from
Production Year: 1925. 1920 to 1949. It rivaled the Chief as
Price/Rarity: 325 / 5. Indian's most important model. The 101
Weapons: None. Scout, made from 1928 to 1931, has been
called the best motorcycle Indian ever
made. A second line of Scouts, with
INDIAN CHIEF heavier frames, was introduced in 1932
The Chief was introduced as Indian’s alongside the Standard Scout, which
heavyweight competitor to Harley- replaced the 101 Scout and shared its
Davidson and lasted for 31 years. In 1922, frame with the Chief and the Four. The
21 years after the company began small-displacement Scout and the Sport
building bikes, Indian launched the Scout, introduced in 1934, were continued
Chief with a 61 cubic inch flathead V- until the end of civilian production in
twin, although a larger 74 cubic inch 1942. Military versions of both models
bike, called the Big Chief, was an option. were used by US and other Allied forces
The 61-inch Chef only lasted until 1928, during World War II.
when it was discontinued, but the 74-inch
flathead engine remained until 1950.
Indian remained faithful to the
principle of a flathead, and in doing so
escaped some of the pitfalls that Harley- Control Skill: Driving.
Davidson encountered in their efforts Complement: 1 driver.
with overhead valve designs. Passenger Capacity: 0.
Aside from the engine, the Indian was Consumables: None.
actually rather unconventional, with its Encumbrance Capacity: 0.
left-hand twist grip (apparently so that Production Year: 1920.
policemen would be able to use their Price/Rarity: 200 / 4.
pistols with their right hand), a foot Weapons: None.
clutch, hand shift and the ignition
advance controlled by the right NORTON 16H
handlebar grip. A 3-speed gearbox was The Norton 16H is a designation given
standard, but a 4-speed gearbox and a to British motorcycles made between 1911
reverse gear were options. through to 1954 with various
modifications and refers to a single
cylinder Norton 490cc side valve engine
with a bore and stroke of 79 x 100 mm.
Control Skill: Driving. The H denotes the Home model as distinct
Complement: 1 driver. from the Colonial export model. Norton
Passenger Capacity: 0. was the main military motorcycle
Consumables: None. supplier prior to WW2 and one of the
main suppliers of motorcycles to the

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British Army in World War II with a total improvements.

of nearly 100,000 produced. British Army
Nortons were also supplied to the
Commonwealth forces such as Australian,
New Zealand, India and the Canadian
Army. Control Skill: Driving.
Consumables: None.
Control Skill: Driving. Production Year: 1926.
Complement: 1 driver. Price/Rarity: 295 / 6.
Passenger Capacity: 0. Weapons: None.
Consumables: None.
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. TRIUMPH RICARDO
Production Year: 1911. The Triumph Ricardo was a British
Price/Rarity: 145 / 6. single-cylinder motorcycle manufactured
Weapons: None. by the Triumph Engineering Co Ltd
between 1921 and 1928. Named after
SCOTT FLYING SQUIRREL engine designer Sir Harry Ricardo it
The Scott Flying Squirrel was a featured an innovative four valve head
motorcycle made by The Scott Motorcycle design and was capable of over 70 mph,
Company between 1926 and the outbreak set three world speed records and won a
of World War II. gold medal in the 1923 International Six
The Squirrel name was used for Scott Day Trial.
motorcycles since 1921 but with the death Developed around a 499cc single-
of the founder Alfred Angas Scott in cylinder four overhead valve four-stroke
1923 the unorthodox Scott two-stroke commissioned by Triumph from engine
motorcycles began to become more expert Ricardo, the Triumph Ricardo was
conventional. Development of the three- a replacement for the aging Triumph
speed Scott Flying Squirrel began in 1922 side-valves. Ricardo produced a number
as the company was in severe debt and of prototypes aimed at reducing thermal
faced receivership. Launched at the 1926 stress on the inadequate valve materials
Earls Court motorcycle show, the Flying available, while improving airflow
Squirrel was expensive - nearly twice the through increased valve area. Harry
cost of a sporting four-stroke motorcycle Ricardo's final design had the four
of the time. The unique water-cooled valves operated by the existing tappet
circulation used a convection method mechanism and set a new standard for the
known as the thermosyphon system. The power output possible from a 500cc
bottom end block was painted either single-cylinder engine, achieving over 20
green or red for racing or road bhp - the same as a 1500cc car engine of
respectively and featured a centrally the time. Capable of 70 mph, the four-
positioned flywheel, twin inboard main valve head allowed more efficient gas
bearings, overhung crankpins and doors flow and the spark plug could be
to enable ease of access to the engine. positioned in the middle for optimum
The redesigned three-speed gearbox, combustion. Each pair of valves was
multi-plate clutch and the repositioned parallel, at 90 degrees to each other,
magneto were all significant with the valve stems and springs exposed,

as were the long pushrods which ran on MOTORCYCLES

the outside of the engine. A light alloy NAME YEAR PRICE RARITY
piston ran in a steel cylinder barrel and
AJS Model D 1912 100 5
the cylinder head was made of cast iron.
BMW R32 1919 525 6
Cleveland 4-45 1919 125 4
Excelsior Super X 1925 225 4
Control Skill: Driving. Harley-Davidson BA 1927 200 5

Complement: 1 driver. Harley-Davidson 20-J 1920 250 4
Passenger Capacity: 0. Harley-Davidson JD 1925 325 5
Consumables: None.
Indian Chief 1922 250 5
Production Year: 1921. Indian Scout 1920 200 4
Price/Rarity: 375 / 7. Norton 16H 1911 145 6
Weapons: None. Scott Flying 1926 295 6
Squirrel
VICTORIA KR1 Triumph Ricardo 1921 375 7
Victoria was a bicycle manufacturer in Victoria KR1 1920 395 7
Nürnberg, Germany that made motorcycles
from about 1901 until 1966. It should not
be confused with a lesser-known,
unrelated Victoria Motorcycle Company in
Glasgow, Scotland that made motorcycles
between 1902 and 1928.
In its early decades Victoria in
Nürnberg fitted proprietary engines
purchased from various manufacturers
including Fafnir, FN, Minerva and Zédel.
In 1920 Victoria launched the model KR
1, which has a 494 cc BMW twin-cylinder
side-valve flat twin (boxer engine)
mounted longitudinally in the motorcycle
frame. The engine produced 6.5 bhp (4.8
kW) and transmission was via a two-speed
gearbox.

Consumables: None.
Weapons: None.

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BOATS AND OTHERS Complement: 1 captain.

Although water travel is not the most Consumables: 1 week.
common way of getting about, the topic Encumbrance Capacity: 25.
bears coverage. The U.S. has several Price/Rarity: 2,500 / 6.
thousand miles of navigable coastline Weapons: None.
along its eastern, southern, and western
borders. Patrolled by the Coast Guard,
and marked by buoys and lighthouses, CANOES
this can be a pleasant, if not Wooden canoes are light and relatively
particularly fast method of travel. The inexpensive, costing anywhere from $35 on
Great Lakes of the Midwest are large up, plus $2 each for paddles. Generally
enough, and dangerous enough, to fifteen to eighteen feet in length, they
challenge any sailor, and much of the can be paddled or portaged overland by
rest of the country is dotted with lakes one man. Sailing a canoe requires an
and marked by navigable rivers. Operating skill or Brawn check. Novices
Boats use the extended Vehicle Rules can best learn basic canoe skills by
that are presented on pages 220 through paddling the front seat of a two-man
231 in the GENESYS core rulebook. canoe, allowing an experienced canoeist
to sit in the rear, steering and
maneuvering.
CABIN CRUISERS Canoes are notoriously tipsy and care
Cabin Cruisers are intended for must be taken to avoid capsizing. Items
extended traveling. V-shaped stowed in a canoe should be lashed down
displacement hulls are more stable in and waterproofed as well as possible.
rough seas and lower-powered engines
consume less fuel, increasing cruising
ranges. Usually 20 feet or longer,
cruisers are powered by 10-20 hp engines
and have top speeds of 8-10 knots (9-11 Control Skill: Operating or Brawn.
mph). American style 'Express' cruisers Complement: 1 captain.
are 25-50 feet long and, taking advantage Passenger Capacity: 2.
of increased fuel capacity, use high- Consumables: None.
powered engines to reach speeds of 20-25 Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
knots (22-30 mph). A cabin cruiser is Price/Rarity: 35 / 3.
steered by the Operating skill. Weapons: None.
In addition, cabin cruisers are fitted
with below decks cabins, galleys, and FOLDING BOATS
heads. A 25-foot cruiser can easily sleep
Folding boats, made of canvas with
six, more if conditions allow sleeping on
wooden frames, cost $29.95 or more. They
deck. Cabin cruisers are considerably
are not particularly strong, nor
more expensive than simple open
seaworthy, but with a total weight of
launches, costing about $125 dollars per
less than thirty pounds (which can be
foot.
divided among bearers) and of
unobtrusive size when folded, they are
particularly useful when space and
weight are prime considerations –
Control Skill: Operating. underground explorations, etc. Usually
rowed or paddled, some can be fitted with

a small outboard motor. Sailing and ROWBOATS

steering the folding boat requires an Rowboats, usually clinker built, are
Operating skill or Brawn check. comparatively large and heavy, less
maneuverable, but more stable than
canoes, especially when loaded. Small
rowboats can easily carry four to five
Control Skill: Operating or Brawn. adults, even more in a pinch. Powered by
Complement: 1 captain. oars, it takes very little skill to
Passenger Capacity: 2. maneuver a rowboat. As such, a character
Consumables: None. can use either Operating skill or his
Encumbrance Capacity: 5. Brawn characteristic to do so. Rowboats
Price/Rarity: 29,95 / 3. are particularly adaptable to outboard
Weapons: None. motor use.
A new rowboat can be had for as little
as $35, plus $2.50 each for oars.
OPEN LAUNCHES
Powered by one or more inboard
engines, open launches are generally
high-speed craft. Taking advantage of
hydroplane design, they are used for Control Skill: Operating or Brawn.
patrol and rescue operations, and by Complement: 1 captain.
bootleggers and smugglers as well. Passenger Capacity: 3.
Generally 16-35 feet long, they are Consumables: None.
equipped with engines providing 6-30 hp Encumbrance Capacity: 5.
and can usually reach speeds of 25-35 Price/Rarity: 35 / 2.
knots (30-40 mph) – and some as high as 55 Weapons: None.
knots (63 mph). The open launch is steered
by the Operating skill. SAILBOATS
Launches are not intended for Sailboats are still useful, but
extended periods at sea. Powerful engines probably less so in this age of powered
devour fuel at a frightful rate and the craft. Sailing a small vessel with a
high-speed hydroplane design is at a single sail requires a Operating check. An
disadvantage in rough waters. Canvas hour or two of lessons give most
covers can be mounted to protect crew investigators a basic skill, enough to
and passengers from sun and rain. Cost is insure that they can get around on a
generally $75 per foot. smooth lake or bay, but not necessarily
enough to make a difficult series of
tacks back to shore.
A sailboat can be no more than a
Control Skill: Operating. rowboat fitted with mast, sail, and
Complement: 1 captain. rudder, but a dory or other authentic
Passenger Capacity: 4. sailing craft costs in the neighborhood
Consumables: None. of $40 per foot, complete with sails and
Encumbrance Capacity: 15. rigging. Many can be fitted with
Price/Rarity: 1,200 / 4. auxiliary outboard motors. A sailboat
Weapons: None. outfitted with a motor has a System
Strain Threshold of 3.

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Weapons: None.
BOATS
Control Skill: Operating.
NAME PRICE RARITY
Complement: 1 captain.
Passenger Capacity: 2. Cabin Cruiser 2,500 6
Consumables: None. Canoe 35 3
Encumbrance Capacity: 30. Folding Boat 29,95 3
Open Launch 1,200 4
Weapons: None.
Rowboat 35 2
YACHTS Sailboat 1,320 5

Yachts are defined as any large craft Yacht 7,800 7
powered primarily by sails. They may be
fitted with one, two, or more masts.
Sailing craft are much more delicate and
finely tuned vessels, relying on their
shape and design, rather than the brute
horsepower of internal combustion
engines. They are costlier to build, and
require a delicate hand to manage.
The Operating skill is required to
properly handle a yacht. The handling of
multiple sails, masts, rudder, and balky
crew, calls for far more skill than
coasting a dory. Note that it is becoming
more and more common to fit yachts with
small auxiliary engines for use in
emergencies and in harbors. They are
rarely powerful enough to make more
than 4-6 knots (5-7 mph).
The best American yachts come from New
England shipyards, particularly around
Essex, and are constructed by families
long in the trade. A custom made yacht,
with all sails and rigging, costs $200 to
$250 a foot – or more – depending on the
materials and fittings.
Control Skill: Operating.

Complement: 1 captain.
Consumables: 1 week.

AIR TRAVEL six major airfields, located roughly 250

miles apart, each lit by two floodlights
Following the end of the War the U.S. of a half-billion candlepower each, one
aviation industry was small, lighting the field while the other sweeps
unsupported, and nearly stagnant. the horizon every twenty seconds – a
Airplanes were viewed as sporting devices beacon seen for 100 miles or more. Small
and there was no federal regulation or emergency fields are located every 15-30
pilot's licensing required until the Air miles, lit by smaller electric beacons.
Commerce Act of 1926. Until this time Small acetylene beacons are placed every
pilots were only required to obey the three miles along the routes to help
laws of their state and local community, guide pilots. Looking from New York, two
most regulations dealing with the major lighted routes are seen: one
buzzing of towns and farms, and other heading south down the coast to
reckless stunts. Washington, D.C., before turning inland to
Atlanta, Georgia, then branching west to
EARLY AIR MAIL Birmingham, Alabama, and south to
In 1920 the U.S. Postal Service Daytona Beach, Florida. The other heads
inaugurated their New York to San due west to Cleveland, Detroit, then
Francisco, cross-country air mail service. Chicago which forms a 'hub' for short
Air mail had, since the end of the War, routes to many Midwestern cities. West of
flown regularly between New York and Chicago a light route heads to Omaha,
Washington D.C., but nothing of this scale here branching south to Dallas, Texas
had yet been attempted. Using Curtiss and (and an unlighted portion all the way to
other Army surplus planes, ex-military Houston), and west to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
pilots flying in shifts crossed the and over the Rocky Mountains to Salt
country in just 32 hours, compared to Lake City, Utah. From Salt Lake City
three days for the fastest trains. routes head northwest to Portland, west
Although at first uneconomical, within a to San Francisco, and southwest to Los
few years a profit was shown. Night Angeles. A completely lighted route also
flying began in 1924 when the route runs the length of the West Coast.
between Chicago and Rock Springs,
Wyoming, was completely lighted. By 1926, USE OF THE AIRWAYS
when the Postal Service got out of the The airways are for the use of
business, selling its routes to private commercial companies and private
contractors, lighted airways stretched citizens alike. The 66 major airfields
all the way from New York to the Rocky linking the system offer hangars,
Mountains. By the end of the decade the repairs, fuel, wireless and meteorological
U.S. has over 15,000 miles of marked equipment, booking offices for commercial
airways. carriers, and even travel agents. A Take-
Aside from mail and passenger Off and Landing fee of $2 is charged.
transport, aircraft are currently being Gasoline sells for roughly 19 cents a
used for aerial survey and photography, gallon.
forest fire reconnaissance, crop-dusting, Normal cruising altitude is around
sky-writing, and are occasionally pressed 5000 feet, although heights of 10,000
into ambulance and medical service. feet can be safely reached without
resorting to oxygen. At 12,000-15,000 feet
THE U.S. AIRWAY SYSTEM the effects of oxygen deprivation can be
The U.S. airway system consists of sixty- felt, and pilots and passengers may be at

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risk. Fully pressurized cabins do not find small airlines often the quickest
appear until the next decade. way to get from one place to another.
COMMERCIAL AIR TRAVEL PRIVATE AIRCRAFT

After establishing the system, the U.S. A privately owned airplane might be
Post Office sold its air mail routes to 32thought a luxury, but it is really not
private contractors who now haul not out of reach of the typical investigator's
only mail, but express freight and wallet. War surplus trainers can be had
passengers as well. In addition to the for as little as $300. Hangar fees, fuel,
normal mail routes, commercial companies maintenance, and takeoff and landing
have established a number of other fees add only a little to the total cost.
routes, particularly across the South and The decade sees great advances in
Southwest. None of these routes are design. At the end of the War most
lighted, however. airplanes are simple open-cockpit
Air travel is not prohibitively biplanes constructed of wood, wire, and
expensive: 10 cents a mile is about the silk. By 1930 fully enclosed, multi-engine
average rate, and speeds average about monoplanes capable of carrying 10 or
100 mph, including refueling time. In more people hundreds of miles non-stop in
1929, “Lindbergh's line" offers the first relative comfort are being constructed
through cross-country package. Passenger wholly of metal. However, U.S. aircraft
flying is not yet done at night, and in production lags far behind many
the evening the passengers are set down European countries. In 1928 America
and transported by bus to make rail produced only 5000 planes, nearly half
connections. Traveling by rail overnight, of these inexpensive, open-cockpit
the passengers the following morning biplanes. Of the remainder, a mere eighty-
disembark and are transported to the ive were advanced design closed-cockpit
nearest airfield. Price is $335 one way. monoplanes, and only sixty were of
transport size.
AIR TAXIS A typical airplane is capable of
Air-Taxi service is also available. cruising at speeds from 70-100 mph, with
Private pilots with their own aircraft a range of 250-400 miles. But airplanes
often offer charter aircraft service to can be customized to suit the user's needs.
destinations not on regular commercial Larger, more powerful engines can be
routes. Rates are generally 25 cents a fitted to increase speed, and additional
mile for a medium sized plane capable of fuel tanks installed to improve cruising
carrying three investigators in addition range. Aircraft powerplants are
to the pilot. expensive, however, and newer, more
The selling off of the Postal Service powerful models typically cost thousands
air mail routes gives rise to new of dollars. The weight of additional fuel
companies like National Air Transport means less passenger and/or cargo
and Boeing Air Transport. Mergers later capacity, and may also drastically alter
create companies called TWA, Eastern the flight characteristics of the
Airlines, and American Airlines. Although aircraft. All these must be taken into
amenities such as stewards, on-board account when making modifications.
lavatories, seat belts, and in-flight
meals are not introduced until the SEAPLANES
thirties, the traveler who does not mind Seaplanes and flying boats get
the noise, cold, and general risk, will particular attention from designers.

Because they can take-off and land on sold by the manufacturer for a lower
water, they are not limited by normal- than normal cost. War surplus equipment
length landing strips. Seaplanes are often affords the buyer remarkable
among the largest and most powerful bargains. Used aircraft prices fluctuate
aircraft available. wildly, depending on condition and local
Float type seaplanes appear as typical demand. Exact costs will have to be
small or medium aircraft (up to 10,000 determined by the keeper. As a rule of
pounds) fitted with pontoons instead of thumb, open-cockpit biplanes are the
wheels. These floats decrease both cargo cheapest, monoplanes and closed hatches
capacity and top speed by 10%. A world far more costly. Twin engines usually at
speed record of 281.669 mph is set in least double the price.
October, 1927, by a British-built seaplane. Aircrafts use the extended Vehicle
Flying boats are larger aircraft whose Rules that are presented on pages 220
hulls ride directly in the water. One of through 231 in the GENESYS core
the largest weighs over 33,000 pounds, rulebook.
has a crew of five, and is powered by
four engines developing over 2600 hp. AVRO 504K
Reasonably seaworthy, flying boats can Thousands of this two-seater biplane
set down in bad weather to ride out the were manufactured between 1916 and 1918,
storm, then take off again. after the war many finding their way
into the hands of barnstormers and other
INSTRUMENTATION performers. The Avro saw service all over
Although new instruments and the world, including Japan, Australia,
indicators are constantly being Europe, and South America, as well as the
developed, the typical cockpit includes: a U.S. A versatile aircraft, the 504 can be
tachometer; engine oil and temperature fitted with both ski and float type
gauges; an Air Speed indicator; an landing devices, in addition to the
Altimeter; Attitude or Trim indicators; normal gear. Military versions carried a
possibly Climb and Bank indicators; and single, synchronized machine gun.
perhaps a two-way radio. Powered by the Clerget, the Avro can
hit a top speed of 95 mph, and has a
COMMON AIRCRAFT cruising range of 250 miles.
The following are just a few
representative models of aircraft
available. Some are manufactured
strictly for the commercial market while Control Skill: Piloting.
others are civilian models of aircraft Complement: 1 pilot.
originally designed for the military. Passenger Capacity: 1.
Some, especially trainers, are actual Consumables: None.
military surplus. Encumbrance Capacity: 0.
Setting prices for aircraft is Production Year: 1913.
problematical. A small market, coupled Price/Rarity: 2,900 / 6.
with specialized needs, results in many Weapons: None.
early aircraft designs being built to
order. Occasionally some of those CURTIS JN-4 “FLYING JENNY”
manufactured are not delivered for one
An open-cockpit biplane, the Jenny
reason or another, and are eventually
features tandem seating for two, with

Strange Aeons
dual controls. The result of development Passenger Capacity: 1.

of earlier Curtiss designs used in the war Consumables: None.
against Pancho Villa, the JN-4 biplane is Encumbrance Capacity: 0.
the most common aircraft in the U.S. Production Year: 1925.
military during the early part of the Price/Rarity: 500 / 6.
decade. Thousands of pilots trained in Weapons: None.
the Jenny during the War and in years
after. A reliable aircraft, it is the first DORNIER DO 15 WAL
mass-produced aircraft in the U.S. Production of this aircraft began in
Powered by a Curtiss engine developing 1923 and continues until 1932. The basic
90 hp, the Jenny has a top speed of 75 design benefits from continual
mph and a cruising range of 150 miles. improvements, including upgraded engines
as well as changes to wingspan and to
overall weight. A flying boat with high-
mounted single wing, the Wal mounts its
Control Skill: Piloting. twin engines above the high wing in a
Complement: 1 pilot. push-pull configuration. Designed in
Passenger Capacity: 1. Germany, the first Wals were
Consumables: None. manufactured in Italy, Germany's
Encumbrance Capacity: 0. production restricted by its postwar
Production Year: 1915. agreements. One of the best aircraft of
Price/Rarity: 600 / 5. its type, the military reconnaissance
Weapons: None. version is armed with a pair of MG15
7.92mm machine guns, and can carry as
many as four 110 lb. bombs on external
DE HAVILLAND MOTH racks.
This immensely successful biplane is a One of the aircraft's most famous
low-cost sporting aircraft that has flights was Roald Admundsen's attempt to
benefited from numerous improvements fly a pair over the North Pole. One plane
over its production run. Later versions, crashed on pack ice forcing the other to
with improved engines, are dubbed the make a tricky landing to retrieve the
Gypsy Moth and Tiger Moth. A Gypsy Moth stranded crew of the wreck. After
piloted by Amy Johnson accomplishes the hacking through the ice to provide a
first England to Australia solo flight strip of water suitable for take-off, the
made by a woman. Thousands of these overloaded Wal managed to return the
aircraft are destined to see service as expedition safely home.
basic trainers in the early days of the Seating four, the Wal is powered by a
Second World War. pair of BMW engines developing a
Seating two, and usually powered by a combined 1500 hp. The Wal can hit a top
60 hp Cirrus engine, the Moth reaches a speed of 137 mph, cruise at 118, and has a
top speed of 90 mph, and has a cruising range of 1367 miles.
range of 150 miles.
Control Skill: Piloting.

Control Skill: Piloting. Complement: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot.
Complement: 1 pilot. Passenger Capacity: 12.

Consumables: None.
Weapons: None. Control Skill: Piloting.
Complement: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot.
FARLAN F.60 GOLIATH Consumables: None.
First designed in 1919, the French Encumbrance Capacity: 45.
Goliath was the first truly commercial Production Year: 1917.
airliner. With a crew of two, and seating Price/Rarity: 3,200 / 6.
twelve passengers, this twin-engine Weapons: None.
biplane began regular air service
between Paris and London in 1920 and
sports a perfect safety record. FOKKER F.VIIA/3M
The Goliath is powered by twin Salmson A product of the famous Dutch Fokker
engines that develop a combined 520 hp. firm, the F.VII monoplane began life as a
It can cruise at 75 mph, and has a single engine utility transport in 1923.
cruising range of 248 miles. In 1925 a trimotor version was introduced
that was destined to earn the airplane
its greatest successes. Adaptable to skis
and floats, the F.VIIA/3m sees service all
over the world. Eleven have been
Control Skill: Piloting. purchased by the U.S. Army and
Complement: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot. designated C-2 cargo carriers.
Passenger Capacity: 12. The aircraft's most famous moment
Consumables: None. comes on May 9, 1926 when a Fokker F.VII
Encumbrance Capacity: 35. carries Richard Byrd and copilot Floyd
Production Year: 1919. Bennett safely over the North Pole.
Price/Rarity: 2,700 / 7. Other records set by this plane include a
Weapons: None. 2400 mile flight from Oakland,
California, to Hawaii, and in 1929 a world
FELIXSTOWE F.2A endurance record staying aloft for 150.67
A central hull seaplane designed for hours, refueling in flight with the aid
maritime patrol and anti-submarine of a Douglas C-l cargo-tanker.
warfare in 1917, the F.2A biplane was The Fokker seats ten, plus a crew of
responsible for the destruction of two, and is powered by triple Armstrong
several German submarines and a few Siddeleys developing a total of 645 hp. It
zeppelins as well. Standard military has a top speed of 115 mph, a cruising
armament included four to seven Lewis speed of 93 mph, and a cruising range of
guns, plus racks holding two 230 pound 477 miles.
bombs. These aircraft, sans armament, can
be picked up for reasonable prices as
military surplus. They make effective
cargo or passenger carriers. Control Skill: Piloting.
The F.2A seats six and is powered by Complement: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot.
twin Rolls-Royce engines developing a Passenger Capacity: 8.
combined 690 hp. It has a top speed of 95 Consumables: None.
mph, and a cruising range of 500 miles.

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Encumbrance Capacity: 40. JUNKERS F.13

Production Year: 1924. This all metal, single-engine monoplane
Price/Rarity: 3,750 / 7. is a design well ahead of its time.
Weapons: None. Although the cockpit is open, the
passenger compartment is enclosed, and
FORD 4-AT TRIMOTOR well upholstered. Designed specifically
Although similar in appearance to the for the civilian market, 322 are built
three-engine Fokker F.VII, the Ford between 1919 and 1932, some of them
monoplane incorporates a unique employed by national air forces as cargo
corrugated metal skin coated with non- carriers. The F13 is the first aircraft of
corrosive aluminum providing its type to be equipped with safety belts,
exceptional durability. This innovation and can employ wheel, float, or ski-type
gives rise to the plane's nickname, the landing gear.
“Tin Goose." Other design innovations Seating four, in addition to two crew
include wheel brakes and a tail wheel in members, the Junkers is powered by a 185
place of the simple skid. Although the hp BMW engine. Cruising speed is 87 mph,
passenger compartment is noisy – like and cruising range 435 miles.
most trimotor designs – this aircraft
provides the finest in state-of-the-art
air passenger transportation. A Ford
trimotor with modified wingspan and
oversized fuel tanks, named the “Floyd Control Skill: Piloting.
Bennett," carries Richard Byrd and Bernt Complement: 1 pilot.
Balchin over the South Pole in November Passenger Capacity: 4.
of 1929. Consumables: None.
Seating a crew of two plus fourteen Encumbrance Capacity: 20.
passengers, the 4-AT is powered by Wright Production Year: 1919.
engines producing a total of 900 hp. The Price/Rarity: 2,200 / 6.
plane has a top speed of 130 mph, and a Weapons: None.
cruising range of 1140 miles. Although
production ceases in 1932 when the design LOCKHEED VEGA
is made obsolete by larger, twinengine This single-engine, high winged
designs, the durable “Tin Goose" is a monoplane was specifically designed for
familiar sight in the skies for decades to the civilian market and first appears in
come. 1927. Flown and endorsed by such
renowned pilots as Amelia Earhart and
Wiley Post, a Vega is the first aircraft
to make a successful eastward crossing of
the Arctic, flying from Point Barrow,
Control Skill: Piloting. Alaska, to Spitsbergen, north of Norway.
Complement: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot. In 1933 Wiley Post uses a Vega to make a
Passenger Capacity: 8. muchpublicized solo flight around the
Consumables: None. world.
Encumbrance Capacity: 50. The Vega seats one crew member and six
Production Year: 1926. passengers, and is powered by a 450 hp
Price/Rarity: 2,700 / 5. Pratt & Whitney engine . It has cruising
Weapons: None. speed of 170 mph, and a range of 550
miles.

AIRCRAFTS
NAME YEAR PRICE RARITY
Avro 504K 1913 2,900 6
Control Skill: Piloting. Curtis JN-4 “Flying 1915 600 5
Complement: 1 pilot. Jenny”
Passenger Capacity: 6. De Havilland Moth 1925 500 6
Consumables: None. Dornier Do 15 Wal 1923 4,100 7
Farman F.60 Goliath 1919 2,700 6
Price/Rarity: 575 / 5. Felixstowe F.2A 1917 3,200 6
Weapons: None. Fokker F.VIIA/3M 1924 3,750 7
Ford 4-AT Trimotor 1926 2,700 5
SOPWITH 7F.1 SNIPE Junkers F.13 1919 2,200 6
The successor to the famous Sopwith Lockheed Vega 1927 575 5
Camel, the Snipe biplane fighter first
saw service in 1917. After the war it was Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe 1917 3,000 7
retained by the RAF and used as a
trainer until 1926. Occasionally
available as military surplus, its
usefulness is limited by its single seat
and minimal cargo capacity. Military
fighter versions were typically
outfitted with a pair of synchronized
Vickers machine guns mounted above the
engine housing.
Powered by a 230 hp Bentley engine,
the Snipe has a top speed of 121 mph, and
a cruising range of 300 miles.
Control Skill: Piloting.

Complement: 1 pilot.
Consumables: None.
Weapons: None.

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Prices for transportation can be found

earlier on in this chapter.
All the following speeds and ranges
are nominal ones, for civilian transport.
DISTANCES BETWEEN CITIES OF THE

U.S. BY LAND, IN MILES
City/State New New San
York Orleans Francisco
Atlanta, Georgia 876 496 2,810
Boston, 235 1,607 3,313
Massachusettes
Charleston, 739 776 3,119
South Carolina
Columbus, Ohio 637 945 2,593
Dallas, Texas 1,769 515 1,932
Denver, Colorado 1,930 1,357 1,376
El Paso, Texas 2,310 1,195 1,287
Helana, Montana 2,452 2,152 1,255
Jacksonville, 983 616 3,098
Florida
Los Angeles, 3,149 2,007 475
California
Memphis, 1,157 396 2,439
Tennessee
Minneapolis, 1,332 1,285 2,101
Minnesota
New Orleans, 1,372 0 2,482
DISTANCES Louisiana
New York, New 0 1,372 3,191
Up to and through World War I, the
York
keys to travel were the steamship, the
steam locomotive and the horse-drawn or Pittsburgh, 444 1,142 2,747
Pennsylvania
electric trolley.
World War I greatly improved the Portland, Oregon 3,204 2,746 722
automobile and the airplane, however San Diego, 3,231 2,088 602
they did not provide long-distance California
travel solutions until after World War San Francisco, 3,191 2,482 0
II, when enormous sums were spent on new California
airports and interstate highways. At the Seattle, 3,151 2,931 957
same time, rail transport, despite its Washington
efficiencies for commuters and freight St. Louis, 1,065 699 2,199
alike, was dismantled almost everywhere Missouri
in the United States. This revolution Washington, D.C. 228 1,144 3,069
halted only recently, after most of an
enormous rail network had been scrapped.

DISTANCES FROM NEW YORK, NEW DISTANCES FROM THE PANAMA CANAL
ORLEANS AND SAN FRANCISCO TO TO VARIOUS PORTS, IN NAUTICAL
PRINCIPAL PORTS AND CITIES MILES
City/Port New New San Port Nautical Miles
York Orleans Francisco Baltimore, MD 1,901
Aden 6,532 7,870 11,500 Boston, MA 2,157
Bombay 8,120 9,536 9,780 Buenos Aires, Argentina 5,450
Buenos Aires 5,868 6,318 7,511 Callau, Peru 1,346
Calcutta 9,830 11,239 8,920 Cape Town, South Africa 6,574
Congo River, 5,862 6,580 8,853 Gibraltar 4,343
Mouth of
Hamburg, Germany 5,070
Hamburg 3,637 5,249 8,315
Havana, Cuba 1,003
Havre 3,169 4,760 7,855
Havre, France 4,610
Hong Kong 11,431 10,830 6,086
Hong Kong, China 9,195
Honolulu 6,686 6,085 2,097
Istanbul, Turkey 6,166
Leningrad 4,632 6,223 7,823
Jacksonville, FL 1,535
London 3,233 4,507 8,038
Leningrad, USSR 6,282
Manila 11,546 10,993 6,289
London, England 4,763
Melbourne 10,628 9,437 7,040
Manila, Philippines 9,347
Mexico City 2,898 1,626 2,512
Naples, Italy 5,325
Nome 8,010 7,410 2,705
New Orleans, LA 1,403
Port Said 5,122 6,509 9,562
New York, NY 1,974
Punta Arenas 6,895 7,340 6,199
Port Said, Egypt 6,268
Rio de Janeiro 4,778 5,218 7,678
Portland, OR 3,869
Shanghai 10,855 10,254 5,550
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 5,349
Singapore 10,170 11,500 7,502
San Diego, CA 2,843
Valparaiso 4,637 4,035 5,140
San Francisco, CA 3,245
Vladivostok 10,001 9,410 4,706
Shanghai, China 8,556
Wellington 8,540 7,939 5,909
Singapore 10,505
Yokohama 8,986 7,762 4,536
Sydney, Australia 7,674
Tahiti Islands 4,486
Valpariso, Chile 2,616
Vancouver, Canada 4,032
Vera Cruz, Mexico 1,420
Wellington, New Zealand 6,505
Yokohama, Japan 7,682

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AIR DISTANCES IN MILES, INTERNATIONAL
Hong Kong
London
Honolulu
Mexico City
Cairo
Calcutta
Manila
Tokyo
Buenos Aires
Los Angeles
Montreal
Cape Town
Moscow
New York
Sydney
Buenos 0 7,345 10,265 4,269 11,472 7,651 6,916 6,170 11,051 4,592 5,615 8,376 5,297 7,330 11,408
Aires
Cairo 7,345 0 3,539 4,500 5,061 8,838 2,181 7,520 5,704 7,688 5,414 1,803 5,602 8,952 5,935
Calcutta 10,265 3,539 0 6,024 1,648 7,047 4,947 8,090 2,203 9,492 7,607 3,321 7,918 5,685 3,194
Cape Town 4,269 4,500 6,024 0 7,375 11,534 6,012 9,992 7,486 8,517 7,931 6,300 7,764 6,843 9,156
Hong Kong 11,472 5,061 1,648 7,375 0 5,549 5,982 7,195 693 8,782 7,739 4,439 8,054 4,584 1,794
Honolulu 7,651 8,838 7,047 11,534 5,549 0 7,228 2,574 5,299 3,779 4,910 7,037 4,964 4,943 3,854
London 6,916 2,181 4,947 6,012 5,982 7,228 0 5,482 6,672 5,550 3,282 1,555 3,458 10,564 5,940
Los Angeles 6,170 7,520 8,090 9,992 7,195 2,574 5,482 0 7,261 1,589 2,427 6,003 2,451 7,530 5,433
Manila 11,051 5,704 2,203 7,486 693 5,299 6,672 7,261 0 8,835 8,136 5,131 8,498 3,944 1,866
Mexico City 4,592 7,688 9,492 8,517 8,782 3,779 5,550 1,589 8,835 0 2,318 6,663 2,094 8,052 7,021
Montreal 5,615 5,414 7,607 7,931 7,739 4,910 3,282 2,427 8,136 2,318 0 4,386 320 9,954 6,383
Moscow 8,376 1,803 3,321 6,300 4,439 7,037 1,555 6,003 5,131 6,663 4,386 0 4,665 9,012 4,647
New York 5,297 5,602 7,918 7,764 8,054 4,964 3,458 2,451 8,498 2,094 320 4,665 0 9,933 6,740
Sydney 7,330 8,952 5,685 6,843 4,584 4,943 10,564 7,530 3,944 8,052 9,954 9,012 9,933 0 4,866
Tokyo 11,408 5,935 3,194 9,156 1,794 3,854 5,940 5,433 1,866 7,021 6,383 4,647 6,740 4,866 0

MAGIC
WISE MEN HAVE INTERPRETED DREAMS, AND THE GODS HAVE LAUGHED
Strange Aeons
When Willard woke up the following The magic of the Cthulhu Mythos stems
morning, he felt worse than he did the from the unfathomable alien
evening before. His head was throbbing intelligences that reside outside of
and his sight was slightly slurred. His humanity’s ability to comprehend. What
mouth felt dry and as if it was stuffed may be the pinnacle of science can easily
with cotton. be interpreted as “magic” by the
He poured himself another glass of ignorant. What is certain is that those
whiskey, and was in the middle or who delve into such matters rarely come
returning the lid on the bottle when his away unchanged – usually for the worse!
telephone rang. Manipulating time and space is not a
With a heavy sigh, and feeling weighed thing to be done lightly and there can be
down by several metal chains, he got to grave consequences for those
his feet and shuffled to the telephone. investigators who dabble in things best
He picked up the receiver and blurted. left alone.
“Yes? This is Willard Swanson. Whom might Mythos magic is variable and was not
I have the pleasure of speaking with?” tightly defined by H.P. Lovecraft; each
He heard a man's voice clearing his occurrence of magic serves a particular
through at the other end. “Ah, yes. Hello. story rather than fitting some consistent
This is Mr. Allen. I... I am the chief overarching structure. However, some
physician at the Arkham Institute for generalizations can be made. Mythos magic
the Mentally Ill. I am calling regarding is traditional in scope, centering on
your friend, Celine Smith. I have some, perilous summoning of horrible entities
ehm, less than good news, I am afraid. I and the desperate manipulation of
request your presence at the facility, inimical forces. Spells are formally
please Mr. Swanson. And as soon as constructed; one wrong word or gesture
possible.” can disrupt the spell at best, or cause it
to go horribly wrong at worst.
Willard dropped the receiver in
Few Mythos spells can be performed
disbelief. It clattered to the floor with
quickly, with many requiring exacting
a heavy thump. “Celine?” he muttered to
conditions as well as lengthy rites and
himself.
ceremonies. Each spell must be studied
He rushed to the hallway of his home and learnt, often requiring the
and collected his coat and his fedora, investigator to spend long hours poring
slinging both casually on as he made his over cryptic manuscripts and ancient
way out the front door and made haste books of lore. Though rare for
to his Ford Model T. investigators, cultists and sorcerers may
“No, no, no,” he whispered to himself be taught spells by their fellows, or
over and over, almost like a mantra, as even granted magical visions, knowledge,
he got his automobile started and set and spells through abhorrent communion
course towards the Arkham asylum. with the dark gods of the Cthulhu
He struck his fist hard against the Mythos. Investigators wishing to find a
steering wheel of the automobile, fast track for learning spells are more
venting his frustration as the likely to find a one-way ticket to an
automobile didn't travel quite as fast as asylum, their minds broken and sanity
he wanted it to. destroyed.
“No, not Celine. Not now. Not now!” he Spells must be approached warily, since
said as he left the streets of Arkham often their costs and effects are
and sped towards the asylum. initially unknown to the spell-caster.
Magic 227
For investigators, Mythos magic can be a thousand light years of easily observed
dangerous trap, for in using it stars nearest to us comprised only a
investigators lose sanity and gain minor corner of the universe. There was
Cthulhu Mythos knowledge – becoming not one Milky Way, as astronomers had
more like those whom they seek to defeat. once believed, but rather thousands and
Mythos magic bewilders, shocks, millions of galaxies, most so faint and so
disorients, and debilitates its human distant that the truth of the nebulae
practitioners. Mankind was not meant to had long been argued, but never before
know such things and with enough solved. The notion of island universes –
exposure, the psychic and physical galaxies, as we now say – was a bombshell.
contradictions involved in using magic In the 1920s, humanity’s perception of
drive humans insane. the unbounded universe’s true size
Investigators will mostly experience increased by orders of magnitude.
magic from outside sources, either by Writing as such discoveries took place,
being the target or by witnessing the Lovecraft gradually evolved a
effect of spells cast by someone else. An background myth incorporating such
investigator rarely becomes a mage, since discoveries and added some flavorings
the requisite knowledge and experience from Einstein and Planck. These new
usually leads to “universes,” so he appears to have
madness first. speculated, were truly islands – their
Whether investigators separation included their natural
gain much by knowing the laws. Isolated by
magic of the Cthulhu hundreds of thousands
Mythos, they often risk much or millions of light years,
when attempting to use it. the stuff of life could differ
Consequently, though all wildly. Very quickly, these
players are invited to study islands also took on a
this chapter, it is only Riemannian association of
Keepers who will benefit existing in or being
most from it when planning connected to other
adventures and creating dimensions.
suitably objectionable The magic of the Cthulhu Mythos is the
adversaries. unifying logic of this universe of
universes. Magic works everywhere. It
IN THIS CHAPTER models and defines the greater reality;
This chapter discusses spells and the it is the ultimate expression of natural
books of the Cthulhu Mythos – how spells law, the will of the Outer Gods made
are learnt and how they are cast, as well palpable and the arbiter of time, space,
as looking at the dark knowledge and matter.
contained within ancient tomes. It also In comparison, earthly science and
discusses the occult versus the magical, religion seem of little avail. Apparently
and tells ways to utilize the strange and we understand far less than we flatter
alien magic. ourselves as knowing. Is imperfection in
what we believe or in how we have come to
believe it? Perhaps there is a poverty in
WHAT IS MAGIC? our souls or our mathematical equations
After World War I, astronomers that forestalls ultimate knowledge and
confirmed that the thirty or forty revelation. The Mythos mocks human
228 Magic
Strange Aeons
pretensions.
MYTHOS TOMES
It takes time to learn, even from
MAGIC IN THE STRANGE AEONS textbooks that have been carefully
SETTING written and specially laid out just for
Magic is indeed a deeply rooted part of that purpose. Studying the crabbed,
the Lovecraft Mythos in many ways, and idiosyncratic, and infinitely more
thus it is naturally also included in the difficult Mythos books takes much more
STRANGE AEONS setting. time and dedication. These musty, thick
Using Mythos magic within the game, books are often clumsily scribed by men
requires the investigator to have at whose sanity has long since been erased
least one rank in the Magic skill. It is by the horror of their experiments,
impossible to invoke magic without trials, and conjectures. The present day
having any trained rank of knowledge apparatus of scholarship does not exist
within the mystical arts. Magic simply in such books. There are no indices, no
exists beyond the comprehension of most glossaries, no tables of contents, and no
ordinary – and mortal – men and women. careful definitions. There may not be
Having ranks in Magic allows the numbered pages, chapters, paragraphs,
investigator to implement magic and punctuation or even breaks between
utilize the magical energies, as detailed words. Some tomes might best be described
on pages 210 through 219 in the GENESYS as the ravings of mad men – yet to the
core rule book. However, unlike the seeker of dark knowledge, such texts
default rules presented in the GENESYS hold wondrous insights and power.
core rulebook, magic is not divided into Many manuscripts are not even in a
three sub-categories as it is in the known alphabet – some are older than
GENESYS core rulebook; that being time, in languages long lost; others are
Arcana, Divine and Primal. Instead, magic written in occult ciphers to stymie witch-
is universal in the STRANGE AEONS finders or the Inquisition, and now must
setting, allowing the investigator to tap be cracked before the would-be reader
into all types of spell, though doing so can ponder the sinister truths they
more than often takes a toll on his conceal.
sanity. As such, the investigator can cast Even if a sorcerer wrote for others who
spells of the Attack, Augment, Barrier, were familiar with the arcane and occult,
Conjure, Curse, Dispel, Heal and Utility the writing was for adepts and cultists,
types; each group detailed individually not laypersons. Strange terms and ideas
in the GENESYS core rulebook. would be written with no explanation.
As a default in the STRANGE AEONS Valuable annotations might be made by a
setting, it is recommended that if an succession of owners, each perhaps in a
investigator does not count Magic as a different language or with a different
career skill, then the character is aim, and some inscribed in error.
prohibited from spending XP to allocate Many Mythos tomes are ancient and
ranks to the Magic skill, as he simply is must be handled with care. Some are
not qualified to understand the delicate and liable to crumble to dust if
complexity and otherworldliness that the reader doesn’t wear thin gloves and
define the laws – or lack thereof – that turn the pages with padded forceps. Some
is the Mythos magic. The GM may, of whisper that certain tomes are more than
course, allow otherwise in his specific merely pages bound in leather; that they
campaign. are “living" things, intent on sowing
their evil taint on the unwary and
Magic 229
acting as direct conduits to the horrors GM, or else the book baffles them.
of the Outer Gods.
Only in the present does the INITIAL READING
technology exist with which to make The next step, beyond looking at the
quick and accurate copies. cover, reading the title (if it has one
that can be read) and determining the
READING MYTHOS BOOKS language in which the book is written, is
Opening a Mythos tome is a dangerous to make an initial reading. To continue
business. It was written by someone who the analogy used above, this is where the
had experienced the Mythos and, if the investigator is exposed to the fire
reader is successful in understanding within. An initial reading can be swift
what is written, this book will act as a and may represent the reader only
conduit to the alien horrors of the having skimmed the book sufficient to
Cthulhu Mythos. Opening the cover of a gain some insight regarding its contents,
tome might be likened to opening a door or it may be a cover-to-cover reading. An
to a burning room. By opening this door initial reading can take as much time as
the reader is exposed to the fire and may the GM wishes; this may be minutes, hours,
be scorched or incinerated. The human days or weeks, depending on how the GM
mind is metaphorically burnt by the wants to shape the story.
knowledge of the Mythos, the very act Whether a Knowledge check is
of trying to comprehend the called for is up to the GM,
material causing the reader to who may choose to
suffer both mentally and grant automatic
physically. Some of the success to anyone with
lesser tomes might a modicum of skill in
only be a small fire, the appropriate
but others, such as language.
the dread The GM decides on a
Necronomicon, are a difficulty of the
raging inferno. check for reading the
When an investigator book based upon its age,
gains access to a Mythos form and condition.
tome, the GM should A book printed within the last
describe the cover and look of century and in good condition
the book. The reader can swiftly would be of Average (dd) difficulty.
ascertain whether the tome is written in A handwritten work is likely to be of a
a language he or she understands. Being Hard (ddd) difficulty, especially if it
able to understand the written material is old.
requires a Daunting (dddd) Knowledge The most challenging of ancient,
check (or, at the GM's discretion, a Magic moldering tomes, containing a mix of
check might be warranted instead). A print and handwritten annotation, would
translator must be found if a book is be Daunting (dddd), if not Formidable
written in a language unknown by the (ddddd), difficulty.
investigator. The GM should decide what If the investigator fails the
gets translated, how quickly, and how Knowledge check, they perhaps gets some
accurately. If the language is unknown inkling as to the content of the book,
or long forgotten, the investigators must but have failed to comprehend it; no
come up with a plan that convinces the Sanity damage are suffered and no
230 Magic
Strange Aeons
Cthulhu Mythos information is gained.

The player may ask to push the roll, but SPELLCASTING AND
must justify doing so, perhaps staying up SANITY
all night reading or using reference Manipulating the forces of the
books as an aid to study. When thinking Cthulhu Mythos leads to Sanity damage in
of consequences for failing a pushed amounts that vary by spell. If some
attempt, the GM should be creative and awful creature arrives in response to a
include Sanity damage (usually an spell, encountering it costs yet more
automatic 1 point of damage, and the GM Sanity. Having exceeded Sanity threshold
can rule that a ttt or y results in does not prohibit spells from being cast –
an additional Sanity damage), as well as if it did, there would be no cultists.
increasing the difficulty of the check. If As per Magic rules detailed on pages
in no hurry, they may continue to read 210 through 219 in the GENESYS core
the book without pushing the roll. The rulebook, an investigator immediately
timing of the next reading roll is at the suffers 2 strain after casting a spell.
GM’s discretion (perhaps once per week). However, the magic in the STRANGE AEONS
As well as gaining Cthulhu Mythos setting is particularly taxing on the
information and suffering investigators sanity, more than often
Sanity damage, the initial leading to the loss
reading also allows the of one's mind,
reader to learn about effectively taking
the contents of book Sanity damage.
and gain some idea of If the Magic
what spells it might skill check results
contain. The reader in uncancelled
will also have a ttt or y, the
clear idea of how spellcaster suffers
long it will take mental trauma and
to complete a full study of the takes 1 points of
book. Sanity damage. See the
Sanity, Fear and Horror
EFFECTS OF STUDYING MYTHOS chapter later on in this book for further
BOOKS in-depth details on how the Sanity system
works.
Conducting a full study of a tome may
grant a bonus on Magic or Knowledge
skills for the remainder of the session. SPELL MISHAPS AND SIDE
More potent and powerful tomes will give EFFECTS OF MYTHOS MAGIC
the reader an increase of his Magic or If the spell being used generates
Knowledge skill, or add an automatic s additional ttt or y results, beyond
to the Magic and Knowledge skill, for the the first needed to trigger the Sanity
remainder of the session. And the most damage, the GM may roll 1d100 and add
powerful of Mythos Books might allow the following effects to the magic. The
the reader to add an automatic x on all GM may also, at his discretion of course,
Magic and Knowledge checks for the opt to simply pick a result that he
remainder of the encounter. thinks is a good result to add to the
The exact nature of the benefits of the narrative instead of randomly rolling
specifict Mythos Book is up to the GM. for one.
Magic 231
SPELL MISHAPS AND SIDE EFFECTS 24 hours.

D100 EFFECT 11 The caster emits a magical pulse that
ROLL drain the energy of those around
him. All allies within Engaged range
01 Caster permanently grows 1d10 suffers 1 point of unsoakable strain
inches. damage at the beginning of each of
02 Something foul and terrible beyond the caster's turns. This effect lasts
the caster's comprehension reveals for 24 hours.
itself to the caster within his mind, 12 The personality of the caster
instigating an immediate Daunting changes dramatically. The GM is the
(dddd) Fear check. final arbiter on the exact result of
03 Caster becomes feebleminded and is this change.
unable to perform any Actions or 13 All attacks made against the caster
Maneuvers, aside from attempting a within the next 24 hours are
single Hard (ddd) Discipline check decreased once in difficulty.
at the end of every turn to break
the enfeeblement. 14 The magical energy of the force
roots the caster in place. The caster
04 Whenever the caster willingly is Immobilized for 1 turn per t
suffers strain, he will suffer double generated, with a minimum of 1 turn.
the amount of strain. This effect
lasts for 24 hours. 15 For the next 24 hours, the caster
must increase the difficulty of all
05 A flux is created and the caster is spells he casts.
rendered immune to all magic both
beneficial and harmful, but can't use 16 The caster is Disoriented for the
spells, magic effects, or spell-like duration of the encounter.
abilities for the duration of the 17 Any creature that scores aa on a
encounter. skill check against the caster, may
06 The caster adds an automatic tt to opt for a x result instead of aa.
all skill checks for the duration of This effect lasts for 24 hours.
the encounter. 18 Bleeding – the caster is unable to
07 Mentally wrecked. For the next 24 stop even the simplest of cuts. Any
hours, the caster suffers 1 point of wound damage results in 1 point of
Sanity damage on a result of ttt unsoakable bleeding damage in
or y, instead of the usual subsequent rounds. Bleeding damage
ttttt or y. can be quelled by a Hard (ddd)
Medicine check or applying magical
08 The spell energies kills all non- healing. Bleeding damage from
sentient plant life in a radius multiple injuries stacks.
determined by the caster's ranks in
Magic: 1-2 ranks is out to Engaged 19 All creatures that attack the caster
range, 3-4 ranks is out to Short add an automatic a to the skill
range, and 5 ranks is out to Medium check for the duration of the
range. encounter.
09 Whenever the caster suffers a 20 The magic is particularly taxing on

Critical Injury, the GM may select the caster. Every time he suffers
any result of Critical Injury within strain damage, for the next 24 hours,
the same difficulty (e.g. Easy, he suffers an equal amount of wound
Average, etc.) of the Critical Injury. damage.
This is effective for the next 24 21 Bleding – either from the caster,
hours. others present or the environment
10 The caster suffers 1 point of (e.g. the walls) occur. This results in
unsoakable strain every time he the caster adding an automatic t
performs a Maneuver. This lasts for and f to all skill checks for the
remainder of the encounter.
232 Magic
Strange Aeons
22 For the remainder of the encounter, for 24 hours.

the caster's strain threshold is
33 Caster ages 1 year per rank of the
reduced by 1 point per rank of Magic
Magic skill used.
that the caster has.
34 The caster is ravaged by unnatural,
23 The caster disgorges 1d100 small
magical cold and immediately suffers
insects from every orifice and is
1 point of unsoakable damage per t
Staggered for 1 turn per uncanceled
generated on the Magic check, with a
t generated on the spellcasting
minimum of 1 damage.
combat check, with a minimum of 1
turn. 35 Target and caster swap all worn
clothing and equipment, things that
24 The magical forces of the magic
are impossible to be worn appear in
corrupts the caster, rendering him
front of the not-owner on the
unable to trigger any additional
ground.
spell qualities by using a on the
Magic check. This lasts for 24 hours. 36 If the caster rolls a y on any skill
checks for the next 24 hours, he will
25 Whenever the caster speaks, he
fall unconscious and exceed his
speaks in a reversed tongue, making
strain threshold by 1 point. This
it impossible for anyone to decipher
does not trigger a Critical Injury.
what he says. This lasts for 24 hours.
37 The caster glows with a magical hue,
26 For the next 24 hours, the caster
which gives all attacks against him a
uses his Brawn characteristic
b bonus to combat checks.
whenever he is to make a skill check
based on Intellect, Willpower or 38 The caster adds bb to all skill
Cunning. checks made with a randomly
27 Cosmic shine comes wih a price; the determined characteristic.Roll
spellcaster increase his Presence 1d10;1-3 for Brawn, 4-6 for Agility, 7
characteristic by 1 pont (and this for Intellect, 8 for Cunning, 9 for
may raise it to 6), but also reduce Willpower, and 10 for Presence. This
both his Intellect and Willpower lasts until the end of the encounter.
characteristics by 1 point each, to a 39 Eyes become glossy white and caster
minimum of 1. This lasts until the lose sight and becomes blind
end of the encounter. (upgrade difficulty of all checks
28 The caster must increase the twice, and upgrade the difficulty of
difficulty of all skill checks once Perception and Vigilance checks
for the duration of the encounter. three times). This lasts for 24 hours.
29 Wrecked with magical backlash, the 40 Spell affects the nearest creature to
cacter is unable to perform free the target instead.
Maneuvers for the next 24 hours. 41 Target and caster are drawn towards
This include downgrading Actions to each other; each turn a magic force
a second Maneuver. will move each one range band closer
30 For the rest of the encounter, the to one another until they collide
caster downgrade his Magic skill (this does not grant them any kind of
checks once. movement they do not have, like
flight, but the spell will still move
31 The caster's nerve systems overloads them out over a chasm if that is in a
on the magical surge, and he no straight line).
longer registers pain. This lasts for
24 hours. This means that the GM 42 The caster doubles the amount of f
secretly keeps track of his wound generated on all skill checks for the
threshold and accumulated damage duration of the encounter.
for that period of time. 43 Nearest dead sentient being returns
32 Every time the caster performs an as a ghost to haunt the location of
Action he suffers 1 point of its death.
unsoakable strain damage. This lasts
Magic 233
44 All creatures that attack the caster 57 Weather changes drastically to

add an automatic s on all skill magical nature (raining frogs,
checks for the duration of the raining blood, lightning forms
encounter. strange shapes in the sky, etc.).
45 The caster will forget all names, 58 Caster adds automatic ff to all
including his own name. This will skill checks for the duration of the
last until someone mention his name encounter.
and he hears it, or until it is
59 The caster is affected by a randomly
magically dispelled.
determined disease (GM's choice).
46 The caster becomes unhealthily
60 Random arm mutates into a tentacle,
enamored and obsessed with the next
but can't be used to manipulate
item he sees, and will do anything to
items. Grants b to Brawl combat
safeguard the item and keep it in his
checks. This lasts for the duration of
possession at all times. This effect
the encounter.
can be magically dispelled.
61 Grow small horns on the forehead.
47 Weather changes drastically (hail,
This results in the caster having to
sleet, thunderstorm, heatwave, etc.).
increase the difficulty of all Social
48 The caster can't lie for the next 24 skill checks.
hours after having cast the spell.
62 The caster can't tell the truth for
49 Earthquakes hits the region (nearest the next 24 hours after having cast
100 miles) for the next 1d10 hours. the spell.
50 The caster and everyone within Short 63 The caster is turned to stone with no
range are sucked to a distant time or check to ward off the petrification.
place. This petrification reverts after a
51 Snake tongue, the caster's tongue is time equal to the target's Brawn
split into two at the tip. rating in days.
64 Caster suffers -1 Defense rating for
52 The nearest ally to the caster adds
the duration of the encounter. If the
an automatic y on their next skill
caster has Defense 0, anyone
check.
attacking him add b to their combat
53 Caster changes size for the rest of check instead.
the encounter. Roll 1d10 to determine
the new size. 1 for two Silhouettes 65 Caster doubles the amount of t he
smaller, 2-5 for one Silhouette generates on any skill check for the
smaller, 6-8 for one Silhouette duration of the encounter.
larger, 9 for two Silhouettes larger, 66 Disembodied screaming, voices, or
and 10 for three Silhouettes larger. other noises appear from nowhere,
54 The spell functions as normal, but instigating an Average (dd) Fear
every t generated on the check from everyone within Short
spellcasting combat check generates range.
double the amounts of strain. 67 Plant growth speeds up in an area
55 Cosmic wisdom comes with a price; the determined by the caster's ranks in
spellcaster increase his Willpower Magic (1 rank is out to Engaged
characteristic by 1 (which may raise range, 2 ranks is out to Short range,
it to 6), but reduce both his 3 ranks is out to Medium range, 4
Intellect and Presence characteristic ranks is out to Long range, and 5
by 1 each, to a minimum of 1. This ranks is out to Extreme range), and
lasts until the end of the encounter. until the next full moon, each hour
plants will grow as much as they
56 The caster's body is covered by hard would have done in a normal year.
reptilian scales. He must upgrade the
difficulty of all Social skill checks 68 The magic surge wrecks the caster's
once. body violently and inflicts a
Critical Injury upon the caster.
234 Magic
Strange Aeons
69 Caster and target fall deeply in 84 The caster suffers 1 wound per t
love with each other and will generated on the Magic check, with a
forsake all other loyalties. A minimum of 1 wound.
Formidable (dddd) Discipline
85 Caster and target of the spell swap
check is allowed to ward off the
positions.
effect.
86 A Mythos monster is accidentally
70 Caster and target suddenly know
summoned.
each other personally.
87 Caster permanently shrinks 1d10
71 Spell does opposite of purpose, a
inches.
damaging spell heals the target, a
boost providing spell confers a 88 The caster's skin changes color every
penalty, etc. full moon.
72 A pit of Short range appears right 89 Spell takes effect normally, but
between the caster and target; if adds automatic y to the Magic check
caster is also target, it appears result.
right underneath the caster.
90 Caster suffers from blurred vision
73 All of the caster's clothes and worn and must add b to all skill checks
equipment burst into flames and are where sight is a factor.
incinerated, leaving the target
91 All of the caster's hair grows 2d10
unharmed but naked
inches instantly.
74 Powerful and numerous Mythos
92 Each time the caster suffers wounds
entities appear, attacking all those
damage during the encounter, he
nearby, starting with the caster!
suffers an equal amount of strain
75 Both target and caster are hit by damage as well.
the spell just cast.
93 A permanent “dead magic” zone is
76 Caster changes sex; every day the formed, centered on the caster. The
caster may attempt a Hard (ddd) radius of the zone is determined by
Discipline check to end the changes. the caster's ranks in Magic; 1 rank is
Although he retains whatever sex he out to Engaged range, 2 ranks is out
has when succeeding on the check. to Short range, 3 ranks is out to
Medium range, 4 ranks is out to Long
77 Strange runes appear on the caster's
range, and 5 ranks is out to Extreme
entire body.
range. No magic can be used within
78 Spell affects the nearest creature to this “dead magic” zone.
the caster instead.
94 Cosmic knowledge comes with a price;
79 Caster permanently shrinks 1d10 the spellcaster increases his
inches. Intellect characteristic by 1 point
80 The next spell the caster calls forth (this may raise the characteristic to
will affect himself, regardless of it 6), and reduce his Willpower and
being a harmful or beneficial spell. Presence characteristics by 1 each, to
a minimum of 1. This lasts until the
81 Strange colorations begin to surface end of the encounter.
on the caster's skin. This is
95 One of the caster's random items is
permanent.
immediately damaged one step from
82 Caster suffer strange visions or the magical surge.
hallucinations and must increase the
difficulty of all skill checks for 96 Nearest creature to the caster with
the remainder of the encounter. Intellect 1 or less becomes enraged
and will attack the caster to the
83 The magical energies fluxuating death.
within the caster's body renders him
unable to recover wounds through 97 The caster smells of foul smoke and
any means for 24 hours. brimstone, and must increase the
difficulty of all Social skill checks
Magic 235
for the next 24 hours. of their loathsome faith.

They worshipped, so they said,
98 The magic rips a hole in the fabric the Great Old Ones who lived ages
of reality and a layer of a distant before there were any men, and
world seeps in. This corruption of
who came to the young world out
realities lasts until the end of the
encounter. The caster must add
of the sky. Those Old Ones were
bbb to all Magic checks.
gone now, inside the earth and
under the sea; but their dead
99 Nothing happens; just smile and make bodies had told their secrets in
the spellcaster paranoid, and maybe dreams to the first men, who
hint that he or she has a strange formed a cult which had never
feeling in the back of his or her died. This was that cult, and the
mind. prisoners said it had always
00 Mythos deity is accidentally called. existed and always would exist,
hidden in distant wastes and
dark places all over the world
until the time when the
great priest Cthulhu,
from his dark house in
the mighty city of
R’lyeh under the
waters, should
rise and bring the
earth again
beneath his sway.
Some day he
would call, when
the stars were
ready, and the
secret cult
would always be
waiting to liberate
him.
Meanwhile no more
must be told. There was a
Examined at headquarters secret which even torture
after a trip of intense strain could not extract. Mankind was
and weariness, the prisoners not absolutely alone among the
all proved to be men of a very conscious things of earth, for
low, mixed-blooded, and mentally shapes came out of the dark to
aberrant type. Most were visit the faithful few. But
seamen, and a sprinkling of these were not the Great Old
negroes and mulattoes, largely Ones. No man had ever seen the
West Indians or Brava Old Ones. The carven idol was
Portuguese from the Cape Verde great Cthulhu, but none might
Islands, gave a colouring of say whether or not the others
voodooism to the heterogeneous were precisely like him. No one
cult. But before many questions could read the old writing now,
were asked, it became manifest but things were told by word of
that something far deeper and mouth. The chanted ritual was
older than negro fetichism was not the secret—that was never
involved. Degraded and ignorant spoken aloud, only whispered.
as they were, the creatures The chant meant only this: “In
held with surprising his house at R’lyeh dead
consistency to the central idea Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
236 Magic
SANITY, FEAR AND HORROR
THE THING OF THE IDOLS, THE GREEN, STICKY SPAWN OF THE STARS
The drive to the Arkham asylum was a Investigators begin the game sane and
long and particularly tormenting drive rational; however, during their
for Willard. A thousand thoughts races investigations they will encounter
through his head, most of which made it otherworldly horrors, alien creatures
run cold down his back and made the and the terrible cosmic truths of the
hairs on his arms stand up. Cthulhu Mythos – all of which will
As he turned onto the asylum grounds challenge their state of mind and sense
and made his way down the road leading of normality, and push them to very edge
to the main building, he noticed that two of sanity. In some cases, the experience
police automobiles and an ambulance will be too much and the unfortunate
were parked outside, and several men investigator will descend into periods of
were milling about like frantic ants. temporary, indefinite or even permanent
Before he made it all the way to the madness.
front of the building, the ambulance was Each investigator has a Sanity
driving towards him, and the police were threshold that can rise and fall during
embarking in their automobiles. As they play. Sanity is used to determine whether
passed him, he craned his neck to get a the investigator can withstand the
look at whom they were bringing away. horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos, as well as
A man dressed in a white doctor's coat stand up to fear-inducing situations
stood out in front of the entrance to the without turning tail and running away.
asylum, and behind him a nurse holding Sanity damage can lead to insanity. When
some papers to her chest. the investigator's Sanity Threshold is
exceeded, an investigator is permanently
As Willard disembarked from his Ford
and incurably insane, and ceases to be a
Model T, the doctor approached him. “Are
player character.
you Mr. Swanson?” the man asked.
Sanity in the game is modeled after the
Willard nodded. behavior of protagonists in H.P.
“I am doctor Allen,” the man continued Lovecraft’s fiction who, more often than
and extended his hand to shake the hand not, faint or go mad when confronted
of Willard. There was something solemn with mind-bending physics and monstrous
about his demeanor. “I am afraid I have entities from beyond space and time.
some bad news for you. Let's retreat to Sanity is the game’s register of the
my office, if you will, and...” investigator’s flexibility and resilience
“No!” Willard snapped, cutting the to emotional trauma. Characters that
doctor off in mid-sentence. “Tell me what start with a high number of Sanity
it is, right now. Right here!” He was Threshold find it easier to rationalize
almost yelling at the doctor. traumatic events or to repress horrific
Doctor Allen cleared his throat and memories. Those with a lower number of
glanced about, then took a step closer Sanity Threshold are mentally fragile
towards Willard. “I am afraid that Celine and more susceptible to emotional upset.
Smith has passed away. It would appear While the cosmic horror of the Cthulhu
that she died of fright sometime between Mythos is the fundamental assault on the
3.35 and 4.10 this morning. I am sorry.” mind of an investigator, other gruesome
Willard couldn't believe what he was and comparatively ordinary sights and
hearing. Not Celine. How was this events can also cause emotional
possible? “This is a mistake,” he started. disturbance.
But doctor Allen put a hand on In an unnerving or horrifying
Willard's shoulder and shook his head. situation the GM will test the resiliency
238 Sanity, Fear and Horror

and emotional strength of the has rolled a fear check for a specific set
investigators. This is done by calling for of circumstances, you shouldn’t require
a Sanity check (which is a Discipline them to check again for the same
check, in game mechanic terms) for each circumstances during the same encounter.
investigator entangled in the situation. Remember that circumstances might add
Investigator insanity is triggered when the penalties to the check!
too many Sanity Threshold reaches Fear is detailed on page 243 in the
certain levels, causing temporary or GENESYS core rulebook. The STRANGE
indefinite insanity. AEONS setting sourcebook, however,
expands considerably on these rules to
FEAR fit the game mechanics to the Lovecraft
Mythos and to capture the essence of fear
While the circumstances in the that H.P. Lovecraft himself intended it to
Lovecraft Mythos be, and thus the
may be scary to material from the
your players, these GENESYS core
circumstances and rulebook has been
in-game-events reprinted here for
should be far more easy reference and
horrifying for your convenience. Not
players’ characters, only does the
naturally. (After STRANGE AEONS
all, the characters setting make use of
don’t have the the fear rules, but
luxury of knowing it also implements
that it’s all only a the aspect of sanity,
game!) To represent or more importantly
this – and also insanity. And many
recognize that some an investigator will
characters are eventually be
braver than others driven to madness
– the fear rules is through the
very much a part of eldritch secrets that
the STRANGE AEONS he comes to learn
setting. during his time
When characters tracking down the
in your game creatures that lurk
confront something outside the corners
that you feel may of our world.
be terrifying to them, you can have
them make a Cool or Discipline skill
check. This mechanic is simply known as a MYTHOS CREATURES AND FEAR
Fear check. CHECKS
As the GM, you set the difficulty of It should be noted that each creature
the check. You can use the table below to in the Lovecraft Mythos comes with their
help figure out how difficult a check own Fear difficulty rating when
should be and what circumstances might encountering them (see the “Adversaries”
elicit a fear check from your PCs in the chapter for further details).
first place. Typically, once a character

Strange Aeons
FEAR GUIDELINES
STATE OF FEAR DIFFICULTY EXAMPLE
Startled Easy (d) Something momentarily frightening, such
as a creature bursting out of a closet, or
unsettling circumstances like being alone
in a spooky house. These circumstances
may not even elicit a check.
Moderately afraid Average (dd ) Being stalked by a dangerous animal;
danger that appears credible but not
mortal, watching a loved one die and rise
again from the dead.
Very afraid Hard (ddd) Being hunted by a pack of wild animals
(or malevolent humans), danger that
appears eminent and could be mortal.
Mortally afraid Daunting (dddd) Facing a situation likely to result in
your death.
Utterly terrified Formidable A hopeless and utterly terrifying
(ddddd) situation, combat against things
incomprehensible to one’s mind, coming
face to face with a Mythos entity, fear so
paralyzing that sanity cracks.
Confronting something 1 difficulty upgrade Confronting a notorious villain.
reputed to be dangerous
Confronting something 2 difficulty Being trapped by a malignant creatures
known to be dangerous and upgrades and having no means of escape.
very rare
Confronting something 3 difficulty Fighting the main villain of the
known to be extremely upgrades campaign (provided he/she is dangerous
dangerous and unique enough), finding yourself trapped by a
group of Mythos creatures and having no
means of escape and no weapons.
EFFECTS OF FEAR they specifically trigger. The GM may

In the list below, some basic game also create additional effects. t and a
mechanical effects have been provided carry effects regardless of success and
for failing Fear checks (and succeeding failure. If multiple Fear checks are
on them as well). Of course, you can also needed, a and t of later rolls may
add narrative effects to a check, cancel out the effects from earlier rolls.
depending on the circumstances. And this Needless to say that x or y generated
is intended as a guideline, you as the GM on a Fear check brings about much more
can modify this as needed to suit your potent results.
particular campaign in the STRANGE Whenever a PC fails a Fear check with
AEONS setting. y or ttttt, they also suffer a
The GM should interpret the results of mental trauma. The trauma result in 1
the dice pool. Some creatures or talents point of Sanity damage.
may dictate the results of a fear check x on a successful Fear check can be
spent to recover 1 point of Sanity
Sanity, Fear and Horror 240

damage. Suggested effects for succeeding on a

Suggested effects for failing or fear check or generating a, s or x:
generating t, f or y on a fear check,
but of course these are but guidelines, as RESULTS OF SUCCESS
the GM feel free to add your own results DIE RESULT EFFECT
to the list that might suit the campaign
or situation in a better aspect: s Steady Nerves: The character
keeps their nerve and
suffers no ill effects. The
RESULTS OF FAILURE character avoids any fear
DIE RESULT EFFECT effects, except those
Aversion: The character is triggered by t.
f
unnerved and distracted, and a I Can Persevere: The
is Disoriented for the rest of character stands firm in the
the encounter. face of fear. He adds b to
t Adrenaline Rush: Momentary any skill check for that
panic gives the character a turn.
rush of adrenalin, but at a aa or x Stand with Me: The
cost. The character adds b to character’s steadfast
their next check, but suffers response emboldens their
3 strain. allies. Any allied characters
Flee in Terror: The character forced to make a fear check
tt or y
has to spend their next turn from the same source add b
doing nothing but fleeing to their check.
the source of the fear check aaa or x Undaunted: The character
(this includes downgrading upgrades his skill checks by
their Actions to Maneuvers to one for the remainder of the
move farther away). encounter.
ttt or y Cowering: The character is aaaa or Seen Worse: The player
Disoriented and loses his x character may immediately
free Maneuver until the end move a Story Point from the
of the encounter. GM's pool to the Player's
tttt or Frozen in Terror: The pool.
y character is Immobilized and x Fearless: The character faces
Staggered during their next the source of fear and finds
turn. that it no longer has a hold
y Overwhelming Fear: The on them. They automatically
character is so frightened, pass any further fear checks
all checks he makes have from that source. A result
their difficulty upgraded by also cancels out the
one until the end of the penalties from fear checks –
encounter. no matter the source.

Strange Aeons
SANITY which our desires and needs matter not at

all. Human insanity confirms these
Sanity is the natural mental state of terrible realizations, and is often caused
ordinary life. Normal mental balance is by them. Through madness, we glimpse the
endangered when investigators confront dark and bloody truths at the heart of
the horrors of the Cthulhy Mythos – the universe.
their entities and activities are Sanity damage is ordinarily only
shocking, unnatural, and bewildering. suffered in a few specific ways.
Such encounters cause investigators to Learning the Truth. Knowledge is
suffer Sanity damage, which turn risks dangerous, and none more dangerous than
temporary, indefinite, or permanent knowledge of the Mythos – the true face
insanity. Mental stability and Sanity of reality in the universe. No amount of
damage can be restored, up to a point, psychotherapy or rest can remove the
but mental scars may remain. danger of self-tranformation from such
Insanity occues if too much Sanity knowledge.
damage is suffered in too short a time. Using Spells. Mythos magic relies on
Insanity does not necessarily occur if the physics of the true universe. By
the investigator has suffered lots of learning and casting spells,
Sanity damage, but a high amount of investigators visualize the unimaginable,
Sanity damage makes some forms of warping their minds to follow alien ways
insanity more likely to occur after an of thought. These wound the mind. Such
emotional shock occurs. The investigator's traumas are ones for which the caster
Sanity may be regained after a few volunteers, it is true, but they are
minutes, recovered after a few months, or shocks all the same.
lost forever. Reading Forbidden Tomes. Mythos tomes
An investigator may recover Sanity add a variable boon to the investigators
damage. Knowledge or Magic skill. Studying and
comprehending Mythos books causes all
LOSS OF SANITY that we know to become like shadows. The
Conflict, abuse, or any other strong burning power of a greater reality seizes
personal experience inflicts emotional the soul. Whether we try to retreat from
scars. To emphasize certain ideas he had the experience or hunger greedily for
concerning fear, the unknown, and more, it destroys our confidence in what
humanity's lowly place in the scheme of we once believed, opening us up to the
things, Lovecraft posited brand new all-encompassing truths of the Cthulhu
terrors for us. He suggested that the Mythos.
laws of space and time that we believe to Encountering the Unimaginable. When
be universal and immutable are only people perceive the creatures and
locally valid, and only partly true. entities of the Mythos, it costs them some
Beyond our ken lie infinities where portion of their minds, as such creatures
greater realities hold sway. Outside our are intrinsically discomforting and
perception, alien powers and races wait repellent. We never lose awareness of
with hostility, or at beast, cosmic their slimy, fetid, alien nature, which
indifference. Some encroach on our world. Lovecraft often characterizes as
The true universe is one with no joy or “obscene” or “blasphemous”. This
comfort. It is driven by mind-bending instinctive reaction is part and parcel of
forces to which our existence holds no every human being. In this category, we
significance, and titanic struggles in can include supernatural events or

agents not always recognized as much more often) than Current Wounds.
specifically attached to the Mythos, such Making a Sanity Check: When an
as hauntings, zombies, vampires, curses, investigator encounters a gruesome,
and so on. unnatural, or supernatural situation, the
Severe Shock. Non-Mythos shocks can GM may require a player to make a Sanity
also inflict Sanity damage. This includes check (Cool or Discipline check, according
witnessing untimely or violent death, to the GM's discretion, given the
experiencing personal mutilation, loss of situation) with a specific difficulty
social position, treachery, the failure of (usually determined by the creature's
love, or whatever else the GM decides is Presence characteristic, and modified as
sufficiently extreme. a combat check (e.g. for Adversary talent).
The check succeeds if the dice roll has at
SANITY THRESHOLD least one uncanceled s result.
On a successful check, the character
Sanity Threshold measures the
either takes no Sanity damage or only
stability of an investigator's mind. This
suffers a minimum amount. Potential
trait provides a way to display the
Sanity damage is usually shown as two
sanity inherent in a character, the most
numbers separated by a slash, such as 0/1
stability a character can ever have, and
for example. The number before the slash
the current level of sane rationality
indicates the number of Sanity damage
that a character still preserves, even
suffered if the Sanity check succeeds (in
after numerous shocks and horrid
this case, none); the number after the
revelations.
slash indicates the number of Sanity
Sanity Threshold is measured in two
damage suffered if the Sanity check
ways; maximum Sanity (5 + the
fails (in this case, 1 point).
investigator's Willpower characteristic)
An investigator's current Sanity
and current Sanity damage.
damage is also at risk when the character
reads certain books, learns of the alien
MAXIMUM SANITY truths of the Cthulhu Mythos, and casts
The character's Sanity Threshold is spells.
equal to 5 + the character's Willpower. For the most part, a new sanity-shaking
This is determined when creating the confrontation requires a new Sanity
investigator during character creation. check. However, the GM always gets to
This indicates the maximum amount of decide when characters make Sanity
Sanity damage the investigator can checks. Contronting several horribly
suffer to his mind before succumbing to mangled corpses at one time or in rapid
permanent insanity. succession may call for just one Sanity
If the character improves his check, while the same encounters at
Willpower score, for example by the intervals of several game hours may
Dedication talent, his Sanity Threshold require separate checks.
does not improve, just as it applies to Going Insane: Exceeding the character's
improving Brawn or Willpower for Sanity Threshold may also cause the
determining Wounds and Strain character to go insane, as described
Thresholds. below. If a character's Sanity damage
exceeds the character's Sanity Threshold,
CURRENT SANITY DAMAGE he begins the quick slide into permanent
A character's Current Sanity Damage insanity. Each turn, the character takes
fluctuate almost as often (and sometimes another Sanity damage. Once a character

Strange Aeons
reaches twice its maximum Sanity Let's assume that the investigators are
Threshold – for example, by reaching 20 facing a creature that has Sanity damage
Sanity damage if the investigator has a 0/2. Thus, in the same game day or in the
Sanity Threshold of 10 (5 base + 5 same play session, no character should
Willpower) – he is hopelessly, incurably suffer more than 2 Sanity damage total
insane. for seeing any number of those creatures.
A GM's description of a sanity-shaking Keep in mind that the interpretation of
situation should always justify the “reasonable interval” must vary by GM
threat to an investigator's well-being. and situation. When it feels right, the GM
Thus, a horde of frothing rats is should rule that the horror is renewed
horrifying, while a single ordinary rat and Sanity damage could be suffered
usually is not (unless a character has an again.
appropriate phobia, of course). Learning from Mythos Tomes or casting
spells never becomes a normal thing to
SANITY LOSS EXAMPLES do. No matter how many time a character
SANITY UNNERVING OR HORRIFYING casts a spell, no matter what the time
DAMAGE SITUATION interval between castings may be, the
Sanity damage is always the same. This is
0/1 Surprised to find mangled animal
carcass. tru of anything that a character does
willingly. For example, if brutally
0/1 Surprised to find a human corpse.
murdering a friend costs 2/3 Sanity
0/1 Surprised to find a human bodypart. damage, this loss is incurred each time,
0/1 Finding a stream flowing with blood. even if the character suffers the
0/1 Finding a mangled human corpse. maximum possible Sanity damage after
the first or even the second murder.
0/2 Awakening trapped in a coffin.
0/2 Witnessing a friend's violent death.
1/2 Meeting someone you know to be dead. INSANITY
Character insanity is induced by a
1/2 Undergoing severe torture.
swift succession of shocking experiences
1/2 Seeing a corpse rise from its grave. or ghastly revelations, events usually
2/3 Seeing a gigantic severed head fall connected with the Cthulhu Mythos. The
from the sky. type of insanity incurred depends on the
proportion of Sanity damage suffered.
GETTING USED TO AWFULNESS The duration of insanity varies as well.
Never underestimate the ability of the Horrifying encounters can result in
human mind to adapt, even to the most three states of mental unbalance. Two of
horrific experiences. Reading and them, temporary insanity and indefinite
rereading the same bit of disturbing insanity, can be cured. The third,
text or seeing the same horrible image permanent insanity, results when a
over and over eventually provokes no character's Sanity damage exceeds once
further Sanity damage. Within a again his Sanity Threshold and cannot be
reasonable interval of play, usually a cured (see Permanent Insanity, later on).
single session of the game, characters
should not take more Sanity damage for TEMPORARY INSANITY
seeing monsters of a particular sort than Whenever a character exceeds half of
the maximum possible points a character his maximum Sanity Threshold from a
could suffer for seeing one such monster. single check, he has suffered enough

shock that the GM must ask for an incapacitated and then recovers quickly.
Average (dd) Sanity check. If the check Successful application of the
fails, then the character realizes the Psychoanalysis skill (see page 54) may
full significance of what he saw or alleviate or erase temporary insanity.
experienced and goes temporarily insane. Temporary insanity concludes when the
If the check succeeds, the character does duration of game time rolled has elasped,
not go mad, but in consequence, he may or when the GM feels the end to be
not clearly remember what he appropriate.
experienced, if the check generated at The intent of temporary insanity is
least t or y, a trick the mind plays to forcing a character's behavior to
protect itself. noticeably change for a limited time.
Temporary insanity might last for a Whether this means that the character is
few minutes or a few days. Perhaps the babbling in some corner, running away in
character acquires a phobia or fetish a panic, or attacking Great Cthulhu with
befitting the situations, faints, becomes a can opener is up to the creativity and
hysterical, or suffers nervous twitches, inspiration of the player and the GM.
but he can still respond well enough to After the temporary insanity ends,
run away or hide. The duration of the traces or even profound evidence of the
temporary insanity depends on if there is experience should remains. No reason
t or y on the Sanity check. exists that a phobia, for instance, should
depart from someone's mind as quickly as
DURATION OF TEMPORARY INSANITY a train pulls out of a station. What
remains behind after the brief period of
RESULT INSANITY TYPE DURATION
insanity should exert a pervasive
t Short temporary 1d10+4 turns influence on the character. The character
insanity.
may still be a fit batty, but his
y Longer temporary 1d10 x 10 conscious mind once again runs the show.
insanity. hours
If the GM prefers, the exact nature
of the breakdown can be
The investigator remains in this determined randomly. To
state for the length of time rolled choose a temporary
on the table above. The GM must insanity consult
describe the insanity so that the the tables
player can roleplay it below; Short
accordingly. Ideas for phobias Temporary
and episodes of insanity are Insanity Table on
described later in this page 246 and Long-
chapter. Anyone can create Term Temporary
new ones as appropriate – Insanity Table on
though for the shorter page 247.
extends, simple As a variant rule, if
characterizing will do, the amount of Sanity
such as “lies on the damage suffered exceeds
ground and twitches”, the investigator's
“runs shrieking into the Willpower characteristic, go
night”, or “drools and squeaks directly to the Long Term
like a baby”. The character is Temporary Insanity Effects
overwhelmed by fear or horror, table on page 247.

Strange Aeons
SHORT-TERM TEMPORARY INSANITY EFFECTS (LASTS 1D10+4 TURNS)

D100 ROLL EFFECT ON CHARACTER
01-20 Character faints (can be awakened by vigorous shaking, requiring an Action).
21-30 Character has a screaming fit.
31-40 Character flees in panic.
41-50 Character shows physical hysterics or emotional outbursts (laughing, crying,
and so on).
51-55 Character babbles in incoherent rapid speech or in logorrhea (a torrent of
coherent speech).
56-60 Character gripped by intense phobia, perhaps rooting him to the spot.
61-65 Character becomes homicidal, dealing harm on nearest person as efficiently as
possible.
66-70 Character has hallucinations or delusions (details at the discretion of the
GM).
71-75 Character gripped with echopraxia or echolalia (saying or doing whatever
those around him say or do).
76-80 Character gripped with strange or deviant eating desire (dirt, slime,
cannibalism, and so on).
81-90 Character falls into a stupor (assumes fetal position, oblivious to events
around him).
91-99 Character becomes catatonic (can stand but has no will or interest; may be led
or forced to simple actions but takes no independent action).
00 Roll on the Long-Term Temporary Insanity Effects table.

LONG-TERM TEMPORARY INSANITY EFFECTS (LASTS 1D10 x 1D10 HOURS)

D100 ROLL EFFECT ON CHARACTER
01-10 Character performs compulsive rituals (washing hands constantly, praying,
walking in a particular rhythm, never stepping on cracks, constantly
checking to see if gun is loaded, and so on).
11-20 Character has hallucinations or delusions (details at the descretion of the
GM).
21-30 Character becomes paranoid.
31-40 Character gripped with severe phobia (refuses to approach object of phobia
except on a successful Hard (ddd) Discipline check).
41-45 Character has strange sexual desires (exhibitionism, nymphomania or
satyriasis, teratophilia, necrophilia, and so on).
46-55 Character develops an attachment to a “lucky charm” (embraces object, type of
object, or person as a safety blanket) and cannot function without it.
56-65 Character develops psychosomatic blindness, deafness, or the loss of the use
of a limb or limbs.
66-75 Character has uncontrollable tics or tremors (bb penalty on all skill
checks, except those purely mental in nature).
76-85 Character has amnesia (memories of intimates usually lost first; Knowledge
skill useless).
86-90 Character has bouts of reactive psychosis (incoherrence, delusions, aberrant
behavior, and/or hallucinations).
91-95 Character loses ability to communicate via speech or writing.
96-00 Character becomes catatonic (can stand but has no will or interest; may be led
or forced into simple actions but takes no independent action).
INDEFINITE INSANITY what form the character's indefinite

If a character suffers half or more of insanity takes. Many GMs prefer to choose
his maximum Sanity Threshold in 1 hour, an appropriate way for the insanity to
he goes indefinitely insane. The GM manifest, based on the circumstances that
judges when the impact of events calls provoked it. It's also a good idea to
for such a measure. Some GMs never apply consult with the player of the afflicted
the concept to more than the result of a character to see what sort of mental
single check, since this state can remove malady the player wishes to roleplay.
characters from play for extended The state of indefinite insanity is
periods. Beginning immediately, encompassing and incapacitating. For
indefinite insanity lasts for 1 to 6 game instance, a schizophrenic may be able to
months (or as the GM indicates). Symptoms walk the streets babbling and
of indefinite insanity may not be gesticulating, find rudimentary shelter,
immediately apparent. This may give the and be able to beg for enough food to
GM additional time to decide what the survive, but most of the business of the
effects of the bout of insanity might be. mind has departed into itself; he cannot
The Random Indefinite Insanity table fully interact with friends, family, and
has been provided as an aid to selecting acquaintances. Conversation, cooperation,
and personal regard have vanished.

Strange Aeons
It is possible for characters with If an investigator goes mad near the

indefinite insanity to continue to be end of an adventure, the GM may decide
played as active investigators, depending to set the beginning of the next
on the form their madness takes. The adventure after the insane investigator
character may still attempt to stumble has recovered.
madly through the rest of the adventure. The indefinite insane are in limbo,
However, with his weakened grasp on unable to help themselves or others. The
reality, he is a danger to himself and Psycoanalysis skill can be used to
others. recover Sanity damage during this
For the most part, indefinite insane period, but the underlying insanity
character should be removed from active remains.
play until they recover. At the GM's After recovery, the victim retains
discretion, that player might be allowed definite traces of madness. For example,
to use a temporary character until the he might hesitate to step out onto a
end of the story. Whether this “stand-in” bridge for fear that “gravity will get
character is an incidental NPC in the him,” even though he knows rationally
adventure, or an investigator with the that the bridge will not collapse. The
same XP amount as the other players is character is in control, but the
up to the GM. Different GMs have experience has changed him, perhaps
different policies for handling this forever.
transition.
PERMANENT INSANITY
RANDOM INDEFINITE INSANITY Characters who exceed their Sanity
D100 MENTAL DISORDER TYPE Threshold by once again the maximum
ROLL Sanity Threshold they have go
01-15 Anxiety Disorders (includes severe permanently insane. The character
phobias). becomes an NPC under the control of the
16-25 Dissociative Disorders (amnesia, multiple GM.
personalities). A character at twice his Sanity
26-30 Eating Disorders (anorexia, bulimia). Threshold may be reduced to a raving
lunatic or may be outwardly
31-35 Impulse Control Disorders (compulsions).
indistinguishable from a normal person,
36-45 Mood Disorders (manic/depressive). but inwardly corrupted by the pursuit of
46-50 Personality Disorders (various neuroses). knowledge and power. Some of the most
51-55 Psychosexual Disorders (sadism, dangerous cultists in the world are
nymphomania). investigators who have gone completely
56-70 Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders insane, been corrupted by the Mythos, and
(delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, “gone over to the other side”.
catatonia). Characters might be driven
71-80 Sleep Disorders (night terrors, permanently mad by forces other than
sleepwalking). the Cthulhu Mythos. In those cases, moral
81-85 Somatoform Disorders (psychosomatic corruption need not necessarily occur.
conditions). The GM might decide to look at different
86-95 Substance Abuse Disorder (alcohol, drug sorts of permanent insanity, rolling
addict). randomly or choosing from among the
96-00 Other Disorders (megalomania, quixotism,
types on the Random Indefinite Insanity.
panzaism). A character who has gone permanently
insane can never be normal again. He is

forever lost in his own world. This need administered to patients in the early pan
not mean a lifetime in a padded cell, of the century, only in the 1940s and
merely that the character has retreated beyond were they broadly and
so far from reality that sanity can never consistently effective in treating the
be restored. He might be able to lead, symptoms of emotional trauma. As long as
within restricted bounds, a more or less a character can afford a psychiatric
normal life if kept away from the things medication and is able to take it, the
that trigger strong responses in his symptoms of indefinite insanity can be
individual case. Yet, a relapse may come ignored. Taking such drugs docs not make
quickly. His calm facade can be destroyed a character immune or even particularly
in seconds if his fragile equilibrium is resistant to further Sanity damages. An
disturbed by even the smallest reminder Average (dd) Medicine check or Hard
of whatever it was that drove him mad. (ddd) Knowledge check is needed to
Such eventual fates are matter for the accurately prescribe the correct
individual GM and players to decide. In medications and dosage.
keeping with the spirit of the game, A 50%, chance (01-50 on a d100) exists
permanent insanity should have about it that a given drug will have either
a dark air of defeat and agony. Future physical or mental side effects. If the
developments concerning it should be side effects are physical, the patient
cloudy, unpredictable, and dangerous. suffers a bb penalty to skill checks. If
the side effects are mental, the patient
RECOVERING SANITY must upgrade the difficulty of all
Intellect, Willpower and Cunning skill
An investigator's Sanity damage can be
checks once. If more than one type of
recovered (or reduced) during the events
medication is taken due to multiple
of a campaign.
symptoms, the character will
automatically have side effects and has
MENTAL THERAPY a 50% chance for both mental and
To give useful therapy, the therapist physical side effects. Side effects last
must have the Psychoanalysis skill. for as long as the medication is taken.
Intensive psychoanalysis can recover The die roll is made one time, upon the
Sanity damage to a troubled character. first instance of a particular character's
Psychoanalysis can restore but never taking a particular drug.
improve the character. A character can Long-term drug therapy can restore
have only one psychoanalyst at a time. recover Sanity damage, just as use of the
See the description of the Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis skill can. For each month
skill (page 54) for an exact description the character takes an accurately
of how the skill works. prescribed psychiatric medication, he
Psychoanalysis can also be used to regains 2 Sanity damage.
help a character snap out of temporary A charactcr cannot regain Sanity from
insanity (for example, from an acute both Psychoanalysis and drug therapy in
panic attack). It does not speed recovery the same month.
from indefinite insanity.
Recovery from indefinite insanity only
comes with time (typically l to 6 months). TREATMENT OF
INSANITY
PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS Temporary insanity ends quickly
Although psychiatric drugs were enough that schedules of treatment are

Strange Aeons
essentially pointless. It concludes soon INSTITUTIONALIZATION

enough that one merely need protect the The next best alternative to private
deranged investigator from further care is commitment to a good insane
upset or harm. On the other hand, asylum. Asylums may be said to have an
treatment of permanent insanity has no advantage over home care in that they
real meaning. By definition, the are relatively cheap or even a free
character will never recover, no matter service provided by the state. These
how good the facility. Only indefinite institutions are of uneven quality,
insanity offers any hope for however, and some may be potentially
intervention and treatment. harmful. Some are creative places of
After l to 6 months, if undisturbed by experiment and advanced therapy, while
further trauma and with the agreement others offer mere confinement. Presently,
of the GM, an indefinitely insane in the United States, most institutions
character finds enough mental balance to are full or accessible only to the
reenter the world. Three sorts of care criminally insane. In any era,
may help the investigator recover Sanity concentrated and nourishing treatment
damage during this time. When choosing by strangers is rare.
among them, the GM and player should Supervised activity, manual therapy,
consider the character's resources, his psychiatric medications, and
friends and relatives, and how wisely he hydrotherapy are frequent, as is
has behaved in the past. electroconvulsive treatment.
Psychoanalysis is generally unavailable,
PRIVATE CARE and sometimes an institution can convey
The best care available is at home or an uncaring sense that undermines the
in some friendly place (perhaps a small useful effects of psychiatric
private sanitarium) where nursing can be medications, leaving the character with a
tender, considerate, and undistracted by sense of anger and loss. He is likely to be
the needs of competing patients. distrustful of outpatient support once
If Psychoanalysis or psychiatric he has left the institution.
medications are available, make a Make a Psychoanalysis check for every
Psycoanalysis check for the analyst game month the character is
administering the treatment. The GM will institutionalized. The GM will decide
decide upon the physicians skill, but upon the physicians skill, but usually
usually having an Average Willpower having an Average Willpower
characteristic of 2 and one rank of characteristic of 2 and two ranks of
Psychoanalysis is the standard for a Psychoanalysis is the standard for a
practicing analyst. That means, a Hard practicing analyst. That means, a Hard
(ddd) Psychoanalysis check is required (ddd) Psychoanalysis check is required
with a skill pool of cd. Each with a skill pool of cc. Each
uncancelled s on the check recovers one uncancelled s on the check recovers one
point of Sanity damage. If the check point of Sanity damage. If the check
generates ttt or y, the analyst generates ttttt or y, the
fumbles the diagnosis or the character character rebels against taking the
rebels against taking the drugs. He drugs. He suffers 3 Sanity damage, and no
suffers 3 Sanity damage, and no progress progress can be made that month.
is made that month.

WANDERING AND HOMELESS • Expectations of Doom: Anxieties,

If no care is available, the character worries, fears, and especially
may become a wandering derelict anticipations of misfortune. All skill
struggling for survival. The wanderer checks suffer a b penalty.
recovers no Sanity damage unless he is • Vigilance: Distractible, inability to
able to join a group of the homeless and focus, in somnia, irritability, impatience.
find at least one friend among them. To All skill checks based on Intellect,
find a friend, make an Average (dd) Willpower and Cunning suffer a bb
Charm or Hard (ddd) Streetwise check penalty.
each month. If a friend appears, recover l Panic Disorder (Panic Attack): This
Sanity damage per game month. illness is marked by a discrete period of
fear in which symptoms develop rapidly.
Within minutes palpitation, sweating,
MENTAL DISORDERS trembling, difficulty in breathing, and
Terminology changes rapidly. A so on appear, strong enough that the
psychiatrist of the 1920s would recognize person fears immediate death or insanity.
some of these terms, but others would be Burdened with the recurrence of these
baffling to him. Most strikingly, phrases episodes, he fears their return. This
of a hundred years ago such as often leads to a developing agoraphobia
“demented" or “lunatic" are avoided by (see below).
modern psychiatrists because of their Agoraphobia (Fear of Open Places): The
modern, negative connotations. Below, you character becomes very nervous outside
will find descriptions of many mental familiar surroundings and needs a
disorders, from schizophrenia to various successful Average (dd) Discipline check
personality disorders. Where appropriate, in order to leave home or engage socially.
suggested modifiers to characters' skill Maybe linked to panic disorder (see
checks and characteristics are also given. above) or to a related phobia (see below),
Keep in mind that as psychological such as uranophobia (fear of the sky),
science progresses, some of these barophobia (fear of loss of gravity), or
conditions may undergo redefinition or xenophobia (fear of strangers).
be found to have other causes, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: This
chemical imbalances or genetic disorders. illness manifests in one of two main
forms, obsessive thoughts or compulsive
ANXIETY DISORDERS actions; some characters exhibit both.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The • Obsessions: The character cannot help
character suffers from a variety of thinking about an idea, image, or impulse
physical and emotional symptoms that can incessantly, often involving violence and
be grouped in to certain categories. self-doubt. These ideas are frequently
• Motor Tension: Jitteriness, aches, repugnant to the character, but they are
twitch es, restlessness, easily startled, so strong that during times of stress he
easily fatigued, and so on. All combat may be unable to concentrate on anything
checks and all checks based on Brawn and else, even if doing so is necessary for his
Agility suffer a b penalty. survival. Obsessive impulses can be very
• Autonomic Hyperactivity: Sweating, dangerous when combined with auditory
racing heart, dizziness, clammy hands, hallucinations, as the “voices" may urge
flushed or pallid face, rapid pulse and the character to take some dangerous or
respiration even when at rest, and so on. hostile course of action.
All skill checks suffers a b penalty. • Compulsions: Ritual actions performed

Strange Aeons
by the character, such as touching a check is required for a character to be

doorway at left, right, and top before able to force himself into (or remain
passing through it. Though he may agree within) the presence of the object of his
that the actions are senseless, the need phobia, and even then all his skill
to perform them is overpowering and may checks will be at a b penalty for as
last for ldlO turns. Even in times of long as the object of fear remains. In
great stress, the character may ignore severe cases, the object of the phobia is
his survival in order to perform the imagined to be omnipresent, perhaps
ritual. hidden – thus, someone with severe
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: After a acrophobia (fear of heights) might be
traumatic event, perhaps even years frightened when in an enclosed room on
later, the character begins to relive the the upper story of a building, even if
trauma through persistent thoughts, there were no window or way to see how
dreams, and flashbacks. Correspondingly, high up the room was. As many phobias
the character loses interest in daily exist as one cares to
activities. He may return to normal once notice or name – the
the memories have been thoroughly listing in the
explored and understood, but that sidebar below are
process may take years. merely some of the
Today, quicker clinical more common for
treatments exist, STRANGE AEONS
such as eye characters.
movement Manias are rarer.
desensitization In a mania, the
and refocusing, or character is
EMDR. Known as inordinately fond of
“shell shock" a particular stimulus
during and in and takes great pains
the years to be with it or
following World near it. When the
War l. character's
Phobia or sexuality is
Mania: The involved, the
individual mania may be
persistently fears termed a fetish.
a particular Thus teratophobia
object or would be an
situation. He inordinate fear
realizes that the of monsters, whil e
fear is excessive teratophilia would
and irrational, but be an unhealthy
the fear is (possibly sexual)
disturbing attraction to
enough that them. See the
he avoids the phobia listing
stimulus. An below for
Average (dd) ideas.
Discipline

PHOBIAS
Acrophobia: fear of heights. Hypnophobia: fear of sleep.
Aerophobia: fear of wind. Iatrophobia: fear of doctors.
Agoraphobia: fear of open places. Ichthyophobia: fear of fish.
Ailurophobia: fear of cats. Maniaphobia: fear of going insane.
Androphobia: fear of men (males). Monophobia: fear of being alone.
Astrophobia: fear of stars. Musophobia: fear of mice (and rats).
Autophobia: fear of being alone. Necrophobia: fear of dead things.
Bacteriophobia: fear of bacteria (“germs"). Nyctophobia: fear of night or nightfall.
Ballistophobia: fear of bullets. Odontophobia: fear of teeth.
Barophobia: fear of loss of gravity. Onomatophobia: fear of name, word, or phrase.
Bathophobia: fear of deep places. Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes.
Bibliophobia: fear of books. Ornithophobia: fear of birds.
Blennophobia: fear of slime. Pediphobia: fear of children.
Brontophobia: fear of thunder. Phagophobia: fear of eating.
Cenophobia: fear of empty rooms. Phonophobia: fear of noise, even own voice.
Chionophobia: fear of snow. Pyrophobia: fear of fire.
Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces. Scotophobia: fear of darkness.
Demophobia: fear of crowds. Spectrophobia: fear of mirrors.
Dendrophobia: fear of trees. Taphephobia: fear of being buried alive.
Entomophobia: fear of insects. Teratophobia: fear of monsters.
Gephyrdrophobia: fear of crossing bridges. Thalassophobia: fear of the sea.
Gynephobia: fear of women (females). Tomophobia: fear of surgery.
Hamartophobia: fear of sin or making errors. Uranophobia: fear of the heavens.
Haphephobia: fear of being touched. Vermiphobia: fear of worms.
Heliophobia: fear of sunlight or the sun. Xenophobia: fear of foreigners or strangers.
Hematophobia: fear of blood or of bleeding. Zoophobia: fear of animals.
Hydrophobia: fear of water.
DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS character's different personalities. (Each

Dissociative Amnesia (Psychogenic one has the same ability scores and game
Amnesia): This is the inability to recall stats, but different goals, outlooks, and
important personal information, brought attitudes.)
on by a desire to avoid unpleasant
memories. The character must make a Hard EATING DISORDERS
(ddd) Discipline check to recall such Since nearly all such cases are
details or the cause of the amnesia. Since diagnosed in the United States and
the horror of the Mythos is the probable Canada, anorexia nervosa and bulimia
cause of this amnesia. nervosa might be classified as cultural
Dissociative Fugue: The character flees syndromes. They are conditions that may
from home or work and cannot recall his continue for many years, sometimes to the
past. Once the flight halts, the character considerable danger of the patient.
may assume an entirely new identity. Anorexia Nervosa: The character has an
Dissociative Identity Disorder overpowering fear of becoming fat and
(Multiple Personality Disorder, or consequently loses weight, as well as
MPD): The character appears to harbor Brawn (at a rate of 1 point per game
more than one personality, each of which month. This loss is not permanent, and can
is dominant at times and has its own be recovered at the rate of 1 point per
distinct behavior, name, and even gender. month of proper dieting). Even when skin
The player needs to keep track of the and bones, the character continues to see

Strange Aeons
herself as “too fat." Without distracted, willingness for dangerous or

intervention, she may literally starve imprudent activities such as reckless
herself to death. driving, delusions, hallucinations, and
Bulimia Nervosa: The character bizarre behavior. All skill checks suffer
frequently eats high calorie food during a bb penalty. A predisposition exists to
secret binges. An eating episode may use alcohol or other substances in an
continue until abdominal cramping or attempt at self-medication.
self-induced vomiting occurs. Feelings of Bipolar Mood Disorder: The character
depression and guilt frequently follow oscillates between mood states for up to
such episodes. weeks at a time, sometimes rapidly
switching from one to another. Formerly
IMPULSE CONTROL DISORDERS known as manic-depressive.
These include compulsive gambling,
pathological lying, kleptomania PERSONALITY DISORDERS
(compulsive thieving), and pyromania (the These long-term disorders have almost
compu.lsion to set fires). constant effects on a character's
Intermittent Explosive Disorder: The behavior, making it difficult for him to
character is recognizably impulsive and interact with others and often making
aggressive, and at times gives way to him unpleasant to be around as well. This
uncontrollable rages that result in is an important point to keep in mind
assault or destruction of property. when roleplaying – few players want to
spend time with another player character
MOOD DISORDERS suffering from a personality disorder.
Depression: Symptoms of this illness In game terms, the character has a bb
include changes in appetite, weight gain penalty to all Social skill checks.
or loss, too much or too little sleep, Personality disorders may fall into
persistent feeling of tiredness or any of the following categories.
sluggishness, and feelings of Antisocial: Short-sighted and reckless
worthlessness or guilt, leading in severe behavior, habitual liar, confrontational,
cases to hallucinations, delusions, stupor, fails to meet obligations (job, bills,
or thoughts of suicide. All skill checks relationships), disregards rights and
suffer a bb penalty. A predisposition feelings of others.
to use alcohol or other substances in an Avoidant: Oversensitive to rejection,
attempt at self-medication exists. A low self-esteem, socially withdrawn.
character suffering from severe chronic Borderline: Rapid mood shifts,
depression may give up virtually all impulsive, unable to control temper,
effort from feelings of hopelessness – chronic boredom.
for example, deciding not to get out of Compulsive: Perfectionist,
bed for two years. Characters suffering authoritarian, indecisive through fear
from deep, acute depression may need to of making mistakes, difficulty expressing
be put on suicide watch. emotions.
Mania: The character has a fairly Dependent: Lacks self-confidence; seeks
constant euphoric or possibly irritable another to look up to, follow, and
mood. Symptoms include a general increase subordinate herself to (“codependent").
in activity, garrulousness, increased Histrionic: Overly dramatic, craves
self-esteem to the point of delusion, attention and excitement, overreacts,
decreased need for sleep, being easily displays temper tantrums, may threaten
suicide if thwarted.

Narcissistic: Exaggerated sense of self- SCHIZOPHRENIA AND OTHER

importance, craves attention and
admiration, considers others' rights and PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
feelings as of less importance than his A psychotic character experiences a
own. break with reality. Symptoms can include
Passive-Aggressive: Procrastinator, delusions, hallucinations, and cognitive
stubborn, intentionally forgetful, impairment. In general, psychiatric
deliberately inefficient. Sabotages own medications may be of high value in
performance on a regular basis. treating such disorders. Note, however,
Paranoid: Jealous, easily offended, that many psychotic characters suffer
suspicious, humorless, secretive, vigilant; from the delusion that nothing is wrong
exaggerates magnitude of offenses, with them and hence feel no need to take
refuses to accept blame. their medication. Beyond exhibiting the
Schizoid: Emotionally cold, aloof, has symptomatic behaviors, those who lack
few friends; indifferent to praise or appropriate medications should also
criticism. suffer skill reductions while the effect
Gamemasters should know, while these is strong.
traits may make for an interesting NPC Schizophrenia (schizophreniform
from whom the players must extract disorder, dementia praecox): Mental
information or a favor, their antisocial concentration greatly diminishes;
nature makes them ill-suited for party upgrade the difficulty of all skill
members. checks once. Symptoms include bizarre
delusions, paranoia, auditory
hallucinations (“hearing voices"),
PSYCHOSEXUAL DISORDERS incoherent speech, emotional detachment,
This is an exceedingly diverse group, social withdrawal, bizarre behavior, and
constantly undergoing redefinition. (Up a lack of the sense of self. A
until the 1960s, homosexuality was schizophrenic character may belong to
believed to be a mental disease.) one of the following categories.
Recognizable disorders include • Undifferentiated: Impaired cognitive
transsexualism (a belief that one is function, emotional detachment.
actually a member of the opposite sex), • Disorganized: Inappropriate behavior,
impaired sexual desire or function, shallow emotional responses, delusions,
nymphomania and satyriasis (inordinate hallucinations.
and uncontrollable sexual appetite in • Catatonic: Mutism (loss of ability to
women and men, respectively), and
talk), extreme compliance, absence of all
paraphilia (requirement of an abnormal
voluntary movements, complete
sexual stimulus, such as sadism,
immobility (“statuism").
masochism, necrophilia, pedophilia,
• Paranoid: Delusions of persecution,
exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, or
illogical thinking, hallucinations.
bestiality).
Symptoms from more than one type can
Most of these disorders could make
occur in the same individual, along with
players of the afflicted characters
mood disorders (see above). For example,
uncomfortable and thus are not
catatonic schizophreniacs sometimes have
appropriate for most roleplaying groups,
manic episodes of extreme activity
although they can make for striking (if
alternating with periods of complete
unpleasant) NPCs.
withdrawal. Schizophrenia brought on by
sudden stress is called acute

Strange Aeons
schizophrenia; player characters who go a physical disorder but, though

insane and babble of vast global involuntary, the symptoms provide a way
conspiracies will usually be diagnosed as to avoid something undesirable or to
suffering from “acute paranoid garner attention and caring
schizophrenia." (Munchausenism). Symptoms range from
painful headaches to paralysis or
SLEEP DISORDERS blindness. In Reverse Munchausenism, the
These include insomnia (character has character projects ill health onto others
difficulty falling asleep or staying and may even arrange injuries or
asleep) and narcolepsy (character illnesses for them so that he may take
frequently falls asleep, almost anywhere care of them. All skill checks suffer a b
and at inappropriate times). Characters penalty.
performing demanding tasks such as Hypochondriasis: Character believes he
driving a car or flying a plane may, when suffers from a serious disease. No
stressed, need to succeed on an Average physical cause for reported symptoms can
(dd) Resilience check to stay awake and be found, but the character continues to
not put themselves in a dangerous believe the disease or condition exists,
situation. often with serious consequences to his
Night Terrors: A sleeping character normal life.
wakes after several hours of sleep, Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Character
usually screaming in terror. Pulse and suffers from perceived flaws in
breathing are rapid, pupils are dilated, appearance, usually of the face, or of
and his hair stands on end. The character the hips or legs. Behavior may alter in
is confused and hard to calm down. Night unexpected ways to cover up the flaws or
terrors are similar to normal nightmares, to calm anxieties.
but much more intense and disruptive.
Somnambulism: Sleepwalking. As with SUBSTANCE ABUSE DISORDERS
night terrors, this behavior occurs in the The character finds solace in using a
first few hours of sleep. An episode may drug, becomes physically addicted, and
last up to 30 minutes. During the episode, spends much time maintaining, concealing,
the character's face is blank and staring, and indulging the habit. Drugs include
and he can be roused only with alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine,
difficulty. Once awake, he recalls hallucinogens, marijuana, nicotine, opium
nothing of the activity. (especially morphine and heroin),
sedatives, the Plutonian drug, space
SOMATOFORM DISORDERS mead, thag weed, and so on.
Somatization Disorder: The character A character under the sway of such a
suffers a psychosomatic condition, with substance should feel the personal
possible symptoms ranging from dizziness struggle daily. Will saving throws might
and impotence to blindness or intense be used to resist or succumb symbolically
pain. Medicine cannot identify any to cravings, especially just before
physical cause for the symptoms, but the periods of stress (for example, just
character does not believe they before a confrontation or likely battle
represent a specific disease. All skill with evil cultists) . All skill checks
checks suffer a b penalty. suffer a b penalty because of
Conversion Disorder: The character withdrawal symptoms. Sanity damage
reports physical dysfunctions suggesting could occur from binges or bad trips.
Some characters might find that drugs

promote communication with alien judgment, talkativeness, mood changes,

entities and gods, and that dreams about aggression, impaired attention, and
them become ever more vivid and blackouts (amnesialike states). Use can
horrifying. Conversely, such substances also cause flushed face, impaired
might function as medications, deadening coordination, and slurred speech.
a character's fears and offering Withdrawal can cause mild shakiness,
temporary defenses against Sanity hangovers, and other symptoms. Delirium
damage. tremens can include seizures and
delirium requiring active medical
ADDICTIONS intervention.
Substance abuse occurs in all segments LSD, Mushrooms, Peyote: Duration 8-12
of all societies. By definition, abuse hours of high with flashbacks after
indicates decreased work or school abstinence, visual hallucinations,
performance, accidents, intoxication paranoid thoughts, false sense of
while working or driving absenteeism, achievement and strength, suicidal or
violent crime, or theft. Urine and blood homicidal tendencies, depersonalization,
tests can confirm suspected abuse. derealization. Treatment requires
Substance use may worsen or mimic other talking down; for severe agitation,
psychiatric disorders relating to sedatives or antipsychotics plus
depression, anxiety, mania, or psychosis. restraints may be needed. Lysergic acid
Many people successfully use diet hylamide (LSD) was first synthesized
substances recreationally, without in 1943 and thus is not present in
substantial or even observable changes earlier eras.
to their lives. A sizable fraction of Amphetamines and Cocaine: User may be
users are not so fortunate. Their lives alert, talkative, euphoric, hyperactive,
change, as they increasingly come to irritable, aggressive, agitated, sometimes
depend on one or more such substances. paranoid. There may be visual and
tactile hallucinations such as
Alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine, and the
formication (the feeling that insects are
opiates are addictive substances most
crawling across your skin). Cocaine use
frequently resorted to in earlier game
may be quickly followed by a crash
eras. They and more are abused in the
phase. Craving for these drugs can last
present day.
for years.
Abuse often leads to dependence, which
is characterized by developing tolerance Opiates (Opium, Morphine, Heroin):
(thus requiring a larger dose), Symptoms include euphoria, drowsiness,
withdrawal symptoms, and a pattern of anorexia, lessened sex drive,
increasing procurement of the substance. hyperactivity, and passivity; physically,
Dependence may be emotional and social nausea and slow heart rate. In the 1890s,
in context. most addicts smoked opium in pipes, or
drank it in solutions (laudanum, cola-
Therapy includes making sure someone
wine). or injected it subcutaneously
hasn't overdosed, ruling out other
(under the skin, not into a vein); in the
substances possibly present in the blood,
modern day, most addicts inject it into a
and medical support. Long-term
vein for a quicker, more drastic high. In
treatment (“drying out") lasts six months
themselves, needle tracks in arms and
to a year, with the goal of creating
legs can develop into a medical problem.
longer and longer periods of abstinence.
Treatment is a weaning-off process using
Alcohol: Symptoms include poor methadone, itself highly addictive.

Strange Aeons
OTHER DISORDERS Dementia - a loss of cognitive function,

Other disorders exist in common often first manifesting in memory loss.
parlance, but most of these are actually Depersonalization - subjective feeling
symptoms or specific in stances of of being unreal, or unfamiliar to self.
disorders already mentioned above. These Derealization - a subjective feeling
include quixotism (seeing the that the environment is strange or
supernatural everywhere, even in the unreal; for in stance, feeling the world
most mundane surroundings), panzaism (see to be a stage or a two-dimensional
ing the most extraordinary events as painting.
ordinary and rational), and megalomania Dissociation - confusion in th essense
(delusions of power, wealth, fame, and of self and identity.
ability). Use or ignore these as suits your Formication - the feeling that insects
own campaign, or invent new categories of are crawling all over one's body, a
madness to reflect the chaos that lies tactile hallucination caused by cocaine
just below the brittle surface of and delirium tremens.
Lovecraft's world. Hallucination - a perception of a
sensory stimulus in the absence of
sensory stimulus; for instance, seeing or
A PSYCHIATRIC hearing someone who isn't there.
GLOSSARY Illusion - the misperception of a
sensory stimulus; for instance, seeing the
Affect - the external expression of a
rustling branches of a tree as tentacles.
patient's mood (sadness, anger, joy, fear).
Logorrhea - copious, coherent, logical
May be in consistent with patient's mood,
speech.
depending on the disorder.
Mania - a mood characterized by
Anorexia - loss or decr ease of
elation and increased activity.
appetite.
Mood - a pervasive feeling that is
Catatonia - various strong motor
experienced internally.
anomalies, for instance catatonic stupor
Neurosis - symptoms of depression,
(slowed activity to the point of
anxiety, or the like arising from stress. A
immobilization); ceraflexibilit as (the
neurosis is less severe than a psychosis. A
person can be molded into strange
neurotic character may still be able to
postures that are maintained), and
function; a psychotic one generally
catatonic excitement (agitated,
cannot.
purposeless movements).
Obsession - an idea or thought that
Compulsion - the need to perform an act
constantly intrudes into consciousness.
repetitively, including various personal
Paranoia - per sistent, consistent,
rituals, dipsomania, kleptomania,
plausible, and ingenious delusions of
nymphomania, satyriasis, trichotillomania
persecution or jealousy. New information
(pulling out hair), and so on.
always seems to support the increasing
Delirium - a reversible syndrome of
threat of some great conspiracy. Paranoia
bewilderment, restlessness , confusion,
is more a symptom than a disorder, as it
and disorientation, associated with fear
can appear in schizophrenia, mania, and
and hallucinations, all caused by some
so on.
underlying medical condition.
Psychosis - severe mental illness in
Delusion - afirmly fixed false belief,
which the character suffers thoughts and
one not based in reality. lt can be
perceptions that arc out of touch with
bizarre, as in schizophrenia, or
reality. A psychosis is more severe than a
systematized as in delusional disorders.

neurosis.
Somnambulism - sleepwalking.
Somnolence - abnormal drowsiness.
Synthesia - sensation caused by
another sensation; for instance, seeing
sound.
Tic - involuntary spasmodic motor
movement.
Trailing Phenomenon – perceptual
abnormality associated with
hallucinogens in which moving objects
are seen in a series of discrete
discontinuous images.
Trance - focused attention and altered
consciousness, usually seen in hypnosis,
dissociative disorders, and ecstatic
religious experiences.

CRAFTING
YOG-SOTHOTH KNOWS THE GATE. YOG-SOTHOTH IS THE GATE
Willard still sat motionless in the

cabin of his Ford Model T automobile
HOW CRAFTING WORKS
Technicians do more than just maintain
outside the front entrance of the
and improve their equipment; such
Arkham asylum. The sun was already
skilled artisans frequently build their
setting, and black, heavy, ominous clouds
own devices. Whether their creations are
covered the sky, threatening to douse
made from refined materials procured at
Arkham and the entire countryside with
great cost or thrown together in
rain.
desperation from whatever scraps happen
Several people had come and gone, to be on hand at the time, the machines
passing the man in the car with no heed that technicians cobble together are
or second thought. Visitors, orderlies, often incredible works of ingenuity.
nurses and doctors alike, all milling The rules in this section provide GMs
about like faceless motes of shadows. and players with options for crafting
Time had no meaning for Willard, nor their own weapons, armor and gadgets, as
did he perceive the passing of time, or none a presented in the GENESYS core
even the passing of people that came and rulebook. Arguably, then crafting is not
went outside his automobile. No coherent the biggest of priorities in a STRANGE
thought manifested, rooted or much less AEONS campaign, but it is an option that
surfaced in his troubled mind. is available for the characters. When a
It wasn't before an groundkeeper player wishes to have a character craft
knocked vigorously on the front panel an item, the player should consult with
of the automobile and informed him that the GM, and then the two should
he could not stay here for the night, collaborate to go through the steps
that Willard slumped out of his stupor. listed below to create the device. As with
Confused and disoriented he blinked his all such matters, anything that the
eyes, feeling unnaturally tired and player wants to craft is subject to the
exhausted. GMs approval.
“Right, right. Yeah, okay,” he muttered Crafting follows three steps. In Step 1:
as he looked up at the man with the Select Template, the player character
reddish beard, overalls and wool shirt. chooses what kind of item to make. In
As he got his automobile started, the Step 2: Acquire Materials, the player
first drops of rain fell from the skies. character acquires the supplies to build
Willard didn't even notice this, as he that specific item. In Step 3:
drove down the path leading to and from Construction, the character actually
Arkham asylum. crafts the item.
Without consciously thinking where he
was going, Willard set course for the STEP 1: SELECT A TEMPLATE
hillside. Heading out to the gypsy camp When a craftsperson sets about
at the outskirts of Arkham. He needed crafting a piece of item, the character
hooch, and much of it. And these seedy first chooses a template from the
aberrants were the prime source of appropriate item table table. The
moonshine in the area. They were template dictates the material required
foreigners, mostly Eastern European, or (Material Price/Rarity), the difficulty of
so he was told, living like rats, and building it (Check), an estimate of how
living among rats. But they had liquor long construction takes (Time), and the
and they did not ask any unnecessary base mechanical statistics of the item
questions. should the character succeed on the
261 Crafting
Strange Aeons
check (Profile). or being gifted with them).

Each template represents an incredibly This step requires as much time as it
vast number of specific models and takes for the player character to
designs of individual items that provide actually obtain the materials. This
roughly equal protection or effect. endeavor could be as short as a trip to a
Players and GMs should feel free to be scrapyard or market, or as long as an
creative in coming up with their own epic quest to find a rare ore, depending
unique types of items that a given on the situation. After successfully
template can represent. Inspired GMs are acquiring materials, a character moves on
even encouraged to create their own new to Step 3: Construction.
templates – all a template needs is a
Name, Material/Price, Check, Time and STEP 3: CONSTRUCTION
Profile, which GMs can furnish as they After acquiring the materials to make
see fit. the specific item, the character must
This step takes as much or little time make the associated check listed under
as the character spends planning, Check on the respective tables to
drafting, and designing. After selecting actually build the item in question. If
a template, a character moves on to Step the character succeeds, the item is fully
2: Acquire Materials. functional and has the profile listed
in its template. If the character
STEP 2: ACQUIRE MATERIALS fails on the check, the product that
To attempt to build an item based comes out of the attempt is unusable,
on a particular template, the and the materials are lost.
player character must acquire There is a table linked to
appropriate material for that each individual type of
template. These are listed crafting for suggestions on
under Material Price/Rarity how to integrate other
on the respective tables, and results into construction.
for acquisition purposes First, crafters can use a
count as a single item wit and x results to make
hthe listed price and rarity. As improvements to the item.
always, at the GMs discretion, Then the GM can spend t and
certain supplies might not y to add flaws.
always be available for the The amount of time Step 3:
listed price at a given market. Construction takes is determined
Because Material Price/Rarity by the estimate of working hours
for a template is defined only in listed in the template under Time.
terms of price in dollars and Every s the character scores on
abstracted rarity, the particular the check beyond the first reduces
nature of the materials a this time by 2 hours (to the
character uses can vary wildly, and minimum of 1 hour). Other factors
depends on the specifics of the item can also affect the time required at
the character is crafting. the GM's discretion.
At the GMs discretion, player Alternatively, the GM could ask
characters can acquire materials for the player interested in crafting to
a template via means other than arrive early to the session (or stay
paying for them (such as a bit late) to take care of the
salvaging them, stealing them, mechanical side of the crafting, so
Crafting 262
that everyone else at the table doesn't

have to wait around while that player
agonizes over which quality to add to an
item. The best option is the one that
works best for the particular group in
question.
ARMOR CRAFTING
Crafting a new set of armor can be a
meaningful endeavor for a character,
signifying an advancement in knowledge,
a renewed resolve to protect oneself or
others against evil cultists or creatures
of the Mythos, or even just crafting
because one is capable. Many
investigators choose to purchase or
acquire armors via other means, but for a
craftsperson, there is no substitute for
creating one's own armor.
ARMOR TEMPLATES
NAME PRICE RARITY CHECK TIME PROFILE
Reinforced Clothing 10 1 Average (dd) Mechanics 6 hours +1 Soak, +0 Defense,
check 1 Encumbrance,
0 Hard Points
Light Armor 25 3 Average (dd) Mechanics 12 hours +2 Soak, +0 Defense,
0 Hard Points
Customizable Armor 50 5 Average (dd) Mechanics 16 hours +1 Soak, +0 Defense,
4 Hard Points
Deflective Armor 50 6 Average (dd) Mechanics 24 hours +1 Soak, +1 Defense,
1 Hard Point
Combat Armor 125 5 Hard (ddd) Mechanics 48 hours +2 Soak, +0 Defense,
2 Hard Points
Segmented Armor (R) 250 7 Daunting (dddd) 72 hours +2 Soak, +1 Defense,
Mechanics check 6 Encumbrance,
3 Hard Points
Augmentative Armor (R) 450 9 Formidable (ddddd) 120 hours +2 Soak, +2 Defense,
Mechanics check 6 Encumbrance,
3 Hard Points
263 Crafting
Strange Aeons
SPENDING a, x, t AND y WHEN CRAFTING ARMOR

SYMBOLS EFFECT
a or x Practice Makes Perfect: The character learns something valuable, and gains b
on the next check he makes with the same skill before the end of the session.
Lightweight: Reduce the armor's Encumbrance by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
aa or x Lessons Learned: Reduce the difficulty of the character's next crafting check
by 1.
Extra Melee Defense: Add +1 Melee Defense to the armor (can only be selected
once).
Special Embellishment: The wearer of this armor adds automatic a to checks
for one of the following skills: Charm, Coercion, Leadership, Negotiation,
Resilience or Stealth (can only be selected once).
aaa or x Efficient Construction: A sizeable portion of the material is unused or can be
reclaimed from the process, the character retains supplies worth 50% of the
Material Price needed to craft the item (can only be selected once).
Extra Ranged Defense: Add +1 Ranged Defense to the armor (can only be
selected once).
Extra Hard Point: Add 1 hard point to the armor (to a maximum of 2 additional
hard points).
aaaa or x Extra Soak: Add +1 Soak to the armor (can only be selected once).
Duplicate: Create one additional, identical set of armor (with all of the
qualities, improvements, and flaws that the first possesses) at no extra cost.
Armor Schematic: Create a schematic that permanently reduces the difficulty
to create armors of this template by 1, to a minimum of Simple (-) (can only be
selected once).
xx Integral Attachment: Add +1 hard point to the armor, then install one
applicable armor attachment that requires 1 hard point. No check is required
to obtain this attachment, and it costs 0 dollars.
t or y Exhausting Effort: Upon completing Step 3: Construction, the character
suffers 3 strain.
Heavy: Increase the armor's Encumbrance by +1.
Poor Fit: Donning and removing this armor requires 1 additional Action (can
only be selected once).
tt or y Complex: The armor is difficult to maintain. Increase the difficulty of checks
to repair this item by 1.
Difficult to Customize: Increase the difficulty of checks to install/modify
attachments on this armor by 1.
Restrictive: The wearer of this armor adds automatic t to checks for one of
the following skills: Athletics, Coordination, Perception, Skulduggery or
Vigilance (can only be selected once).
ttt or y Wear and Tear: The tools the character was using to craft the armor are worn
down or destroyed, and are damaged one step (minor damage if undamaged, from
minor to moderate, or moderate to major).
Fragile: The armor has a substantial vulnerability that can be exploited;
whenever the armor becomes damaged, the damage always counts as moderate
damage unless it would be worse).
tttt or y Expensive: The armor has intricate mechanisms that can only be replaced at
substantial cost. Whenever it becomes damaged, the cost to repair the armor is
doubled.
Supply Shortage: The character runs out of equipment midway through
Crafting 264
constructing the armor. The crafter cannot finish it until he has a chance to
acquire more supplies and spends dollars equal to 25% of the Material Price
on these additional supplies (can only be selected once).
yy Unexpected Flaw: The armor has a serious problem the crafter does not detect.
At some point in the future, the GM may spend a Story Point to cause the
armor to fail. When he does so, the armor counts as suffering major damage,
and thus becomes unusable. Once the armor has been repaired, this flaw is
removed and cannot be exploited this way against (can only be selected once).
BRAWL AND MELEE weapons.

Brawl and melee weapon crafting
CRAFTING follows the normal steps for crafting, as
Melee weapons might not be the detailed earlier in this chapter.
battlefield mainstay that they once were
in ancient days, but many still carry
them to war as symbols, as secondary
weapons, or for the sheer menace they
exude. Smiths have been crafting fine
melee weapons since time immemorial, and
many traditionalists still work the craft
of the weaponsmiths of old with
incredible finesse and artistry.
Other melee weapons are modern
in design, developed based on
innovations in martial
sciences and machinecraft.
Brawl and melee weapons are far from
obsolete in the STRANGE AEONS setting as
they are easily acquired and require less
maintenance in comparison to most ranged
BRAWL AND MELEE WEAPON TEMPLATES

NAME PRICE RARITY CHECK TIME EXAMPLES
Fist Weapon 5 1 Average (dd) Mechanics 4 hours Brass knuckles, sap
or Survival check
Bludgeoning Weapon 2 1 Easy (d) Mechanics or 6 hours Baseball bat, club,
Survival check nunchuks
Bladed Weapon 5 1 Average (dd) Mechanics 16 hours Axe, sickle, sword
check
BRAWL AND MELEE WEAPON TEMPLATE PROFILES

NAME SKILL DAM CRIT RANGE ENCUM HP SPECIAL
Fist Weapon Brawl +1 4 Engaged 1 0 -
Bludgeoning Weapon Melee +2 5 Engaged 3 1 -
Bladed Weapon Melee +1 4 Engaged 2 1 -
265 Crafting
Strange Aeons
SPENDING a, x, t AND y WHEN CRAFTING BRAWL AND MELEE WEAPONS

SYMBOLS EFFECT
Two-Handed: Increase the weapon's damage by 1 and Encumbrance by 2; it
becomes a weapon that requires two hands to wield (can only be selected once).
Lightweight: Reduce the weapon's Encumbrance by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
Knockdown Quality: The weapon gains the Knockdown quality (can only be
selected once).
by 1.
Defensive Quality: The weapon gains the Defensive 1 quality (or increase its
Defensive quality by 1, to a maximum of 3).
Customizable: Increase the weapon's hard points by 1 (can only be selected
once).
Pierce Quality: The weapon gains the Pierce 1 quality (or increase its Pierce
quality by 1).
Vicious Quality: The weapon gains the Vicious 1 quality (or increase its Vicious
quality by 1, to a maximum of 5).
Stun Quality: This weapon gains the Stun 1 quality (or increase the value of
its Stun quality by 1).
reclaimed from the process; the character retains supplies worth 50% of the
Material Price needed to craft the item (can be selected once).
Ensnare Quality: The weapon gains Ensnare 1 quality (or increase its Ensnare
quality by 1).
Deflection Quality: The weapon gains the Deflection 1 quality (or increase its
Deflection quality by 1, to a maximum of 5).
Destructive: Increase the weapon's damage by 1 (can only be selected once).
aaaa or x Accurate Quality: The weapon gains the Accurate 1 quality (or increase its
Accurate quality by 1, to a maximum of 5).
Lethal: Reduce the weapon's critical rating by 1, to a minimum of 1 (can only
be selected once).
Sunder Quality: The weapon gains the Sunder quality (can only be selected
once).
Schematic: Create a schematic that permanently reduces the difficulty of
creating weapons of this template by 1 (to a minimum of Simple [-]).
xx Concussive Quality: The weapon gains the Concussive 1 quality (can only be
selected once).
Integral Attachment: Add +1 hard point to the weapon, then install one
applicable weapon attachment that require 1 or fewere hard points. No check
is required to obtain this attachment, and it costs 0 dollars.
suffers 3 strain.
Heavy: Increase the weapon's Encumbrance by 1.
tt or y Cumbersome Quality: The weapon gains the Cumbersome 1 quality (or increase
its Cumbersome quality by 1).
Hard to Modify: Increase the difficulty of checks to modify attachments to
this weapon by 1.
ttt or y Wear and Tear: The tools the character was using to craft the weapon are worn
Crafting 266
down or destroyed, and are damaged one step (minor damage, from minor to
moderate, or moderate to major).
Difficult to Repair: Increase the difficulty of checks to repair this weapon
by 1.
Inaccurate Quality: The weapons gains the Inaccurate 1 quality (or increase
its Inaccurate quality by 1).
tttt or y Brittle: On a result of y from a combat check using the weapon, it becomes
damaged one level (minor damage, from minor to moderate, or moderate to
major).
yy Hidden Flaw: At some point in the future, the GM may flip a Story Point to
have the weapon fracture or break. Once repaired, this flaw is removed and
cannot be used again.
RANGED WEAPON Ammo quality (so, a weapon with Limited

Ammo 1 could only be fired once before
CRAFTING the wielder would need to go about
Most investigators know the value of a either crafting or acquiring reloads for
good firearm and a steady hand. the weapon). So be prepared for
Tradesmen and individual gunsmiths additional time at the crafting station
alike turn a profit crafting and selling for weapons with Limited Ammo quality.
firearms and other ranged armaments.
Firearms is the most commonly used of
all armaments throughout the world, be
it simple lightweight pistols or high-
caliber assault rifles. Firearms, however,
are less easy to maintain in comparison
to melee and brawl weapons, though they
offer the safety of being able to take
out hostiles from afar.
Ranged weapon crafting follows
the normal steps for crafting as
detailed earlier at the very
beginning of this particular
chapter. Any weapon with the
Limited Ammo quality is crafted with
a number of rounds equal to its Limited
RANGED WEAPON TEMPLATES

NAME PRICE RARITY CHECK TIME EXAMPLES
Simple Projectile 5 1 Average (dd) Mechanics 4 hours Boomerang, bow
Weapon or Survival check
Solid Projectile 25 3 Average (dd) Mechanics 8 hours Pistol
Pistol check
Solid Projectile 50 3 Hard (ddd) Mechanics 8 hours Rifle, shotgun
Rifle check
Grenade 15 5 Hard (ddd) Mechanics 2 hours Hand grenade,
check dynamite
267 Crafting
Strange Aeons
RANGED WEAPON TEMPLATE PROFILES

NAME SKILL DAM CRIT RANGE ENCUM HP SPECIAL
Simple Projectile Ranged 4 5 Short 3 0 Limited Ammo 1
Weapon [Light]
Solid Projectile Ranged +2 5 Short 1 0 -
Pistol [Light]
Solid Projectile Ranged +1 4 Medium 5 1 Cumbersome 2
Rifle [Heavy]
Grenade Ranged 8 4 Short 1 0 Blast 6, Limited Ammo 1
[Light]
SPENDING a, x, t AND y WHEN CRAFTING RANGED WEAPONS

SYMBOLS EFFECT
Lightweight: Reduce the weapon's encumbrance by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
Disorient Quality: The weapon gains the Disorient quality (or increase its
Disorient quality by 1).
Expanded Magazine: If the weapon has the Limited Ammo quality, increase its
Limited Ammo quality by 1.
by 1.
Customizable: Increase the weapon's hard points by one (can only be selected
once).
Increased Range: Increase the weapon's range by 1 range band, to a maximum of
Extreme (can only be selected once).
Knockdown Quality: The weapon gains the Knockdown quality (can only be
selected once).
Vicious Quality: The weapon gains the Vicious 1 quality (or increase its Vicious
quality by 1, to a maximum of 5).
Stun Setting: This weapon gains the Stun setting quality (can only be selected
once).
Destructive: Increase the weapon's damage by 1 (can only be selected once).
Ensnare Quality: The weapon gains the Ensnare 1 quality (or increase its
Ensnare quality by 1).
Stun Quality: This weapon gains the Stun 3 quality (or increase its Stun
quality by 1).
Pierce Quality: The weapon gains the Pierce 1 quality (or increase its Pierce
quality by 1).
aaaa or x Auto-Fire Quality: The weapon gains the Auto-Fire quality (can only be
selected once).
Burn Quality: The weapon gains the Burn 1 quality (or increase its Burn
quality by 1).
Lethal: Reduce the weapon's critical rating by 1, to a minimum of 1 (can only
be selected once).
Accurate Quality: The weapon gains the Accurate 1 quality (or increase its
Crafting 268
Accurate quality by 1, to a maximum of 3).

Schematic: Create a schematic that permanently reduces the difficulty of
creating weapons of this template by 1 (to a minimum of Simple [-]).
xx Blast Quality: The weapon gains the Blast 5 quality (or increase its Blast
quality by 2).
Concussive Quality: The weapon gains the Concussive 1 quality (can only be
selected once).
Integral Attachment: Add +1 hard point to the weapon, then install one
applicable weapon attachment that requires 1 or fewer hard points. No check
is required to obtain this attachment, and it costs 0 dollars.
suffers 3 strain.
Heavy: Increase the weapon's Encumbrance by 1.
Cumbersome Quality: The weapon gains the Cumbersome 1 quality (or increase
its Cumbersome quality by 1).
tt or y Expensive: The wepaon has intricate mechanisms that can only be replaced at
substantial cost. Whenever it becomes damaged, the cost to repair the weapon
is doubled (can only be selected once).
Hard to Modify: Increase the difficulty of checks to install or modify
attachments to this weapon by 1.
Difficult to Repair: Increase the difficulty of checks to repair this weapon
by 1.
ttt or y Wear and Tear: The tools the character was using to craft the weapon are worn
down or destroyed, and are damaged one step (minor damage if undamaged, from
minor to moderate, or moderate to major).
Prepare Quality: The weapon gains the Prepare 1 quality (or increase its
Prepare quality by 1).
Ammunition-Inefficient: During combat, the GM may make this weapon run out
of ammunition by spending tt, this is in addition to the standard spending
of y as discussed on page 104 of the GENESYS core rulebook or ttt as per
rules in the STRANGE AEONS setting (can only be selected once).
Inaccurate Quality: The weapon gains the Inaccurate 1 quality (or increase its
Inaccurate quality by 1).
tttt or y Limited Ammo Quality: This weapon gains the Limited Ammo 3 quality (or
decrease its Limited Ammo quality by 1, to a minimum of 1).
Slow-Firing Quality: The weapon gains the Slow-Firing 1 quality (or increase
its Slow-Firing quality by 1).
yy Dangerously Volatile: The GM may spend y from any combat check made with
this weapon to have it explode. The weapon is destroyed, and the character
holding it and each engaged character suffers 10 damage (can only be selected
once).
GADGET CRAFTING everything from the scratch. Further,

many technicians find that they need
Crafting one's own tools takes a special devices that they cannot simply purchase
level of dedication, even for skilled – and indeed, often devices that do not
machinists. After all, any time spent exist – and thus delve into the world of
creating the perfect tool is time not inventing new gadgets for their own use.
spent tinkering with more complex and Gadget crafting follows the normal
volatile devices. Still, there are those steps for crafting, as detailed earlier in
technicians who set out to build
269 Crafting
Strange Aeons
this chapter.
GADGET TEMPLATES
NAME PRICE RARITY CHECK TIME
Simple Tool 25 2 Easy (d) Mechanics 2 hours
Specialist Tool 200 5 Average (dd) Mechanics check 10 hours
Precision Tool 75 6 Hard (ddd) Mechanics check 16 hours
GADGET TEMPLATE PROFILES

NAME ENC EFFECT EXAMPLES
Simple Tool 4 Choose a General skill, the tool allows the Climbing gear, Tool kit
character to make checks with the skill. At the
GM's discretion this tool counts as the right tool
for the job.
Specialist Tool 8 Choose a General skill. Add automatic s to Table saw, welding gear
checks with that skill.
Precision Tool 5 Choose a General skill. Remove bb from checks Microscope, binoculars
with that skill.
SPENDING a, x, t AND y WHEN CRAFTING GADGETS

SYMBOLS EFFECT
a or x Lightweight: Reduce the encumbrance of the gadget by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
Practice Makes Perfect: The character learns something valuable, and gains b
aa or x Compact: If the gadget is of encumbrance 3 or smaller, add b to checks other
characters make to find it on the wearer's person (to a maximum of bbb).
Lessons Learned: Reduce the difficulty of the character's next crafting check
by 1.
Safety Features: Add automatic a to checks with the General skill chosen for
this tool (can only be selected once).
aaaa or x Inbuilt Weapon: Choose a weapon of Encumbrance 2 or lower that the character
possesses to build into the gadget, add b to checks to determine that the
gadget contains a weapon (can be selected only once).
xx Supreme Craftsmanship: Choose a General skill; upgrade checks with that skill
made with this tool once.
suffers 3 strain.
Heavy: Increase the Encumbrance of the gadget by 1.
tt or y Difficult to Repair: Increase the difficulty of checks to repair this gadget
by 1.
Delicate: The GM may spend tt or y from any check to have it become
damaged one step (undamaged to minor, minor to moderate, moderate to major,
Crafting 270
etc.) (can be selected only once).

ttt or y Unpresentable: Decrease the base price others are willing to pay for this item
by 50% (can be selected only once).
tttt or y Fragile: Whenever this item would be damaged one step, it is damaged two steps
instead (can be selected only once).
yy Faulty: Whenever a character uses this tool for a check, upgrade the
difficulty of the check once.
271 Crafting
ARTIFACTS AND
ALIEN DEVICES
MEMORIES AND POSSIBILITIES ARE EVER MORE HIDEOUS THAN REALITIES
The camp ground was divided into two Although most investigators tend to
segments, or so it would seem. One, the see creatures of the Mythos as little
noticably bigger of the two areas, was more than malignant monsters, in truth
where the tents and automobiles were many of them have vibrant and
standing. This was also where the most technologically advanced societies.
activity was. Large pyres of flame Advanced races such as the elder things,
reached towards the heavens. People were mi-go, serpent people, and Yithians all
milling about, walking between tents, possess the ability to construct and
wagons and automobiles alike. There was utilize technology in the pursuit of
much noise from here, as the gypsies were their agendas.
dancing, singing and otherwise engaged Mythos races, human cultists, and
in what Willard reckoned to be Eastern wizards may occasionally have access to
European etiquette. ancient and otherworldly artifacts as
He parked his automobile at the well as to scientific marvels. A selection
outskirts of the larger camp, and no one of technology and arcane artifacts
seemed to take much notice of him. As he follows.
disembarked from his Ford Model T, he Most humans would be unable to tell
noticed that he was very much being the difference between a piece of
scrutinized. A group of five gypsies advanced scientific equipment and a
stood at a Studebaker automobile, magical Mythos artifact, as both are
pointing towards him as he exited his essentially beyond mankind’s level of
motorized vehicle. comprehension and ability to reproduce.
“Whatcha be wanting here?” one of the Indeed, what mankind may consider to be
men called out. A large, burly fellow high magic could well be technological in
with greasy hair and pallid skin. nature, and vice versa.
Willard didn't reply. He looked about This section examines some of the most
in an attempt of figuring out where he common and notorious magic items of the
should go in order to have the biggest Cthulhu Mythos. Such items are
chance of obtaining more whiskey. “I appropriate treasure for many of the
need whiskey,” he called back. monsters and cults described elsewhere in
this book, but many are hard to find
This seemed to draw the attention of
otherwise. As normal, the GM decides if
the men. They rose to their feet, tall and
any particular item is available to be
lanky, standing like silhouettes against
crafted or purchased.
the outlines of the trees behind them.
The items presented here are by no
“You got cash?” the man called out again.
means a complete set of available
Willard nodded. “Yeah, I have money.” artifacts and alien devices, and the GM is
“Money will do you little good in the encouraged to come up with his own
world beyond,” a man said from behind tailor-fitted artifacts and alien devices
him, making Willard turn around to fit his particular campaign.
immediately. An elderly, hunched over, Creativity holds virtually no limit here,
man grasping a cane stood behind him. just keep in mind that these wondrous
Clearly blind on his left eye and missing items usually do not come cheap, nor in
several teeth. “They will come. For you, abundance, and they most definitely
yes, they will come.” almost always comes at a heavy price for
Without any further conversation the the investigator's body, soul, and
elderly gypsy made his way towards the definitely his mind and sanity.
bustling campsite.
273 Artifacts and Aliens Devices

Strange Aeons
BRAIN CYLINDER people as a means of torture to extract

These shiny cylinders are used to information. In minute quantities the
preserve extracted brains. Lovecraft lotus powder is a mild hallucinogen,
described them as, “a foot high and equivalent to magic mushrooms; however
somewhat less in diameter, with three in larger doses the drug may reduce
curious sockets set in an isosceles those taking it to insane, driveling
triangle over the front convex surface.” idiots.
Each cylinder is filled with a nutrient The drug can be administered either by
solution that sustains the brain within. injection (the powder when heated turns
Three accessory machines – a tall rig with to liquid) or by inhalation (the black
twin lenses mounted on front, a box with smoke given-off smells like burnt toffee).
vacuum tubes and a sounding board, and a If more than the usual (recreational)
small box with a metal disc on top dose is administered, the victim
comprise the mi-go sensing apparatus. immediately begins to hallucinate for 1
These machines, when connected to the to 6 minutes per dose. The visions are
proper sockets, provide the brain with totally immersive and horrifying,
the faculties of sight, speech, and granting insights into the unspeakable
hearing. The mi-go, not possessed knowledge of the Mythos – some serpent
of human senses, have done men claim that it is like
their best; however it is but looking into the very face
an approximation of sound of Azathoth. 1 Sanity
and vision. All visual input damage is suffered per
is grainy, of low general minute the drug is active.
resolution and the audio is During this period, the
flat, like that of a victim is highly susceptible
monaural phonograph. to questioning, readily
Speech, with all its nuances revealing information and
of inflection and emotion, close-kept secrets. All
is utterly lost on the fungi. Coercion checks made
The speech machine talks against the victim to
with a mechanical, monotone extract information is
voice, devoid of emotion. upgraded twice. Towards the
When the sensory machines are end, the victim’s body goes
disconnected or deactivated, the encased into spasm until collapsing into
brain falls into a semi-insane sleep state unconsciousness for 1D10 hours. It is not
filled with strange dreams and uncommon for the victim to wake up
hallucinations. totally insane.
Every month a human brain is enclosed Accounts suggest that the black lotus
within a cylinder, the brain must make a flower was rare even in the time of famed
Daunting (dddd) Discipline check. If Valusia and today it is thought the
successful, the brain remembers it is infamous plant is long extinct. However,
stuck inside a tin can and suffers 2 from time to time, ancient vials and jars
Sanity damage. have been uncovered containing
quantities of black stygian powder. It is
unknown, yet presumable, that modern
BLACK LOTUS POWDER science might be able to analyze the
A mind-bending psychedelic, also known powder’s compounds and recreate them.
as “black stygian,” used by serpent
Artifacts and Aliens Devices 274

CAROTID TOXIN casting spells. The crystal boost

A rare poison that causes a the base damage of attack spells.
slow degeneration of the To access the magic stored the
carotid arteries. The toxin user must become attuned to
slowly eats away at the the specific crystal. There
carotid arteries, causing must be physical contact and
massive internal bleeding the user must spend 3 turns
and almost instantaneous attuning to the vibrations of
death. the crystal. On the final
The effect of the poison round a Hard (ddd) Magic
takes a number of days check must be made. With success
equal to the victim’s Brawn the user can draw upon the
characteristic. After this period a magic within as needed.
Formidable (ddddd) Resilience check
must be made, otherwise the imbiber CRYSTALLIZER OF DREAM
suffers an agonizing death over the Looking like a large, yellowish egg,
course of 2 days, with 12 additional the crystallizer is used to view places
hours added per a generated on the faraway (distant lands, planets and
check, likewise every t generated perhaps dimensions) in dreams.
reduces the course by 12 hours. If the A second, purported, function of this
Resilience check is successful, the artifact is the ability it bestows upon
imbiber becomes extremely sick for 1 day its user to bring items (or even creatures)
per t generated on the check, as the back with them from the Dreamlands.
poison is fought off, with most needing Presumably the user must have the item
to be confined to bed. No doctor will find or creature in physical contact with them
evidence of disease. During this period, for this to be successful.
the character's Brawn characteristic is Myths surround this unique device and
temporarily reduced by 1 point, to a tell that the user should beware lest
minimum of 1, the victim is utterly they fall foul of the guardian of the
exhausted and suffers from terrifying crystallizer – a servant of Hypnos that
hallucinations. Thereafter, the victim appears like a translucent jellyfish.
regains 1 points of Brawn per day until
fully recovered. DISK OF THE HYADES
This strange, emerald disk is covered in
CHAIN OF THE DEEP glowing runes. When presented strongly
This strange, green-silver necklace to one or more undead creatures within
shimmers as if constantly wet. While it is Medium range as an Action, each must
worn, all deep ones and deep one hybrids succeed at an Average (dd) Discipline
within Short range gain a b bonus on check or be unable to attack the wielder
combat checks. or the wielder's apparent allies for as
long as the wielder continues to present
CRYSTAL OF THE ELDER THINGS it as a Maneuver each turn. Any undead
that succeeds on this check or that is
Large crystalline storage containers
attacked by a protected creature is
constructed to harness the power needed
immune to that disk of the Hyades for 1
to bind shoggoths to elder thing will.
day.
These crystals store magic. Using a
crystal, requires it to be held while

Strange Aeons
DOMINATION SERUM weapon by clutching it tightly and

A colorless serum with the faintest changing the electrical resistance of the
taste of raspberries. No more than ten lump.
drops are required for full effect. If a When activated, the weapon fires a
Hard (ddd) Resilience check is failed bluish bolt of sparks. When it hits, the
the target becomes very suggestible, but electric jolt acts like a taser, causing
only to serpent people. Something in violent muscle spasms. The gun has a base
their peculiar smell or the specific damage of 5 (which is Stun damage,
intonation of their voices is the key to dealing damage to the Strain Threshold),
this suggestibility. The victim will do a Critical Rating of 6, and a range out to
almost anything for serpent people, Short.
short of endangering his or her own life To be able to fire this alien weapon
or the lives of loved ones. humans must realign the wires on the
The serum metabolizes slowly, taking electric gun, a feat requiring a Hard
1D10+10 days for a victim to be free of (ddd) Mechanics check. So jury-rigged
its effects, provided no more is imbibed for human use, the weapon fires
in the meantime. Each a generated on uncertainly. A jury-rigged weapon gains
the Resilience check reduces this period the Inaccurate 1 quality.
by one day.
FLUTE OF THE SERVITORS
EARTHQUAKE MINING MACHING When used to play even a single note
A massive cube measuring twenty feet (requiring an Action), this musical
on a side. The sides are covered with instrument imprints the rest of an alien
small, irregularly spaced convex windows melody on the mind of all listeners. Once
of a cloudy, glasslike substance. When heard, the melody makes it difficult to
the device is made active it can be concentrate for the rest of the
adjusted to pull a deeply buried stratum encounter. No check is allowed against
up through intervening layers of rock. this effect. Listeners suffer a bb
The machine can reach down four to five penalty on skill checks and must attempt
miles and can affect an area up to one an Average (dd) Discipline check to cast
cubic mile in area at a time. However, the spells; a failed check results in the
machine has the unfortunate side effect spell failing to take effect.
of causing earthquakes when it is used.
The size and depth of the area GLASS FROM LENG
affected are directly correlated to the This magical arcane glass allows the
magnitude of the earthquake. For this possessor to see random visions of other
reason mi-go tend to use such machines places. The owner inscribes a pentagram
only in largely uninhabited areas, to in red chalk (presumably for protection),
avoid detection. A human unfamiliar with recites a brief verse and then the glass
mi-go technology would be unlikely to be shows a scene of beings from the Cthulhu
able to use the earthquake mining Mythos. Unfortunately, such beings can
machine, except perhaps accidentally. also see through the glass to the user’s
side. The choice of scene viewed is not of
ELECTRIC GUN the user’s choice and appears randomly.
This weapon looks like a warty, Anyone using the Glass from Leng may
doorknob-sized lump of black metal, upgrade any one skill check once within
covered in tiny wires. Mi-go fire this a period of 24 hours.

The spell used to enchant the glass is from a b bonus to all skill checks for a
long forgotten, although rumors persist duration of 24 hours. If this lamp were
that a certain odd fellow who lives in actually used by Al-Hazred, the author
Carcosa will impart the spell if a of the Al Azif, some of the breadth of his
bargain can be reached. knowledge would be explained.
It is believed that the lamp is unique,
HOLY ICON however its whereabouts today is
Holy icons are items that represents unknown.
your character's faith and help them
focus that faith to cast spells. These are LESSER PALLID MASK
generally religious symbols of Lesser pallid masks are masks that
some sort, perhaps have been shed from the
necklaces, rings, emblems original Pallid Mask and
or medallions. retain some of its cosmic
When casting spells to power. The wearer of a
heal, increase the lesser pallid mask gains a
difficulty of the spell bb bonus on Perception
one less than they checks and all Knowledge
normally would. In addition, checks. In addition, creatures
the number of wounds healed do not notice the wearer's
by heal spells cast by the user presence unless the wearer
increases by two. interacts with them
personally. Even attacks by
IDOL OF CTHULHU apparent allies against
This small clay the wearer do not alert
sculpture of the great enemies to the presence
god Cthulhu allows the of the wearer. An observer
bearer to communicate can notice the wearer
mentally with Cthulhu. The normally by means other
wielder can once per session than vision, hearing, and
retrieve information vital scent.
to the narrative without spending a
Story Point. However, communicating LIGHTNING GUN
with Cthulhu is taxing on the mental A rare Yithian weapon, this device was
state of the wielder, who suffers 1 point created by the race shortly after their
of automatic Sanity damage at the start arrival on prehistoric Earth. Built to
of each session. combat the carnivorous flying polyps, it
is a camera-shaped weapon that fires
LAMP OF ALHAZRED great gouts of electricity.
An enchanted oil-burning lamp. When The lightning gun has an adjustable
lit, the lamp gives forth vapors that range. If used in Engaged range, the
send the minds of those who inhale them shooter adds a b bonus to his Ranged
into ecstasies of vision. These revelations [Light] check. While the lightning gun has
are of the strange and weird landscapes a default range out to Medium, it can
of Mythos places and dimensions, and the actively be set to shoot at Long range,
ways of the entities there. A single although this incurs the difficulty for
recipient using the lamp can benefit Long range (difficulty (ddd)), as well

Strange Aeons
as imposing a b penalty to the shooter's obsidian, simple wooden staffs, or pretty

Ranged [Light] skill check. much anything else.
Yithian Lightning Gun (Ranged [Light]; Magical staffs almost universally
Damage 8; Critical 4; Range [Medium]; Slow- augment the user’s ability to cast spells
Firing 1). at range. When they are casting a spell,
adding the first Range effect added to
MAGIC ORB the spell does not increase the spell’s
These can be orbs of glass, gems, or difficulty. In addition, attack spells
other semitransparent minerals, and cast by the user increase their base
are generally small enough to be damage by four.
carried.
Magic orbs help augment the user's MAGIC WAND
ability to affect more targets with Magical wands are as much a
their spells. When the user casts a tradition of magic as staffs. Usually
spell, adding the Additional Target and small sticks about the size and shape of
Additional Summon effects do not a conductor’s baton, they can be
increase the difficulty. In addition, constructed from just about anything
attack spells cast by the user increase and worked with any number of designs.
their base damage by three. Magic wands help augment the user’s
ability to cast spells in a very specific
MAGIC JEWELRY way. When a character obtains the wand,
Magic jewelry are items of great power you, the GM, determine one effect that
and danger in the STRANGE AEONS the wand lets users add to any
setting. appropriate spell without increasing
When a character obtains magic the spell’s difficulty. The effect chosen
jewelry, you, the GM, selects three must be one that, without a wand, only
effects that can be added to spells cast increases difficulty by one. In addition,
by the wielder. Two of the effects can attack spells cast by the user increase
normally only increase the difficulty of their base damage by three.
the spell by one; the third can normally
only increase the difficulty of the MEDALLION OF Y'HA-NTHLEI
spell by two. When the user casts a This amulet allows its bearer to
spell, adding these effects do not breathe underwater and see as if the
increase the spell's difficulty. However, water was perfectly clear no matter the
when using magic jewelry, you must level of sediment in the water. It also
always upgrade the difficulty of any prevents ill effects caused by depth.
spell you cast once, and yy cannot be
spent to destroy the jewelry. In addition, MI-GO WEB ARMOR
attack spells cast by the user increase In dangerous situations, mi-go
their base damage by two. typically don these webs of semi-luminous
green slime. The harnesses provides a
MAGIC STAFF Soak rating of 6 against blows, flame,
Magical staffs have long been a staple electricity, etc.
of magic in a variety of settings. Used by Humans may wear these bio-webs, but
wizards, druids, and shamans in times take 1 point of unsoakable damage as
long gone, these can look like ornate, hair and flesh is ripped away each time
rune-encrusted rods of brass and the armor is removed. A bio-web will

slowly degrade because humans do not caught in an enclosed space), can dodge
exude the proper nutrient solutions to the slow-moving mist streams with a
care for it. successful Average (dd) Athletics or
Each turn it is worn by a human, a bio- Coordination check.
web decreases in Soak rating by one
point. When no Soak remain, the armor PANCHROMATIC ARMOR
disintegrates into a steaming, sticky pool This armor, which has a Soak rating of
of viscous matter. Whether there are 3, normally has a shimmering,
significant side effects to wearing this multicolored surface. The user can
armor is unknown. concentrate as an Action to change its
The mi-go web armor has an color to one of those listed below to gain
Encumbrance of 1. perfect protection against one energy
type or effect, losing the Soak rating of
MILK OF SHUB-NIGGURATH the armor while it manifests that color.
This foul-smelling and equally foul- This effect lasts until the armor is
tasting liquid is usually stored in air- removed or the wearer changes the color
tight metal containers, as it spoils once more.
easily. And spoiled milk of this sort has The panchromatic armor has an
an adverse effect on its imbiber. Encumbrance value of 4.
Anyone imbibing the milk of Shub-
Niggurath immediately removes all COLOR BENEFIT
Sanity damage suffered. However, if the
All Soak rating 3
milk is spoiled and sour, the imbiber
doubles the amount of current Sanity Black bb bonus to skill checks
damage, which could lead to permanent White Immunity to cold
insanity.
Red Immunity to fire
Orange Immunity to electricity
MIST PROJECTOR
A device looking like a cluster of Yellow Immunity to stun damage
twisted metal tubes that projects a cone Green Immunity to poison
of icy mist in a fat cloud that extends Blue Breathe water
out to Short range. The mist looks like
Indigo Immunity to magic
thick white fog and is intensely cold. The
mist does 5 points of cold damage per Violet Immunity to Critical Injury
turn of exposure, less three points for
thick, arctic clothing. The weapon’s PLUTONIAN DRUG
projection can be sustained – mi-go This drug can send the user’s mind back
generally spray mist over a target for in time, sometimes so far back that the
several rounds, ensuring the death of user may even encounter the hounds of
unprotected humans. Tindalos – entities capable of traveling
An investigator can figure out how to up and down time via its ‘corners’.
use this weapon with a successful Hard Those taking the drug must make a
(ddd) Mechanics check. Because the mist Hard (ddd) Discipline check or take 4
travels much more slowly than a bullet, points of Sanity damage; however if they
investigators who have seen mist come across Mythos entities on their
projectors in action and who have journey back in time they are subject to
freedom of movement (i.e. they are not the standard sanity losses for viewing

Strange Aeons
those entities. Taking the plutonian drug enter that place, as if by astral
and witnessing the true history of the projection, returning when they awaken
universe and planet Earth provides the from sleep. If a creature is holding
user with 1 upgrade to any skill check something on R’lyeh before it wakes, that
per rank of Discipline, with a minimum of item comes along to the waking world.
1 upgrade. The investigator can use these However, any dreamers that are killed,
upgrade for any skill checks during the knocked unconscious, or imprisoned while
game session. dreaming cease to exist outside R'lyeh,
The drug can appear in liquid or and all memory of their outside existence
tablet form and its manufacture is is erased.
hinted at within certain Mythos tomes, The tablet confers an automatic s and
including the Book of Eibon. a on all Discipline checks the wielder
makes.
PUZZLE BOX
These puzzle boxes are handcrafted of RING OF EIBON
metal, many of which are constructed of a This ring grants the wearer glimpses
metal alloy that is not found on the into the future. As an Incidental, the
periodic system on Earth. They may look wearer can activate the ring of Eibon to
like simple or complex toys to stimulate gain a bb insight bonus to combat skill
the brain in puzzle activity, but in fact checks, as well as the benefits of the
they are artifacts that allow the wielder Side Step talent for 1 turn. This ability
to increase any Knowledge skill check can be used three times per day.
that he makes once.
SHINING TRAPEZOHEDRON
R'LYEH DISK FRAGMENT A peculiar metal box in which is
This jagged green stone slab looks like mounted a stone about four inches thick.
it's a part of a strange puzzle. Any It rewards or damns those who look into
creature or entities closely it with visions of other worlds
associated with the Cthulhu and dimensions – thus the
Mythos within Short range of stone shines with the
the fragment gains a bb bonus interior light of things not
to all combat checks. of our world.
Once all the pieces of the When the box is closed
R’lyeh Disk have been put (enclosing the gem in total
together and bound in a special darkness), a hideous avatar
ritual known to few, the of Nyarlathotep comes,
complete disk can be used to known as the Haunter of
awaken Cthulhu. He is not the Dark since it abhors
under the awakener's light – it will not enter
control. any space where light is
present, not even the pale
R'LYEH TABLET circles of light cast by
Any creature that sleeps street lamps.
within Long range of the R’lyeh Anyone possessing the
Tablet has constant dreams of Shing Trapezohedron upgrades
Cthulhu and being in R’lyeh. During all Social skill checks once
these dreams, the subjects psychically while in possession of the artifact.

The stone exercises great command over The stones are alleged to come from the
human psyches and is believed to be used fabled land of Mnar in prehistory,
by worshippers of Nyarlathotep. This although some occult scholars suggest
artifact is ancient, predating humanity that this is a mere tale and that the
and possibly manufactured by the mi-go stones are extraterrestrial in origin and
on Yuggoth. were perhaps fashioned by the Elder Gods
themselves. Either way, a star stone is
SILVER KEY believed to ward the bearer against the
This small, elaborate silver key minions the Great Old Ones, granting
grants whoever holds it the safe passage in dark places. Note
benefit from having prophetic that the protection only
dreams. Once a session, by extends to the minions of
spending a Story Point, the Great Old Ones, not the
character possessing the Great Old Ones themselves!
Silver Key can retrieve one Anyone in possession of a
piece of crucial Star Stone of Mnar benefits
information for the from protection, which
narrative (at the discretion force all Mythos creatures
of the GM). to upgrade the difficulty of
any attack they invoke
targeting the possessor of the
SOUL GEM artifact.
Soul gems are usually cut from rare Wise folk state that the stones are
gemstones and often possess an blighted and that anyone removing a
otherworldly appearance. The wielder of star stone from its proper place will
a soul gem upgrades his Discipline check suffer an elder curse. Presumably the
whenever making Fear or Sanity checks Elder Gods do not wish the stones to be
once. removed from the prison-tombs of the
Great Old Ones, as doing so might weaken
SPHERE OF NATH the magicks in force and allow the
When held, this dark, palm-sized glass imprisoned god to break free.
sphere lets you use the physical
attributes of another location you are STASIS CUBE
familiar with. For example, you can use These devices appear in a number of
the advantage of magical standing stones different shapes and sizes, however they
on a mountaintop while in a basement all have a single purpose: to slow the
miles away, an underwater cavern, or flow of time. Older cubes give ratios of 1-
your own spellcasting chamber. In a sense, second internal time per thousand years
you are in two places at once. However, external time, but in the future the
the properties do not extend beyond your Yithians will advance this to 1-second
person. internal time per million years external
time.
STAR STONES OF MNAR The smallest stasis cubes were used to
Usually found in the same location as store books in Pnakotus. Larger stasis
the supposed tombs of ancient ‘evil’ cubes have been used to fling Yithians
beings. Best described as green-colored into the future. Almost all stasis cubes
disk-shaped (sometimes star-shaped) rocks are simple in design, made from metal or
on which is carved an Elder Sign. plastic with no sign of external

Strange Aeons
circuitry. to the machine has suffered brain damage

Pushing a button or opening up the and the loss of 1 point of Intellect, to a
stasis cube deactivates most stasis cubes, minimum of 1.
but some have complicated panels
allowing the programming of set periods TEMPORAL COMMUNICATOR
of stasis. These more complicated devices These devices are sometimes supplied to
would likely be incomprehensible to human agents of the Yithians. When
someone who did not understand Yithian assembled, the device stands nearly a
technology, but anyone could use the foot tall. It is made of bronze and
simpler ones, perhaps even by accident. covered with intricate carvings. A red
jewel, attuned to a specific Yithian, is
TABULA RASA DEVICE embedded into the top of the machine.
A device invented by the Yithians to When power is switched on, the jewel
erase the memories of those entities they begins to glow red. After a few minutes,
displace through time. It is a small, slim, contact is established with the Yithian
rectangular copper box covered with tiny attuned to the jewel. The Yithian may be
indentations. From one side of the box, any distance in time or space. A hologram
five flexible metal tubes extend, ending is projected and the Yithian can see into
in inch-long metal needles. The needles the time and space occupied by the
are inserted into the victim’s head, which machine and thus may communicate with
takes five turns. Once the device is those who have contacted it.
activated, the victim is Immobilized and A Yithian temporal communicator is
Staggered unless he or she makes a fairly straightforward to operate,
successful Hard (ddd) Resilience check provided that an investigator can
each turn that the device is connected. understand and determine which carving
Each turn the machine erases up to a turns it on.
year’s worth of memories or removes 1
points of Intellect, at the operator’s THE BOOK OF SILVERED LEAVES
discretion. Anyone brought to Intellect 0 A large tome, inscribed in Enochian
is immediately and irrevocably rendered directly onto unknown metal sheets by
insane. These memories and thoughts are the mi-go for Dr John Dee in 1589. It
stored in the copper box. The erasure of gives details of the true history of the
memories is not always totally complete. Earth, albeit couched in such a way that
Every year there is an chance that some is difficult to understand. It also
memory returns in the form of dreams details the knowledge of the mi-go
(requiring the victim to make a regarding Azathoth, the chaos at the
Formidable (ddddd) Intellect check). centre of the universe from which all is
The function of this device may also be derived and to which all returns. This is
reversed, feeding the stored memories to the Azoth, the Ayn Sof of the Kabbala as
the original victim or alternatively to depicted by the Monas Hieroglyphica.
another entity entirely. Anyone possessing the book adds a b
The tabula rasa device is very complex, bonus to all Knowledge checks.
and can only be used by those familiar
with Yithian technology. Humans ignorant
of Yithian technology would require a
TIARA OF MNAR
Formidable (ddddd) Knowledge check This small tiara always glistens like
to successful operate the device – failure it's just been polished. When worn, the
would indicate that the person connected wearer is immune to fatigue and

exhaustion. The wearer can effectively

remove up to bb from Resilience checks.
Each time the tiara prevents the wearer
from becoming fatigued or exhausted and
removes b, it stores 1 fatigue point per
bb removed from Resilience checks. When
the tiara is removed, the wearer becomes
fatigued. For every point stored, the
wearer takes 1 points of Strain damage.

THE CTHULHU MYTHOS
THE GODS OF THE OUTER HELLS THAT GUARD FEEBLE GODS ON EARTH
Willard was only halfway to the heart Although many of the alien races of
of the gathering, when something caught the Cthulhu Mythos are terrifying, they
his eye. Located at the far end of the are nothing before the might of the
smaller encampment, he saw a radiance of Mythos gods – immense creatures barely
light. Yet it was not light. Or was it? He within our scope of understanding, all
couldn't tell for sure, as it was a the more horrifying for the fact that
strange luminous glow that had about it they do not care about the fate of
a color that defied everything he knew. humanity.
He could not state the exact color, yet it It should also be noted that many
was not a color but every color at the deities have avatars. These are specific
same time. forms, sometimes with specific attributes,
Fascinated and draw to this mysterious in which a portion of a god may appear.
glow, Willard forgot all about the Cults often worship avatars of gods
whiskey he had come here to obtain and rather than the gods themselves.
made way like an ant fighting against Nyarlathotep is particularly well known
an oncoming stream of other larger and for his thousand avatars (or masks).
meaner ants. He was pushed and shoved The term deity is used here to mean not
from every direction as he bumped into only gods but those with god-like powers,
the gypsies whom all oddly enough such as Great Cthulhu himself. Whilst
seemed to be right in his path. Cthulhu is worshipped like a god, many
Clearing the distance between the two believe him to be part of an alien race,
camps took but mere minutes, yet it felt though whether his brethren are like him
like an eternity to Willard. Not once did or are lesser beings is not made clear.
he advert his gaze from the luminous Those such as Great Cthulhu may be
glow that ascended upwards towards the termed Great Old Ones to distinguish
darkening skies above. them from actual gods as we generally
Something tingled at the back of understand the term. Some have tried to
Willard's brain. Something instinctively define a pantheon of Mythos gods or to
told him to be cautious. He tentatively classify them in to a hierarchy such as
crept closer. The air near this smaller elder gods, other gods, outer gods, great
camp was something stagnant and fetid. old ones and so on. In his writings,
It was as if someone had been handling Lovecraft was inconsistent in his use of
fish nearby, and the rancid smell of these entities, just as real world myths
innards still clung to the very air. have inconsistencies and contradictions.
As GM you should feel empowered to make
What Willard saw made no coherent
your own decisions about what fits your
sense to him. At the center of the camp,
story, and which gods you wish to use and
three gypsies, indistinguishable as men
how. These matters are meant to be beyond
or women, were dancing, nay, writhing
man’s understanding, so to define them
around a stained stone dais, from which
too closely may prove counterproductive.
the spectral light emerges from no
Each deity could have characteristic
particular source. He heard their voices
values listed, though these are often so
singing and chanting unknown words and
large when compared with those of an
phrases.
investigator that they may cease to have
This scared Willard to his very core. any useful relevance. Hence, the
But before he could turn away and head statistics of these deities is not listed,
back to his automobile, a blow to the as player characters should not be able
back of the head knocked him out. to defeat a deity; they might be able to
285 The Cthulhu Mythos

Strange Aeons
banish one, but not defeat one. There is aBastet or Ubasti. Bast may have dominion
world of difference here. only over Earth and its dreamlands, for
Note, though, that these deities are notthe cats of Saturn in the Dreamlands are
omnipotent and that many can be inimical to Earth’s cats.
physically assaulted and driven back (if Cult: The goddess of ancient Bubastis,
not killed), as happens to Great Cthulhu in Egypt, Bast’s cult eventually came to
in the story The Call of Cthulhu. major Roman cities, including Pompeii.
When she was actively worshiped, she was
FACING A GOD both a deity of the home and a lioness
A god is going to regard an war goddess. Her worshipers always
investigator as a human might regard an regarded her affectionately. Her cult
insect. Do you know the name of a seems not to have survived among humans,
particular ant that lives in your except in the Dreamlands, but she may
garden? Does an ant have the intellect or not care. All cats worship her in their
power to affect you? You might flick an savage hearts.
insect away if it lands on you, but would
you hunt it down?
When humans are in the presence of a
GREAT OLD ONES
The Great Old Ones are a group of
god it is unlikely that the god will even unique, malignant beings of great
notice them. Perhaps it would tread on power. They reside in various
them as we might tread on an ant. locations on Earth, and once
presided over the planet as
ELDER GODS gods and rulers.
The Great Old Ones are to be
The Elder Gods have human-like
appearance and they are benevolent distinguished from the more
in nature. In different parts of the cosmically placed entities
world such as Egypt, Mesoamerica, such as Azathoth,
and the Mediterranean they were Nyarlathotep and Yog-
worshipped by ancient humans. Sothoth, and from races
Nowadays, they are remembered such as the Cthonians,
as the gods in just about every the Deep Ones, the Elder Things
ancient race, including Greek, and the Mi-go. Yet this distinction
Norse, Egyptian, Aztec, and is unclear at times, in part because
many others. the terminology is not always
consistent; for instance,
Nyarlathotep, despite his marked
BAST interest in Earth and its culture, is
The Cat Goddess generally considered to be one of
Bast, the Cat Goddess, is the Outer Gods instead of a Great
represented as a cat or Old One. On the other hand, Hastur
as a woman with a cat’s has several avatars and is
head. In ancient Egypt generally based in outer space, but
she was often shown he is still considered a Great Old
with a sistrum in her One. There are conflicting
right hand, an aegis surmounted with accounts on what the
a lion’s head in her left hand, proper classification for Shub-
and a small bag slung Niggurath would be.
over her left arm. She is also called Very few people dispute that
The Cthulhu Mythos 286

Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are Outer Gods some time until the Elder Gods arrived to
instead of Great Old Ones, although some destroy them. Rhan-Tegoth was sunk in a
accounts make them ancestors of a few comatose state and Rlim Shaikorth was
Great Old Ones. thrown to the sea aboard an iceberg.
However, when they were about to
ABHOLOS apprehend Aphoom-Zhah, it reacted with
Devourer in the Mist such violence that it froze the regions
Abholos (Devourer in the Mist) a great of Hyperborea Lomar and Zobna, giving
grey, festering glob of endless rise to the North Pole.
malevolence. Cult: Though no human cult worships
There are two theories about the this being, Aphoom-Zhah is revered by the
creation of Abholos, in both case he is a Gnoph-keh, the Voormi and his own race of
byproduct. minions; the spectral Ylidheem.
Although not confirmed, he is said to
be a side effect from the mating of ATLACH-NACHA
Ghisguth and Zstylzhemghi, which gave The Void Weaver
birth to Tsathoggua. Abholos in this case The Spider God Atlach-Nacha is of an
is the lesser brother or cousin and more indeterminate gender – in some tales, he
like a self-willed placenta taken form. is portrayed as male, but in others she is
Another explination for Abholos is female. In truth, constructs as prosaic as
that he is a spawn of Cthulhu, born from gender are but afterthoughts to Atlach-
his bile and tears. Nacha. Dwelling in a vast underground
Cult: Today, there are no known cults cavern large enough to swallow entire
of Abholos. nations, Atlach-Nacha weaves an
impossibly complex web to span the gulf.
APHOOM-ZHAH Texts claim that on the day its vast
The Cold Flame bridge finally connects all sides of this
Aphoom-Zhah, The Cold Flame, is a Great complex canyon, a new age of madness will
Old One that appears similar to be unleashed, while others
Cthugha but cold and grey. purport that Atlach-Nacha’s
Aphoom-Zhah was web-bridges are to be used by
spawned by the Outer God Abhoth to surge
Cthugha during out of its deep cavern rather
his visit to than sending forth only its
Hyperborea. There, spawn.
Aphoom-Zhah was Those who venerate Atlach-
worshipped as a god. Nacha see the divine in the
This put him in direct spider’s form.
competition with Atlach-Nacha
other polar gods appears as a huge
(Rhan-Tegoth and black-and-red
Rlim Shaikorth) spider with a body
which began to the size of an
dispute with him elephant and
for devotees. long, spindly
This legs. Its face
situation is vaguely
remained stable for humanoid, with

Strange Aeons
hair-rimmed eyes, but in certain obscure to do wonders in the bringing of fine

sources it has also been depicted as weather and prosperity – as long as blood
having multiple arms and a woman’s head sacrifices to Bokrug continue. Although
and torso. Many of the spiders of Leng he does not demand the sacrifice of
venerate it as their mother, and sentient creatures, many of his cults
doubtless the tunnels below Leng have nonetheless taken to sacrificing
eventually connect to Atlach-Nacha’s prisoners or criminals.
web-strewn canyon lair. Cult: The original worshipers of Bokrug
Cult: Atlach-Nacha is superstitiously were a hideous aquatic race who dwelled
believed to rule all spiders, perhaps upon the shores of an ancient lake in a
because of its body form. It has no cult remote corner of the Dreamlands. As
among humans, however it sometimes humans rose to prominence on Earth, they
grants sorcerers spells. Sorcerers inevitably came into violent conflict
sometimes summon Atlach-Nacha via with these creatures. Humans prevailed,
various elder spells – a dangerous but a thousand years later, the spirits
approach, however, for the of the slain worshipers of Bokrug rose to
spider-god hates exact a terrible revenge. Today,
leaving its eternal in remote regions of the
work of spinning. Dimension of Dreams,
The children Bokrug is worshiped
of Atlach- out of fear as much
Nacha in the as devotion. When
Dreamlands – those who
called the encounter
Leng Spiders – Bokrug’s cult
are known to while
worship Atlach- traveling this
Nacha. dimension waken,
they often carry
BOKRUG in their minds the
The Great Water Lizard seeds of faith. In this
Compared to other deities of the Elder manner, Bokrug’s cult has spread to the
Mythos, Bokrug seems relatively content waking world.
to bask in the adoration of his
worshipers and the powerful storms that BYATIS
often visit the distant dreaming lands he The Berkeley Toad
dwells within. The Great Old One does not Byatis, The Berkeley Toad or the
often seek to destroy others, by design or Serpent-Bearded Byatis appears as a
by accident. Only when his anger and gigantic, multicolored toad with a single
thirst for vengeance are aroused does eye, claws similar to a crabs and a beard
Bokrug go on the hunt. of tentacles.
Bokrug appears as an immense aquatic Byatis has been associated with "Yig"
lizard with spines and sickly green and "dark Han", as among the "gods of
scales. His exceptionally long tail ends divination".
in three terrible spines, and his breath An 18th-century document relates that
is said to be a poisonous green mist. His a statue of the creature. Later the
cult is typically found in rural regions, document says the monster is “somewhat
where worship of the Water Lizard seems like a Spider, somewhat like a Crab, and

somewhat like a Horror in Dreams." It generations before acting on plans for

reports that the “Romans found it behind vengeance or raids. Many times, the
a stone Door in a Camp which was here cultists’ enemies have believed them to
long before the Invasion." have been exterminated after a brutal
The creature is depicted as incredibly conflict, but each and every time, this
large – one of its face tentacles is as was a misconception. The worshipers of
thick as a man—which makes it about the the Horror from the Hills were merely
size of the castle that it is trapped content to wait for a proper chance at
beneath. revenge. In those rare occasions when
Cult: Worshippers of Byatis are located Chaugnar Faugn does wake, though,
in England, Europe, and are small in worship does nothing to deter his hunger;
numbers. The cults are hidden and quite he feeds on zealots and unbelievers with
secretive. equal disdain.
Chaugnar Faugn is vaguely humanoid
CHAUGNAR FAUGN in form, yet his head is that of a
The Horror From the Hills distorted, nightmarish elephant with
The entity known as Chaugnar Faugn is vast veined ears, enormous curved tusks,
ancient beyond imagining, a creature and a trunk that ends in a large disk
capable of existing in more dimensions through which he drains the blood of
than most could even guess at and those who draw too near.
surviving over epochs of time Cult: Chaugnar Faugn is
that birth and primarily worshiped by the
destroy worlds. For subhuman tcho-tcho people
thousands of of the Tsang Plateau. In
millennia, addition he has
Chaugnar scattered cults
Faugn has among the
dwelled, dormant humans of
and immobile, in a central Asia.
shallow cave lost Some of these
within the have begun to
depths of a spread, such as
desolate stretch The Blood, which
of rugged hill migrated to
country. This is Montreal, Canada
how the Great in the 18th
Old One gained his century.
appellation as the
Horror from the Hills, and most of his CTHUGHA
more ardent worshipers are those who The Living Flame
dwell in such backcountry. Yet he has no Cthugha resembles an enormous burning
particular affinity to the slopes and mass, continually varying in shape. It
vales that hide him; they are merely dwells at or near the star Fomalhaut,
where he has waited for the past unknown whence it may be called. It is one of the
eons. most obscure and remote of all the Great
Chaugnar Faugn’s faithful adopt the Old Ones.
Great Old One’s patience. They are violent Cult: No cult appears to be connected
and eager for blood, yet they wait with Cthugha, though scattered fire

Strange Aeons
cults to it have existed in the past, such world’s greatest cities. They know that
as the church of Melkarth in ancient one day the stars shall align and their
Rome. It is served by entities known as master’s city will rise again above the
fire vampires. In some books, the fire waves on that distant, doomed planet, at
vampires are stated to be ruled by a which point it is merely a matter of time
being known as Fthagghua; perhaps this before they are rewarded with the
is just another way to spell Cthugha. arrival of their terrible deity upon
Earth as he wipes entire worlds clean in
CTHULHU preparation for the return of all of the
The Dreamer in the Deep Outer Gods.
Although Cthulhu is
imprisoned in the CTHYLLA
sunken corpse city of The Secret One
R’lyeh, his mind is vast and Cthylla, also known
terrible, capable of as The Kraken or The
reaching out to touch Secret One, is an
dreaming minds across the offspring of Cthulhu and
universe. His cult is spread in this Idh-yaa. She is the
manner, as those sensitive to his daughter of
dreams of madness (typically half- Cthulhu, and is
insane artists, poets, and critical to
visionaries) waken with his plans, as
memories not wholly their own. should
Upon waking, these afflicted Cthulhu somehow
artists and dreamers may not die, Cthylla will
even consciously recall their give birth to
dreams or realize that their him once again.
actions have been As such, she is
influenced. Cthulhu’s spawn guarded by Deep
– tremendous entities Ones and Yuggya, in
similar in shape and what can be
purpose to their great master – also assumed to be
spread his terrible worship, but deadly R'lyeh, as she was at first from the star
as they are, they possess but a shadow of Xoth, but came to Earth.
Cthulhu’s power. Also called "The Secret One" because
Cthulhu is a massive creature, roughly the cult tries to hide all information
humanoid in shape but hideously inhuman about the goddess, most famously by
in many regards, with an octopoid face, defacing the Columns of Geph. Her legend
immense wings, and foul protoplasmic is dimly recorded in Greek Myth as
flesh that writhes in ways no flesh “Scylla".
should. While imprisoned, his mad Cthylla is a Great Old One, and is the
thoughts can touch only a dreaming few, youngest progeny of Cthulhu and his
but once awake, his alien mind will androgynous mate Idh-yaa. She came from
spread like a virus of insanity through the star Xoth, but now dwells on Earth in
all thinking souls. Yhe, where she is guarded by Cthulhu's
Cult: Cthulhu’s cults are secretive, minions. Cthylla is destined to give birth
based in remote swamplands, dense to Great Cthulhu again after he is
forests, and sprawling sewers under the destroyed in the distant future. She is

considered essential for Cthulhu's plans, however Cyaegha cares little for worship,
and is thus vigilantly guarded by only for the day of its release. Other,
countless Yuggya and Deep Ones. rural cults may exist elsewhere in
Cthylla has the appearance of a Northern Europe.
gigantic, red-bodied, black-ringed, and
six-eyed octopus with small wings. Like DAGON
her father, she is able to alter her body- The Shadow in the Sea
proportions at will, such as by enlarging Not quite fish or octopus or eel, Dagon
her wings to enable her to fly. While she is a monstrous combination of all manner
normally has eight arms like any octopus, of aquatic horrors, his undulating body
she can extrude or retract additional an ever-shifting tangle of feelers, fins,
ones at will (she has been known to sport serpentine limbs, tendrils, and
as many as twelve arms). Each arm is tentacles. Like some other Great
equipped with dozens of razor- Old Ones, Dagon predates
sharp claws, each about five the advent of mortal life.
inches in length. In those early days,
Cthylla was captured by Dagon had no name and no
researchers who mistakenly real intellect or
believe her to be a rare personality of his
specimen of a previously own; he was only an
undiscovered octopus species. immense, ravenous sea
For the sake of preserving and monster that swam
studying the species, through the depths
they then attempt to of Ishiar, feeding
impregnate her on anything
through artificial self- unfortunate enough
insemination. to cross his path. It
Cult: While Cthulhu is was through the
fairly widespread consumption of countless
worshipped, Cthylla lesser beings that
sees much less Dagon gained
attention, though some sentience and in so
still revere The Kraken. doing infused his
terrible form with the
CYÄEGHA influence of mortal
The One in Darkness sin.
Cyaegha is an Dagon is fond of
enormous black mass sending his offspring
with one huge into the vast oceans
spherical green eye. It of Earth to spread
is possible that his influence. Often they do
Cyaegha’s form is simply so physically by breeding with either
that of the huge eye creatures of the deep or ones in isolated
surrounded by long tentacles. coastal societies.
Cult: Cyaegha is worshiped by the Cult: In some remote locations, his cult
residents of a small village over its is growing among humans. A village that
resting place in a remote part of western turns to Dagon worship often does so
Germany. The cult holds human sacrifice; secretly, maintaining a facade of

Strange Aeons
worshiping another deity while the encounter it. Cthulhu’s cult, on the other
town’s real devotions are to the Shadow hand, treats the worshipers of
in the Sea. Ghatanothoa as insignificant and no more
worthy of notice than any other
EIHORT gathering of mortal madness.
God of the Labyrinth The Eternal Source’s insane worshipers
Eihort is a monstrous being that lives are said to be able to raise islands on
in a labyrinthine network of tunnels distant worlds from unknown oceans that
deep beneath England’s Severn Valley. serve as portals between the Eternal
Cult: Eihort’s only known cults are in Source and new vistas to conquer.
the Severn Valley, particularly in the Ghatanothoa’s form is said to be
cities of Brichester and Camside. particularly horrific, and no two
Typically a group of demented humans is accounts are the same; all they agree on
led by a group of Eihort’s Brood, which is that the merest glance is enough to
have formed themselves into the transform the foolish viewer instantly
simulacrum of a human. into a desiccated, living mummy capable
of observing the world and feeling the
endless passage of time, but incapable of
GHATANOTHOA moving or otherwise interacting with the
The Eternal Source world. This form of immortality is said to
Some have likened be among the most
Ghatanothoa to Cthulhu, horrific fates a mortal
and certainly there are mind could endure.
superficial Cult: Ghatanothoa
similarities shared is sometimes tied to
by the two Great lloigor. At present,
Old Ones. Both no human cultists
entities are trapped are known for him.
in immense In ancient times, the
structures atop priests of Mu
sunken islands. unwillingly offered
Both came to the periodic human
same distant world sacrifices to
in ancient times Ghatanothoa, lest he
from the dark rise from his
places between the extinct volcano and
stars. And when work greater
they wake, their carnage. Certain
actions cause great fungi from Yuggoth
storms or disasters, as also served
if the world itself Ghatanothoa in
recoiled from their these ancient times.
actions.
These similarities may be more than
superficial, for evidence exists that GLA'AKI
Ghatanothoa may be one of Cthulhu’s The Inhabitant of the Lake
spawn. The worshipers of the Eternal Gla'aki currently dwells at the bottom
Source deny such claims, and fight of a lake in the Severn River Valley in
against the cult of Cthulhu when they England, from whence it summons new

cultists by a “dream-pull” - the sending manifest an avatar on other worlds as

of hypnotic dreams to potential initiates. long as the light from the strange star
Gla'aki is weak now, and without the in the sky of his prison world shines
strength drawn from the initiation upon the targeted portion of the second
process, it cannot send the dream-pull world. He requires the assistance of
any distance. When someone comes to live powerful magic in order to manifest this
nearby it can send the dreams, or it can avatar, known as the King in Yellow, but
dispatch servants of Gla'aki to capture such magic need not be consciously
or guide new initiates. wrought.
Cult: Gla'aki heads a particularly His cultists are masters of subtle
loathsome cult in which most members are magics that can trick unsuspecting
undead. On occasion living humans have victims into opening the way for the King
worshiped Gla'aki, however, currently the in Yellow. Hastur’s symbol, the Yellow
area around his lake is deserted. Sign, is often used in conjunction with
such magic, and often those who find the
GOBOGEG Yellow Sign become doomed to host the
The Twice-Invoked King in Yellow in their own minds, slowly
Gobogeg, the Twice-Invoked, is a transforming into his agents. Some of his
powerful Great Old One that appears as followers regard him as a patron of
a colossal pillar of amorphous alien shepherds, believing that the bulk of
flesh, with a cyclopean head or eye humanity are but sheep to be gathered
in the center. for an unknown future use.
When summoned in, the deity None know what Hastur looks like, for
immediately causes a powerful he has been imprisoned far longer
quake that can be felt than mortal life has existed. Those
throughout the entirety of a he takes as avatars when
country or even continent that it manifesting as the King in
is summoned in. Yellow appear as entities clad
To make matters worse, once it is in what seem to be frayed and
summoned Gobogeg literally drags tattered yellow robes. Only
up the entire continent as it upon closer inspection are the
ascends upwards, consequently “robes” revealed to be the
causing the entire world to creatures’ flesh, and what lies
cave-in on itself. hidden under the darkened
Cult: There are no known hoods is horror
records of any human cults incarnate.
worshipping The Twice- Cult: The cult of
Invoked. Hastur is
moderately common
on Earth, and the
HASTUR abominable Tcho-Tcho
The King in Yellow peoples are
As with many of the reputedly among his
Great Old Ones, Hastur is worshipers, as are
imprisoned on a distant the Brothers of
world. Yet unlike the Yellow Sign.
most of the Hastur’s cult is
imprisoned Great particularly loathsome, and
Old Ones, Hastur can

Strange Aeons
is more widely known of than it is creatures known as wendigos are rampant

belonged to. Worshipers refer to Hastur in the times before and after his visits.
as He Who Is Not to Be Named. This may be Ithaqua often takes a personal interest
a misapprehension, stemming from his in certain souls, be they worshipers or
title, “The Unspeakable.” unbelievers. He takes these folk into the
skies and may even bring them to other
IDH-YAA worlds, yet his purpose in these
The Mighty Mother abductions is unclear, for those who walk
Idh-yaa (The Mighty Mother) is a deity with Ithaqua always meet the same fate –
in the Cthulhu Mythos, who gave birth to a devastating fall from a great height
the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu on a planet in resulting in either death in some frozen
the Xoth Star system, after mating with wilderness or transformation into a
Cthulhu. She specifically produced the wendigo and the loss of all memories of a
sons of Cthulhu: Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, previous life.
and Zoth-Ommog; and a daughter of Ithaqua is known by many names in icy
Cthulhu: Cthylla. Also once called Quum- regions. He appears humanoid in form, yet
yaa. his limbs are long and gaunt, and his
Cult: The Mighty Mother is not known to feet are often concealed in gusts and
have any human followers. blasts of blizzard winds. When he visits,
despite these winds that surround him, he
leaves monstrous
ITHAQUA tracks in the snow
The Wind-Walker that show webbing
The frozen lands at between the toes.
all the worlds’ Those who gaze upon
northern poles are the Wind-Walker
the domains of often don’t remember
Ithaqua, the Wind- his shape at all,
Walker. He is capable only the two points
of striding the gulfs of light – so like
between planets on strange sparkling
icy winds to visit any stars in the night
world that might sky – that are in
catch his interest, fact his eyes.
yet his explorations Cult: Ithaqua has
and influence over a minimal cult,
the worlds he treads though many fear
upon seem to be him in the far north.
curiously limited in The inhabitants of
scope to those regions Siberia and Alaska
above each world’s may leave sacrifices
arctic circle. He can, to keep the Wendigo
for short periods of from haunting their
time, venture south, camps, but organized
but never for long, worship seems to be
and his touch is unknown in the southern rare. Ithaqua is more widely worshiped on
reaches of these worlds. the faraway world of Borea.
Yet in his realm, he is greatly feared,
for cannibalism and the monstrous

KAALUT existence. In images created by its cult,

The Ravenous One the Great Old One is generally depicted
Kaalut is a gigantic insectoid larva- as a volcano-shaped leviathan, its
like horror, dwelling in the nebulous caldera surrounded by huge fangs of
realm of K'gil'mnon, along with the molten lava and its slopes bearing
Gharoides, its parasitic insectoid forests of terrifying, razorsharp crystal
servants it also likely has human limbs.
worshippers. Cult: The cult of Mhar believes that
Kaalut's powers are mind the time for Mhar’s birth draws near,
manipulation, telepathy, and that when the Great Old
omniscience, invulnerability, One – said to dwell deep
immortality and possibly reality under the tallest
warping though this is not mountain in the world –
confirmed. Because of this, it may finally wakens, it will
even rival Nyarlathotep in power. transform much of
Kaalut's age is unknown though it is northern hemisphere
said to be as old as the Universe into a new realm of
itself. fire and ash that will
Even though Kaalut is an extremely spread across world. The time
powerful being, it is not related to of this birth, the cult
Azathoth and it also seems to not be believes, can be predicted
ruled by it either. But it wouldn't go by a sudden increase in
against it that in K'gil'mnon, Kaalut the number of violent,
may live outside reality. fatal earthquakes and
Cult: The cults who worship Kaalut sudden instances of
are supposedly given volcanism throughout the
supernatural powers that world, and some of Mhar’s
cannot be explained by more powerful
regular science the worshipers seek to
Gharoides also might hasten that birth by
have the same triggering their
abilities. own tectonic
disasters in key
places.
MHAR
The World Thunderer
The ancient entity known as Mhar first MNOMQUAH
attempted to enter Earth eons ago, using Lord of the Black Lake
the planet’s crust as a womb. The attempt Mnomquah is a great reptilian
to manifest failed for unknown reasons; creature, with a crown of writhing
perhaps the alignment of the planets was feelers and empty sockets in place of
not right, or perhaps other entities eyes (though they still work like normal
acted to still the birth before it came to eyes). He is trapped inside the
term. Yet Mhar’s cult believes not that Dreamlands' moon, though how he got
their god failed to be born, but rather trapped there is unknown. He is the mate
that its gestation is merely one measured of the disgusting Oorn, and when the
in eons. Great Old Ones awaken to lay waste to
Mhar’s true shape is unknown, for the our world, then Mnomquah will be
deity technically has yet to enter reunited with his repulsive bride.

Strange Aeons
He is called the Lord of the Black Lake and women are little more than ghouls
because he rules over the Lake of themselves. Using vile rituals and
Ubboth, a great lake which is under the surgical practices, they transform their
moon. limbs and visages into ghoulish
Cult: The cults of Mnomquah are very countenances. In cities where such
rare and mostly found only in remote and grotesqueries would cause incident, his
extreme rural settings. worshipers wear heavy cloaks and silver
masks to hide their shapes.
MORDIGGIAN
The Charnel God NUG
In ancient times, Mordiggian was the Father of Ghouls
god of ghouls, yet as these undead spread Nug is the father of Cthulhu and has
throughout the countless worlds, many of never been resident on Earth (although
them lost their way and fell into he might have appeared at or near
decadence. These ghouls have forgotten Kadath, and Nug and Yeb are said to be
the Charnel God, and only pockets of in the Cavern of Prototypes beneath
those from Leng who have not Mount Voormithadreth (which may be
degenerated maintain the ancient rites extra-dimensional). Dr. Dee calls it
today. “Father of Ghouls," a title shared with
Mordiggian is a living cloud of its spawn Shaurash-Ho. Nug might also be
darkness, capable of congealing and the father of Hastur.
coalescing all or portions of his form Alternatively, Eibon suggests that the
within the inky depths to serve his androgynous Cxaxukluth split in two,
needs, whether he’s manifesting a long, becoming male Nug and female Yeb. This
grasping limb to pluck a ripened minority interpretation may just be a
morsel from a coffin- textual gloss attempting to harmonise
platter, or visiting his conflicting information.
wrath upon those who Cult: Nug and Yeb are
dare to tread upon worshipped in K'n-yan,
halls where only the Irem and other places
dead may walk. The and form a kind of
Charnel God’s yin and yang
favored form is symbolically. Said to
that of an immense have been “offspring
worm with a set of of Yog-Sothoth and
grasping tentacles Shub-Niggurath,
arrayed around a spawned on the Doomed
central maw; this nebula of Zlykarior".
fanged maw appears
often in the god’s NYOGTHA
symbology. The Thing That Should
Cult: Mordiggian’s Not Be
primary worshipers Nyogtha is a
in the modern era minor deity
are humans who reported to inhabit
venerate him as a underground
death god, yet to the caverns on Earth. It
untrained eye, these men may be related to Cthulhu.

Nyogtha resembles a blob of living consuming the flesh and bones of a

darkness that may throw out black fellow devotee of the Faceless God, one
tentacles or pseudopods at will. can take in that devotee’s faith, and that
Cult: Nyogtha has a few worshipers, when but one worshiper remains, Orgesh
mostly witches and their ilk. It teaches will return to use this final fanatic to
them spells on occasion in return for unleash a new race upon the vaults of
sacrifices. In the Dreamlands, Nyogtha is Orv –a race that may not stop its
worshiped by a band of ghouls. expansion until all has been consumed.
Some ghouls in the Waking World may
practice this worship as well. QUACHIL UTTAUS
The Threader of Dust
ORGESH Quachil Uttaus, The Treader of the
The Faceless God Dust, a Great Old One can reduce all
In the lands deep below central Middle living tissue he comes into contact with
East, strange lakes of frozen fluid to dust. Quachil Uttaus is usually
bubble and roil. Similar in appearance associated with age, death, and decay.
and consistency to crude oil, this black Summoning this god is considered lethal,
blood is freezing cold to the touch, yet if one even subconsciously entertains
bolsters and invigorates undead flesh. It thoughts of suicide.
was within these un-waters that the race It is noted for the acceleration of time
known as the charda were spawned, and that occurs in its presence. Appears as a
first among their kind was the Faceless mummified humanoid with withered, bone-
God, Orgesh. thin arms and unnatural, ever-grasping
Orgesh no longer dwells in the lands of hands. Also known as “The Ultimate
the Middle East, having abandoned its Corruption”. It may have been known in
children to that realm. Although they ancient Egypt as Ka-Rath, “The Keeper of
still worship it, generations of neglect the Dust”.
have had a positive effect on the charda Cult: There are no known cults
– they retain their unpredictable ways, worshipping Quachil Uttaus today, but
yet are no longer driven by cruelty and ancient texts define his worship in
vengeful hunger. Those who remember but Ancient Egypt.
do not venerate Orgesh believe the
Faceless God abandoned its children for RHAN-TEGOTH
others found far to the west in the Herald of the End Times
deepest, darkest trenches of the Atlantic Strange and silent Rhan-Tegoth bears
Ocean. some similarities to Chaugnar Faugn in
None alive has looked upon Orgesh, yet that much of its existence seems to have
statues of it remain strangely impervious been spent in waiting. Texts mention a
to erosion, and thus provide evidence of time when Rhan-Tegoth was active and
its visage, or lack thereof. These statues alive and ruled an empire to the north
depict Orgesh as a vaguely humanoid on an unknown world far beyond USA, yet
figure with a hugely distended belly, when its worshipers abandoned it, Rhan-
clawed and doglike legs, and an open Tegoth transformed into an immobile
mouth filled with shark’s teeth, but with statue of an unknown material. Yet
no other facial features whatsoever. immobility should not in this case be
Cult: Orgesh has no organized cult, and taken for inactivity, as those who spend
its followers see each other as the time in proximity to this strange statue
greatest threat. Some believe that by find themselves compelled to undertake

Strange Aeons
increasingly violent sacrifices before bestial gnoph-keh of the northern wastes

the slumbering Great Old One – mere may also have some relation with Rhan-
proximity is apparently enough to enable Tegoth.
the ancient entity’s mind to reach out
and influence lesser intellects than its RLIM SHAIKORTH
own. The White Worm
While records of Rhan-Tegoth’s waking Rlim Shaikorth, The White Worm, A
periods and its activities during those gigantic, pale, white worm with a great
times are rare and unreliable, rumors gaping maw and empty sockets for eyes
persist of certain chants capable of that bleed rivers of blood continuously.
temporarily stirring the god from its One of Rlim Shaikorth's avatars is known
eternal hibernation and restoring life as the White Worm and was active during
and mobility to its petrified form. What the Hyperborean age. The White Worm
purpose such chants could serve, one can travels on a gigantic iceberg called
only guess, for the Great Old One Yikilt, which it can guide across the
invariably devours those with the ocean. In its colossal ice-citadel, the
temerity to rouse it. The ancient texts do White Worm prowls the seas, blasting
agree that when Rhan-Tegoth does ships and inhabited land masses with
finally waken of its own accord, the End extreme cold.
Times themselves shall be upon all Victims of the White Worm are
worlds. Yet it is unclear whether the frozen solid, their bodies
apocalypse wakens the Herald of the End appearing eerily white, and
Times, or whether the god’s wakening remain preternaturally cold
triggers the end of all. Legends state – they will not melt nor warm
that if Rhan-Tegoth could even when exposed to fire.
be eradicated, this shared Cult: Sporadic and
apocalypse could be small cults are
forever avoided, yet a located in sub-
method of destroying arctic and arctic
something that regions, where
fundamentally deranged
embodies cultists revel
immortality has in the
baffled even the frozen
gods. realms they
Many statues believe to
of Rhan-Tegoth exist, and it can be belong to Rlim Shaikorth.
difficult, if not impossible, to discern
which of these is the actual slumbering
god. These statues depict a creature with SHAURASH-HO
a globular torso; six long, sinuous limbs The Prowler Among the Tombs
tipped in crab-like pincers; and a head Shaurash-Ho (The Prowler Among the
with three fishy eyes and a long Tombs, and Father of All Ghouls) the
proboscis. progenitor the the ghoul race, possibly
Cult: In ancient times Rhan-Tegoth was through mating with Bast. Shaurash-ho is
worshiped by a primitive human people, a descendent of Cthulhu and father of
perhaps of the Inuit. Since he has gone Yogash the Ghoul and it has been
into hibernation, his cult has faded. The postulated that it might itself have
been a Deep One. Some sources mistakenly

identify Nug as the “Father of Ghouls” the races that built G’harne did so to
but since Nug never visited Earth it honor Shudde M’ell.
makes more sense that Shaurash-ho, the
father of Yogash the Ghoul, owns this SUMMANUS
title. Also known as Naggob. Monarch of Night
Cult: There are numerous cult Summanus appears as a grotesque,
followings to Shaurash-Ho, though mouthless humanoid with pale tentacles
luckily they are small and disorganized. sticking out from under his robes. He can
use these tentacles to siphon blood from
SHUDDE M'ELL his victims.
The Burrower Beneath Cult: Summanus had a following in
He is preeminent among the chthonians Roman times, but if he is worshipped
and apparently is the largest and most today, his cult is even more secretive. The
evil of his kind. According to legends he rites needed for the proper worship of
once was imprisoned beneath G’harne, Summanus are found in the Tuscan
however is now free to wander the Earth Rituals.
with his kin.
Shudde M'ell is a mile long great grey TSATHOGGUA
chanting worm creature that releases odd Father of Night
acids. It burrows through the earth, Tsathoggua dwells in the same network
melting all rocks in its wake. It is the of vast caverns wherein can be found
supreme regent of the Chthonians as well other divinities of the Elder Mythos,
as the largest and most evil of the race. such as Abhoth, Atlach-Nacha, and Orgesh.
It appears as a colossal worm with Some maintain the specific underground
tentacles for a head. It can alone cause a realm ruled by Tsathoggua is a blue-lit
force earthquake 3.5 on the Richter scale, realm called K’n-Yan, while others say
within a radius of 7km. Although there is the denizens of K’n-Yan rose up against
some reference of old cultures Tsathoggua and drove him from
that practiced some type of cult that realm to a deeper lair where
to some of these beings, at even light dreads to go – a dark
the moment nobody is tangle of caverns called
known that renders cult N’kai.
to them. It is believed Tsathoggua has a
that the 1906 San strange, almost
Francisco earthquake whimsical nature;
was caused by Shudde while evil and
M'ell. unpredictable, at
Cult: Chthonians, times he can appear
Shudde M’ell among almost benevolent in
them, are not much his dealings with
worshiped by humans mortals. Yet such
nowadays, though dealings are never
druids are rumored to long-lived, and more
have done so in the often than not end in
past and remnant Stone tragedy for those
Age tribes may who would treat
continue the with the Great Old
practice. Perhaps One.

Strange Aeons
Tsathoggua appears as a semi-humanoid become sickly, then begin to

creature whose features mix those of a simultaneously decay and transform,
toad, a bat, and a sloth, with sleepy- eventually becoming undead monsters
looking eyes and a toothy grin. animated by a combination of necromantic
Cult: Tsathoggua was worshiped by energy and the alien fungal masses that
serpent people and the furry sub-human writhe in their cores.
voormis in ancient times, and by sorcerers Foul Xhamen-Dor is said to have once
and wizards in later times. He has given resembled a tangled mass of fungoid
magic gates and spells to the faithful in tendrils growing from the shattered
the past. He is served by a race of bones of some ancient reptilian lifeform,
entities known, for lack of a better name, though what nightmarish shape the
as the formless spawn. They dwell in slowly growing blight has taken on today
N’Kai and in his temples. is unknown.
Cult: Cultists of Xhamen-Dor often take
XHAMEN-DOR these parasitic creatures into themselves
The Inmost Blot under the belief that they will live on
The sentient infestation known as as part of the creatures that emerge
Xhamen-Dor, first cultivated in the from their bodies, but just as often use
sewers of the alien city of Carcosa, unsuspecting sacrifices to serve as hosts.
infected and transformed countless
worlds before some ancient catastrophe Y'GOLONAC
or miscalculation nearly destroyed it. The Hand That Feeds
Reduced to a single blot of fungoid Y’golonac is delineated in the
sentience trapped within a comet, Revelations of Gla'aki, an
the Great Old One eventually came arcane book. It is a bloated,
to Earth, accidentally plucked glowing figure who dwells
from the sky just as the comet underground in a vast ruin
was within Earth's behind a wall of bricks.
gravitational pull. Where This prison may be near the
Xhamen-Dor’s comet came to rest Severn Valley city of
is unknown, but its cult agrees Brichester, for it is known
that the fallen star that bears to frequent that place.
the Great Old One’s core Y’golonac is known to come
lies in the depths of a when its name is read or
large but remote lake spoken while evil is present.
somewhere in the It is a minor god, but
western world. malignant.
Since that date, Cult: Y’golonac has
Xhamen-Dor has slowly little cult
begun wakening, following, but
growing and sending strives mightily after
filaments of its more worship, entrapping
fungoid body those who are
throughout the subtly evil to be
world to rise up his priests.
here and there to Y’Golonac’s notion
infest and spread. Those of evil seems to be
infected by the Inmost Blot first a shallow one, however.

Y'LLA that was “killed" by Roman soldiers near

Master of the Seas Hadrian's Wall in Britain, c.128 A.D. Its
Y'lla is the tentacled Sea-Worm who connection as Leader of the Night-gaunts
shares the sea with his sibling the bi- is given in the Necronomicon , although
sexual Vhuzompha. It is a monstrous, Yibb-Tstll is mentioned elsewhere as the
barrel-shaped sea worm with tentacles “Lord of Gaunts." Presumably Yegg-ha is
and a lamprey-like mouth. I'll, the a servant of Nodens and its legend
titanic tentacled Sea-Worm, is imprisoned appears in the book The Frontier
in his sunken citadel of K'hraa beneath Garrison. While its physical body might
the waves. be dead it endures in the Dreamlands.
Cult: The cults of Y'lla are found in Cult: Yegg-Ha is worshipped by Night-
coastal settings, usually in small to mid- gaunts, and is not known to have a human
sized towns where they remain hidden and cult following.
shrouded in secrecy.
YHAGNI
YEB The Lost
Yeb of the Whispering Mists Yhagni is the female or hermaphroditic
Yeb (Yeb of the Whispering Mists) may cousin of Hastur and Cthulhu, who is
also have been called Cxaxukluth in known for her disgusting appearance and
Hyperborea although Yeb is supposed to insane power. The other Great Old Ones
be the “father" of Tsathoggua. By saw her as a major threat and had her
implication it is male though it may be locked deep in the Temple of Pillars in
androgynous. Connected with the "Black the dephs of Kyartholm, which is hidden
Flame," and the instrument of world somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
destruction, “The Furnace of Yeb" in She is believed to appear as a formless,
which the flame resides on Earth. Lin maggot-like creature, though her true
Carter has it that Yeb is the leader of appearance is unknown.
the Unclean Ones who worship Abhoth but Cult: Yhagni has a small following of
Yeb seems too “cosmic" for this petty deranged cultists scattered around the
notion. Northern Hemisphere.
Alternatively, Eibon suggests that the
androgynous Cxaxukluth split in two, YIG
becoming male Nug and female Yeb. This Father of Serpents
minority interpretation may just be a Of all the Great Old Ones – indeed, of
textual gloss attempting to harmonise all the gods of the Elder Mythos – the
conflicting information. Father of Serpents is without a doubt
Cult: Nug and Yeb are worshipped in the most benign. Yet those who would be
K'n-yan, Irem and other places and form a so foolish as to expect kindness from Yig
kind of yin and yang symbolically. Said would do well to think again, for Yig
to have been “offspring of Yog-Sothoth does not suffer fools and is as likely to
and Shub-Niggurath, spawned on the devour those who beseech him for aid as
Doomed nebula of Zlykarior" he is to provide aid. Even Yig’s most
devout worshipers realize the god may
YEGG-HA simply wish to feed at times, and on these
The Faceless One occasions, no amount of devotion can
Yegg-ha, The Master of the protect the supplicant from death.
Nightgaunts, a faceless bat-winged giant Yig is worshiped primarily by nomadic
societies and those who live with a close

Strange Aeons
connection to the land; veneration of him Ngyr-Korath to serve him only. It may
is all but unknown in urban regions. He grant great powers to whoever chooses to
protects communities that honor him in serve it and its master, but its final aim
the right ways, particularly if they is the destruction of all sentient and
follow the complex rituals required of intelligent life in the Cosmos.
his worship through the seasons. His Cult: While worshipping 'Ymnar
favor can result in bountiful harvests, ultimtely ends in disaster for human
good hunts, and strong and healthy worshippers, Ymnar still has a
babies – at times immaculate conceptions surprisingly strong cult following.
are attributed to Yig, particularly if
the resulting children bear crescent- YTHOGTHA
shaped birthmarks upon their brows. The Thing in the Pit
Conversely, when a society has displeased Ythogtha is the second son of Cthulhu
or failed Yig, its children are born with and resembles a gigantic, humanoid
crippling or monstrous deformities frog, or Deep Ones, with only a single,
that leave mothers dead and huge eye in the center of his
fathers insane. Yig speaks forehead like a cyclops. A dense
through the actions of mane and a beard of writhing
serpents, yet he is rarely tentacles grows from his head.
worshiped by serpentfolk. Ythogtha is incredibly
Yig appears as a large; when the
scaled, humanoid sorcerer-priest Zanthu
creature with a attempts to free
serpent’s head and Ythogtha from his
lashing tail, or as an immense prison, he mistakes his
rattlesnake with a crescent- god's clawed, slimy
shaped mark upon the brow. fingertips for
Cult: Yig is recorded as mountainous
being worshiped by heads. The Elder
Plains tribes and Gods imprisoned
voodoo doctors, and Ythogtha in the Abyss of
may be somehow Yhe.
connected to Cult: Ythogtha is
Quetzalcoatl. served by the
He is also worshiped by planarian-like yuggs
the serpent people and their kin. and their lord, Ubb,
Worshipers gain some immunity from The Father of Worms.
poisonous snakes, the ability to talk to
snakes, and some arcane rituals and
spells. If someone exposes cult secrets or ZOTH-OMMOG
does harm to the cult, Yig sends a sacredSon of Cthulhu
snake to kill the offender. It has a cone-shaped body with a
lizard-like head. From the head grows a
mass of thick serpent-like tentacles. From
'YMNAR the base of the neck project four thick
Seducer of Earthly Intelligence pseudopods resembling starfish arms, one
'Ymnar (The Dark Stalker or Seducer of on each side of the body. Zoth-Ommog is
Earthly intelligences) is a shape- evidently buried underneath the Pacific
shifting entity spawned by the Outer God in the corpse-city of R’lyeh.

Cult: Zoth-Ommog has no active cult alternative spelling.

among humans. Some deep ones may worship “The Star Beast” is the avatar form of
this malign entity. Zoth-Ommog can this god (sometimes called the minion of
manifest itself through one of the many “the Great Old One”) and was sometimes
statues of itself scattered apparently summoned by the American Indians,
randomly around the world. although they rarely did this because it
could only go back to the stars of its
ZUSHAKON own free will.
The Dark Silent One Cult: Some remote tribesmen of American
Zushakon, The Dark Silent One, appears Indians still worship Zvilpogghua as
as a swirling, black vortex, revered by their ancestors did.
the Mutsune Native Americans as a dire
death god. He is also worshipped by the
mysterious servitors known as the Hidden
OUTER GODS
The Outer Gods are various cosmically
Ones. It is a descendent of Ubbo-Sathla. significant entities that are featured in
Logic suggests that Zushakon is the the Cthulhu Mythos. They are to be
“father" of Cyäegha. The name is also distinguished from the Great Old Ones,
given as Zul-Che-Quon (by West Coast although the distinction isn't
Indian tribes) and Zushakon (in Mu and universally acknowledged. Generally
Xinian). speaking, they are located beyond the
“Zushakon" is an alternative spelling confines of Earth and the solar system,
of Zulchequon used by the Elder exerting their influence from deep space.
Hierophant Yogmosh-Voth in Mu and it is However, there are some Outer Gods who
also used in the Book of Iod. A variation have taken up residence on Earth.
of this name, Zyshakon, was used by some
of the American Indians.
Cult: Zushakon is still worshipped
ABHOTH
among some American Indians, though Source of Uncleanness
mostly done so in secrecy. In the deepest reaches of every world
lie vast caverns that, in most cases, have
been long forgotten or simply never
ZVILPOGGHUA discovered by that world’s inhabitants in
The Feaster from the Stars the first place. It is in these forgotten
Zvilpogghua (the Feaster from the midnight grottoes that Abhoth, the
Stars) is the son of Tsathoggua and Source of Uncleanness, the Primal Clay of
Shathak, and is the father of Sfatlicllp. Life’s First Lurch, seeps and clots and
Zvilpogghua was conceived on the planet spews forth its aberrant spawn.
Yaksh (Neptune). Abhoth has an otherworldly wisdom and
Zvilpogghua is known to the American a staggering intellect, yet it does not
Indians as Ossadagowah.and is mentioned devote its mind to matters that mortals
under this name in the book Of Evill could comprehend. It’s not so much
Sorceries Done in New England of Demons trapped as it is cradled in a cavern lair
in No Humane Shape. He usually takes the connected to many worlds. The creatures
form of an armless, winged, bipedal toad it constantly spawns that manage to
with a long, rubbery neck and a face escape its ravenous gluttony and eternal
completely covered in tentacles. He hunger stagger upward through the
currently dwells on Yrautrom, a planet nighted ways, growing stronger and
that orbits the star Algol, in the Perseus larger the longer they survive. The
Constellation. Zvilpoggua is an

Strange Aeons
greatest find paths through ancient AZATHOTH

portals in those caves to other worlds, The Daemon Sultan
where they may spawn entire societies The so-called “blind idiot god” is a
and races of their own. Abhoth’s cultists primal mass of mindless devastation and
maintain that all life in the universe destruction the size of a star. Azathoth
was spawned by the Unclean God, and that is unaware of its worshipers, and indeed
in our flesh and bones lie traces of its has little interest in anything. Some
divine excretions. scholars theorize that Azathoth
Abhoth appears as a vast lake of isn’t even self-aware, likening
seething, surging, protoplasmic the outer god to a cosmic
ooze in which eyes and firestorm on the grandest
mouths and limbs and scale, an entity incapable
organs constantly form of directing action or
and are consumed. Those reacting to stimuli.
creations that drip Azathoth is attended
from its bulk gain by an unknown number
sentience of their own, of other gods that
and through them orbit it as a solar
Abhoth can see and system’s planets might
explore and infect any orbit an angry star.
world they touch. Referred to in
Cult: Abhoth has no eldritch tomes as
known human Azathoth’s Court,
worshipers. these lesser gods are
Underground horrors themselves powerful
or Abhoth’s own spawn beings whose insane
may worship it. songs and eerie piping
provide a constant
AIUEB GNSHAL accompaniment to
The Eyes Between Worlds Azathoth’s chaotic
Aiueb Gnshal – The Eyes babblings and
Between Worlds – is a mysterious Outer thunderous explosions.
God which has made his home in a long Many worshipers of Azathoth liken
lost temple in Bhutan. He appears as a the entities of Azathoth’s court to the
formless black void with seven orb-like true manifestation of their god’s
eyes. It is mainly worshipped by Ghouls conscious will. Although lesser than
who worship him in a defiled cult spoken Azathoth, these gods are themselves quite
of in the Cambuluc Scrolls of the wizard powerful, and the greatest of them is
Lang-Fu. Looking into the eyes of this none other than Nyarlathotep, the
horrid being, after a disgusting and Crawling Chaos.
awful ritual, will allow you to see into Said to lie at the center of the
the Court of Azathoth. universe, Azathoth is believed by some to
It is said that the Mongolian warlord be the source of all existence, the primal
Temujin had the favour of Aiueb Gnshal. truth that created Earth. Cultists of the
Cult: There are no longer human Primal Chaos often seek to harness their
followers devoted to Aiueb Gnshal. blind god’s power for their own
destructive ends, yet such attempts are
fraught with peril, for the tiniest

ripple caused by Azathoth’s thrashings CXAXUKLUTH

can lay waste to entire planets. The Illimitable Androgynous Desire
Shory are said to have developed ways to Cxaxukluth, also known as Ksaksa-
harness this power, but it seems just as Kluth or Illimitable Androgynous Desire,
likely that tampering with such forces is an Outer God and is the offspring or
may have played a key role in that “son" of Azathoth by spontaneous fission.
empire’s mysterious fall so long ago. His progeny are Hziulquoigmnzhah and
Azathoth is referenced as the “Daemon Ghisguth. He is the grandfather of
Sultan” in some ancient texts, but this Tsathoggua.
appellation does not imply any Cxaxukluth dwells on Yuggoth. His
connection to daemons, for Azathoth has immediate family lived with him for
as little interest in matters of the Great awhile, but soon left because of his
Beyond as it does anything else. cannibalistic appetites.
Cult: Azathoth is little worshiped, for The Second Epistle of Eibon unto his
the god offers not even gratitude in Disciples, or The Apocalypse of Eibon
return. Usually humans call upon reports that Cxaxukluth divided itself
Azathoth by accident, and thereby into a masculine and feminine aspects,
unwittingly bring disaster and horror. the masculine was called Nug, the
Only the criminally insane would feminine being called Yeb, and then
knowingly worship such a produced their various offspring
being. Nonetheless, such together. This text also refers to
worshipers may have Cxaxukluth as the
special insights into “Illimitable Androgynous
the nature of the Desire" prior to the split.
universe, its origin, There is additional
powers, and speculation that Ptmâk
meaning, insights and Cxaxukluth may
perhaps have only been the
understandable only Hyperborean names
by other madmen. for Nug and Yeb.
Cxaxukluth is
BAOHT Z'UGGA- probably Yeb.
MOGG Cult: Cxaxukluth
The Bringer of Pestilence is not worshipped by
Baoht Z'uqqa-mogg, also known as any humans.
The Bringer of the Pestilence,) is a
powerful winged scorpion-like D'ENDRRAH
monstrosity with a ant-like head. He is The Divinity
worshipped by small conclaves of ghouls. D'endrrah is a shape shifting Outer God
Baoht also lived on Shaggai, a planet who has a heavy hunger for worlds. It
that was destroyed by the outer god often assumes in the form of a gigantic
Ghroth.This god is now dwelling on Earth. squid-like monster or a heavy dark smoke
It most likely has no human worshippers. of organic matter with millions of teeth
Cult: There are no registered or known that wanders endlessly to devour any
cults worshipping Baoht Z'ugga-mogg. world it finds throughout the cosmos.
However, he was eventually destroyed by
Cthulhu when he threatened to devour
earth sometime before the great Egyptian

Strange Aeons
times. Stories are told by the Egyptian appears in the Books of Thoth, The
god Rah (god of the sun) who fought this Chronicles of Thrang, the Uralte
monster which is known as Apep on his fly Schrecken, and The Texts of Mloeng. Von
chariot. Könnenberg suggests that it is a form of
Cult: There are no known cults of the entity Mlandoth, and itself has an
D'endrrah. avatar, 'Ymnar.
Cult: Ngyr-Korath has a large
DAOLOTH following of deranged cultists.
The Render of the Veils
A strange, geometric being, Daoloth NHIMBALOTH
does not appear to be particularly The Empty Death
malign. It lives somewhere beyond our When mortals die, their souls slip from
universe, but may be summoned into it. the flesh and enter the River of Souls,
Cult: Daoloth is currently worshiped on where they are eventually carried to
Yuggoth and other alien worlds, but Pharasma’s Boneyard to be judged. Yet
seems to have little earthly cult. His this river, as with any river, is not
astrologer-priests can see the past wholly without peril.
and future, and perceive how Predators hunt the
objects extend into the last metaphysical banks and
dimension. They gain the power depths of the River of
to travel into other dimensions Souls, eager to pluck out and
and to see other types of devour drifting souls
reality. Seeing Daoloth is before they can be sent on
disastrous, for the human eye to their final rewards.
is unable to follow Mysterious
the god’s moving Nhimbaloth feeds
outline, thus upon those
causing madness in predators, and
the beholder. Daoloth’s few revels in the
human cultists summon the god digestion of souls
only in absolute blackness. already being digested in
the gullets of those who
NGYR-KORATH would deem themselves the
The Ultimate Abomination hunters of the dead.
Ngyr-Korath – The Ultimate The Empty Death is shapeless, yet
Abomination, The Dream- evidence of her presence can be
Death and The Mad God of seen in the tortured,
the Void – is a mythical faceless undead that often
being which existed before haunt places she has brushed
the planets, haunting the star- against. Wildlife grows
spaces. It appears as a dark blue- more antagonistic in these
green mist which causes a sense of areas, and plants grow strangely
terror as it approaches. Once close, hateful to the eye and eager to tear the
an eye of flame forms within. When flesh. Strange markings on riverbanks or
life arrived it became enraged and island shores – clusters of seven
started to devour stars. A Cult to perfectly spaced divots of crumbling dry
Ngyr-Khorath exists. Its legend (part of earth – are thought to be her
the so-called Mlandoth Myth Cycle) fingerprints. Where Nhimbaloth has

hunted, the world itself recoils. Cult: Nyarlathotep is typically

Cult: Nhimbaloth’s presence is most worshiped though one of his forms, or
often felt in tangled swamps, desolate ‘masks’. There are numerous such cults,
shorelines, or remote stretches of river.spread across the entire globe.
Her cultists hold that will-o’-wisps are The Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh
her eyes and believe that the fear one is centered in Cairo and has a powerful
endures when one knows death is near is branch in London. The Cult of the Bloody
her breath. While those who die know Tongue is known in Kenya and New York.
grief and pain, their souls can one day The Starry Wisdom Cult of Providence
go on to be something greater. But those worships the Haunter of the Dark, as does
touched by Nhimbaloth know only the the Cult of the Sand Bat in Australia.
agony of death. They do not go on. They Other known cults include Shanghai’s
simply end. Order of the Bloated Woman and the
global Brotherhood of the Beast.
NYARLATHOTEP In addition, those worshiping the gods
The Crawling Chaos often do so in hope of gathering
Said to have a thousand different Nyarlathotep’s favor. Rewards to loyal
forms, Nyarlathotep is unusual among the slaves usually come through the Crawling
Outer Gods in that he seems to enjoy Chaos, as many of the other Gods are too
toying with and causing discord among mindless to care. Nyarlathotep
mortal races, rather than leaving may grant worshipers
this to his cultists. Scholars of knowledge of a spell, impart
the Mythos believe that some destructive fact or
Nyarlathotep himself is the divisive religious belief or grant
prime mover in preparing a servitor monster as an assistant.
countless worlds for the Nyarlathotep’s gifts always seem
devastating return of the Great to provoke turmoil among
Old Ones, nudging events along in humanity and are particularly
subtle ways to encourage various likely to bring suffering and
apocalyptic ends. Certainly his terror to a gift’s recipient.
influence can be seen in the Nyarlathotep has special
troubled history of Egypt, a servants, including the
culture he seems particularly shantaks and hunting
interested in. horrors. He may gift any
Nyarlathotep’s forms are type of creature to a
each associated with their worshiper if he deems
own distinct cults. The best- it good.
known of the god’s
manifestations are the NYCTELIOS
Haunter of the Dark (a He Who Betrayed
batlike entity with a tri- Nyctelios, was originally
lobed burning eye) and an Elder God, but was
the Black Pharaoh (a punished by Nodens for
humanoid form that has transgressions
links to Ancient against his brethren
Egypt as well as to by being imprisoned
many modern witch under the
cults). Mediterranean Sea

Strange Aeons
and is now an Outer God. He takes the fecundity upon the lands she blights.
form of a grotesque, muscular cyclops- Cult: Worshiped extensively, she may
like humanoid, whose body is infested have connections with druids and similar
with hideous worms. One day he will rise groups. Worshipers of Shub-Niggurath
from the abyssal citadel he was ensnared generally form into gangs or
in and seek revenge upon the Elder Gods. congregations, as do Cthulhu’s cultists.
Cult: To this day there are no records Her emissaries and stand-ins, the dark
of any human cults following Nyctelios. young, may represent the aid she grants
worshipers.
SHUB-NIGGURATH Summoned, Shub-Niggurath attacks non-
Black Goat of the Woods worshipers present.
Whereas Nyarlathotep is said to have a She is often summoned specifically to
thousand forms, the monstrous fertility accept sacrifices. Shub-Niggurath can be
deity Shub-Niggurath is said to have dismissed by those who know her
spawned a thousand young. Her cult is summoning spell and it is possible
particularly strong in rural to hurt her enough to make her
areas where vegetation is thick, leave.
such as forests, jungles,
and swamps, and many of TULZSCHA
the creatures The Green Flame
associated with her At the court of
dwell in these Azathoth, it is a
verdant realms. Of blazing green ball of
all the cults of flame, dancing with
the Mythos, brethren gods before
Shub-Niggurath’s the Daemon Sultan.
seems to be the Called to our world, it
most widespread assumes a gaseous form,
throughout the penetrates the planet
Bible Belt. Many of to the core and then
the Great Old Ones and erupts from below as a pillar
even other Outer Gods of flame. It cannot move from
are believed to have where it emerges.
mated with Shub- Cult: A few pockets of
Niggurath, with the cultists worship this
resulting spawn being obscure entity, generally
among the most in subterranean temples,
powerful of her and especially during
children. equinoxes, solstices, and
Shub-Niggurath important conjunctions.
appears as a roiling Tulzscha thrives on
cloud of flesh and death, corruption and
mist that constantly decay.
forms and absorbs
hooves, mouths, eyes, tentacles, and other UBBO-SATHLA
portions of anatomy. She often gives The Unbegotten Source
birth to monstrous young, spawning This god dwells in a cold, dank cavern,
beasts or depositing eggs with hideous and never leaves its lair unless called

or disturbed. The grotto the human in the 1920s.

can be entered through
deep fissures in the YIBB-TSTLL
Antarctic ice or through The Patient One
secret entrances from This horrible deity
the Cold Waste of the sees all time and space
Dreamlands. Other routes as it slowly rotates in
may exist. the center of its
Cult: Ubbo-Sathla has clearing in the Jungle
no human cult, although of Kled, in Earth’s
the mi-go and other Dreamlands. Beneath its
alien races may worship billowing cloak are a
it. The Book of Eibon multitude of
and the Necronomicon nightgaunts, suckling
mention this god. and clutching at Yibb-
Tstll’s breasts.
UVHASH Cult: In ancient times
The Blood-Mad God of Yibb-Tstll was
the Void worshiped as the god
Uvhash, also known Yibb, however now he
as The Blood Mad God has no known cult.
of The Void, is a Yibb-Tstll is often
gigantic, vampiric red approached by
mass of eyes and individuals – most
tentacles and is the often sorcerers – who
archenemy of Gi-Hoveg. It dwells in the either crave the use of Yibb-Tstll’s
realm of Rhylkos, which is similar to the servitors, the nightgaunts, or ask for his
planet Mars, and whoever summons Uvhash beneficent touch.
meets a terrible fate. It seems to have
affinities with the Star Vampires and is YIDHRA
rumored to have been one of the mad The Dream Witch
roman emperor Caligula's eldritch Yidhra is an Outer God who is
sponsors. worshipped as a beautiful, awesome and
Cult: Today there are no known human terrible earth-mother, similar to Shub-
cults devoted to Uvhash, although it is Niggurath and might be connected to The
widely worshipped by Star Vampires. Darkness. She has many avatar forms
including Yolanda and Madam Yi since her
YHOUNDEH “life-cycle” centres around absorbing
The Elk Goddess other lifeforms and taking from them
Yhoundeh – The Elk-Goddess – is the their evolutionary advantages (in the
wife of Nyarlathotep. Her priests banned process she also takes memories). This
the worship of Tsathoggua and punished cycle of “rebirths” makes her immortal.
any heretics. She was worshipped in the She has telepathic powers which gives
waning days of Hyperborea. As the her a link to her servitors, and can
Hyperborean civilization was coming to project illusions. Her servitors are “the
an end, Yhoundeh's followers returned to Lurkers in the desert,” Xothra and
worshipping Tsathoggua. Y'hath, and “the Children of Yidhra” (her
Cult: Yhoundeh has no following among human cult?). It is detailed in the book

Strange Aeons
Where Yidhra Walks? among others. children, turning them into monstrous
Cult: Yidhra has a large cult hybrids that help to prepare the
following. unsuspecting world for the time when the
stars themselves shall be right for the
YOG-SOTHOTH Great Old Ones to rule once again.
The Key and the Gate
According to some, the Mythos is not so
much a location as a thing that connects
all places and possibilities. These texts
go on to suggest that this it is conscious
– that it is aware. Yog-Sothoth is
normally said to dwell within the Mythos,
but some ancient legends say he is the
Mythos. Certainly he has great power
over time and space, and can exist at
multiple times in multiple realities.
Distance has no meaning to him, yet he
seems unable to properly exist in the
reality shared by most mortal life. He
can only partially intrude upon this
dimension, taking on the shape of a
slithering mass of iridescent spheres or
glowing motes of light when he does. Or
perhaps Yog-Sothoth can exist in this
world but has no reason to do so, and
what mortals see and tremble before is
but his shadow.
Yog-Sothoth dwells in the interstices
between the planes that compose the
universe. There it manifests as a
conglomeration of iridescent globes,
which are always shifting, flowing into
one another and breaking. This
conglomeration is large, but variable, so
that at one time it may appear to be 100
yards across and at another time half a
mile or more. Connections between Yog-
Sothoth’s appearance and sightings of so-
called flying saucers are obvious.
Cult: Yog-Sothoth’s cultists believe he
is slowly preparing the many worlds of
the universe for a new age presaged by
the wakening of the Great Old Ones,
during which time the inhabitants of
these worlds will be wiped out to make
way for the true masters. Cults often
call upon Yog-Sothoth to bless unborn

ADVERSARIES
DISINTEGRATION IS QUITE PAINLESS, I ASSURE YOU.
Strange Aeons
His head hurt like it had never hurt This chapter provides a selection of
before, not even during the most severe monsters, beasts and alien beings for use
of drinking binges and partaking in within STRANGE AEONS setting.
overendulging in the moonshine. His The selection of monsters across the
sight was blurry and everything was out sections is not exhaustive – every horror
of focus. He heard far away whispering fan can probably think of some terror
voices, too far away and too off for him not present. The ones here are those
to make out any coherent words. found in the most important stories,
Everything was so bright. And as his frequently appear in scenarios, or are
sight slowly adjusted, Willard realized commonly referred to.
that he was staring up into the odd
spectral light that embodied all colors
at once, yet could be described by
PLAYING MONSTERS
classification of none. He started to EFFECTIVELY
panic. But he was unable to move his Monsters are, for the most part, not
arms or legs. He felt restraints tug mindless animals. Many are of equal or
against his futile struggle. He started greater intelligence than the
to scream, but no sound came from his investigators, with motivations and
mouth or throat. It was as if he had no concerns beyond the scope of the average
voice. human’s understanding. Monsters will not
Despite his fear and onsetting panic, automatically seek combat and, if they
then he felt oddly at home here do, they will not necessarily seek to kill
embraced by the spectral light. It felt the investigators. The more intelligent
warm, although he knew that light did monsters may take the investigators
not excude any warmth. captive, either to use as slaves or
Willard started to turn his head. But sacrifices, or perhaps for experimental
found that this too was restrained by purposes. Not every encounter has to be a
something that pressed against the sides fight; hiding or fleeing may be the
of his steeples. wisest option.
The voices were still present, yet he When involved in combat, consider the
still could not make out what they were monster’s objective. If its aim is to kill
saying. It sounded like frantic singing the investigator it should fight back
or chanting of some sort. Perhaps a rather than dodge. If it wants to escape
strange, foreign languages. Yet it from the investigators, it may choose to
resembled no language that he was dodge in order to gain an opportunity to
familiar with. Not that he was much of a flee.
master of linguistics by any means. But Many Mythos monsters can use spells,
this was not a languaged that resembled casting them as any other spell caster
anything he had ever heard before. would. In some cases a monster’s spell may
He struggled furter, but to no avail. be portrayed as a manifestation of that
He was strapped in good and was unable monster’s innate power.
to move even an inch. Monsters may not have skills listed,
though most or all might have a few
The spectral light seemed to intensify
skills such as Brawl, Perception, Stealth,
in accordance with the increasing
or Vigilance. GMs should add skills as
intensity of the chanting voices. It also
required, using comparative beings as a
felt warmer, and at the same time it
guide.
seemed to lull Willard into a trance.
Mythos gods and some Mythos monsters
Adversaries 312
Strange Aeons
are multi-dimensional, existing in our able to use melee weapons, the Brawl
plane of reality as well as others beyond skill should be used for those as well. Be
our reasoning, and thus cannot be truly creative in how you use and portray
slain. An Outer God or Great Old One these attacks. Each entry describes how
cannot, and should not, be killed or the monster would normally attack and
rendered unconscious by player key words, such as ‘bite’ or ‘kick’, are
characters, but can be dispelled or provided to give GMs ideas on how best to
forced back whence it came. Mere damage describe differing attacks. The
will not destroy or even harm these environment can also be added in to the
powers. If they are forced or persuaded description of attacks and damage: an
to leave, they can return. investigator could be crushed between an
elephant and a tree; a ghoul could crack
MONSTERS AND INVESTIGATORS – open an investigator’s head against a
gravestone; and so on.
A COMPARISON While a monster’s standard attack
It is quite possible for the could be used every time, this could
investigators to beat some monsters in become repetitive and dull. Using the
combat; against others, however, their damage listed for the monster’s standard
only chance of survival is generally to Brawl attack frees the GM from having to
flee or hide. Deep ones, byakhees, adjust the damage with each variation,
dimensional shamblers, fire vampires, allowing the GM greater freedom to
ghasts, ghouls, servants of Gla'aki, mi-go, describe the monster’s attacks in creative
moon-beasts, nightgaunts, rat-things, and imaginative ways. The GM is neither
sand-dwellers, serpent people, insects gaining an advantage or disadvantage in
from Shagghai, tcho-tcho, and of course varying the monster’s attacks – he or she
human cultists can all be ‘taken on’ in is making the story more exciting and
combat by several investigators with engaging.
some hope of success. This is the reason
that so many scenarios feature cultists,
deep ones, mi-go, and ghouls – they make MONSTERS AND FIGHTING BACK
approximately human-scale adversaries. Unless a being is trying to escape or to
Such Mythos entities can, on first be especially crafty, you should respond
reflection, appear human-like in terms of to investigator attacks by fighting back
their vulnerability and relative size; rather than dodging. When fighting back,
yet beware of humanizing such monsters. a monster should generally use its basic
As stated, their goals, knowledge, and combat skill. A monster that has more
abilities should be difficult, if not than one attack per round may also dodge
impossible, to fathom. They will act in or fight back that number of times.
unexpected ways and the mere sight of
them can draw madness down upon the KILLING MONSTERS
inquisitive investigator. Rather than declaring that a monster
or opponent is dead, the GM is encouraged
COMBAT to describe what the investigators can
By default, every monster (with a few see – the monster has stopped moving, it
exceptions), has the Brawl skill – a appears to be melting, a thick green
generic combat skill covering all manner fluid is welling up from a hole in the
of strikes, kicks, claws, teeth, tentacles, side of its body, and so on. Remember that
elbows, head butts, etc. If the being is these monsters are strange and alien
beings; determining death should not be
Adversaries 313
simple. Some monsters (when exceeding size the creature is.

Wound Threshold or Strain Threshold) may • Skills: Skills (if any) possessed by the
appear to be dead, only to rise again adversary. If the adversary is a minion,
moments or hours later to inflict a these skills only apply in a group.
grisly revenge on their attackers. Only a • Talents: Talents (if any) possessed by
successful Medicine check will determine the adversary.
for sure whether a being is alive or dead • Sanity Damage: This line gives the
– the GM will advocate the difficulty of number of Sanity damage suffered by an
the check. investigator when the creature is
encountered. Sanity damage is usually
READING THE ENTRIES shown as two numbers separated by a
slash. The number before
The following is a list
the slash indicates the
of adversaries GMs can use
number of Sanity damage
in their adventures. These
lost if the Sanity check
adversaries are divided
succeeds; the number
into several groups,
after the slash indicates
depending on their
the number of Sanity
creature type,
damage suffered if the
affiliations and motives.
check fails.
Each adversary's profile
• Abilities: These are
is also broken down into
several discrete sections: special abilities that are
• Name: The adversary's
not skills or talents.
• Equipment: This is the
name or type, plus whether
it is a minion, rival, or adversary's equipment. The
nemesis. entry only lists important
• Description: A section
equipment such as
weapons, armor, and vital
describing the adversary.
pieces of gear. Items such
• Characteristics: The
as clothing, money, and so
ratings of the adversary's
forth are not listed but
six basic characteristics.
are still present if it
• Soak/Defense and
makes sense (and at the
Thresholds: These are the
GM's discretion). Any
adversary's Soak, its
bonuses from equipment
Defense (listed in both
are already added to the
Melee and Ranged values),
profile).
and its Wound and Strain
It is important to note
Thresholds. Only Nemeses
that adveraries do not
have listed Strain
always follow the same
Thresholds. If a GM wishes
rules that Player
to give a rival Strain
Characters do. These
Threshold, it should have
profiles are generated for
the same value as the listed Wound
simplicity and ease of use, so non-
Threshold. Sanity Thresholds are not
essential information can be omitted.
included as these are adversaries to
stand in opposition of the investigators.
• Silhouette: Silhouette indicates what
314 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
ADVERSARY LIST Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade all combat

checks against the adumbrali twice),
Entries are made alphabetically, Defensive 2 (increase the adumbrali's
usually by key word or phrase: thus Defense rating by 2).
you’ll find the hounds of Tindalos Sanity Damage: 0/1.
entered under H, Deep One listed under D, Abilities: Darkvision (the adumbrali can
Wolf under W, and so forth.
remove up to bb imposed on checks from
darkness), Life Leech (if the adumbrali
ADUMBRALI (RIVAL) spends aa or x on its combat check, it
There were things in the abyss, he said in drains the target's bodily fluids. Such an
hoarse tones, great shapes that were like blobs
of utter blackness, yet which he knew to be alive. entity drains 1 point of Brawn damage.
From the central masses of their beings he could Once a victim's Brawn reaches 0 he is
see them shoot forth incredibly long, filamentine incapacitated, unable to perform any
tentacles. They moved themselves forward and Maneuvers or Actions. Brawn drained by
backward horizontally, but they could not move an adumbrali regenerates at the rate of
vertically, it seemed. They were, he thought,
nothing but living shadows. 1 point per week of bed rest. A person
The adumbrali are a race of two- brought to below Brawn 0 is killed. A
dimensional, shadow-like entities that person killed by this vampiric alien is
dwell in an abyssal dimension. They are left totally dehydrated. Although there
only capable of moving in the horizontal are no visible wounds on the corpse, it is
plane (forward, backward, right, and left) marked with disturbing geometric
and cannot move vertically, even in their patterns which have an eerie
own dimension. Some of them, however, are luminescence, and which shift and move
capable of teleportation and may use across its skin).
this to reorient themselves to a new Equipment: Filament (Brawl; Damage 6;
plane. A cruel and mischievous race, the Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Life Leech).
adumbrali delight in toying with and
hunting down their prey before killing AIHAIS (MINION)
them. The eyes of an adumbrali victim are The figure, nearly ten feet in height, was
forever frozen open in a stare which taller by a full yard than the average Aihai,
but presented the familiar conformation of
seems to see into another plane. massively bulging chest and bony, many-angled
While the adumbrali are usually limbs. The head was featured with high flaring
confined to their own dimension, they ears and pit-like nostrils that narrowed and
have means of hunting and acquiring expanded visibly in the twilight. The eyes were
victims from other worlds. Adumbrali can sunken in profound orbits, and were wholly
invisible, save for tiny reddish sparks that
combine individual efforts to create a appeared to burn suspended in the sockets of a
“seeker”, an entity able to enter other skull. According to native customs, this bizarre
dimensions and from there project the personage was altogether nude; but a kind of
minds of chosen victims back to the circlet around the neck-a flat wire of curiously
realms of the adumbrali. beaten silver-indicated that he was the servant
of some noble lord.
The aihais are one of two intelligent,
dominant races indigenous to Mars. The
aihais are generally a peaceful race
content with culture and trade, while
Silhouette: 1. their neighbors – the Martians – are a
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Stealth 2, warlike species bent on the invasion and
Vigilance 1. conquest of other worlds. The two races
Adversaries 315
coexist by in uneasy truce and have very in the middle of their faces. In form they
little to do with each other. are generally anthropomorphic with skin
The aihais presently dwell in hidden of a greyish-white color. Their eyes have
cities, but in the future, when Earth has mild hypnotic powers, as explained below.
finally made contact with the These giants have entered into human
inhabitants of Mars, they will move to folklore as the Cyclops, and as other
the surface and construct great and traditional giants. They built huge
beautiful cities. dwellings out of the sides of mountains
Aihais are generally peaceful, in ages past, and from these citadels
although the Vulthoom sect is communicated and became affiliated with
unquestionably loyal to their alien god. the wholly extraterrestrial Outer Gods.
The Great Old One has provided its Eventually, the alskali were driven out
followers with an array of alien of their great cities and into new
technology and weapons. Among the dwellings deep in the earth. This
weapons is a disintegrator gun. This odd, migration had the effect of producing
funnelshaped device emits a beam of evolutionary change in the giants,
concentrated atomic energy which is making them smaller in size (although
capable of melting metal and rock and still huge in comparison to humans). The
instantly dissolving living matter. surviving alskali worship mainly
Wounds inflicted by this alien device do Nyarlathotep today, although in the past
not heal. they were followers of many of the
horrible Outer Gods and Great Old Ones. A
secret Turkish sect known as Erkek
KardeÕ Göz – The Brothers of the Eye –
worship these one-eyed giants as gods,
and work to keep their existence hidden
Silhouette: 2. from the rest of mankind.
Skills (Group Only): Ranged [Light].
Talents: None.
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Abilities: Low-Light Vision (the aihais
can remove b imposed on checks from
darkness). Silhouette: 2.
Equipment: Disintegrator Gun (Ranged Skills: Brawl 1, Resilience 1, Survival 1.
[Light]; Damage 8; Critical 2; Range Talents: Enduring 1 (increase the Soak of
[Short]; Pierce 2, Vicious 2). the alskali by 1).
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
ALSKALI (RIVAL) Abilities: Darkvision (the alskali can
They are about ten feet tall with squat, remove up to bb imposed on checks from
heavily-muscled bodies. They are hairless, with darkness), Hypnotic Gaze (the alskali can
dead-gray skin and huge hands and feet. Each has direct its gaze at anyone within Short
a single black glossy eye in the center of their range, as an Action. The creature must
otherwise humanoid faces. The single eyes always
look like multiple eyes because of their hypnotic make a Hard (ddd) Discipline check or
effect. come under a hypnotic sway; meaning
The alskali are a race of intelligent difficulties of all skill checks are
beings who evolved entirely apart from upgraded twice. A character can attempt
the human race. These beings are a new Discipline check each day).
gigantic, with a single glossy black eye Equipment: Fist (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical
316 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
4; Range [Engaged]). GRIZZLY BEAR: Grizzly bears can reach

a length of six to seven feet, and weigh
BAT, LARGE (MINION) up to 400 pounds. They are powerful
A bat flies straight towards my face. it gives predators and have been known to kill
me a perfect view of of possibly one of the humans, especially females protecting
ugliest creatures alive. It has long ears and what cubs. Grizzly bears have become expert
looks like a piece of salad on the end of its nose. scavengers in parks and populated areas
Even the giant fruit bat of Central where they are known to rummage
America congregates in dozens or through trash and tents looking for
hundreds. The smaller bats common to the food. In some areas the bears have even
United States gather in enormous cavern- become adept at breaking car windows to
based flocks of up to 50,000 individuals. get at food. This has caused some deadly
Bats worldwide are under severe confrontations.
environmental attack from humans. POLAR BEAR: The largest and most
powerful land predator in the world.
Polar bears can reach a length of 12 feet
and weigh up to half a ton. They have
acute senses, particularly smell. Polar
Silhouette: 0. bears are powerful enough to smash
Skills (Group Only): Perception 2, Stealth through thick ice in order to catch seals,
1. and have been
Talents: None. known to catch
Sanity Damage: 0/0. and kill small
Abilities: whales. They
Blindsense (the are great
bat can sense swimmers, and
anything within Short have been
range by means of recorded swimming over 50
echolocation), Flyer (bats can miles out to sea in search
fly (see page 100 of the GENESYS of prey. Polar bears have a very
core rulebook)). thick layer of blubber and fur to
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical protect them from the harsh elements of
5; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 1). their habitat.
BEAR (RIVAL)
Haven't you ever thought of living
unconsciously like bears, sniffing the earth,
close to pears and the mossy dark, far from
human voices and fire? Silhouette: 2.
True bears appeared about 5 million Skills: Brawl 1, Perception 1, Survival 1.
years ago, evolving from small raccoon- Talents: None.
sized creatures. The word comes to us Sanity Damage: 0/0.
through Old English from a Proto- Abilities: Low Light Vision (a bear can
Germanic term for “little brown one”. remove up to b on skill checks imposed
BLACK BEAR: By far the most common by darkness).
type of bear in North America. It is the Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 6;
only bear likely to be met in the eastern Critical 4; Range [Engaged], Ensnare 1,
United States. Vicious 1), Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical
Adversaries 317
3; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1). BROODLING OF EIHORT (MINION)

His entire body lost its cohesiveness and he
BOAR (MINION) dissolved in on himself. His face, chest, legs—very
A wild boar was sharpening his tusks upon the single part—liquified into soggy mounds of
trunk of a tree in the forest when a fox came by writhing, shining, jellied spiders.
and asked, Why are you doing that, pray? The The broodlings of Eihort are gestalt
huntsmen are not out today and there are no beings made up of millions of the tiny
other dangers at hand that I can see. True, my white spidery brood of Eihort. A
friend, replied the boar, but the instant my life broodling looks like a deathly pale,
is in danger, I shall need to use my tusks. There
will be no time to sharpen them then. totally hairless human.
Bush pigs and wild boars are common Broodlings of Eihort are capable of
animals that live in dense forests and speech and with a little disguise may
travel in small herds of about twenty walk among humans undetected. It is not
individuals. They are not domesticated. until a broodling suffers
Wild boars, especially, are some sort of physical
known to be highly damage that its
aggressive and true nature
nasty beasts. becomes
Their numbers apparent. Each
have increased hit point of
lately because damage
the number of inflicted upon
leopards has a broodling causes
decreased. bits of the being to
come apart, falling off as
globby masses of the white spidery brood.
When exceeding its Wound Threshold, a
broodling melts down into millions of
individual white spiders that creep and
wriggle away.
Silhouette: 0. Like the children of other Great Old
Skills (Group Only): Perception 1. Ones, the broodlings of Eihort live to
Talents: None. serve their sire and prepare the way for
Sanity Damage: 0/0. the coming of the Great Old Ones.
Abilities: Ferocity a boar remains
conscious and can continue fighting even
when it exceeds its wound threshold. The
boar is Disoriented and suffers 1 wound
each turn. The boar dies when it reaches
twice its normal wound threshold), Low Silhouette: 1.
Light Vision (a boar can remove b on Skills (Group Only): Brawl 1, Stealth 1.
skill checks imposed from darkness). Talents: Defensive 1 (increase the Defense
Equipment: Gore (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical rating of the broodling of Eihort by 1).
4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1). Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Abilities: Death Throes (seeing the
broodling of Eihort begin to melt down
and reveal its true nature, when
exceeding its Wound Threshold, causes
mental strain to the witness – calling
318 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
upon a Sanity check that inflicts 1/2 It is a noisy, active entity. At rest and
Sanity damage), Physical Resistance (all in flight it screeches and croaks, except
physical attacks against the broodling when stalking prey. Though its limbs are
of Eihort inflict minimum base damage, sturdy enough, the Byakhee rarely walks,
and ignores additional damage dealt by flying whenever possible.
s or other sources), Regeneration (the Byakhee are encountered singly or in
broodling of Eihort regenerates 1 wound small groups. Their breeding habits are
at the start of each of every second unknown. Byalchee generally feed on
turn). interplanetary life-forms rare to Earth's
Equipment: By weapon type. solar system, but Byakhee also devour
Earth-dwellers with bothersome
BYAKHEE (RIVAL) regularity.
There flapped rhythmically a horde of tame,
trained, hybrid winged things... not altogether
crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor
decomposed human beings, but something I cannot
and must not recall.
This interstellar race often serves Silhouette: 1.
Hastur the Skills: Brawl 2, Perception
Unnamable. 1, Resilience 1.
Composed of Talents: Defensive 1
conventional (increase the Defense rating
matter, they are of the byakhee by 1),
vulnerable to Enduring 2 (increase the
ordinary weapons Soak rating of the byakhee
such as pistols. Byakhee by 2), Knack For It (remove
can fly through space bb from Perception and
and carry a rider each, Resilience checks).
though such riders need Sanity Damage: 1/1.
protection from the vacuum Abilities: Darkvision (the byakhee
and cold by suitable spells can remove up to bb imposed on
or potions. Byakhee do not checks from darkness), Flyer (a byakhee
have bases on Earth, but may be can fly (see page 100 of the GENESYS
summoned to perform deeds or to core rulebook)), Immunities (the byakhee
serve as steeds. is immune to the perils of vacuum,
The Byakhee is an extreme heat and cold, zero pressure
interstellar being composed of and lack of breathable air), Slag (if
conventional matter. The the byakhee spends aa on its bite
body of a Byakhee has combat check, it causes slagging and
two major portions, the sluggish stupor to befall the victim,
thorax and opisthosoma. thew victim adds a b to all skill checks
From the thorax for the remainder of the encounter),
stretch two wings, two Swoop Attack (after making a Brawl
limbs, and a head. Two additional combat check, a Byakhee can move from
manipulatory limbs grow from Engaged to Short range of the target as
the forepart of the an Incidental).
opisthosoma, while the hunt, a Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 5;
unique paramagnetic organ, occupies much Critical 3; Range [Engaged]), Bite (Brawl;
of the opisthosoma's remainder.
Adversaries 319
Damage 6; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; of a chakota for the first time inflicts
Slag). 1/2 Sanity damage. Hearing the wail
thereafter costs no Sanity).
CHAKOTA (MINION) Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical
The chakota is composed of dozens of human 4; Range [Engaged]; Ensnare 1).
faces set into a thickly cylindrical, worm-like
mass of sickly, purple-veined muscle. The faces
weep, shout, and cry out with great woeful
CHILDREN OF THE SPHINX
feeling. The chakota is somewhat mobile, but (MINION)
cannot escape its pit. It is about six feet high I would not look at the marching things. That I
and three feet in diameter. desperately resolved as I heard their creaking
A chakota is created by a magical joints and nitrous wheezing above the dead music
ritual involving a willing person who is and the dead tramping. It was merciful that they
consumed in the process, and whose face did not speak... but God! their crazy torches began
to cast shadows on the surface of those
becomes the first face of the creature. At stupendous columns. Hippopotami should not have
first the thing must be fed, but soon it human hands and carry torches... men should not
takes care of itself. have the heads of crocodiles.
The faces of a chakota are those of its These Sphinx-spawned monstrosities
victims. Each new victim’s face appears come in great variety: men with the heads
about two hours after ingestion. The of bulls, ibises, falcons, cats, crocodiles,
chakota kills by biting and devouring hippopotamuses, jackals, etc. The children
with its myriad faces. There is no of the Sphinx may come in any human-
significant limit to the number of animal composite as long as the grouping
victims the thing can claim, for its bulk has some basis in Egyptian religion and
can constantly grow. An investigator mythology. They always wear robes or
seeing on it the face of a person known other clothing.
to him or her may experience double or Children of the Sphinx are found in
even triple Sanity damage. Egypt and surrounding arid regions,
The chakota seeks to devour the first Earth’s Dreamlands, and elsewhere only
target before turning to the second, but by special reason.
each victim takes only half a dozen or All children of the Sphinx can attack
fewer turns to ingest. in some form or another. Many will have
special attacks, based upon their animal
half. The attacks listed below are for GM
reference, no child of the Sphinx have
all of the listed attacks.
Silhouette: 0.
Skills (Group Only): Brawl 1.
Talents: Durable 1 (reduce all Critical
Injurties against the chakota by 10, to a
minimum of 1). Silhouette: 1.
Sanity Damage: 1/3. Skills (Group Only): Cool 1, Ranged [Light]
Abilities: Immunities (the chakota is 1, Resilience 1, Survival 1.
immune to physical weapons, but fire, Talents: None.
magic, and electricity can harm it. If the Sanity Damage: 0/1.
mouths are covered it can suffocate in Abilities: Low Light Vision (the child of
earth or water), Wail (anyone within the Sphinx can remove up to b imposed
Medium range who hears the woeful wail on checks from darkness).
320 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Equipment: By weapon type, Kick (Brawl; blubbery texture affords the children
Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; of the wind some protection against non-
Knockdown), Beak (Brawl; Damage 4; magical weapons, which inflict only half
Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1), Bite damage upon the creatures. Magic weapons
(Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range inflict normal damage).
[Engaged]; Vicious 1), Gore (Brawl; Damage Equipment: Slam (Brawl; Damage 5;
5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient Critical 4; Range [Engaged]).
2).
CHTHONIAN (NEMESIS)
CHILDREN OF THE WIND (MINION) Flowing tentacles and pulpy gray-black,
They gibbered and gaped, rolling with the elongated sack of a body... no distinguishing
waves of wind, their dead-white eyes pressed close features at all other than the reaching, groping
against the glass. I thought of corpses, long tentacles. Or was there yes—a lump in the upper
dead, lashed and flung in the troughs of an body of the thing... a container of sorts for the
angry sea. Mouths ugly and grey as the belly of brain, ganglia, or whichever diseased organ
amoccasinmewed and moped. Slimy stumps which governed this horror’s loathsome life!
appeared to be some kind of appendages poked at These creatures are like immense earth-
the glass. bound squids, and their elongated worm-
These foul entities are little known, like bodies are coated with slime. A
and do not appear to be connected with chanting sound accompanies them. These
any Mythos deity; they appear most powerful burrowers live more than a
frequently in regions susceptible to high thousand years, and are protective of
winds. In one account, the creatures their young. A jumble of remarkable
haunt a mysterious place in the desert properties, chthonians bear little
near Syria, known only as the City of the resemblance to anything else on this
Seven Winds: they may also be connected planet, and are among the most
with Irem, the City of the Pillars. horrifying and deadly of all Mythos
The children of the wind appear as creatures. The most important individual
bloated, vaguely human abortions, and chthonian is the gigantic Shudde M’ell.
their manifestations are always All stages of chthonians communicate
accompanied by howling, gale-force winds. via telepathy and can thus reach another
These malign entities always appear in of their race anywhere in the world, and
groups of ten or more, and bear their can sense other minds. Only adults can
victims away on the howling wind: telepathically control members of other
occasionally blood-soaked bones, picked species with this power.
clean of flesh, are found scattered in This creature finds large quantities of
some remote area. water deleterious, but resists great heat:
an adult can cheerfully wriggle through
molten lava.
The chthonian has powerful mental
abilities and can detect, influence. and
control human actions at a distance. A
Silhouette: 0. Chthonian rarely deals with a human as
Skills (Group Only): None. anything but as an annoyance or as food.
Talents: None. As a society, these inimical creatures
Sanity Damage: 0/1. may permit human civilization to thrive
Abilities: Flyer (children of the wind can because they are so few in number that
fly (see page 100 of the GENESYS core they could not destroy us before we
rulebook)), Physical Resistance (their learned to fight back. Or perhaps
Adversaries 321
chthonians encourage human “nests" of 1), Enduring 1 (increase the Soak

(cities) because they await a major rating of the chthonian by 1).
hatching, and need prey for their hordes Sanity Damage: 1/3.
of young. Abilities: Burrow (may take a Maneuver to
This complex creature reaches burrow underground, gaining total cover
adulthood after millennia, passing and concealment from all attackers. While
through five life- burrowed, the
stages en route. A cthonian may
chthonian larva is spend additional
susceptible to Maneuvers to move
heat, and must while underground.
remain near the Burrow can be
surface of the performed on any
crust. A larva natural surface
requires liquid except solid rock,
organic material and on concrete),
(such as blood) to Darkvision (a
develop; it sucks chthonian can
body fluids from remove all b
hapless victims imposed on checks
through its from darkness),
tentacles. A Health Drain
mature chthonian (anyone Ensnared
needs less such by a Cthonian
liquid, deriving must make a Hard
metabolic energy (ddd) Resilience
by traversing the thermal gradient check or suffer 5 points of unsoakable
between Earth's mantle and upper crust. Strain damage), Heat Immunity
Chthonian eggs resemble geodes or (chthonians are immune to fire and
other spherical mineral formations. They extreme heat), Terrifying (upon first
are a foot or less in diameter, and have seeing a chthonian, a character must make
shells two or three inches thick. a Hard (cdd) Fear check with the
difficulty upgraded once, to reflect the
alien nature and frightening reputation
of the creature), Regeneration (a
chthonian recovers 2 wounds on the
beginning of its turn), Trigger
Silhouette: 3. Earthquake (cause earthquake with a
Skills: Brawl 2, Cool 1, Perception 1, radius of 1 mile, which causes tunnels
Resilience 3, Stealth 2, Survival 2, and buildings to collapse, damage and
Vigilance 1. adverse game effects are subject to the
Talents: Adversary 2 (increase all combat Game Master's discretion).
checks against the chthonian twice), Equipment: Tentacles (Brawl; Damage 10;
Ambush (while benefiting from cover, may Critical 4; Range [Short]; Disorient 1;
perform Ambush maneuver and add 2 Ensnare 2; Linked 1).
additional damage to next combat check),
Durable 2 (reduce all Critical Injuries
against the chthonian by 20, to a minimum
322 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
COLD ONE (MINION) COLOUR OUT OF SPACE (NEMESIS)

And the white spirits of the boreal wastes – The shaft of phosphorescence from the well
the Cold Ones who obey the behests of the worm, brought a sense of doom and abnormality which
and haunt perpetually the frozen wilderness, and far outraced any image their conscious minds
shriek upon the nightwind like damned, tormented could form. It was no longer shining out, it was
souls. pouring out; and as the shapeless stream of
The cold ones are semi-corporeal unplaceable colour left the well it seemed to
entities who serve the polar Great Old flow directly into the sky.
Ones Aphoom Zhah and Rlim Shaikorth. A colour is a sentient organism which
They appear as ghostly, wailing, manifests itself as pure colour – it is not
humanoid silhouettes of swirling snow gaseous, it is insubstantial. When it
and vapors. Cold ones – also known as moves, it is visible as an amorphous,
ylidheem – are encountered only in areas glistening patch of color, rolling and
of bitter cold. They appear or disappear shining in shades of its pale colors that
into snowy skies or drifts of snow and icematch nothing in the known spectrum.
like ghosts. Cold ones are only partially This patch pours over the ground or flies
immaterial and may not pass through in a living fashion. When it feeds, its
solid matter. However, they may seep victim’s skin and face glow with the
through the tiniest crack or thinnest colour.
opening. Often their tortured wailing is Though incorporeal, its passing
the only warning of their presence. nonetheless feels like the touch of a
Strangely, they appear to have little or slimy, unhealthy vapor. Geiger counters
nothing to do with Ithaqua and his register its presence as a distinctive
minions. burst of radiation. With today’s light-
intensification gear, it shows as a bright
patch of luminosity. Infrared viewers are
useless.
Colours come from the depths of space,
where natural laws differ. Adult colours
Silhouette: 1. create embryos, harmless three-inch
Skills (Group Only): Stealth 1. spheres seemingly empty. Deposited on
Talents: None. verdant soil or in shallow waters, the
Sanity Damage: 0/1. embryo begins to germinate. After a few
Abilities: Low-Light Vision (the cold one days, the outer shell dissolves and the
can remove b on checks imposed from new creature, which we may term a larva,
darkness), Numbing Cold (if the cold one emerges.
speands aa on its brawl combat check, The jelly-like larva can grow to great
it chills the target to the very bone, size. As it infiltrates the ecosystem,
imparting a b penalty on all skill local vegetation exhibits a tremendous
checks the target makes for the but unhealthy growth. Fruit tastes
remainder of the encounter. The effects bitter. Insects and animals are born
of this numbing cold stack, as the victim deformed. At night, all plant life glows
becomes more and more frozen). with the colour, and the vegetation
Equipment: Freezing Touch (Brawl; Damage begins to twist and writhe at night, as
6; Critical 4; Numbing Cold). though in a strong wind. Even humans
shine with the spectral light. After a
few months, the larva transforms into a
young colour.
It now makes brief trips from its lair
Adversaries 323
to feed, and begins to drain the life- rating of the colour out of space by 2),
force from the area previously affected Enduring 2 (increase the Soak rating of
by the larva. When it drains enough the colour out of space by 2).
energy, it departs the planet for space Sanity Damage: 0/1.
and adulthood. In so maturing, the colour Abilities: Drain Mind (anyone struck by
may drain life-force from an the colour out of space's
area of five acres or so if mental attack, suffers 1
rich in life, or perhaps point of Sanity
10-20 acres of moor or damage), Feeding (a
grassland. The area colour out of space
drained is ruined can envelope an
thereafter, and no opponent of
plant can grow. Silhouette 1 or
Bright light smaller. Then it
inhibits a colour. It starts to feed, the
spends daylight victim loses 1 point
hours in dark, cool of Brawn and
hideaways, Agility per round
preferably spent inside the
underwater: cisterns, colour out of space,
wells, lakes, requiring no combat
reservoirs, and oceans check from the
are all suitable. colour out of space.
A colour out of The victim, however,
space can focus its is allowed a
energies to Daunting (dddd)
disintegrate a hole Resilience check to
through almost avoid this loss. The
anymaterial. This victim is aware of a
ability is used sucking, burning
primarily to excavate sensation, and
a lair underground. The progressively withers
same effort to melt a and grays. His face
cubic foot of titanium removes sinks, and his skin ages with
several cubic yards of pine wood. hideous skin cracks and wrinkles.),
The sides of the hole appear melted, but Immunities (the colour out of space is
no heat is generated. immune to damage from any source, except
magic).
Equipment: Disintegration Ray (Ranged
[Light]; Damage 12; Critical 2; Range
[Medium]; Vicious 4), Tendril (No Skill;
Damage -; Critical -; Range [Engaged];
Silhouette: 1. Feeding), Mental Attack (Ranged [Light];
Skills: Coordination 4, Ranged [Light] 2, Damage -; Critical -; Range [Short]; Drain
Perception 1, Vigilance 3. Mind).
Talents: Adversary 2 (increase all combat
checks against the colour out of space
twice), Defensive 2 (increase the Defense
324 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
CRAWLING ONE (RIVAL)

The nether most caverns are not for the
fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are
strange and terrific. Cursed the ground where
dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and
evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Silhouette: 1.
Ibn Schacabao say, that happy the town at night
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Coordination
whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old
rumor that the soul of the devil-bought hastes 2, Stealth 1, Vigilance 1.
not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs Talents: None.
the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption Sanity Damage: 1/3.
horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of Abilities: Physical Resistance (due to the
earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous
soft and resilient quality of the
to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged
where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things crawling ones’ bodies normal weapons do
have learnt to walk that ought to crawl. minimum damage to the things, as such all
A crawling one is composed of non-magic combat checks against the
thousands of worms and maggots. Each crawling one suffer a bbb penalty).
worm is individually alive and Equipment: As per weapon type.
constantly moves, though they generally
hold the shape of a human body. Due to CROCODILE / ALLIGATOR
the soft and resilient quality of the
crawling ones’ bodies, normal weapons do (MINION)
Actually, I have this random fear, and it's of
minimum damage to the things. Bullets bees and wasps. Bees and wasps actually scare me
only do a single point of damage upon just a little bit. I'd rather have a snake or a
striking a crawling one, except for crocodile, yes... I appreciate them, and I love
shotgun pellets which do minimum damage them, but I have a slight fear.
for that type of firearm. Alligator derives from the Spanish el
Crawling ones cannot speak but can lagarto meaning “the lizard”. Crocodile
write messages. It is unnecessary for them was named by Greeks who found them
to use spoken words in performing spells along the Nile, calling them krokodilos,
or when communicating with their alien or “worm of the stones”, for the
masters. Crawling ones have been known creatures’ habit of basking on sun-
to worship Cthulhu and Ythogtha, and it warmed rocks.
is suspected that they hold some affinity ALLIGATOR: Alligators are smaller
to the Xothans. They have also been cousins of crocodiles, growing to a length
connected to Tulzscha and Hastur. of 19 feet. They are less
They dwell in both aggressive, but no
the waking world less dangerous.
and the Dreamlands. They lair in dens
Crawling ones or nests along river
must utilize banks and the females are
weapons for highly protective of their eggs
attack as and young. Alligator attacks on
they humans are rare, although
have no they do occur. If an
natural form alligator does not
of attack. eat its prey
immediately it will
take it back to its
den to consume later. In areas
Adversaries 325
where people and alligators coexist, it is Range [Engaged]; Knockdown).

not uncommon for the large reptiles to be
found in inground swimming pools. CULTIST
CROCODILE: This is the Nile crocodile, Something will have to be done with this
now rare in the lower Nile but still pestilential Brother Ambrose. I have now learned
found in central Africa, Madagascar, that he was sent to Ximes by the Archbishop of
tropical Asia, and northern and western Averoigne for no other pu1pose than to gather
proof of my subtenaneous connection with Azazel
Australia. Where there is water there may and the Old Ones. He has spied upon my evocations
be crocodiles. Crocs eat anything they in the vaults, he has heard the hidden formulae,
can catch, and come in great numbers to a and beheld the veritable manifestation of Lilit,
kill to feed communally. Usually they and even of Iog-Sotôt and Sodagui, those demons
will not attack a boat. Crocodiles are, who are more ancient than the world...
however, much more aggressive than Cultists looks like regular people on
alligators, and are highly feared by the stree (though a few are seem
humans who live near them. eccentric), but secretely, they revere
alien entities of the Cthulhu mythos.
Some seek power, some are misled and
think they are part of a benevolent
group. They may have been abducted and
brainwashed, or perhaps they joined
Silhouette: 2. voluntarily, desperate for any group
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 2, that would accept their strange
Perception 1, Stealth 2. beliefs.
Talents: None. Cultists arc the most common and
Sanity Damage: 0/0. visible manifestation of the
Abilities: Death Roll (when spending Cthulhu Mythos, as well as the
aa on a bite combat check, the most vulnerable. Groups of
crocodile can perform a death cultists are often responsible
roll. As it clings to its foe, it for waking, raising, or
tucks in its legs and rolls otherwise reanimating
rapidly, twisting and creatures of
wrenching its victim. antediluvian
The crocodile aspect or other-
inflicts its bite planar origin-
damage and knocks the putting down a
creature prone. This also given cult is often sufficient
Ensnares the target for 1 to put a stop to a monstrous
turn), Hold Breath (a crocodile rampage, or the threat of one.
can hold its breath for 68 Cultists come from every
turns before it risks human culture that exists.
drowning), Low Light Vision Some cultists are even found
(the crocodile can remove b on among primitive peoples, who
skill checks imposed from continue their unholy rites in
darkness). distant reaches of the world.
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage Cultists fight with whatever
7; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; weapon they are best suited to
Death Roll, Vicious 1), Tail Slap – usually, that means a pistol,
(Brawl; Damage 9; Critical 4; though a tire iron serves in
a pinch. Veteran cultists also
326 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
know spells. Sanity Damage: 0/0.

Abilities: Cult Leader (may spend a
CULTIST (RIVAL) Maneuver giving orders to other cultists
allies in Medium range, granting them
bb on their next check).
Equipment: As per weapon type.
CULTIST, NOVITIATE (MINION)

Silhouette: 1.
Skills: Coercion 2, Cool 2, Deception 2,
Knowledge 2, Melee 2, Perception 2,
Ranged [Light] 2, Stealth 2, Vigilance 2.
Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
difficulty of all combat checks against Silhouette: 1.
the cultist once), Lethal Blows 1 (add +10% Skills (Group Only): Coercion 1, Deception
to any Critical Injury roll made against 1, Ranged [Light] 1, Vigilance 1.
opponents). Talents: None.
Sanity Damage: 0/0. Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Abilities: Cult Fanatic (may spend a Abilities: None.
Maneuver giving orders to other cultists Equipment: As per weapon type.
allies in Short range, granting them b
on their next check).. DARK ONE (RIVAL)
Equipment: As per weapon type. Legend says the dark ones originally lived off
the corpses of dead Great Old Ones. The dark ones’
true shape remains a mystery, as they only
CULTIST, GRANDMASTER survive by living as parasites inside dead bodies
(NEMESIS) (some texts—like the Apocalypse of Paul – suggest
their true form is that of an oversized,
twoheaded maggot, probably 1-3 feet long).
The dark ones are a race of “dwarfs”
that serve Nyarlathotep and a being
known as the Magnum Innominandum (the
Silhouette: 1. Nameless Mist). Twice a year the dark folk
Skills: Charm 3, Coercion 3, Cool 3, follow barbarous rites, lighting pale
Deception 3, Discipline 3, Knowledge 3, bonfires on remote hilltops, beating
Magic 3, Melee 3, Perception 3, Ranged drums, and fetching humans to feed the
[Light] 3, Stealth 3, Vigilance 3. Magnum Innominandum and “what lies
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the within”.
difficulty of all combat checks against Dark ones often seek the bodies of dead
the grandmaster cultist twice), Deadly humans that were mummified before
Accuracy (add ranks of Ranged [Light] to burial. Although the host remains dead
all damage from attacks using that and continues to rot, a dark one can
skill), Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to animate it into a parody of the living.
upgrade the difficulty of all incoming Before the host decays into incapacity,
combat checks once), Durable 1 (reduce all the dark one finds another body (killing
Critical Injuries against the grandmaster a living one if need be) and occupies it.
cultist by -10, to a minimum of 1), Lethal To slow decomposition they hide in the
Blows 2 (add +20% to any Critical Injury cool and dark underworld of burial
roll made against opponents). mounds, tombs and caverns that preserve
Adversaries 327
their bodies. Otherwise, the dark folk can and the tops of the trees represented by
be found in peat bogs or neat glaciers. the ropy, branching bodies. The whole
mass of these things smell like open
graves. Dark young stand between 12 and
20 feet tall.
Such entities are the “young” referred
to in Shub-Niggurath’s epithet, “Black
Silhouette: 0. Goat of the Woods with a Thousand
Skills: Brawl 1, Discipline 1, Stealth 2, Young”. They are closely connected to
Survival 1, Vigilance 1. her, and are found only in areas where
Talents: None. she is worshiped. Dark young act as
Sanity Damage: 0/1. proxies for Shub-Niggurath in accepting
Abilities: Darkvision (the dark one can sacrifices, accepting worship from
remove up to bb imposed on checks from cultists, devouring non-cultists, and
darkness). spreading their mother’s faith across the
Equipment: As per weapon type. world. Luckily, they are rarely met with.
A dark young occasionally slips into the
DARK YOUNG OF SHUB- Dreamlands, but encounters there are
NIGGURATH (NEMESIS) even rarer than in the waking world.
Something black in the road, something that
wasn’t a tree. Something big and black and ropy,
just squatting there, waiting, with ropy arms
squirming and reaching... It came
crawling up the hillside...
and it was the black thing Silhouette: 3.
of my dreams that black, ropy,
slimy jelly tree-thing out of
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2,
the woods. It crawled up and it Cool 1, Magic 1, Perception
flowed up on its hoofs and 1, Resilience 2, Stealth 1,
mouths and snaky arms. Vigilance 2.
These beings are Talents: Adversary 2
enormous writhing (upgrade the
masses, formed out of difficulty of all
ropy black, combat checks against
earthworm-like the dark young of
tentacles. Here and Shub-Niggurath twice),
there over the Durable 1 (reduce all
surfaces of the things Critical Injuries
are great puckered against the dark
mouths which drip young of Shub-
green goo. Beneath Niggurath by 10, to a
the creatures, minimum of 1), Pin (may
thicker tentacles end take the Pin Action,
in enormous black make an opposed
hooves, on which Athletics check to
they stamp. The Immobilize target
monsters roughly until the end of
resemble trees in the target's next
silhouette – the turn, may spend x to
trunks being the short legs,
328 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
increase the duration for another turn). the huge spider-thing pushes its way clear.
Sanity Damage: 1/2. The daughters of Atlach-Nacha are
Abilities: Brawn Leech (may spend a Brawn enormous venomous spiders. They are
Leech Maneuver to tap the strength from almost completely black except for the
any pinned target. The target is allowed swollen, pulsing abdomen that is
a Hard (ddd) Resilience check to avoid streaked with green and gold.
the effect. A failed check results in the The daughters of Atlach-Nacha begin as
target suffering t to all Brawn skill normal humans who have been chosen by
checks for the rest of the encounter. The the Great Old One to become one of his
effects of the Brawn Leech stack), giant spider companions. These are all
Immunities (dark youngs of Shub- women who have survived the deadly bite
Niggurath are immune to the effects of of some venomous spider. Such women are
fire, acid, electricity and poison), Non- left with a scar known as “the mark of
Terrene (dark young of Shub-Niggurath the spider” by priests and followers of
are of non-terrene material and make-up, Atlach-Nacha. The Great Old One’s
so that any successful firearm attack servants kidnap or otherwise coerce a
does only 1 point of damage, ignoring any chosen woman into service of the Spider
s results on the combat check. Shotguns God. Eventually, the chosen undergoes a
are exceptions, and do base damage, horrific transformation, shedding her
though ignoring any s results on the human skin and changing into an
combat check), Submersion (dark youngs of enormous spider. Once transformed, a
Shub-Niggurath can remain submerged daughter of Atlach-Nacha joins her sire
indefinitely, lapsing into stasis (a in his underground lair where she helps
biofeedback trance of indefinite him weave his great web.
duration) until uncovered or otherwise
awakened), Terrifying (upon first seeing a
dark young of Shub-Niggurath, a
character must make a Hard (cdd) Fear
check with the difficulty upgraded once, Silhouette: 1.
to reflect the alien nature and Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Coordination
frightening reputation of the creature). 1, Perception 1, Stealth 2.
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 8; Talents: Adversary 1 (increase all combat
Critical 4; Range [Short]; Knockdown, checks against the daughter of Atlach-
Linked 1, Vicious 1), Trample (Brawl; Nacha once), Enduring 2 (increase the Soak
Damage 10; Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; rating of the daughter of Atlach-Nacha
Disorient 3, Inaccurate 1, Knockdown). by 2).
Sanity Damage: 1/1.
DAUGHTER OF ATLACH-NACHA Abilities: Darkvision (the daughter of
(NEMESIS) Atlach-Nacha can remove up to bb
As the priest chants, her body sways in rhythm imposed on checks from darkness), Venom
to the Tcho-Tcho’s song. She then slowly bends (by spending aa on its bite combat
forward and any witness can see that the woman’s check, a daughter of Atlach-Nacha injects
back has swelled up incredibly. Suddenly, the
venoms with their bite. A bitten prey is
skin along her spine splits wide open, revealing a
shiny black surface that pulses horribly. From Immobilized and Staggered for 1 turn per
this opening, a wet, slimy form begins to emerge.... a generated on the attack, excluding
As the wrinkling, empty skin of a metamorphosing the aa required to trigger the venom.
daughter is pushed forward, multiple legs spill They feed upon their paralyzed prey,
out from the discarded molt, waving feebly, as
Adversaries 329
devouring the flesh of the victim’s head being touched as humans do. They are a
and eventually, through the now-empty marine race, unknown in freshwater
eye sockets, sucking out the person’s environments, and globally have many
brain. This gruesome feast takes 1 minute cities, all submerged beneath the waves.
per Intellect of the victim. Once reduced The three major cities of the deep ones
to 0 Intellect, the victim’s brain has been are: Y’ha-nth-lei off the coast of
completely devoured, and he or she dies. Massachusetts, near Innsmouth; Ahu-
Victims may be rescued by friends if they Y’hloa off the coast of Great Britain
can stop the spider’s feast before their near Cornwall, and G’ll-Hoo in the North
friend’s Intellect reaches 0. Survivors, Sea.
however, are forever blind, and the
permanent loss of whatever Intellect was
devoured).
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical
3; Range [Engaged]; Venom).
Silhouette: 1.
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Coordination
DEEP ONE (RIVAL) 1, Magic 1, Perception 1, Stealth 1.
I think their predominant color was a greyish-
green, though they had white bellies. They were Talents: Defensive 1 (increase the Defense
mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of rating of the deep one by 1).
their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely Sanity Damage: 0/1.
suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were Abilities: Amphibious (a deep one can
the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes
breathe both underwater and on land,
that never closed. At the sides of their necks
were palpitating gills and their long paws were and never suffers movement penalties for
webbed They hopped irregularly, sometimes on moving through water), Darkvision (the
hind legs and sometimes on four... their deep one can remove up to bb imposed
croaking, baying voices... held all the on checks from darkness), One With the
dark shades of expression which
their staring faces lacked. Depths (deep ones add b to Perception
The deep ones are an skill checks when underwater).
amphibious race that Equipment: Claw/Bite (Brawl;
serves primarily Damage 5; Critical 4; Range
Cthulhu and two [Engaged]).
beings known as
Father Dagon and DEEP ONE, HYBRID (MINION)
Mother Hydra. He was a thin, stoop-shouldered man not
Locked in the much under six feet tall.... His age was perhaps
thirtyfive, but the odd, deep creases in the
timeless depths sides of his neck made him seem older when
of the sea, their one did not study his dull,
alien, arrogant expressionless face. He had a narrow
lives are head, bulging, watery blue eyes that
coldly seemed never to wink, a flat nose,
a receding forehead and chin,
beautiful, and singularly undeveloped
unbelievably ears. His long, thick lip and
cruel, coarsepored, greyish cheeks seemed
effectively almost beardless except for
immortal. They some sparse yellow hairs that
straggled and curled in irregular patches; and in
come together tomate or to worship Great places the surface seemed queerly irregular, as
Cthulhu, but do not crave touching or if peeling from some cutaneous disease. His hands
330 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
were large and heavily veined, and had a very

Silhouette: 1.
unusual grayish-blue tinge. The fingers were
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1, Brawl 1,
strikingly short in proportion to the rest of the
Stealth 1.
structure, and seemed to have a tendency to curl
Talents: None.
closely into the huge palm... He had a peculiarly
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
shambling gait and his feet were inordinately
immense. Abilities: None.
Deep one hybrids are produced through Equipment: By weapon type, Claw (Brawl;
the mating of a deep one with a Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]).
human.Althoughmost offspring of such
unions are born as normal humans, DENIZEN OF YADDITH (RIVAL)
changes begin taking place usually in Throngs of clawed, scouted beings... rugose,
the victim’s early teens. By middle age, partly squamous, and curiously articulated in
most hybrids show some form of gross a fashion mainly insect-like yet not without
deformity. Many retire to the privacy a caricaturish resemblance to the human
of their closely-shuttered homes. In a outline.
few years they make the final The inhabitants of the
transformation to deep one, planet Yaddith were a race of
and find their destiny in the brilliant scientists and
sea. powerful wizards. Among the
The physical changes are inventions of the Yaddithians
accompanied by an were devices known as light-
awakening of new wave envelopes: machines
senses, and the capable of carrying
hybrids are visited in passengers through all of time and
their dreams by other space. Although Yaddith has
deep ones. They are since been laid waste by the
shown visions of vast monstrous dholes, some of
aquatic cities aswarm the denizens of Yaddith
with strange creatures escaped and may be
and they are taught about encountered on Earth, in
life under the sea. In the the Dreamlands, or in
final stages the dreams and other times or places.
mutations intensify until the Yaddithians have been
hybrid is either driven mad or known to disguise
undergoes the final physical themselves as
change into a deep one. Deep humans with bulky
ones may try to lure the robes, cumbersome
hybrid to their lairs mittens, big hats or
where they can supervise turbans, and masks with thick
the final stages of metamorphosis. About facial hair.
10% of hybrids do not complete their
metamorphosis and spend a normal human
lifespan as half-human, and half-deep
one.
Silhouette: 1.
Skills: Brawl 1, Deception 2, Discipline 2,
Knowledge 1, Magic 2, Resilience 1.
Talents: Enduring 1 (increase the Soak
Adversaries 331
rating of the denizen of Yaddith by 1). Sanity Damage: 1/3.

Sanity Damage: 0/1. Abilities: Burrow (may take a Maneuver to
Abilities: None. burrow underground, gaining total cover
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 4; and concealment from all attackers. While
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]), or by weapon burrowed, the dhole may spend additional
type. Maneuvers to move while
underground. Burrow can
DHOLE (NEMESIS) be performed on any
Below him the ground was festering natural surface
with gigantic dholes, and even as he except solid rock, and
looked, one reared up several hundred on concrete),
feet and leveled a bleached, viscous Darkvision (the dhole
end at him.
can remove all b imposed
Dholes are gigantic, worm-like
on checks from darkness),
burrowing horrors. They are not
Swallow Whole (a dhole can
native to the Earth, and none
swallow anything of
seem to have been brought here
Silhouette 2 or smaller
for more than brief periods,
fortunately, for they seem to with aaa or a x on a
have riddled and left waste successful combat check.
several other worlds. Swallowed creatures suffer
Though it does not visibly 10 points of damage each round
harm them, they dislike and upgrade the difficulty of
light. They are only their skill checks once while
rarely seen in daylight, inside the dhole. Escaping the inside
and then only on of the dhole is possible on a
planets that they have successful Formidable (ddddd)
thoroughly conquered. Coordination check, or by
Some unknown dealing 10 damage or more with
relation between a weapon that has Breach or
dholes and Pierce 3 quality), Terrifying
chthonians may (upon first seeing a dhole, a
exist. Similar creatures, bholes, character must make a Hard (ddd)
exist in the Dreamlands. fear check with the difficulty upgraded
once, to reflect the alien nature and
frightening reputation of the creature).
Equipment: Insatiable Maw (Brawl; Damage
15; Critical 3; Range [Short]; Breach 1,
Pierce 2, Swallow Whole, Vicious 2),
Silhouette: 4. Caustic Spittle (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage
Skills: Brawl 1, Cool 1, Coordination 3, 10; Critical 4; Range [Extreme], Blast 6,
Perception 4, Ranged [Heavy] 1, Vigilance Burn 2, Ensnare 2).
2.
Talents: Adversary 4 (upgrade all combat DIMENSIONAL SHAMBLER
checks against the dhole four times),
Durable 4 (reduce all Critical Injuries
(RIVAL)
Shuffling towards him in the darkness was the
against the dhole by 40, to a minimum of gigantic, blasphemous form of a thing not wholly
1), Enduring 3 (increase the Soak rating ape and not wholly insect. Its hide hung loosely
of the dhole by 3). upon its frame, and its rugose, dead-eyed
332 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
rudiment of a head swayed drunkenly from side to avoid shifting planes).

to side. Its forepaws were extended, with talons Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 5;
spread wide, and its whole body was taut with
murderous malignity despite its utter lack of Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1).
facial description.
Little is known about these beings save DOG (MINION)
their name and a description of a hide. It If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you
is assumed that they are entities capable will be amazed to find that almost all an
of walking between the planes and worlds Englishman’s pleasures can be, and mostly are,
shared by his dog.
of the universe, spending little time at
Our domestic friends are notable among
an one planet, but wandering about. They
animals for devotion and affection to
occasionally serve an Outer God or a
their human masters.
Great Old One. They can leave a plane at
The normal dog statistics presented
will, signaling the change by beginning
here describe any small dog of about 20–
to shimmer and fade.
50 pounds in weight. They can also be
used for small wild canines such as
coyotes, jackals, and feral dogs.
Silhouette: 2.
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Perception 1,
Stealth 2.
Silhouette: 0.
Talents: Durable 1 (reduce the result of
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1,
any Critical Injury against the
Perception 1, Survival 1
dimensional shambler by 10, to
Talents: None.
a minimum of 1).
Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Abilities: Low Light Vision
Abilities: Darkvision (the
(the dog can remove up to
dimensional shambler can
b imposed on checks from
remove all b imposed on
darkness).
checks from darkness),
Equipment: Bite (Brawl;
Planar Jaunt (a
Damage 5; Critical 4; Range
dimensional shambler can
[Engaged]).
shift between the
physical world and
another plane of ELDER THING
existence as an (RIVAL)
incidental, then shift They represented some
back to the physical ridged barrel-shaped object
worl as a Maneuver. If with thin horizontal arms
radiating spoke-like from a
a dimensional shambler central ring and with vertical
has a Silhouette 1 or knobs or bulbs projecting from
smaller foe entangled, the head and base of the
the foe also shifts barrel. Each of these knobs was
planes with the the hub of a system of five
long, flat, triangularly
dimensional shambler. tapering arms arranged around it
However a Hard (ddd) like the arms of a starfish.
Discipline check allows the foe This entity stands about eight
Adversaries 333
feet tall, with a six-foot torso, and that combat checks once).
it has wings that neatly fold up into Sanity Damage: 0/1.
slots. In that story this race is referred Abilities: Amphibious (an elder thing can
to as the “old ones.” Elder things breathe both underwater and on land,
communicate by piping whistles and can and never suffers movement penalties for
sense without light. moving through water), Constrict
Elder things came to Earth a (upon a successful Brawl
billion years ago, and may have combat check with its
accidentally started tentacle, the elder thing
terrestrial life. They can constrict its target
created the blasphemous and inflict 1 strain
shoggoths to serve as damage per a spent
slaves. Their race from its combat
began to degenerate check), Darkvision
before man (the elder thing can
evolved, and they remove up to bb
at least partially lost imposed on checks from
their former ability to fly darkness), Flyer (an elder
through space on their thing can fly (see page
membranous wings. After 100 of the GENESYS
numerous wars with core rulebook)).
other races, the mi-go Equipment: Tentacle
and the star-spawn prime (Brawl; Damage 5;
among them, and the Critical 4; Range
rebellion of their [Engaged]; Constrict,
former slaves, the shoggoths, the Ensnare 1).
amphibious elder things were
eventually driven back to Antarctica in ELEPHANT (RIVAL)
the last few million years, where their They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you
last city remains frozen under a glacier. are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save
Their civilization was eventually wiped interesting thoughts, quotations, films,
out by the cold of the ice age. The elder technologies... the medium doesn't matter, so long
things are extinct on land, but may still as it inspires you.
have colonies in the deepest waters. Everyone knows about elephants.
Elder things also may be met by time Investigators should be safe enough
travelers and non-degenerate elder unless they too closely approach a herd,
things still live among the stars. are surprised by a rogue, or run afoul of
a protective parent. This species is
larger (averaging six tons in weight) and
more feisty than its Asian cousin.
These large land animals, majestically
wandering the plains in tightly knit
Silhouette: 1. family herds, are symbols of wisdom and
Skills: Brawl 1, Coordination 1, Knowledge strength. Having few natural predators,
1, Magic 1, Perception 1, Resilience 1, elephants are sometimes hunted for their
Vigilance 1. ivory tusks. These tusks often become
Talents: Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to jewelry, statuettes, and trinkets for the
upgrade the difficulty of all incoming wealthy.
334 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Silhouette: 3. Silhouette: 0.
Skills: Brawl 1, Perception 3. Skills (Group Only): Perception 1.
Talents: Durable 1 (reduce all Critical Talents: None.
Injuries against the elephant by -10, to a Sanity Damage: 0/0.
minimum of 1). Abilities: Darkvision (the fire vampire
Sanity Damage: 0/. can remove up to bb imposed on checks
Abilities: Low Light Vision (the elephant from darkness), Fire Immunity (the fire
can remove up to b on skill checks vampire is immune to all effects based on
imposed by darkness), Trample (as an fire), Immunities (most material weapons
Action, the elephant can attempt to cannot harm them, including bullets, etc.
overrun any creature that is at least one Water inflicts one wound per half gallon
Silhouette smaller than itself. The poured over it, a typical hand-held fire
elephant does not have to make any check extinguisher does 6 points of damage to
for this, it merely has to move over it, and a bucket of sand inflicts 4 wounds
opponents in its path. Targets of a of damage), Magic Dampener (anyone
trample take 10 points of damage. Targets struck by a fire vampire's attack must
of a trample can attempt to avoid the make an Average (dd) Discipline check
trampling creature and make a Daunting or suffer a cumulative t penalty to all
(dddd) Athletics check to Magic skill checks for the remainder of
take half damage). the encounter).
Equipment: Gore (Brawl; Equipment: Touch (Brawl;
Damage 10; Critical 4; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range
Range [Engaged]; Pierce [Engaged]; Burn 2, Magic
1). Dampener).
FIRE VAMPIRE FLYING POLYP

(MINION) (NEMESIS)
These appeared as thousands A horrible elder race of
of tiny points of light. The half polypous, utterly
myriad points of light were alien entities... They were only
living entities of flame! partly material and had the power
Where they touched, fire of aerial motion, despite
sprang up. the absence of wings... Suggestions
They are minions of of a monstrous plasticity and of
Cthugha and, like him, temporary lapses of visibility...
singular whistling noises and
dwell on or near the star colossal footprints made up of
Fomalhaut. They come to Earth five circular toe marks seemed
when summoned, or when also to be associated with them.
accompanying Cthugha or This unnamed species
Fthaggua. They appear to be came to Earth out of space as
a form of intelligent gas or conquerors about seven
plasma, a fairly frequent hundred and fifty million years
Mythos concept. ago. They built basalt cities with
high windowless towers and inhabited
Adversaries 335
three other planets in the solar system darkness), Flyer (a flying polyp can fly
as well. On Earth, they were warred on (see page 100 of the GENESYS core
and finally forced underground by the rulebook)), Incorpoeal (a flying polyp is
great race of Yith, but near the close of incorporeal and thus can only be harmed
the Cretaceous era (about 50 million by magical attacks), Terrifying (upon
years ago) they rose up from their first seeing a flying polyp, a character
subterranean haunts and exterminated must make a Hard (cdd) Fear check
the great race. with the difficulty upgraded once, to
The polyps still remain in their reflect the alien nature and frightening
caverns and seem content to remain there, reputation of the creature), Wind Storm
annihilating the few beings choosing to (given time, a Flying Polyp can create a
cross them. The entrances to their very powerful localized storm. The wind
dwellings are mostly deep within ancient picks up to spee at the rate of +30 mph
ruins where there are great wells sealed per turn. Thus, the first turn a gentle
over with stone. Inside these wells dwell zephyr stirs, which by the next turn has
the polyps still, ferocious alien fighters grown to a strong wind (30 mph), then a
with a bewildering variety of attacks. windstom (60 mph), then a hurricane (90,
They have the power to control great 120 and 150 mph), and finally a tornado
winds. (180, 210, 240 and 270 mph), maxing out at
300 mph. The effects of the respective
winds is at the GM's discretion).
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl;
[Engaged]; Knockdown),
Silhouette: 3. Wind Blast (Ranged [Heavy];
Skills: Brawl 2, Perception 3, Ranged Damage 12; Critical 4; Range
[Heavy] 2, Resilience 2, Vigilance 2. [Medium]; Disorient 3,
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the Knockdown, Slow-Firing 5).
difficulty of all combat checks
against the flying polyp twice),
Defensive 2 (increase the Defense FORMLESS SPAWN OF
rating of the flying polyp by 2), Durable TSATHOGGUA (RIVAL)
2 (reduce the result of any Critical When the men of K’n-yan went down
Injury against the flying polyp into N’kai’s black abyss with their
great atom-power searchlights, they
by 20, to a minimum of 1), found living things – living things
Enduring 2 (increase the Soak that oozed along stone channels and
rating of the flying polyp by 2), worshipped onyx and basalt images of
Quick Strike 3 (add bbb to Tsathoggua. But they were not toads like
Tsathoggua himself. Far worse – they were
combat checks against any
amorphous lumps of viscous black slime that
target that has not yet taken their took temporary shapes for various purposes.
action in the encounter), Sense The explorers of K’n-yan did not pause for
Danger (once per session the flying detailed observations, and those that
polyp may remove bb from any escaped alive sealed the passage.
one skill check). These black, protean beings
Sanity Damage: 1/3. change shapes in an instant,
Abilities: Darkvision (the from toad-like lumps to
flying polyp can up to bb elongate things with
imposed on checks from hundreds of rudimentary
legs. They ooze through
336 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
small cracks and enlarge their absorbed by the Formless Spawn. Escaping
appendages at will. They are closely the Formless Spawn requires a Daunting
associated with Tsathoggua, often found (dddd) Coordination check).
in his temples or in sunless caverns. Some Equipment: Whip (Brawl; Damage 5;
formless spawn make their way into the Critical 4; Range [Short]; Ensnare 2),
Dreamlands. Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 4;
Due to their extreme fluidity and the Range [Short]; Ensnare 1), Bite (Brawl;
countless different forms available to Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Engaged];
them, each has at least four attack forms Pierce 1, Swallow Whole), Slam (Brawl;
which they may vary at will from round Damage 5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged];
to round, though not within a single Disorient 2), Pseudopod (Brawl; Damage 7;
round. Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 1
Stun Damage).
GHAST (RIVAL)
Repulsive beings which die in the light... and
leap on long hind legs... a pair of yellowish red
Silhouette: 2. eyes... Ghasts have indeed an excellent sense of
Skills: Brawl 2, Coordination 3, Magic 1, smell... something about the size of a small horse
Resilience 2, Stealth 3. hopped out into the grey twilight, and Carter
Talents: Defensive 2 (increase the Defense turned sick at the aspect of that scabrous and
unwholesome beast, whose face is so curiously
rating of the formless spawn of human despite the absence of a nose, a forehead,
Tsathoggua by 2). and other particulars... They spoke in coughing
Sanity Damage: 1/2. gutturals.
Abilities: Darkvision (the formless spawn Ghasts are restricted to the
of Tsathoggua can remove all b imposed Dreamlands’ underworld and vast waking-
on checks from darkness), world caverns where sunlight
Immunity (the formless never comes. Exposed to direct
spawn of Tsathoggua are sunlight, they sicken and
immune to all physical eventually die. Ghasts are
weapons, even enchanted cannibalistic and eat one
ones, and wounds made another as well as other
by them simply snap beings they catch.
closed after being The horrible
opened. Spells may semihuman bipeds which
affect them, as may are ridden by the
fire, chemicals, or highly scientific but
other forces), Swallow morally degenerate
Whole (by spending humans inhabiting the
aaa or x on its cavern of K’n-yan may
bite combat check, the well be relatives of or
formless spawn of even be examples of
Tsathoggua can swallows ghasts. If this is the
anything of Silhouette 1 case, then ghasts are
or smaller. Anything likely a result of
swallowed suffers 6 serpent people genetic
unsoakable damage each experimentation. Ghasts are
turn. Once dead, the target is completely evidently tamable, though very
Adversaries 337
primitive and savage. dissolve and find peace. Though all

ghosts are terrifying, some are more
loathsome than others: a 2 Sanity damage
is the maximum possible.
Ghosts can appear as wispy humanoid
figures, glowing manifestations, solid-
Silhouette: 1. looking creatures, cloudy figures,
Skills: Brawl 1, Magic 1, Perception 1, headless things, vehicles such as trains,
Stealth 2. coaches, ships, or cars, animals, etc. They
Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the are known by any number of names:
difficulty of all combat checks against ghosts, spirits, shades, spooks, haunts,
the ghast once)), Enduring 1 (increase the haints, poltergeist, apparitions,
Soak rating of the ghast by 1). phantoms, specters, phantasms, etc. Each
Sanity Damage: 0/1. particular type of ghost has
Abilities: Darkvision (the ghast can specific manifestations and
remove up to bb imposed on powers. The GM has scores
checks from darkness). of films and books to
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; inspire him in the
Damage 5; Critical 3; creation of his ghosts.
Range [Engaged]), Here are some specific
Claw (Brawl; options and
Damage 5; Critical suggestions.
4; Range [Engaged]; • Headless
Vicious 1). apparitions are
usually “solid”, like
GHOST (NEMESIS) a zombie. They can
They're here... usually be put to
Each ghost should rest if their bodies
be crafted by the GM and decapitated
to fit the heads are reunited.
circumstances of the The Headless Horseman
adventure. Ghosts of Sleepy Hollow is the
generally appear as dim, most famous headless
misty forms. They haunt apparition.
specific locations, or • Ghost vehicles tend to
sometimes specific objects appear in the same spot at
such as a ship or automobile. the same time and date all
In some rare instances, a ghost the time. Boarding a ghost
may even haunt a specific train or coach or ship, the
person or family. brave investigator is taken to
Ghosts may or may not be some other dimension or time, and
vulnerable to magic. Some ghosts usually never seen again. Urban
may not be exorciable. Ghosts legends tell of a hitch-hiker picked up
especially seem to haunt locations in along a lonely country road only to
order to communicate the awfulness that later find out that the driver who had
prompted their formation. Sometimes a so kindly given him a ride has been dead
ghost gives clues or instructions that, if for years. The Flying Dutchman is the
carried out, let the anxious shade most famous ghost ship.
338 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
• Phantoms tend to haunt theaters. Skills: Brawl 1, Coercion 3, Coordination 1,

They seem to become obsessed with Stealth 3, Vigilance 2.
particular performers or with exacting Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the
revenge for some injustice they suffered difficulty of all combat checks against
while alive. Eric, The Phantom of the the ghost twice).
Opera, is the most famous phantom Sanity Damage: 1/2.
(although strictly speaking, Eric was not Abilities: Darkvision (a ghost removes all
a ghost, but a deformed madman b imposed on checks from darkness),
pretending to be a phantom). Flyer (a ghost can fly (see page 100 of
• Ghostly dogs often appear to the GENESYS core rulebook)), Immunities (a
forewarn of impending danger or doom. ghost is immune to all physical damage
They also sometimes appear on moors or in and effects, although it is susceptible to
wooded areas and attempt to lure unwary magic).
investigators into danger. The Equipment: Incorporeal Touch (Brawl;
British Isles have many Damage 5; Critical 5; Range [Engaged];
legends of ghost dogs. Breach 1).
• Some buildings may
themselves be ghosts. GHOUL (MINION)
Solving the building’s These figures were seldom
mystery or uncovering its dark completely human, but often
secret, it vanishes never to be approached humanity in
varying degree. Most of the
seen again. The Amityville
bodies, while roughly bipedal,
Horror is a good example of this. had a forward slumping, and a vaguely
• Poltergeist can be canine cast. The texture of the
violent entities, known for majority was a kind of unpleasant
violently throwing items rubberiness.
around a room. They seem to Ghouls are rubbery,
be particularly attracted to loathsome humanoids with hoof-
houses with children and like feet, canine features, and
teenagers. The 1982 Tobe claws. They speak in what
Hooper's “Poltergeist” is the are described as gibberings
definitive film on the subject. and meepings. They are
• Ghosts of redemption may often encrusted with grave
appear as figures from a person’s mold collected as they feed.
past, come back to warn them of Lovecraft’s ghouls are
their wicked ways. The horrible creatures dwelling in
classic example of this is tunnel systems beneath many
Jacob Marley’s ghost in cities. They have ties to
Dickens’ classic “A Christmas witches and occasionally
Carol”. The GM may even wish to attack humans. Some
utilize the idea of the three ghosts very ancient ghoul
of Christmas (past, present, and future). tunnels lead into the
fantastic Dreamlands
realms where the creatures
feast at unguessably old graves. Ghouls
are a common sight in the Dreamlands. It
may be possible for a human to transform
Silhouette: 1. into a ghoul over a prolonged period of
Adversaries 339
time. Ghouls may occasionally mate with known as gnoph-keh, and a singular being
humans and produce ugly, loathsome called Gnophkehs.
children. The gnoph-keh are a sparse race of
A few ghouls are connected with rare beings, associated with Ithaqua.
Nyogtha worship, and in the future land Usually only one gnoph-keh is
of Zothique ghouls worship the Charnel encountered at a time, and the race is
God,Mordiggian. They otherwise have generally restricted to glaciers, ice caps,
little to do with other creatures or gods and extremely cold and icy areas.
of the Mythos, content to feast on their Especially harsh winters may bring them
rotting morsels and leave the other races down into the lowlands. If a human tribe
and beings to their own machinations. have indeed named themselves after the
fabled gnoph-keh, perhaps they worship
the gnoph-keh as a deity, or use it as a
totem beast.
Silhouette: 1.
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1, Brawl 1,
Stealth 1.
Talents: None. Silhouette: 2.
Sanity Damage: 0/1. Skills: Brawl 2, Stealth 2, Survival 2.
Abilities: Darkvision (the ghoul can Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
remove up to bb imposed on checks from difficulty of all combat checks against
darkness), Rubbery Skin (firearms and the gnoph-keh once), Enduring 1 (increase
projectiles do half of rolled damage; the Soak rating of the gnoph-keh by 1).
round up any fraction). Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Equipment: Bite/Claw (Brawl; Damage 5; Abilities: Blizzard (the gnoph-keh has the
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]). power to summon a small blizzard about
itself, restricting visibility to Short
GNOPH-KEH range. The blizzard extends from the
gnoph-keh out to Extreme range. Every
(RIVAL) turn that an investigator spends within
Gnoph-Keh, the hairy
myth-thing of the
such a blizzard, he must make an
Greenland ice, that Average (dd) Resilience check
walked sometimes on two or lose one wound per t
legs, sometimes on four, generated on the
and sometimes on six. check, with a minimum
In earlier stories, of 1 wound, to
Gnoph-Keh appears freezing damage if
to be a single being not properly
associated with protected against
Rhan-Tegoth or the ice and wind),
Cthulhu, but later it Cold Aura (the
seems to be a race of gnoph-keh can
beings, possibly even a create an intense
degenerate and cold around its
cannibalistic tribe. It body out to
later becomes apparent Engaged range.
that there is both a race
340 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Anyone within Engaged range of the manual devices, utilize any Intellect-
gnoph-keh suffers 5 points of cold based skills, etc.). However, a golem is
damage each round, which can only be incredibly strong and hardy. A golem
soaked if wearing adequate cold does not ever tire, and will follow a
environmental gear), Immunity to Cold command until it is completed or until
(the gnoph-keh is immune to all colb- the creature is stopped by its creator or
based effects), Low Light Vision (the destroyed. Although most often built of
gnoph-keh can remove b imposed on clay, a golem may be constructed of just
checks from darkness). about any material. The figure most
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical often connected with the golem legend
4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1), Horn (Brawl; was Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague (1520-
Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; 1609), whose story was the basis for the
Pierce 2). famous 1915 Paul Wegener silent film
“Der Golem”. The golem legend was also an
GOLEM (NEMESIS) inspiration for the very famous 1818
The Polish Jews, after having spoken certain Mary Shelly novel “Frankenstein”.
prayers and observed certain Feast days, make Each week after its creation, there is a
the figure of a man out of clay or lime which, chance that the monster will break free
after they have pronounced the wonderworking of its master’s control. Each week there is
Shem-hamphorasch over it, comes to life. It is true
this figure cannot speak, but it can understand
a cumulative 5% chance that the sorcerer
what one says and commands it to do to a certain will loose control of the golem. Once free,
extent. They call it Golem and use it as a servant the golem’s first action is to destroy its
to do all sorts of housework; he may never go out creator. If he manages to escape his
alone. On his forehead the word Aemaeth (Truth; murderous creation, the sorcerer may
God) is written, but he increases from day to day
and can easily become larger and stronger than
regain control of the golem by
his house-comrades, however small he might have performing the lengthy rituals that
been in the beginning. Being then afraid of him, first gave the thing life. This process
they rub out the first letters so that nothing takes many days, and requires the
remains but Maeth (he is dead), whereupon he sorcerer to stay well-hidden from the
sinks together and becomes clay again.
golem.
The golem is a man-made creature of
In combat a golem may strike with its
Jewish folklore from medieval
hands, or it may use both arms to grasp
Cabbalistic legends centering on the
and crush a victim.A golem makes a very
teachings of the Sepher Yetsirah. He is
powerful – if temporary – guardian or
usually formed from clay, and is given
servant for mad sorcerers and meddlers
life through magical and religious
in the occult. Scratching out the first
ceremonies. Shaped like a man by its
two letters inscribed in the golem’s
creator, the golem’s forehead is inscribed
forehead instantly destroys the creature.
with the word Aemaeth that gives it life.
Golems constructed of other materials
The actual ritual for animating a golem
will have various degrees of Soak as per
lasts for many days, during which time
the material.
special prayers and ceremonies from the
Sepher Yetsirah are performed, and holy
feasts are eaten. Once animated, a golem
obeys the simple commands of its creator.
The man-made monster cannot speak, is
slow, and has additional and obvious Silhouette: 2.
limitations (a golem could not drive a Skills: Brawl 3.
vehicle, use any sort of weapons or
Adversaries 341
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the Gorillas typically make a large show

difficulty of all combat checks against of force before actually attacking,
the golem twice), Enduring 2 (increase the thumping their chests with their palms,
Soak rating of the golem by 2). stamping their feet, and roaring loudly.
Sanity Damage: 0/1. Any opponents who refuse to flee after
Abilities: Darkvision (the golem removes this display are attacked. Troops of apes
all b imposed on checks from darkness). fight together in a frenzy, tearing
Equipment: Slam (Brawl; Damage 8; opponents to pieces with their hands and
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Knockdown, teeth.
Vicious 1), Crush (Brawl; Damage 7;
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 2,
Ensnare 3).
GORILLA (RIVAL) Silhouette: 2.

When gorillas smell danger, they run around
and call out to the rest of the Skills: Athletics 1, Perception
primates in the jungle to warn them 1.
something evil is coming. Talents: None.
And when one of their own Sanity Damage: 0/0.
dies, they mourn for days Abilities: Low Light
while beating themselves
up in sadness for failing Vision (the
to save that gorilla, gorilla can
even if the cause of death remove up to b
was natural. And when imposed on checks
one colony is mourning,
from darkness).
their chilling echoes
migrate to other Equipment: Slam
colonies – and those (Brawl; Damage 8;
neighbors, even if Critical 4; Range
they are territorial [Engaged];
rivals, will also
Knockdown), Bite
grieve with them. When
faced with a common (Brawl; Damage
danger, rivals turn 6; Critical 4;
into allies. And when Range [Engaged];
faced with death, the Pierce 1, Vicious 1).
loss of just one gorilla
becomes the loss of the
entire jungle. GREAT RACE OF YITH
These creatures do have (NEMESIS)
the strength to rip apart Enormous, iridescent cones, about ten feet high
human beings, but we have and ten feet wide at the base, and made up of
come to understand that they some ridgy, scaly, semi-elasticmatter. From their
are shy and gentle, and nearly apexes projected four flexible, cylindrical
members, each a foot thick, and of a ridgy
extinct.
substance like that of the cones themselves.
An adult male ape is 8 feet tall and These members were sometimes contracted almost
can weigh as much as 400 pounds. While to nothing, and sometimes extended to any
generally shy and peaceful creatures distance up to about ten feet. Terminating two of
when left to their own business, gorillas them were enormous claws or nippers. At the end
of a third were four red trumpet-like appendages.
are territorial and become highly
The fourth terminated in an irregular yellowish
aggressive when provoked. globe some two feet in diameter and having three
342 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
great dark eyes ranged along its central years). Members feed solely on liquids.
circumference... Surmounting this head were four
The Yithians are a race of socialist
slender grey stalks bearing flower-like
individuals. They value intelligence
appendages, whilst from its nether side dangled
above all else, and use it as their
eight greenish antennae or tentacles. The great
base of the central cone was ringed with a criterion for immigration. Resources are
rubbery grey substance whichmoved the wholeshared among their kind out of a sense of
entity through expansion and contraction. intellectual logic and proportion. Strife
Their bodies are native to this Earth. is rare. The great race worship no gods.
They were a species of mental entities, TIME TRAVEL: the great race are so-
fleeing their own world’s destruction. named because they conquered time
They came to Earth and took over the so thoroughly – the only race
minds of the cone-shaped beings dwelling known to have done so. A member of
here. The combination of the Earth-born the race can send its mind
bodies and the minds of forward or backward
the aliens made the great through time and
race. They taught their across space, pick out a
young their own technology suitable subject, and trade
and culture. Those young grew minds with it; whenever a
up as true inheritors of the member of the great race takes
mentalists, and the new bodies were over the body of a being,
natural to them. In the aeons that that being’s mind is
followed the great race divided up put into the body
the Earth between themselves, the of the great race
mi-go, and Cthulhu’s kin. Cthulhu individual, there
and his kind ruled from the to stay until the
Pacific, and the being now
lost lands of inhabiting its old
R’lyeh and Mu. body sees fit to
The mi-go return and trade places once
controlled the more. With this technique the
north. In the south the great race has traveled en masse
race were supreme. Their through time and space,
greatest city was Pnakotus, in and conquered other
modern-day Australia. planets. Some members
This race flourished may even be found
from about four living in the
hundred million years Dreamlands.
ago until fifty million years Keen students of history, an
ago, when they were exterminated individual exchanges places with a
by the flying polyps, an ancient race select individual in the era it wishes to
which they had imprisoned when they study. The minds are switched for about
first came to Earth. However, the minds five years. On Earth, friends notice many
of the great race had already fled their differences about the substitute: a
doomed bodies into the future bodies of a Perception or Vigilance check would be
beetle-like race to succeed mankind – the appropriate to notice this.
new great race. The victim who has been forced into the
The great race reproduce by means of alien great race body is caused to write
spores, but do so infrequently because of down everything he knows about his own
long individual life spans (4,000 to 5,000
Adversaries 343
time. The great race are fairly kindly the Yithian by -20, to a minimum of 1),
and permit their captives to travel Enduring 2 (increase the Soak rating of
about and see the country, as well as the Yithian by 2), Hard-Headed (a Yithian
allowing them to meet other victims like may take the Hard Headed Action and
themselves, generally from far distant make a Hard (ddd) Discipline check to
planets or eras. When the time comes to ignore being Staggered or Disoriented).
restore a victim to his own body, the Sanity Damage: 0/1.
great race blank his memory of what has Abilities: Darkvision (a Yithian can
happened to him while he was trapped in remove all b imposed on checks from
their age. This erasure is imperfect: the darkness), Mind Transferrence (if faced
victim may dream and have nightmares of with a hopeless situation, one of the
being held by the great race. great race of Yith will often transfer
Some cases of alleged “demonic its mind into the body of some being from
possession” may be attributed to Yithian its future (which can be any time in the
mind-swapping. past 50 million years, the present, or the
A cult on present-day Earth aids and far distant future), Terrifying (upon
abets great race visitors. In exchange, first seeing a Yithian, a character must
the visitors share technological or make a Hard (cdd) Fear check with the
magical knowledge. Time-travel is the difficulty upgraded once, to reflect the
primary means by which a member of this alien nature and frightening reputation
race could be met in its original cone- of the creature).
body, though there have been scattered Equipment: Nipper (Brawl; Damage 10;
cases involving stasis cubes and Critical 4; Range [Short]; Pierce 2, Vicious
sorcerous summonings across the aeons. 3), Lightning Gun (Ranged [Light]; Damage
Millennia ago, the great race 8; Critical 4; Range [Long]; Slow-Firing 1).
discovered one of the crystal cubes of
the worm-beings from Yekub. The worm- GUG (NEMESIS)
beings used the cube to exchange minds It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across,
with a Yithian and investigate the and equipped with formidable talons. After it
possibility of invading Earth. The great came another paw, and after that a great black
race soon discovered the truth behind furred arm to which both of the paws were
the strange cube and the Yekubian worm- attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes
shone and the head of the awakened Gug sentry,
things, and locked the alien device away large as a barrel, wabbled into view. The eyes
beneath their great city. After the great jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony
race fled their city the cube was lost. protuberances overgrown by coarse hairs. But the
head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth.
That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from
the top to the bottom of the head, opening
vertically instead of horizontally.
In worshiping various Great Old Ones,
Silhouette: 3. the gugs of the Dreamlands indulged in
Skills: Brawl 2, Cool 3, Discipline 4, ceremonies so abhorrent that somehow
Knowledge 5, Magic 4, Ranged [Light] 3, they have been banished into the
Resilience 2, Vigilance 2. Dreamlands’ Underworld. Gugs gleefully
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the eat any surface dwellers they can lay
difficulty of all combat checks against their four paws upon.Gugs are huge – an
the yithian twice), Durable 2 (reduce the average gug is at least 20 feet tall.
result of all Critical Injuries against A Gug is a species of shaggy cannibal
giant, restricted to life underground by
344 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
a curse of the Great Ones. From each of HELL-PLANT (MINION)

its black-furred arms sprout two Seconds later, Haon-Dor’s seed takes effect as a
forepaws, equipped with dreadful talons. victim’s back splits open and a writhing, slime-
Its legs and feet are bird- or dinosaur- covered mass rips its way free from his body. A
like, and patches of greasy black fur huge plant, covered with bulging eyeballs and
fanged, lipless mouths, sprouts from the victim’s
cover its body. The face of a Gug is corpse and begins spreading creepers and
especially terrible, with bulging pink branches throughout the temple complex.
eyes set on bony swellings and a ghastly The seeds of hell-plants are generally
fanged mouth splitting the head carried in living host bodies, planted
vertically. Voiceless, the thing there by powerful sorcerers or Mythos
communicates by facial expression and beings. These alien seeds sprout at the
gesture. time or situation predetermined by the
seed’s planter. A hell-plant seed may
sprout when its host body is killed, or at
a certain phase of the moon or tides, or
when a special incantation is uttered,
etc. Each seed is planted under different
Silhouette: 3. and special circumstances. The
Skills: Brawl 4, Perception being inserting the seed
3, Vigilance 2. into the host body
Talents: Adversary 2 determines when, where, or how
(upgrade the the seed will
difficulty of all sprout. Hell-
combat checks plant seeds
against the gug might be
twice), Super Slam!
(reduce the cost of
triggering the
Knockdown quality implanted
by a on the gug's within their host
claw attacks). bodies physically, or through
Sanity Damage: 0/1. some mysterious, arcane, or
Abilities: Darkvision (a gug can alien ritual or spell.
remove all b imposed on checks The living host is
from darkness), Rend (the gug usually unaware that
may spend aa on its he or she is carrying the
claw attack to rend the hellspawned seed.
target's armor, and When a hell-plant
effectively lowering the seed germinates it
target's Soak rating by one tears through its
point to the end of the host’s body,
target's next turn). erupting in a slimy and
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; writhing mass. The seed’s host is killed
Damage 7; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; instantly as the alien plant rips
Knockdown, Pierce 2, Rend), Bite (Brawl; through his or her body. The hell-plant
Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; roots to the spot where its host’s body
Vicious 2). fell and cannot move from that spot.
The entity planting the seed may embed
Adversaries 345
the plant with the knowledge of certain Donkeys and mules mostly carry
spells,which it may then use. Otherwise, burdens, not riders, or draw wagons or
hell-plants cannot learn or use spells. carts. Stereotypically, they ignore
X-rays can detect hell-plant seeds in a commands when it pleases them, even
host, and surgery may successfully brutal ones.
remove them or may cause them to sprout, Among all horses, the tendency
as the GM chooses. concerning bloody events, gunfire,
monsters, angry crowds, and so on will be
a sensible one, to flee.
Silhouette: 0.
Skills (Group Only): None.
Talents: None. Silhouette: 2.
Sanity Damage: 1/2. Skills (Group Only): Perception 1.
Abilities: Fire Resistance (the hell-plant Talents: None.
is not flammable and cannot be set Sanity Damage: 0/0.
alight, but fire does normal damage to Abilities: Low Light Vision (a horse can
it), Sap Strength (a hell-plant can spend remove up to b on skill checks impose by
aaa or x on its combat check to darkness).
drain 1 point of Brawn from its target. Equipment: Hoof (Brawl; Damage 5;
Lost Brawn points are recovered at 1 per Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 1).
week's worth of bed rest).
Equipment: Tendril (Brawl; Damage 5; HOUND OF TINDALOS (RIVAL)
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Sap Strength). “They are lean and athirst!” he shrieked... “All
the evil in the universe was concentrated in
their lean, hungry bodies. Or had they bodies? 1
HORSE (MINION) saw them only for a moment, I cannot be certain.”
Slippery-smooth rhythmic motion, absolute
single-minded purpose, motion for the pleasure of Tindalos is a nightmare city of
motion itself. It was terrible it its beauty, the corkscrew towers that exists separate
flight of the horse. from conventional time and space. Some
Horses offer many advantages to those sources claim that Tindalos exists on
who know their ways. For role-playing, some distant alien world in or near a
divide them into riding horses, draught black hole, while others believe it lies
horses, and donkeys and mules. in Earth’s far past. The hounds of
Single riders and small groups can Tindalos inhabit the angles of time,
easily cover forty miles in a day, given while other beings (such as mankind and
plenty of water and fodder such as oats all common life) descend from curves. This
and other grains. Riding horses may spar concept is hard to imagine, and only
with other horses, but they do not fight seems to be used with respect to them (and
unless cornered. Even cavalry-trained the other even more horrible denizens of
horses are trained merely to stay their Tindalos). The hounds lust after
ground and control their nervousness. something in mankind and other normal
Nearly all horses will panic at the life, and follow victims through time and
presence of some supernatural thing. space to get it. They are immortal.
Draught horses are the largest of Just what these creatures look like is
horses, usually broken to ride but not unknown, since those who meet them seem
much actually ridden. not to survive. A hound of Tindalos is
346 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
hardly likely to look like a hound dog, on checks from darkness), Hyper-Sight (the
but the name from the story is so hound can see an area as if they were in
evocative that is how they always are the fourth dimension – all directions,
pictured. behind walls, in containers, etc., all at
Because of their relationship with the once. They cannot see into magically
angles of time, they can materialize protected areas or behind round or
through any corner if it is sharp – 120° spherical spaces), Immunities (mundane
or less. The rooms of most human houses weapons have no effect on a hound,
have walls that meet at 90°. When a hound though enchanted weapons and spells do
manifests, it first appears as smoke full damage), Pack Tactics (when using the
pouring from the corner, from which the assist maneuver, Hounds of Tindalos add
head and then the thing’s body emerges. bb boost instead of b), Regeneration (a
Once a human has become known to one hound of Tindalos restores 2 wounds at
of these creatures, it will follow the start of each of its turns),
through anything to get to him. To Step-Through (as long as
figure the time before the hound of sharp angles are
Tindalos reaches its prey, within Short range, the
determine the number of years hound step through via
between the prey’s present time hyperspace to another
and the time when spotted by angle anywhere in the
the creature. Then space-time it inhabits.
divide the number of It takes one Maneuver
years by 100,000,000 to to open the angle, from
get the number of days whence mist begins to
travel time for the trickle forth. It takes
hound. Driven off by a a second Maneuver to
target, a hound of step out through
Tindalos usually the exit angle),
gives up. Tongue Lashing
Unfortunately, (anyone bitten by a
such a creature is hound of Tindalos
difficult to drive will suffer a deep and
off. Friends who penetrating (but
come to a target’s bloodless and painless)
aid also will be hole left by the hound's
attacked. tongue attack. The target must make a
Hard (ddd) Resilience check or suffer
t on all Brawl skill checks. This effect
is cumulative. It can be healed with a
Hard (ddd) Medicine check), Twist Space
(a hound of Tindalos can ripple local
Silhouette: 1.
space-time around it out to Short range,
Skills: Brawl 1, Perception 1, Stealth 1,
requiring a Maneuver. Those outside this
Vigilance 2.
area see everything twisting and
Talents: None.
elongating in odd directions. Those inside
Sanity Damage: 1/2.
see themselves being twisted and
Abilities: Darkvision (the hound of
stretched, and take 1/2 Sanity Damage. To
Tindalos can remove up to bb to imposed resist being affected by the twisting and
Adversaries 347
stretching effects, those inside the area

must make a Hard (ddd) Discipline
check. Those outside the radius who are
firing ranged weapons into the area of
effect must upgrade the difficulty of
their combat checks twice; those Silhouette: 3.
attacking from within the radius must Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Coordination
upgrade the difficulty of all combat 2, Perception 2, Resilience 3, Stealth 2.
checks three times. A character inside Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
or outside the area of effect can negate difficulty of all combat checks against
the combat check upgrade with a the hunting horror of Nyarlathotep
successful Daunting (dddd) Knowledge once), Defensive 1 (increase the Defense
check and a sacrifice of 1 Sanity damage. rating of the hunting horror of
(With a successful roll, the viewer is able Nyarlathotep by 1), Enduring 2 (increase
to comprehend the angles of the the Soak rating of the hunting horror of
distortion). Nyarlathotep by 2).
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical Sanity Damage: 0/1.
3; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Tongue Abilities: Bulletproof (the hunting
Lashing). horror of Nyarlathotep is immune to
attacks from ordinary firearms, as
bullets cannot penetrate its scales),
HUNTING HORROR OF Flyer (a hunting horror of Nyarlathotep
NYARLATHOTEP (RIVAL) can fly (see page 100 of the GENESYS core
And in the air about him were great viperine rulebook)).
creatures, which had curiously distorted heads, Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 9; Critical
and grotesquely great clawed appendages,
supporting themselves with ease by the aid of
3; Range [Engaged], Pierce 2, Vicious 1),
black rubbery wings of singularly monstrous Tail (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical 4; Range
dimensions. [Engaged]; Ensnare 3).
They resemble enormous ropy black
serpents or worms possessing bat-like or HYENA (MINION)
umbrella-like wings. Their forms Of all the creatures in the world that really
continually shift and change, twitching frighten me - the hyena in Africa, the great
and writhing, so it is hard to look at white shark - leopard seals are near the top of
Them. They may have only a single large the list. They're killers. If my team spots one,
they'll pull me out of the water.
wing rather than two. They speak in
A powerful scavenger and predator
great harsh voices. A hunting horror’s
found mainly on the savannahs of Africa.
length averages forty feet. They are
The spotted hyena is the largest and most
sometimes summoned to the Dreamlands to
aggressive member of the hyena family.
do their Master’s bidding.
Living in clans, the females are the
These beings are dispelled by daylight.
dominant animals. Female spotted hyenas
A strong enough burst of light (from a
average 130 pounds, while the males tend
nuclear reaction, perhaps) could sear one
to be about ten pounds lighter. Spotted
to dust. Hunting horrors move swiftly
hyenas are brownish gray with dark
and are harrier-creatures for some of the
spotting. They have rounded ears, dog-
gods, particularly Nyarlathotep. They
like faces and the classic slopping hind
can be summoned in their own right, and
quarters familiar in all hyenas. They are
sent to seek out blood and lives.
mainly nocturnal and may emit the well-
known and eerie hyena “laugh”. Hyenas
348 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
have the most powerful jaws of any asmuch as 3,000 pounds. It is suggested
living mammal. They are capable of that these mysterious creatures are
crushing bones with their massive jaws, descendants, or surviving specimens, of
and may carry prey far larger than prehistoric species. They usually are
themselves in their mouths. Hyenas may found in very deep, cold freshwater
top out at 30 miles per hour for short lakes. Among the most famous lake
distances. monsters are the Loch Ness Monster of
Hyenas tend to hunt alone, but when Scotland, and Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan
hunting as a pack they typically send in British Columbia.
one or two members against a foe’s front Lake monsters survive on fish and
while the rest of the pack circles and other aquatic food; some may breathe
attacks from behind. under water while others must surface
periodically to fill their lungs with air.
Although their long necks or serpentine
humps have been seen breaking the
surface of the water, lake monsters do
not often come up from the depths of
Silhouette: 1. their deep lakes. Nessie, Ogopogo,
Skills (Group Only): Perception 1, and other lake monsters are
Stealth 1. usually timid and
Talents: None. shy away from
Sanity Damage: 0/0. humans. Sightings
Abilities: Low Light Vision (the of lake monsters
hyena can remove up to b on are very rare,
skill checks imposed by with hard
darkness). evidence rarer, and
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; attacks upon humans
Damage 6; Critical 4; Range rarer yet. There are a
[Engaged]). few tales, however, of
lake monsters
LAKE MONSTER (NEMESIS) chasing boats and
The first recorded sighting was waterskiers, or
in 565 AD and there have been surfacing near
thousands of eye witness reports swimmers. These
since then. All these people can't
be telling lies. And the fact the creatures might
reports stretch over so many years attack if forced
mean there can't just be one of them. into a situation
I'm convinced there are several which they could not
monsters. escape, or if their young
Just about every large lake in the were threatened, etc.
world has legends of monsters dwelling
within their depths. Lake monsters are
large, elusive creatures generally with
either long, eel-like bodies, or short,
squat bodies with long tails and very
long necks. Their skin is dark and smooth, Silhouette: 3.
and they have small heads and typically Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Resilience 2,
four paddle-like flippers. Lake monsters Stealth 4, Survival 2.
can grow up to 50 feet long, and weigh
Adversaries 349
Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the rarely eat these kills unless game is
difficulty of all combat checks against scarce. Most lions do not selectively hunt
the lake monster once), Enduring 3 humanoids, but occasionally one learns
(increase the Soak rating of the lake what easy kills they are and becomes a
monster by 3). man-eater.
Sanity Damage: 0/1. Lions prefer plains but can adapt to
Abilities: Amphibious (a lake monster can living in shallow caves as long as there’s
breathe both underwater and on land, a large and stable supply of prey to
and never suffers movement penalties for keep them fed.
moving through water), Darkvision (the
lake monster can remove up to bb
imposed on checks from darkness).
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 10;
Critical 4; Range [Short]; Vicious 1).
Silhouette: 2.
LION (RIVAL) Skills: Athletics 2,
With each new day in Africa, a
gazelle wakes up knowing he Perception 1, Stealth 1.
must outrun the fastest lion Talents: None.
or perish. At the same time, a Sanity Damage: 0/0.
lion stirs and stretches, Abilities: Low Light
knowing he must outrun the Vision (a lion can
fastest gazelle or starve. It's
no different for the human remove up to b imposed
race. Whether you consider on checks from darkness),
yourself a gazelle or a lion, you Pounce (if the lion spends
have to run faster than others to a Maneuver for moving
survive.
and its Action for
The most famous of all attacking, it can pounce its
the wild cats, lions target. Pouncing gives
travel in prides of a
the lion an automatic s
dozen or so animals,
and a on its combat
and hunt
check).
cooperatively. The
Equipment: Bite (Brawl;
male lions of
southern Africa have
[Engaged]), Claw (Brawl; Damage
denser and blacker
5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged];
manes than those
Vicious 1).
living further
north.
Male lions are 5 to 8 feet long and LUMEN (RIVAL)
weigh 330 to 550 pounds. Females are And coming our way over the broad expanse,
skimming along at treetop level, was an oblong
slightly smaller but use the same cluster of faintly glowing lights. Lights. That’s
statistics. what they were. Not glowing spheres. Not UFOs or
Lions are usually the top animal any of that nonsense. They had no discernible
predators in their territories, though substance. They were just light. Globules of
they resort to scavenging if convenient light... I’d never seen light behave that way
before – it didn’t seem right or natural for light
or necessary. They may kill other to concentrate itself in a ball. Or perhaps it was
predators (such as leopards and hyenas) the way they moved, gliding through the night
that encroach upon their haunts, but with such purpose, cutting through the dark,
350 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
weaving from tree to tree, floating by the way.

topmost branches, and then forging a path to the
next. Almost as if the trees were signposts.
Lumens are also known by a number of
different names: pine lights, witch
lights, will-o’-the-wisps, jack o’lanterns,
corpse lights, fairy lights, or fox fires. Silhouette: 0.
They are guardians of special places Skills: Brawl 1, Deception 2, Survival 2.
across the world called “nexus points”. Talents: Defensive 3 (increase the
Twice a year at these points the “veils” Defensive rating of the luman by 3).
that obscure reality become detached and Sanity Damage: 0/1.
for a short period of time offer glimpses Abilities: Darkvision (the lumen can
of the true nature and horrors of our remove all b to imposed on checks from
world obscured from man’s normal darkness), Flyer (a lumen can fly (see
perception. Four such points are known: page 100 of the GENESYS core rulebook)),
one near the east coast of North America Immunities (the lumen is immune to
in New Jersey called “The Barrens”, one damage from any sort of non-magical
in Tibet, and one in each of the poles. attack).
Other nexus points may exist. People Equipment: Singe (Brawl; Damage 6;
brave enough to follow the paths that Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Breach 1,
lumens traverse through the night skies Burn 1).
are ultimately led to nexus points.
Animals and vegetation shun areas
where lumens congregate. Over time any MAN-EATING PLANT (MINION)
Plants and minerals are bound to
terrestrial life in an area of lumen predestination. The faithful is only bound to the
activity becomes deformed and abnormal divine orders.
in both appearance and behavior. Legends, folklore, pulp fiction and B-
Lumens rarely attack unless they are movies are full of dark exotic jungles
disturbed or are required to defend populated by giant man-eating plants.
themselves. They normally travel in They have been featured in fantasy,
groups of a hundred or more and can horror, pulpaction, and science fiction
attack en masse. stories and films. There is something
Lumens attack by passing through and unsettling about the thoughts of the
inside their victims, creating a strong tables being turned and plants revolting
cold, burning pain. Wounds from such against animals to become carnivorous.
attacks turn red, blister and scald, and Man-eating plants can take on any
smoke for a short time. Such wounds never number of forms, from gigantic versions
heal. Afterwards, the pain is of actual carnivorous plants like Venus
surprisingly minimal, but later infection flytraps or sundews, or they may be
is highly likely aggravating the injuries great serpentine- tendrilled trees or
further. enormous and enticing flowers which
Alternately, these ghostly floating close up on their intended prey.
lights lure hapless investigators into Sometimes man-eating plants are sentient
deep woods, swamps, or other dangerous or intelligent, and sometimes they can
and desolate areas. This technique is most move. Others are simply big nasty
often used to get victims lost or trick botanical traps waiting patiently for
them into falling down wells, stepping some unsuspecting adventurer to wander
into quicksand, stumbling into alligator too close.
dens, or otherwise getting them in harm’s Sometimes man-eating plants occur
Adversaries 351
naturally in deep, uncharted jungles. entangle victims. Suggested weapons

Sometimes they are mutant things include snapping blossoms, clawing
changed by chemicals or radiation. Mad thorns, strangling vines, crushing
scientists sometimes breedman-eating branches, sticky leaves, poisonous pollen
plants for their own sick reasons. or sap, acid sap, etc. There should be a
Primitive tribes sometimes worship man- separate attack and digest score. The
eating plants, sacrificing beautiful attack is whatever traps the prey, while
young maidens or handsome young men to the digest is the acid or poison which the
the botanical horrors. Other times man- plant uses to eat its victims.
eating plants are used as guardians by
mad scientists.
When designing a man-eating plant the
GM should be creative. Monsterfy actual
plants: give roses poisonous thorns, or
trees dripping acid sap. Create Silhouette: 1.
giant versions of real Skills (Group Only):
carnivorous plants (any Brawl 1, Charm 1,
good encyclopedia will have Stealth 1.
descriptions and pictures Talents: None.
of many varieties). Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Due to the Abilities: None.
variety of Equipment: Vine
possible man-eating (Brawl; Damage 5;
plants, statistics Critical 4; Range
provided are only [Short]; Ensnare 1),
vague suggestions. The GM Thorn (Brawl; Damage
should create his man- 4; Critical 5; Range
eaters as needed. The skills and [Engaged]; Pierce 1),
attacks listed are given as Snapper (Brawl; Damage 5;
various examples to Critical 4; Range [Engaged];
apply to plants – Vicious 1).
not for any one
single plant to MARTIAN (RIVAL)
possess all. While man- A big, grey, rounded
eating plants don't bulk, the size, perhaps, of
a bear... rising slowly and
possess characteristics
painfully out of the cylinder.
as per se, they are listed As it bulged up and caught
with having the light, it glistened like
characteristics to indicate wet leather. The creature had
their chance to survive in two large dark-coloured eyes and
its head was rounded and
nature and lure in prey,
had, one might say, a face.
for example. There was amouth under the eyes,
Some man-eating traps emit caustic the lipless brimof which quivered and panted
acids that kill and digest their prey, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved
some have blood-sucking thorns or and pulsated convulsively. It further displayed
several lank tentacular appendages, a V-shaped
tendrils. Some have vines or leaves or
mouth, and a fungoid, oily brown skin.
petals which snare or crush their prey Martians have a large eardrum on the
and some have roots or branches that back of the head, but only can hear
352 Adversaries
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certain sounds and tones. Their Vision (a Martian can remove b imposed
nearvestigial sense of hearing does not on checks from darkness).
allow for complex communications, and it Equipment: Heat Ray (Ranged [Light];
is thought that they communicate Damage 7; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Burn
telepathically. 2, Vicious 1).
Martians are one of the two
intelligent, dominant races indigenous to MI-GO (RIVAL)
Mars. The other race, the aihais, are They were pinkish things about five feet long;
generally a peaceful race content with with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of
culture and trade. The two races coexist dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets
in an uneasy truce and have very little of articulate limbs, and with a sort of
convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of
to do with each other. very short antennae, where a head would
The Martians are vampiric in nature, ordinarily be... Sometimes they walked on all
extracting blood from their victims via their legs and sometimes on the hindmost pair
long glass pipettes and taking it only.
directly into their own systems for The fungi from Yuggoth are an
nourishment. They are not feeble beings, interstellar race, with a main colony or
despite their discomfort in the Earth’s base on Yuggoth (Pluto). There are mining
heavier gravity – they are able to move colonies in the mountains of Earth, where
unaided, despite their increased weight, the mi-go seek rare ores. The Yuggothans
and humans grasped by Martian tentacles have definite connections with fungi, and
are rarely able to struggle free. Though are clearly not animal. They communicate
the Martians employ mechanical aids when with each other by changing the colors
once established on a new planet, of their brain-like heads, but they can
probably they adapted devices used speak human tongues in buzzing, insect-
routinely on their home world, not like voices. They chiefly worship
machines specially built for invasion. Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath. Some
Martians are prone to using heat ray reverence is given to the fertility
pistols, which shoot beam that shows only trinity of Shub-Niggurath, Ubbo-Sathla,
a pale light when fired in darkness, and and Abhoth. Some worship Rhan-Tegoth
is invisible in daylight, marked only by and are known to worship others, as well.
the flames that spring up where it They hire human agents to simplify their
strikes. operations, and are sometimes connected
to cults. Lovecraft somewhere credits
them with being the source of the
abominable snowman stories long told in
the Himalayas.
They are unable to eat terrene food,
Silhouette: 2. and must import theirs from other worlds.
Skills: Cool 1, Knowledge 2, Leadership 1, They are able to fly through the
Medicine 1, Ranged [Light] 2, Resilience 1. interstellar aether on their great wings,
Talents: Dodge 2 (suffer 2 strain to but maneuver clumsily in an atmosphere.
upgrade the difficulty of all incoming Ordinary photographic plates will not
attacks twice). take an image of these beings, though a
Sanity Damage: 0/1. good chemist could devise an emulsion
Abilities: Immunities (Martians suffer that would work. After death, a mi-go
half damage, rounded down, from all non- dissolves in a few hours.
magical physical attacks), Low Light The mi-go occasionally pass into
Adversaries 353
Earth’s Dreamlands, but more frequently rulebook)), Snatch (a favotire mi-go tactic
journey into their own alien dreamworld. is to swoop down upon an unsuspecting
There is some speculation as to target of Silhouette 1 or smaller, grab
Yuggothan society. Some think that mi-go him in its pinchers and then fly into the
are colonial, like ants. They theorize sky with its prisoner. An opponent who
that the mi-go are but one race of fungi has not yet acted in this turn is caught
from Yuggoth, and that other, more off-guard and cannot resist this
specialized forms of fungi attack. Anyone else is allowed an
exist, including “thinkers” Average (dd) Coordination
(small, frail, but check to break free,
extremely though this requires an
intelligent mi-go) Action). The mi-go
and “greater mi- either carries a
go” (used as brute snatched foe up to a
force and laborers). It great height and drops him, or
is also theorized that else continues upwards, its
there may be a fungi speed ever-increasing as it
colony “queen” in the leaves the atmosphere
form of some behind and its abductee's
gigantic fungal lungs burst), Terrifying (upon
growth deep first seeing a fungi
beneath Yuggoth. from Yuggoth, a
These are all pure character must make a
speculations. Average (cd) Fear check
The fungi have an array of with the difficulty
advanced and alien devices. upgraded once, to reflect
The following are but an the alien nature and
example, and they also have frightening reputation of
earthquake mining machines, the creature).
mist projector weapons, Equipment: Electric Ray (Ranged [Light];
etc. Damage 5; Critical 6; Range [Short]; Stun
Damage), Nipper (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical
4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Snatch,
Vicious 1).
Silhouette: 1. MOON-BEAST (NEMESIS)

Great greyish-white slippery things which
Skills: Brawl 1, Discipline 2, Ranged could expand and contract at will, and whose
[Light] 1, Stealth 2, Vigilance 2. principle shape – though it often changed – was
Talents: Defensive 1 (increase the Defense that of a sort of toad without any eyes, but with
rating of the fungi from Yuggoth by 1). a curious vibrating mass of short pink tentacles
Sanity Damage: 0/1. on the end of its blunt, vague snout.
Abilities: Cold Immunity (the fungi from The moon-beasts are an alien race
Yuggoth suffers no damage or ill-effects encountered primarily in the Dreamlands.
from any type of cold), Darkvision (the They have a great colony on the moon of
mi-go can remove all b to imposed on the Dreamlands, and some say that they
checks from darkness), Flyer (a mi-go can may have a presence on themoon of the
fly (see page 100 of the GENESYS core waking world as well. They traverse space
– and possibly dimensions and even time –
354 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
on their dark flying galley b to imposed on checks from darkness),

ships. These terrible black Immunities (the moon-beast is immune to
sailing ships look like damage and adverse effects of cold,
Earthly masted ships, electricity and all types of poison),
but they slip through Terrifying (upon first seeing a
the sky and maneuver moon-beast, a character must make
on long paddles. The a Hard (cdd) Fear check with
moon-beasts row the difficulty upgraded once,
their ships hidden to reflect the alien nature
beneath deck, while and frightening reputation
their oddmen from of the creature), Will Drain
Leng slaves work (the Moon-Beast may spend
topside. They serve aaa or x on a
Nyarlathotep for his successful tentacle attack
favor, and enslave to drain the Willpower
other races. If sadism from its target. The
can be said to have recipient target is allowed
any meaning for a a Hard (ddd) Discipline
race so alien, it can check to resist the effect. A
be said that these failed check results in the
beings are monstrously target's Willpower being lowered
cruel, frequently torturing by 1 point, and this heals the
members of other races moon-beast for 5 wounds. If
that fall into their it drains a target to 0 in
paws. Willpower the moon-beast
heals all of its wounds. Lost Willpower
can be restored by attempting an Average
(dd) Resilience check once a week to
restore one point).
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 7;
Silhouette: 2.
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 1,
Skills: Brawl 3, Discipline 4, Resilience 4,
Will Drain).
Vigilance 3.
difficulty of all combat checks against MUMMY (RIVAL)
the moon-beast three times), Durable 3 How talented was death. How many expressions
and manipulations of hand, face, body, no two
(reduce the result of all Critical alike. They stood like the naked pipes of a vast
Injuries against the moon-beast by 30, to derelict calliope, their mouths cut into frantic
minimum of 1), Enduring 2 (increase the vents. And now the great hand of mania descended
Soak rating of the moon-beast by 2). upon one hundred-throated, unending scream.
Sanity Damage: 0/2. These undead beings are similar to
Abilities: Ballistic Resistance (the intelligent zombies. Some cults keep
peculiar body substance and arrangement mummies in their temples as guardians.
causes them to take minimum possible Like zombies, mummies must be hacked
damage from successful firearms attacks apart be a they cease action. Contrary to
(only base damage, and ignoring any s popular belief, many mummies lack
added to the damage on the attack), bandage wrappings and can move
Darkvision (the moon-beast can remove all relatively swiftly. Some mummies are
created by prolonged exposure to extreme
Adversaries 355
arid conditions. oversized mouth with two forked tongues.

Because of the bitumen and bandages Nagaae are the repellent, amphibious,
frequently used to preserve them, or the toad-like servants of Cyaegha. Their skin
dry, desiccated state of their flesh, fire is a slimy, rubbery,
is particularly effective against translucent hide pockmarked
mummies: damage is normal, but the flames with stiff warts, thick
are more difficult to extinguish hairs, and puckered scars. In
because of the bitumen in the addition to their hideous
wrappings or the dry flesh. As looks, the nagaae stink of
such, increase the difficulty rot and swamp gas. These
of any attempts to extinguish loathsome things
flames on a mummy once. can be found all
over the world,
usually in swamps,
bogs, or underground
but also in any
desolate area shunned by
sane men. They are even
Silhouette: 1. sometimes found in
Skills: Brawl 2, Resilience 2, Stealth 2, watery tunnels in
Vigilance 1. canals or sewers.
Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the The nagaae are
difficulty of all combat checks some of the most
against the mummy once). insidiously evil
Sanity Damage: 1/2. creatures in the
Abilities: Darkvision (a mummy Mythos. Having
can remove up to bb to been spawned
imposed on checks from from Cyaegha,
darkness), Disease (if the mummy spends they share their lord’s desires for
aa or x on it's combat check, it hatred, murder, and suffering. They live
inflicts a terribly rotting disease on its to serve their master, and to plague
victim. The victim adds a cumulative f mankind with misery and death. The
and t on all skill checks made, and adds nagaae kill any living animal they can
another f and t with each passing day. get their claws on, just for the pleasure
This disease can only be treated by of it unless ordered not to by a higher
magical means). power. Needless to say, contacting these
Equipment: Fist (Brawl; Damage 8; Critical foul beasts is hazardous.
4; Range [Engaged]; Disease).
NAGAAE (RIVAL)
The toad-like body was transparent, the
pulsating innards covered only by a thin layer
of leathery skin. It had the hind legs of a frog, Silhouette: 1.
and the forelegs of a man. It moved crab-like, Skills: Brawl 1, Magic 1, Resilience 3.
crawling on its lumpy belly and pushing with the Talents: Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to
force of its hind legs, giving itself direction by upgrade the difficulty of all incoming
muscular movements of its belly. The forelegs
attacks once).
were raised mantis-like as in prayer, all four of
them. The face, if such it could be called, Sanity Damage: 1/2.
consisted mainly of bulging eyes and an Abilities: Darkvision (nagaae can remove
356 Adversaries
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up to bb imposed on checks from

darkness), Poison (by spending aa on
its claw combat check, the nagaae uses its
poison. Anyone thus affected must make
an Average (dd) Resilience check or
suffer 5 points of unsoakable Strain Silhouette: 1.
damage). Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Stealth 1.
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 6; Talents: None.
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1), Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Bite (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range Abilities: Clutch (a nightgaunt's chief
[Engaged]; Poison). attack is to swoop down upon a target,
seize him in its clutches, and fly away
with him. This attack deals no damage,
NIGHTGAUNT (RIVAL) but still requires a successful Brawl
Shocking and uncouth black things with smooth,
oily, whale-like surfaces, unpleasant horns that
attack, and the opponent is considered to
curved inward toward each other, bat wings whose be pinned. Can only be performed on
beating made no sound, ugly prehensile paws, and opponents of Silhouette 1 or smaller),
barbed tails that lashed needlessly and Darkvision (a nightgaunt can remove up
disquietingly. And worst of all, they never spoke to bb imposed on checks from darkness),
or laughed, and never smiled because they had no
faces at all to smile with, but only a
Flyer (the nightgaunt can
suggestive blankness where a face fly (see page 100 of
ought to be. All they ever did the GENESYS core
was clutch and fly and rulebook)),
tickle; that was the way of Immunities (the
nightgaunts.
nightgaunt is
Nightgaunts are
immune to damage
Dreamlands creatures that
and adverse effects
serve Nodens
of acid, cold,
by, among other
electricity and
things, grasping
fire), Terrifying
and carrying off intruders,
(anyone within
who are unceremoniously
Short or Engaged
dumped in the most
range of a
dismal and horrible
nightgaunt make an
places imaginable, and
Average (dd) Fear
left to die.
check, to reflect
Nightgaunts are
the alien nature and
stationed at various
frightening reputation of
spots in the lonely parts of
the creature. Anyone succeeding on the
the Dreamlands, and come out at night. In
check must make another roll in the next
primeval times they dwelled in the
round if within range, and so forth until
waking world as well, and may still. They
a check has failed), Tickle (once a
are not very intelligent, but can
nightgaunt has its target pinned in
understand some languages (such as the
their clutches, it use their evilly barbed
gibberings of ghouls), and are friendly
tails to unpleasantly caress, stroke,
to some occult races. Nightgaunts attempt
grope, and tickle them. While this sounds
to sneak up quietly on victims, grasp
harmless, in fact it is a subtle form of
their weapons, and overpower them.
torture that deals great distress but no
Adversaries 357
actual damage (and hence can be backward once per turn as an Action, and
continued endlessly). A character who effectively traverse two range bands in
fails a Hard (ddd) Discipline check is a single move. It must move in a straight
Immobilized and rendered helpless, line while jetting), Low Light Vision (the
unable to take any Actions). giant octopus can remove b on skill
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 4; checks imposed from darkness), Poison (if
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 1). the giant octopus spends aa on its bite
combat check, it can inject its poison into
OCTOPUS, GIANT (RIVAL) the bitten victim. The creature must make
Octopi can fish for prey while deciding what an Hard (ddd) Resilience check once a
color and pattern to turn, what shape to make turn for 6 turns. A failed check results
their bodies, be on alert for predators and aware in an automatic ff on all skill checks.
how far away their dens are.
If the creature succeeds at two
The Giant Pacific Octopus looks just
consecutive Resilience checks, the poison
like its smaller cousins, although it can
has been purged from his system).
grow to a length of 10-16 feet and weigh
up to 600 pounds.
4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Poison),
The giant octopus is a true monster
Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 4;
capable of catching and eating sharks,
Range [Short]; Ensnare 1, Linked 2).
humans, or anything else it can grab with
its tentacles.
PIRANHA SWARM (MINION)
It's like watching a nature documentary about
piranha in which all the deadly fish do is write
each other love notes: Eventually, we want to see
them bare their teeth and shred an ox.
Shoals of piranhas are voracious
Silhouette: 2. feeders, capable of
Skills: Athletics 2, stripping the flesh
Brawl 1, from the bones of
Coordination 2, large animals with
Perception 1, Stealth astonishing speed.
2. These fish have
Talents: Defensive 1 garnered a well-
(increase the Defense earned reputation
rating of the giant in regions where
octopus by 1). they thrive, but
Sanity Damage: 0/0. while they are
Abilities: Ink Cloud native to tropical
(the giant octopus rivers, many species
can emit a sphere of of piranha are
ink that spreads to incredibly hearty.
Short range once Collectors of exotic
per minute as an pets sometimes ship
Incidental. The ink tanks of these
provides concealment carnivorous fish home,
in water, adding bb and some unscrupulous
to all skill checks relying owners even put the fish to
on vision, and persists for 1 work disposing of unwanted bodies.
minute), Jet (a giant octopus can jet
358 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
When the authorities draw near, panicked rather than 6 points of damage), Low
criminals sometimes dump the fish into Light Vision (the piranha swarm can
nearby rivers, inadvertently unleashing remove up to b on skill checks imposed
schools in waters woefully unprepared by darkness), Swarm (a piranha swarm
for their ravenous introduction! takes half damage (rounded down) from
all weapons. Causing the swarm to exceed
its Wound Threshold breaks up the swarm.
Piranha swarms are never Staggered and
is immune to any spell and effect that
targets a specific number of creatures
Silhouette: 0. (including single target spells).
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 2, Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical
Perception 1, Stealth 2. 4; Range [Engaged]; Bleed, Distraction).
Talents: Defensive 1 (increase the Defense
rating of the piranha swarm by 1).
Sanity Damage: 0/0. RAT PEOPLE (MINION)
For on every side of the chamber the walls
Abilities: Bleed (the bites of a were alive with nauseous sound – the
piranha swarm causes wounds verminous slithering of ravenous,
that continue to bleed, gigantic rats.
dealing additional The rat people are
damage each turn at small, hairy humanoids.
the start of the They have matted
affected creature’s gray fur, rotted
turn. In order to teeth, and high-
activate the bleed, the pitched twittering
piranha swarm needs voices. They are large
to spend aa on its man-rat hybrids that
combat check. This sometimes walk
bleeding can be upright like a man
stopped with a and sometimes on
successful Average all fours like a
(dd) Medicine check rat.
or through the The rat folk were
application of any once human, but because
magical healing. Bleed of foul practices and
damage is 6 inbreeding they have
additional points of degenerated to near-
damage each turn), animal state. They
Distracction (by dwell in dank burrows
spending aa on a and warrens beneath old
combat check, the piranha swarm can buildings and in sewers. They are often
cause a bitten target to become found in the company of ghouls.
nauseated until the end of his next turn.
A nauseated creature suffers an
automatic f and t on all skill checks),
Feeding Frenzy (against a foe taking
bleed damage, a piranha swarm deals 9
Silhouette: 0.
points of damage with its bite attack
Skills (Group Only): Brawl 1, Resilience 1,
Adversaries 359
Stealth 1. movements but never tire or give up

Talents: None. unless destroyed or ordered by their
Sanity Damage: 0/1. creator to stop. They cannot speak and
Abilities: Darkvision (the rat people can have additional and obvious limitations
remove up to bb imposed on checks from (a scarecrow could not drive a vehicle,
darkness), Disease (anyone bitten by rat use any sort of mechanical devices or
people must make an Average (dd) firearms, utilize any Intellect-based
Resilience check or suffer a disease that skills, etc.). They can use simple hand-to-
either causes 4 points of unsoakable hand weapons such as sickles, pitchforks,
Strain damage each day or impose a b on hatchets, and scythes.
all Brawn and Agility checks, at the GM's
discretion. Either disease persists until
cured, which require an Average (dd)
Medicine check. Without medical care, the
investigator can attempt a Hard (ddd)
Silhouette: 1.
Resilience check once a week).
Skills (Group Only): Brawl 1, Stealth 1.
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 4;
Talents: None.
Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1),
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range
Abilities: Immunities (a scarecrow takes
[Engaged]; Disease).
half damage, rounded down, from all
sources, except for fire. Fire deals
SCARECROW (MINION) an automatic ss on the combat
A grimy ghost hovered check against a
above a smiling scarecrow that
looked puny next to an oversized scarecrow).
bat being watched by a wicked witch Equipment: Slam (Brawl;
who was entangled in the web of an Damage 5; Critical 4;
even larger spider that was in danger of Range [Engaged]), or by
being eaten by a bug-eyed owl that weapon type.
peeped out of the faux foliage, much more
nostalgic than scary.
Scarecrows resemble golems in SERPENT PEOPLE
that they are usually created and (RIVAL)
animated by a sorcerer to use as a They walked lithely and
guardian, killer, or servant. The sinuously erect on
actual creation and animation of premammalian members,
a scarecrow is much easier and their pied and hairless
bodies bending with great
faster than that of a suppleness. There was a loud
golem. The scarecrow hissing of formulae as they went to
is first constructed and fro.
of wood, straw, old They resemble upright
clothes, and a headmade serpents, with ophidian
out of a jack o’lantern or a heads and scales, but with two
stitched-up sack. arms and legs. They possess
Animated scarecrows may follow tails and in their great days
only simple commands such as often dressed in robes.
“attack anyone who enters this Yig is the greatest god
field” or “protect this book”, etc. of the serpent people, for he
They are capable of slow but steady is the father of all snakes.
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Some blasphemers chose instead to pray especially venerable serpent folk dwell
to Tsathoggua in ancient times, but they in the weird realms of the Dreamlands
were destroyed by a vengeful god where they carry out bizarre experiments
millions of years ago. and sorcery. Pockets of dwarfed
The serpent people’s first kingdom, degenerate serpent folk also still
Valusia, flourished before even survive. These diminutions are likely to
dinosaurs walked the Earth, some two include an occasional atavistic, fully
hundred and capable serpent
seventy-five person who is still
million years ago. favored by Yig.
They built black Degenerate serpent
basalt cities and people are likely
fought wars, all in to have
the Permian era or characteristics
before. They were lessened by as much
then great as a third. In
sorcerers and addition there are
scientists, and certain
devoted much hibernating serpent
energy to calling people – the
forth dreadful sleepers – who have
demons and brewing rested for
potent poisons. With thousands of years
the coming of the or more. On occasion
dinosaurs two these serpent
hundred and people wake, to
twenty-five million humanity’s regret.
years ago, the first This third class of
kingdom fell, and serpent people is
serpent people typically more
retreated in intelligent and
strongholds far powerful than
underground, the their lurking
greatest of which was Yoth. In these brothers, and often know great sorcery.
times the serpent people became great The serpent folk feed as do other
scientists as well, able to manipulate serpents, by swallowing their prey whole.
life itself. A serpent man may swallow up to its own
In human pre-history the serpent Silhouette in victims. Once fed, a serpent
people raised their second kingdom at man falls into a deep slumber for one
the center of the Thurian continent. It day per Silhouette of victim consumed.
fell even more rapidly then the first Serpent folk need eat only once every
Valusia, overthrown this time by humans, few months.
who later claimed the land as their own.
Again and again the serpent people
retreated before the human hordes until
their last citadel of Yanyoga was
destroyed in 10,000 B.C.
A few lurking sorcerers survive. Some Silhouette: 1.
Adversaries 361
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Charm 1,

Coordination 2, Magic 2, Perception 1,
Resilience 2, Survival 1, Vigilance 1.
Talents: Enduring 1 (increase the Soak
rating of the serpent people by 1).
Sanity Damage: 0/1. Silhouette: 1.
Abilities: Darkvision (the serpent people Skills: Brawl 1, Stealth 1.
can remove up to bb imposed on checks Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
from darkness), Poison (by spending aa difficulty of all combat checks against
on its bite combat check, the serpent the servant of Glaaki once).
people injects poison with its bite. Sanity Damage: 1/2.
Anyone thus bitten suffers 4 points of Abilities: Low Light Vision (a servant of
unsoakable Strain damage from the Glaaki can remove up to b imposed on
poison). checks from darkness).
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical Equipment: By weapon type.
4; Range [Engaged]; Poison), or by weapon
type. SERVITOR OF THE OUTER GODS
(RIVAL)
SERVANT OF GLAAKI (RIVAL) Toad-like creatures which seemed constantly to
A hand came scrabbling up out to lever it up!... be changing shape and appearance, and from whom
The hand of a corpse—bloodless and skeletal, and emanated, by some means I could not distinguish,
with impossibly long, cracked nails. a ghastly ululation, a piping.
Glaaki’s slaves are undead things These amorphous beings progress by
created by his spines. They share Glaaki’s rolling or slithering. They resemble
memories and become almost a part of the frogs, as well as squids or octopi. Their
Great Old One, though they can still ever-changing shapes are hard to
perform many individual actions. At first describe specifically.
they look human enough, if stiff and Servitors accompany their masters as
corpse-like, but in time they wither and required, though they are most commonly
look like the undead monsters they are. found in Azathoth’s court. These are the
Unusually clever servants may use demon flautists and drummers that play
makeup to hide their true, rotting the outré music for their masters to
appearance, and some may even go as far dance by. They sometimes play for groups
as to sleep in tubs of formaldehyde to of cultists as well, as a sort of
stall their inevitable decay. background dirge, or in order to summon
THE GREEN DECAY: after six decades or various deities.
so of half-death, the servants of Glaaki
become subject to the Green Decay if
exposed to intense light, such as
daylight. The Green Decay begins to rot
on the spot, inflicting 7 points of damage
to a servant immediately. The decay is Silhouette: 2.
rapid and irreversible, with the creature Skills: Brawl 1, Charm 2, Coercion 1,
suffering 6 additional points of damage Leadership 1, Magic 2, Negotiation 1,
each hour thereafter. Glaaki servants Vigilance 1.
exposed to the killing light are Talents: Durable 1 (reduce the result of
completely destroyed by the Green Decay all Critical Injuries against the servitor
in a few hours. of the Outer Gods by 10, to a minimum of
1).
362 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Sanity Damage: 1/2. but he felt like he was

Abilities: Awful being observed.
Fluting (once per turn, A shade is always
as an incidental, a enveloped in a cloud
servitor of the Outer of darkness, so its
Gods can release an form is never seen.
awful cacophony of Generally, the
flute-like tones. This outward form of
cacophony is so loud it darkness is roughly
deals 3 points of spherical. When light
unsoakable Strain bright enough to
damage to all living penetrate the
creatures within Short darkness is applied,
range), Flyer (a the shade itself is
servitor of the Outer evaporated. Perhaps
Gods can fly (see page shades are simply
100 of the GENESYS beings of living
core rulebook)), darkness and have no
Immunities (the true forms at all.
servitor of the Outer Shades cannot fly,
Gods is immune to but can move over any
damage from all non- liquid or solid
magical attacks), surface. In addition,
Regeneration (the they can move up
servitor of the Outer sheer walls, or even
Gods restores 2 wounds along ceilings.
at the beginning of Shades take no
each of its turn), damage from ordinary
Summoning (they use their outre flutes to weapons, only magic and light sources.
summon other gods or monsters of the Simple exposure to light does not
Cthulhu Mythos. The servitor of the normally harm a shade, and they can even
Outer Gods must make a Charm check travel in full sunlight. However, if they
against the summoned creature's Cool are actually struck by a candle or torch,
check to determine success or failure. A they suffer damage.
summon attempt requires an Action to
perform. On a success, the summoned
creature will arrive at the beginning of
the following turn, and will remain
summed for 1 turn per uncanceled a on Silhouette: 1.
the Charm check, with a minimum of 1 Skills: Brawl 1, Stealth 3.
turn). Talents: None.
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 7; Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Linked 1). Abilities: Darkvision (the shade removes
all b imposed on checks from darkness),
SHADE (RIVAL) Immunities (a shade takes no damage from
It was as if something was there in the ordinary weapons, only light and magic
darkness, lurking, waiting, watching. He could not
can harm it).
discern anything within the pitch black shadows,
Equipment: Tendril of Darkness (Brawl;
Adversaries 363
Damage 6; Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; the shantak by 20, to a minimum of 1),

Breach 1). Enduring 2 (increase the Soak rating of
the shantak by 2).
SHANTAK (NEMESIS) Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Not any birds or bats known elsewhere on Abilities: Cold Immunity (the shantak is
earth... for they were larger than elephants and immune to damage and adverse effects
had heads like a horse’s... The Shantak-bird has from cold), Darkvision (shantak can
scales instead of feathers and those scales are remove all b imposed on checks from
very slippery.
darkness), Disease Immunity (a shantak is
Shantaks brood in cavernous holes and
immune to all manners of diseases), Flyer
their wings are encrusted with rime and
(the shantak can fly (see page 100 of the
nitre. They are always described as
GENESYS core rulebook)), Slippery Scales
noisome and loathly, and are used as
steeds by various of the servants of the (a shantak adds bb to all Coordination
Outer Gods. They have an extreme fear of checks), Starflight Travel (shantak can
nightgaunts and always retreat from survive in the void of outer space. It
them. Shantaks can fly through flies through space at an
space, and have been known to incredible speed.
carry an unwary rider Although exact
straight to the throne travel times
of Azathoth. vary, a trip
Shantaks are within a
sometimes single solar
linked with the system should
fishers from take 3-60 hours,
outside – a similar while a trip
race of flying beyond should take
creatures. 3-60 days (or more, at
Shantaks dwell the GM's discretion) –
in both the provided the
waking world shantak knows the
and the way to its
Dreamlands. destination).
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 10;
Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 2,
Vicious 2).
SHARK (MINION)
Silhouette: 3. The shark is the apex predator in the sea.
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Coordination Sharks have molded evolution for 450 million
2, Discipline 1, Perception 3, Vigilance 2. years. All fish species that are prey to the
sharks have had their behavior, their speed,
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the their camouflage, their defense mechanisms
difficulty of all combat checks against molded by the shark.
the shantak twice), Deadeye (when the These creatures first appeared more
shantak inflicts a Critical Injury it may than 350 million years ago, making them
suffer 2 Strain to use this talent, and be an extremely successful species. The word
allowed to select any Critical Injury of dates from the 1500’s, possibly related to
the same severity), Durable 2 (reduce the the Mayan xoc.
result of all Critical Injuries against The shark is a relentless eating
364 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
machine, a creature evolved over the sharks scavenge the seas, eating anything
course of eons to do one job perfectly – that they find. They are notorious for
hunting. Sharks have achieved a special their attacks on humans, and have been
place in the lore of most seafaring races, known to attack small boats. Great white
who view them as devils, monsters, and sharks most often swim alone, and are
the wrath of the gods. extremely territorial, feeding in one
BULL SHARK: Bull sharks have rounded area until its food supply diminishes and
snouts, grayish skin, and small eyes. They it is forced to move on.
reach around 10 feet in length and weigh HAMMERHEAD SHARK: These sharks are
up to 400 pounds. Bull sharks are very known for their very distinctive hammer-
common, found world-wide, and are shaped heads. They are smaller and
capable of swimming up into fresh water sleeker than bull or great white sharks,
rivers. They can be aggressive and are with smaller mouths. Regardless,
known man-eaters. Some experts claim hammerheads have been known to attack
that bull sharks are the most dangerous humans, although there have been no
shark species of all. reported deaths from hammerhead
GREAT WHITE SHARK: Great white sharks attacks.
are light gray with white bellies, have TIGER SHARK: Long, sleek, and blunt-
black eyes, pointed snouts, and enormous snouted, the tiger shark gets it name
jaws filled with row-upon-row of from the distinctive stripes along its
triangular, serrated teeth as large as sides. In size, the tiger shark is
shot glasses. The largest, deadliest, somewhere between bull sharks and great
andmost infamous of the man-eater whites. Tiger sharks have a reputation
sharks, the great white is found on both for being man-eaters, although are known
coasts of the United States, and in almost to eat just about anything they can find.
all tropical and subtropical seas. It
ismost well known, however, in
Australian
and South
African
waters. Silhouette: 2.
Great white Skills (Group Only):
sharks can reach Athletics 2, Perception 1.
lengths of over 30 Talents: None.
feet in length and Sanity Damage: 0/0.
weigh up to 4,000 Abilities: Amphibious (a
wounds. Fossil shark can breathe
remains indicate underwater, and
that specimens as never suffers movement
large as 90 feet penalties for moving
long swam in through water), Blindsense
prehistoric oceans. (using acute smell, a shark notices
When the great white attacks, it clamps creatures it cannot see. The shark
onto its prey with its steel trap-like usually does not need to make Perception
jaws and then shakes it vigorously back checks to pinpoint the location of a
and forth. The tiniest amount of blood in creature within Short range, provided
the water can provoke sharks into a that it has line of effect to that
savage feeding frenzy. Great white creature. Any opponent the shark cannot
Adversaries 365
see still has total concealment against

it. Visibility still affects the movement
of a shark), Keen Scent (a shark can notice
creatures by scent in a radius of Extreme
range underwater and can detect blood in
the water at ranges of up to a mile). Silhouette: 2.
Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical Skills: Brawl 3, Cool 3, Coordination 2,
4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Vicious 1). Perception 5, Resilience 3, Vigilance 5.
difficulty of all combat checks against
SHOGGOTH (NEMESIS) the shoggoth twice), Durable 5 (reduce the
The nightmare, plastic column of fetid, black
iridescence oozed tightly onward... A shapeless result of any Critical Injury against the
congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self- shoggoth by -50, to a minimum of 1),
luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes Ricochet (spend y from opponent's combat
forming and unforming as pustules of greenish check to have the attack ricochet back to
light all over the tunnel-filling front that
bore down upon us, crushing the frantic
the attacker and resolve the
penguins and slithering over the glistening attack normally).
floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly Sanity Damage: 1/3.
free of all litter. Still came that Abilities: Amphibious (a
eldritchmocking cry – “Tekeli-li! shoggoth can breathe both
Tekeli-li!”
underwater and on land,
Shoggoths are
and never suffers movement
among the most
penalties for moving through
horrible of all the
water), Crush (a shoggoth may
monsters of
spend aaa or
Lovecraft. Abdul
Alhazred himself x from its
attempted attack to crush
desperately to its target. A
claim that crushed target is
there were ensnared and
none on Earth suffers 7 points
itself, save in of damage each
crazed dreams. turn without
Shoggoths are requiring an
often found as attack. It is
servants of possible to escape
deep ones and the Shoggoth's
other races, crush by
and are amphibious. They are attempting an
surly servants at best, ever becoming opposed Brawn check or
more and more intelligent, more and more a Daunting (dddd) Coordination check),
rebellious, more and more imitative. They Damage Immunity (a shoggoth is immune to
fought their former creators, the elder weapons that deal bludgeoning damage,
things, in a rebellion. They communicate and damage from firearms deal base
in whatever manner their master race weapon damage an no additional damage
wishes, forming special organs for the from s on the combat check), Darkvision
purpose. (the serpent people can remove all b
imposed on checks from darkness),
366 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Immunities (a shoggoth is fully immune to and lungs protruding from his or her
damage and adverse effects from cold, mouth, as though the body had been
electricity, fire and all poisons), turned inside out.
Regeneration (a shoggoth recovers 1
wound at the start of each of its turns),
Terrifying (upon first seeing a shoggoth,
a character must make a Daunting
(ccdd) Fear check with the
difficulty upgraded twice, to reflect the Silhouette: 2.
alien nature and frightening reputation Skills: Brawl 2, Stealth 2, Vigilance 1.
of the creature). Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 8; difficulty of all combat checks against
Critical 5; Range [Short]; Knockdown, the shugoran twice), Enduring 2 (increase
Linked 1, Vicious 3), Bite (Brawl; Damage the Soak rating of the shugoran by 2).
10, Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 2, Sanity Damage: 1/3.
Vicious 2). Abilities: Regeneration (shugoran
recovers 1 wound at the beginning of
each of its turns), Steal Lungs (by
SHUGORAN (NEMESIS) spending aaa or x on its proboscis
A kind of bogey-man... its wings were black
peering through the window at her. What she attack, shugoran sucks the lungs out of
described as a large Negro man wearing a gas the victim, instantly killing the victim).
mask or scuba outfit... near the window they've Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical
discovered footprints that 3; Range [Engaged];
may have been made by a
Vicious 2), Proboscis
heavy man in swim fins.
Shugoran is a (Brawl; Damage 6;
demon or a bogey-man Critical 4; Range
known in parts of Asia [Engaged]; Inaccurate 1,
and Africa. It is a Pierce 2, Steal Lungs).
creature all black,
with rough catfish-like SKELETON
hide, tiny wing-like (MINION)
fins, webbed feet, and I clearly saw the
a long proboscis. skeleton underneath all
Certain tribes of Tcho- this show of personality
what is left of a man and all
Tcho worship
his pride but bones?
Shugoran as Death's Animated skeletons
Herald – a messenger are encountered in a
or harbringer of doom. few medieval legends,
It attacks by and rather more
attaching its black frequently in modern
proboscis to a victim's stories and especially
mouth and nose, then in modern films.
sucking their lungs Dried bones are
out, causing instant fairly brittle, and
death. A victim of snap and splinter
this attack is left easily from a heavy
with horrible purple blow, but no area of a
bruises on the face skeleton is more vulnerable
Adversaries 367
than any other. the sinuous creatures are held in fear by

Animated skeletons traditionally use many societies who often ascribe fiendish
weapons rather than striking blows qualities to them.
directly, perhaps because they shatter so The constrictor snake presented here is
easily. a relatively small one. It is possible to
No good explanation exists for the find much stronger and larger
continued mobility of the bones once constrictor snakes.
muscles, tendons, and ligaments have
rotted away.
Silhouette: 1.
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 2,
Silhouette: 1. Perception 2, Stealth 2.
Skills (Group Only): Melee Talents: None.
1. Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Talents: Enduring 1 Abilities: Constrict
(increase the Soak (any creature that is
rating of the skeleton Ensnared by the
by 1). constrictor snake
Sanity Damage: 0/1. takes an automatic 5
Abilities: Immunities points of crshing
(an animated skeleton damage per turn, in
is immune to Critical addition to any bite
Injuries). damage it may
Equipment: By weapon inflict), Dark Vision
type. (the constrictor snake
can remove up to bb
SNAKE, on skill checks
imposed from
CONSTRICTOR darkness).
(MINION) Equipment: Bite
I am surprised you (Brawl; Damage 5;
didn’t whack your head on Critical 4; Range
an overhanging branch back
there. I have never seen [Engaged]; Ensnare 2).
anyone leap straight up off the
ground the way you did when you saw that snake!
It would make a good move for our next dance. Do
SNAKE, VENOMOUS (MINION)
A dozen cobras moved as one, shattering their
you think you could teach the others? The snake
bottles. Wine and glass sprayed the room. The
jump?
snakes sprang for Jean's attacker with fangs
Be they jungle-dwelling pythons or unfolded. He screamed high and sharp as they
swampdwelling boas like the anaconda, uncoiled, long slick bodies whipping through the
constrictor snakes are among the most air. She wasn't sure if their venom could survive
deadly predatory animals of the tropical death and pickling, but it didn't seem to matter.
After several bites, he curled on the floor,
wilds. Fortunately, these large snakes weeping and trying to bat the snakes away.
are relatively passive, save for when Countless species of poisonous snakes
they are preparing to shed their skins or dwell in the wild, their bites capable of
are particularly hungry. Nevertheless, bringing down creatures much larger
368 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
than themselves. Snakes of the size physical tasks such as attacking.

presented here are thankfully rarer The arrival of one or more space eaters
than their smaller kin, but many species in a given area causes a slight drop in
of rattlesnake, cobra, and similar temperature, followed by a pervasion of
reptiles can grow to this size. fog and mist. The air becomes cold and
Venomous snakes are generally far wet and clammy, and the space eaters
more aggressive than constrictor snakes, hunt prey in the affected area.
and even larger variants do exist. These creatures occasionally reach
Earth, by “eating their way through
space” – apparently some form of natural
Gate-like ability. The process is heralded
by a droning sound given off as the space
eater attempts to break down the walls
Silhouette: 1. of space and time to bring others of its
Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1, kind.
Perception 1, Stealth 1.
Talents: None.
Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Abilities: Low Light Vision (the venomous
snake can remove up to b on skill checks
imposed from darkness), Poison (if the Silhouette: 2.
venomous snake spends aa on its Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Coordination
combat check it can inject its poison into 2, Magic 1, Perception 1, Stealth 3.
the bitten creature. A bitten creature Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
must make an Average (dd) Resilience difficulty of all combat checks against
check once a turn for 6 turns. A failed the space eater once), Defensive 2
check results in 4 points of unsoakable (increase the Defense rating of the space
strain damage. If the creature succeeds eater by 2), Dodge 2 (suffer 2 strain to
at a Resilience check, the poison has been upgrade the difficulty of all combat
purged from his system). checks twice).
4; Range [Engaged]; Poison). Abilities: Darkvision (a space eater can
remove all b imposed on checks from
SPACE EATER (NEMESIS) darkness), Flyer (a space eater can fly
From the ceiling to the floor it towered, and it (see page 100 of the GENESYS core
threw off blinding light... In the center of the rulebook)), Insubstantial (their
room, between the ceiling and the floor, the pages insubstantial bodies can be harmed only
whirled about, and the light burned through the with magic or flame. Cold and most
sheets, and descending in spiraling shafts physical weapons have no effect against
entered the brain of my poor friend. Into his
head, the light was pouring in a continuous the space eaters), Mind Extract (if the
stream, and above, the Master of the light moved space eater spends aaa on its combat
with a slow swaying of its entire bulk. check, it bores a bloodless, painless hole
The space eaters are a monstrous into the skull and begins draining out
interstellar race. They appear as the victim’s brain. The victim has a
shimmering columns of twisting shafts of terrifying sensation of burning cold
light. Though their bodies are within his skull. This drains 1 point of
incorporeal, they are able to create Intellect from its prey, in addition to
temporary limbs in order to perform dealing 1 point of Sanity damage. A
Adversaries 369
victim who escapes before his brain is

completely drained may become violently
delirious. If he survives drained
Intellect is lost forever).
Equipment: Artificial Hand (Brawl;
Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Silhouette: 1.
Mind Extract), Pierce 1. Skills: Brawl 1, Stealth 1.
difficulty of all combat checks against
SPAWN OF ABHOTH (RIVAL) the spawn of Abhoth once), Durable 1
There were things like bodiless legs or arms
that flailed in the slime, or heads that rolled, (reduce all Critical Injuries against the
or floundering bellies with fishes’ fins; and all spawn of Abhoth by 10, to a minimum of 1).
manner of thingsmalformed andmonstrous, that Sanity Damage: 0/1.
grew in size as they departed from the Abilities: Darkvision (the spawn of
neighborhood of Abhoth. And those that swam not
swiftly ashore when they fell into the pool from
Abhoth can remove up to bb imposed on
Abhoth, were devoured by mouths that gaped in checks from darkness), Regeneration (at
the parent bulk. the beginning of its turn, the spawn of
The spawn of Abhoth are the various Abhoth automatically heals 2 wounds).
creatures which the Outer God sloughs Equipment: Tentacle/Bite/Claw (Brawl;
off from its great fertile bulk. Unlike Damage 6; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]).
Shub-Niggurath’s offspring, no two
children of Abhoth are alike, yet unlike SPAWN OF HASTUR (NEMESIS)
the brood of Ubbo-Sathla, the Abhoth- ...Amid the Hyades. We reached at last that
spawn are generally complex life forms. bleak and mythic world. To men forbidden and by
Some appear as unfinished bodies or gods abhorred, Carcosa, where the great Hastur is
singular body parts, while others look Lord.
like prehistoric creatures, monstrous Like their sire, the spawn of Hastur
mutant things, queer humanoids, are never clearly described except to say
amorphous blobs, etc. Some spawn of that they are octopoidal and have
Abhoth fly, some swim, some crawl, some unspeakably hideous faces – one rare
don’tmove at all. Abhoth scoops up and depiction shows them to have almost
reabsorbs some of its children. Those that skull-like faces. Some references
escape their sire’s grasp wander about in erroneously suggest that the spawn of
dank and lightless subterranean lairs or Hastur are identical to those of Cthulhu,
even venture up into the world of men or the star-spawn. Although they may have
into the Dreamlands. certain similarities, the spawn of
Abhoth’s spawn are mostly simple- Cthulhu and Hastur are not identical
minded creatures which act and react on races.
impulse. A few of these creatures tend to The spawn of Hastur are aquatic, or at
the alien needs of their sire, but most least amphibious, as they are only ever
simply wander away. Because every child mentioned as appearing with the
of Abhoth is different, each has a Unspeakable One in the foul and murky
different mode of attack. The GM should lake of Hali. The spawn do have limited
determine the specific form of attack for flight capabilities and may make short
each child he creates. excursions over land.
Like their master, these beings may be
summoned to Earth only when Aldebaran
is above the horizon.
370 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
scaly and colored similarly to that of a

snake, while limbs are shrunken and
dangle uselessly from the body. The face
is partially human, but the eyes are cold
and lidless. Spawn of Yig are rarely seen
Silhouette: 3. above ground, preferring instead to
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Discipline 2, inhabit dark underground places. If a
Magic 2, Stealth 1, Vigilance 1. spawn is killed, its body rapidly
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the decomposes, leaving a sticky black goo
difficulty of all combat checks against covered with swarms of flies.
the spawn of Hastur twice), Durable 2 Spawn of Yig attack by raising their
(reduce all Critical Injuries against the heads high, then striking like normal
spawn of Hastur by 20, to a minimum of 1), snakes. Gregarious eaters, spawn normally
Enduring 2 (increase the Soak rating of strike to consume victims, and can
the spawn of Hastur by 2). swallow a victim of Silhouette 0.
Sanity Damage: 1/3.
Abilities: Amphibious (a spawn of Hastur
can breathe both underwater and on land,
and never suffers movement penalties for
moving through water), Darkvision (the
spawn of Hastur can remove all b Silhouette: 1.
imposed on checks from darkness), Flyer (a Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Perception 1,
spawn of Hastur can fly (see page 100 of Stealth 2.
the GENESYS core rulebook)). Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 10; difficulty of all combat checks against
Critical 4; Range [Short]; Disorient 2, the spawn of Yig twice), Dodge 2 (suffer 2
Knockdown, Ensnare 1). strain to upgrade all incoming combat
checks twice).
SPAWN OF YIG (NEMESIS) Sanity Damage: 2/3.
The moving object was almost of human size, and Abilities: Darkvision (the spawn of Yig
entirely devoid of clothing. It was absolutely can remove up to bb imposed on checks
hairless, and its tawnylooking back seemed from darkness), Poison (anyone bitten by a
subtly squamous in the dim, ghoulish light. spawn of Yig must make a Hard (ddd)
Around the shoulders it was rather speckled and
brownish, and the head was very curiously flat. Resilience check or suffer an automatic
As it looked up to hiss at me I saw that the beady f and t to all skill checks for 24
little black eyes were damnably anthropoid, but hours; this is a cumulative effect,
I could not bear to study them long. They although the duration does not extend).
fastened themselves on me with a horrible
persistence, so that I closed the panel gaspingly
and left the creature to wriggle about unseen in 4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Poison).
its matted straw and spectral twilight.
The spawn of Yig are the offspring of SPAWN OF YOG-SOTHOTH
Yig and a human, or more commonly
between Yig and a serpent hybrid. Spawn
(NEMESIS)
Bigger’n a barn... all made of squirmin’ ropes...
may also be the result of the Curse of hull thing sort o’shaped like a hen’s egg bigger’n
Yig. Such births often produce a large anything, with dozens o’ legs like hogsheads that
egg, and kill the mother. haff shut up when they step... nothin’ solid
Spawn of Yig take on the abaout it – all like jelly, an’ made o’ sep’rit
characteristics of both parents. Skin is wrigglin’ ropes pushed clost together... great
bulgin’ eyes all along the sides, big as
Adversaries 371
stovepipes, an’ all a tossin’ an’ openin’ an’ Durable 2 (reduce the result of all
shuttin’... all grey, with kinder blue or purple Critical Injuries against the spawn of
rings... an’ Gawd in heaven—that haff face on top!
Yog-Sothoth by -20, to a minimum of 1),
The spawn of Yog-Sothoth are formed
Enduring 3 (increase the Soak rating of
when the Outer God mates with a human,
the spawn of Yog-Sothoth by 3).
creating a hybrid creature. Because of
Sanity Damage: 1/4.
the hybrid qualities of these creatures,
Abilities: Bleed (if the spawn of Yog-
no two are exactly alike. Some appear
Sothoth spends aa on its tentacle
horrible and monstrous, while others may
attack, it causes a bleeding wound that
look mostly human, with perhaps but a
causes an automatic unsoakable 2 points
few monstrous traits. All monstrous
of damage each turn. Such a bleeding
spawn of Yog-Sothoth remain invisible
wound can be staunched by
except when feeding.
applying magical healing or
The half-breed spawn of the All-in-One
grow rapidly and require great by a Hard (ddd) Medicine
quantities of fresh, raw flesh check), Darkvision (the spawn of
to feed upon. These creatures Yog-Sothoth can remove
also have an insatiable all b imposed on checks
hunger for knowledge of from darkness),
the Cthulhu Mythos and Immunities (the spawn
greedily obtain and of Yog-Sothoth cannot
study all Mythos be harmed by
tomes they can, physical weapons.
eagerly learning Enchanted weapons
spells and inflict base damage,
researching ways and ignores any
in which their additional s on any
sire may be combat check.
brought into the These creatures
world of men. are susceptible to
The most famous magic), Invisibility
spawn of Yog- (by spending a
Sothoth are the Maneuver, the spawn
unfortunate of Yog-Sothoth can
Wilbur Whateley become invisible
and his monstrous until the end of its
brother. next turn. Any combat
checks directed against it
while invisible are increased in
difficulty twice).
Equipment: Slam (Brawl; Damage 6;
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]), Tentacle
Silhouette: 1. (Brawl; Damage 10; Critical 4; Range
Skills: Brawl 3, Coercion 4, Discipline 4, [Short]; Bleed, Vicious 2).
Knowledge 2, Magic 4, Resilience 3,
Stealth 1, Vigilance 2. SPIDER OF LENG (RIVAL)
Talents: Adversary 3 (upgrade the There were scenes of old wars, wherein Leng’s
difficulty of all combat checks against almost-humans fought with the bloated purple
the spawn of Yog-Sothoth three times), spiders of the neighbouring vales.
372 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
They are huge, purplish spiders, with points. Anyone reduced to 0 or below in
pustulently bloated bodies and long, Brawn are stricken dead. It is possible to
bristly legs. Their color, a pale mottled restore lost Brawn points, provided it is
violet on their abdomens, shades to before reaching Brawn 0. This requires a
indigo on their forebodies, with legs and Hard (ddd) Medicine check per point to
chelae tipped in black. A Dreamlands be recovered, and one check can be
entity, the spiders of Leng are attempted per day), Throw Web (a spider
intelligent, dangerous, and gigantic. New- of Leng can toss its web up to Short
hatched specimens are as big as Shetland distance, using a Ranged [Light] skill
ponies. Some valleys in the Plateau of check. Upon a successful attack, anyone
Leng are almost completely webbed over. caught in the web are Ensnared for 1
Many spiders worship Atlach-Nacha. turn, plus an additional turn for each s
Though intelligent, these spiders do the spider of Leng had on its attack roll.
not cooperate, and sometimes feed on Breaking free of the web requires a Hard
their own kind. The bite of a Leng spider (ddd) Athletics or Coordination check).
injects a deadly poison. Very large Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 10;
spiders are known. Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 3,
Poison), Web (Ranged [Light]; Damage -;
Critical -; Range [Short]; Blast 6, Ensnare
(see above)).
Silhouette: 2. SQUID, GIANT (RIVAL)

Men may sail the seas for a lifetime and seldom,
Skills: Brawl 3, Magic 1, Perception 2, if ever, come in contact with the nightmare
Ranged [Light] 2, Stealth 4, Vigilance 2. monsters that inhabit the caves and cliffs of the
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the ocean floor. Gazing down at the slightly muddy
difficulty of all combat checks against water, the men of The Unicorn saw a squirming
the spider of Leng twice), Enduring 2 mass of interwoven tentacles resembling enormous
snakes, immensely thick and long and tapering at
(increase the Soak rating of the spider of their free ends to the size of a man's
Leng by 2). thumb. It was a foul sight, an
Sanity Damage: 1/2. obscene growth from the dark
Abilities: Darkvision (a spider of places of the world, where
Leng can remove all b imposed incessant hunger is the
driving force. At one place,
on checks from darkness), down near the bulge of
Poison (by spending the hull, appeared a
aa on its bite staring gorgon face
combat check, the with great lidless eyes
spider of Leng can and a huge parrot beak
that moved slightly,
inject its deadly opening and shutting
poison into its as though it had just
prey. anyone bitten crunched and swallowed
by a spider of Leng a meal of warm flesh.
must make a Hard The giant squid is
(ddd) Resilience a legendary
check or have his beast capable of
Brawn feeding on humans
characteristic with ease.
lowered by 2 Hunger has been
known to drive
Adversaries 373
these normally deepdwelling creatures STAR VAMPIRE (RIVAL)

up to the ocean surface where anything The dim outlines of a presence came into view;
they encounter is potential prey. A giant the blood-filled outlines of that unseen
squid is 45 feet long and weighs 1,500 shambler from the stars. It was red and dripping;
pounds. an immensity of pulsing, moving jelly; a scarlet
blob with myriad tentacular trunks that waved
and wavered. There were suckers on the tips of
the appendages, and these were opening and
closing with ghoulish lust... The thing was
bloated and obscene; a headless, faceless, eyeless
bulk with the ravenous maw and titanic talons of
Silhouette: 3. a star-born monster. The human blood on which it
had fed revealed the hitherto
Skills: Athletics 2,
invisible outlines of the feaster.
Brawl 1, Perception These loathsome things are
3. normally invisible, their
Talents: Defensive 1 presence signaled only by a sort
(increase the of ghoulish tittering. After
Defense rating of feeding, they become visible
the giant squid by through the blood they drink.
1). Summoned from the depths of
Sanity Damage: 0/0. space, some can be controlled
Abilities: Constrict to serve powerful wizards or
(any creature that is other beings.
Ensnared by a A star vampire feeds only on
giant squid's liquid food. Its sucker-mouths and
tentacle is talons tear open the integument of a
automatically victim to reach the inner juices.
constricted for 13 This vampire flies with no visible
points of damage each means of propulsion. It is obviously
turn), Ink Cloud (the made of non-terrestrial matter, which
giant squid can emit doubtlessly assists it in remaining air-
a cloud of ink that or space-borne.
spreds out to Short
range once per
minute as an
Incidental while
underwater. This cloud provides a bb
penalty to skill checks within the inky Silhouette: 2.
cloud. The ink persists for 6 turns), Jet (a Skills: Brawl 2, Coordination 3, Stealth 4.
giant squid can jet in a straight line as Talents: Defensive 2 (increase the Defense
an Action and move two range bands), Low rating of the star vampire by 2), Dodge 1
Light Vision (the giant squid can remove (suffer 1 strain to upgrade the
up to b on skill checks imposed by difficulty of all incoming combat checks
darkness). once).
4; Range [Short]), Tentacle (Brawl; Damage Abilities: Blood Drain (if the star
5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged], Ensnare 1, vampire hits with a bite attack, it
Linked 2). temporarily drains 1 point of Brawn from
the target, though the target is allowed
374 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
an Average (dd) Resilience check to watch for a sign signaling the rise of
resist this. Any lost points return once R’lyeh. Once the sign has come and they
the target has had a chance to rest after have awakened, they participate in a
the encounter. Anyone drained to Brawn 0 special ceremony to help rouse mighty
falls dead), Darkvision (the star vampire Cthulhu from his aeons-long slumber.
can remove all b imposed on checks from These five star-spawn slumber in the
darkness), Flyer (a star vampire can fly mountains of China; beneath the sands of
(see page 100 of the GENESYS core Irem; in the glacial ice of Greenland; in
rulebook)). a sea-side cave beneath a house
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 6; somewhere near Boston or Rhode Island;
Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 2, and somewhere in the Amazon River in
Vicious 2), Bite (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical South America. The five watchers all have
4; Range [Engaged]; Blood Drain, Pierce 2). maximum stats, and all know the spell
which awakens Cthulhu.
STAR-SPAWN OF CTHULHU
(NEMESIS)
They all lay in stone houses in their great city
of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty
Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the
stars and the earth might
Silhouette: 3.
once more be ready. Skills: Brawl 4, Cool 2,
The star-spawn came Discipline 5, Perception 1,
to earth from Xoth Magic 4, Resilience 4,
with Cthulhu and Survival 2, Vigilance 3.
the Great Old One’s Talents: Adversary 3
four significant (upgrade the difficulty of
offspring. These all combat checks
gigantic octopoid against the star-
beings resemble spawn of Cthulhu
Cthulhu himself, three times),
but are smaller. Durable 4 (reduce
Not all the all Critical
inhabitants of Injuries against
R’lyeh were the star-spawn of
trapped when it Cthulhu by 40, to a
sank. Some still minimum of 1),
live on in the deep Enduring 4
trenches beneath the (increase the Soak
ocean where they are rating of the star-
tended by deep ones and spawn of Cthulhu
other aquatic horrors. by 4).
Related entities dwell in the Sanity Damage: 2/4.
stars, such as the beings said to infest Abilities: Darkvision (the star-
the lake of Hali on a planet near the spawn of Cthulhu can remove all b
star Aldebaran, in Taurus. imposed on checks from darkness), Flyer (a
THE FIVE WATCHERS: there are five star-spawn of Cthulhu can fly (see page
“elite” star-spawn slumbering in hidden 100 of the GENESYS core rulebook)),
places around the globe. Their task is to Immortality (a star-spawn of Cthulhu
Adversaries 375
does not age, nor does it need to eat or blundering divers step on them, they rise
breathe. Only violence can bring about up and sting their aggressors, escaping
the death of one of these creatures), quickly. Their stingers hold a poison
Limited Starflight (a star-spawn of that is not fatal, but is extremely
Cthulhu can survive in the void of outer painful. In addition, the stingers are
space, and its wings allow it to use its serrated, making large tears in the skin.
fly speed in outer space despite the lack These fish are responsible formore
of air. Unlike full starflight, a star- injuries than any other.
spawn of Cthulhu’s ability to fly in Often found buried in mud, sand, or sea
outer space does not allow it to reach grass, this normally passive creature
unusual speeds. When it wishes to fly to raises its tail above its body like a
another world, the creature relies scorpion when cornered or injured. Its
entirely upon its immortality and stinger is a barbed spine with two
patience to complete the journey. When grooves allowing the toxin to enter the
speed is required, it instead uses its gate wound. While often found in bays and
ability to make the journey quickly), estuaries, some breeds of stingray can
Telepathy (a star-spawn of Cthulhu can make their home in rivers far upstream
use telepathy with any sentient being from salt water. Stingrays, like their
within Long range), Terrifying (upon larger manta ray cousins, use a form of
first seeing a star-spawn of Cthulhu, a electrolocation to find prey in the silt-
character must make a Daunting laden waters.
(ccdd) Fear check with the
difficulty upgraded twice, to reflect the
alien nature and frightening reputation
of the creature).
Equipment: Tentacle (Brawl; Damage 10;
Critical 4; Range [Short]; Ensnare 2, Silhouette: 1.
Knockdown, Linked 2), Claw (Brawl; Damage Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1,
12; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 2, Perception 1, Stealth 1.
Vicious 2). Talents: None.
Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Abilities: Blindsense (using non-visual
STINGRAY (MINION) senses, such as acute smell or hearing, a
Silent, sleek, majestic,
these underwater rocs soar stingray notices creatures it
majestically across the sea cannot see. The stingray
bottom like underwater usually does not need to
angels. make Perception
These flat fish, checks to pinpoint
also known as the location of a
devil fish, glide creature within
through the Short range,
waters with provided that it
long, spiked, has line of
whip-like tails effect to that
trailing behind creature. Any
them. They spend most opponent the stingray
of their time hiding cannot see still has
under the sand, avoiding total concealment against it.
predators and awaiting prey. When
376 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
Visibility still affects the movement of its own territory, using legitimate
a stingray), Low Light Vision (a stingray businesses as cover. The three most
can remove up to b on skill checks powerful North American triads are: the
imposed by darkness), Poison (if the House of the Star-Treader under the
stingray spends aa on its combat check guise of the Two Dragons Trading
it injects poison into the victim. The Company in Toronto; the House of the
creature must make an Average (dd) Black Lotus under the guise of the
Resilience check once a turn for 4 turns. Sleeping Buddha Trading Company in New
A failed check results in 5 points of York City; and the House of the Dreaming-
unsoakable strain and an automatic t on Master under the guise of the Happy
all skill checks. If the creasture Octopus Trading Company in San
succeeds on a Resilience check, the poison Francisco. Business types commonly
has been purged from his body). fronting Tcho-Tcho triads include ethnic
Equipment: Sting (Brawl; Damage 5; restaurants, investment companies, small
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Poison). hotels, and construction and building
companies. The House of the Star-Treader
worships Zhar and Lloigor; the House of
TCHO-TCHO (RIVAL) the Black Lotus worships Chaugnar
Our attackers... were a horde of little men, the
tallest of them no more than four feet, with Faugn; and the House of the Dreaming-
singularly small eyes set deep in dome-like, Master worships Cthulhu. Other Tcho-Tcho
hairless heads. These... attackers fell upon the triad gods include Shugoran, Shub-
party and had killed men and animals with their Niggurath, Hastur, and Atlach-Nacha.
bright swords almost before our men could
extract their weapons.
These triads are involved in
The blasted Plateau of Tsang is one of prostitution, extortion, illegal gambling,
the incursions of dread Leng into our gun-running, smuggling, money
space-time. On it and in a few other far- laundering, assassination, the
removed regions dwell the tribes of the manufacture and distribution of illegal
Tcho-Tchos. In the beginnings of time, drugs – and, by the early 21st century,
Chaugnar Faugn made a race of beings, terrorism. They use the money and power
the miri nigri, to serve him. The miri were gained through their illicit businesses
a race of dwarfs fashioned from the to further the goals of the Great Old
flesh of primitive amphibians. The Tcho- Ones and Outer Gods. Triad membership is
Tchos are said to come from humans who exclusive to those of Tcho-Tcho blood,
intermingled with the horrible miri, and members take the secrets of the
forming a hybrid race of evil intent. organization to their graves. Murder and
Descendants are outwardly human-like, power-struggles between and within
and actually of various sizes and triads is not uncommon, and many high-
costume, but the taint of the miri curses level triad leaders murder their way to
all Tcho-Tchos with half-normal sanity at the top. Triad members routinely combine
birth, rapidly eroded by horrid religious zealotry and cut-throat
ceremonies and deeds. The various Tcho- thugism. After the September 11, 2001
Tcho tribes worship a variety of Great attacks on the World Trade Center in New
Old Ones, not just Chaugnar Faugn. Tcho- York City, the Tcho-Tchos realized the
Tcho frequent the Dreamlands, and some full potential of international
speculate that they are the waking world terrorism, and as the 21st century
counterparts to the Dreamlands’ progresses, they look more and more to
degenerate men from Leng. terrorism to further their cause.
TCHO-TCHO TRIADS: each triad marks out The San Francisco-based House of the
Adversaries 377
Dreaming-Master is the chief world-wide characteristics, but the distorted organs

grower of the exotic black lotus. Acres of are sterile.
lotus ponds are located not far from San Thralls typically crouch. They can
Francisco, where they are raised, move quickly for short distances: their
harvested, and guarded by the Tcho-Tcho. short, puffy legs allow themto run for no
more than a few yards. The amphibious
creatures are at home in water and swim
with great speed and power.
Thralls shun direct sunlight.
The thralls of Cthulhu were once
Silhouette: 0. human worshipers of great Cthulhu who
Skills: Coercion 2, Deception 2, Knowledge were transformed into servant creatures
1, Magic 1, Negotiation 1, Perception 1, by a succession of special rituals. This
Ranged [Light] 1, Streetwise 2. monstrous transformation may take from
Talents: Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to a few to many years to complete. The dark
upgrade the difficulty of all incoming rituals beg the intervention of Cthulhu,
combat checks once). who must accept the petitioner. The mind,
Sanity Damage: 0/0. will, and identity of the former human
Abilities: None. are kept, but the body transforms into an
Equipment: By weapon type. immortal and monstrous shell.
THRALL OF CTHULHU (RIVAL)

He was quick then to be on his feet and away
from the thing that now lay twitching out its
life upon the sawdust floor – the thing that had
been his brother – which now, where the top of his Silhouette: 1.
head had been, wore a cap of writhing white
worms of finger thickness, like some monstrous Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Magic 1,
sea-anemone sucking vampirishly at the still- Perception 1.
living brain! Talents: Durable 1 (reduce all Critical
The thralls of Cthulhu are bloated Injuries against the star-spawn of
gray corpulent humanoid masses. The Cthulhu by 10, to a minimum of 1)).
flesh exudes tiny jelly-like droplets Sanity Damage: 1/2.
smelling of methane; the puffy flesh Abilities: Darkvision (the thrall of
easily tears away when the creature is Cthulhu can remove up to bb imposed on
attacked, although this does not harm checks from darkness), Death Throes (when
the thrall. They are hairless, with wide, exceeding Wound Threshold, a thrall of
round, unblinking yellow eyes. Small Cthulhu turns into a cloud of gray, foul-
vestigial tentacles surround the mouth smelling gas. After 5 turns the gas
filled with sharp teeth or sprout from reforms into the thrall with its wounds
atop their hairless heads. Thralls lack fully healed. If exceeding Wound
earshells, and thus hear poorly in air, Threshold from spell or magical attack, a
though very well in water. These thrall of Cthulhu dies permanently.
creatures may speak, and their voices After several decades a thrall of
have dribbling quality disgusting to Cthulhu loses its ability to regenerate
human listeners. Each finger and toe except when completely submerged in salt
concludes in a sharp claw, although the water. When a thrall of Cthulhu reaches
creatures’ awkwardness precludes foot this advanced age it retreats to the sea
attacks. Thralls retain previous sexual where it continues its service to Cthulhu
378 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
with the deep ones, star-spawn of Silhouette: 2.

Cthulhu, and other entities of the brine. Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Perception 1,
Once sea-bound, a thrall can never again Stealth 1.
leave the oceans), Regeneration (at the Talents: None.
beginning of its turn, the thrall of Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Cthulhu automatically heals 1 wound. Abilities: Low Light Vision (a tiger can
Thralls exceeding their Wound Threshold remove up to b on skill checks imposed
reform completely healed after 5 turns). from darkness), Pounce (if the tiger
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage spends a Maneuver for charging
5; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]). towards its opponent and an Action
to attack that very same
TIGER (RIVAL) opponent, it can make a pounce
Tigers, except when wounded or when attack. Pouncing adds an
man-eaters, are on the whole very good- automatic s on the combat
tempered... Occasionally a tiger will object check), Rake (the tiger can
to too close an approach to its cubs or to a
kill that it is guardin.g. The objection
spend aa on its claw combat
invariably takes the form of growling, check to rake the opponent
and if this does not prove effective it for an additional 7 points of
is followed by short rushes damage).
accompanied by terrifying roars. Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage
If these warnings are
disregarded, the blame for
7; Critical 4; Range [Engaged];
any injury rests entirely Rake, Vicious 1), Bite (Brawl;
on the intruder. Damage 9; Critical 4; Range
The largest of [Engaged]; Pierce 1).
all felines, tigers
are notorious man-killers TRIFFID (RIVAL)
in India, where expanding He inspected the straight stem, and
villages unwisely the woody bole from which it sprang.
intrude into diminishing He gave a curious, if not very
ranges. Tigers are solitary hunters. penetrative attention to the
three small, bare sticks which
Tigers stand more than 3 feet tall at grew straight up beside the stem. He smoothed the
the shoulder and are about 9 feet long. short sprays of leathery green leaves between
They weigh from 400 to 600 pounds. his finger and thumb as if their texture might
Tigers are usually the top animal tell him something. Then he peered into the
predators in their territories, and have curious, funnel-like formation at the top of the
stem... to look inside that conical cup and see the
been known to kill bears, crocodiles, tightly wrapped whorl within. It looked not
giant snakes, wolves, and even other unlike the new, close-rolled frond of a fern,
great cats. Even humanoids are far from emerging a couple of inches from a sticky mess in
safe, especially in cases where a tiger the base of the cup. I did not touch it, but I knew
has developed a taste for humanoid the stuff must be sticky because there were flies
and other small insects struggling in it... For the
flesh. Tigers prefer terrain with plenty short time the scene was on, I stared at it,
of cover and proximity to water as their fascinated. There was our mysterious rubbish-
hunting grounds. heap plant grown to a height of seven feet or
more. There was no mistaking it – and it was
‘walking’! The bole, which I now saw for the first
time, was shaggy with little rootlet hairs. It
would have been almost spherical but for three,
blunt-tapered projections extending from the
lower part, Supported on these, the main body was
Adversaries 379
lifted about a foot clear of the ground. When it

hiding amongst other foliage until an
‘walked’ it moved rather like a man on crutches.
unsuspecting victim passes close enough
Two of the blunt ‘legs’ slid forward, then the
for the plant to lash out with its sting.
whole thing lurched as the rear one drew almost
level with them, then the two in front slidPlants, triffids have no eyes, but do
forward again. At each ‘step’ the long stemsense noise, and are attracted en masse to
whipped violently back and forth: it gave one a
the sounds of human activity. Triffids
kind of seasick feeling to watch it. communicate by tapping their three
Triffids are intelligent, sentient straight sticks onto their bole, drumming
carnivorous plants that grow 7 to 10 feet out a rhythm to call others of their
in height and thrive in every climatic kind. Triffids learn and remember, so
condition except deserts and ice fields. traps set to capture or kill them only
Originally the product of secret work one or two times before they learn
biological research, triffid seeds have to avoid them.
spread world-wide. Wherever triffid seeds
germinate they quickly become an
uncontrollable menace, particularly in
tropical rainforest regions. It takes four
to five years for a triffid to reach
maturity. Upon reaching maturity, the Silhouette: 2.
plant’s deadly stinger becomes operable Skills: Brawl 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2.
and the triffid begins to walk. When not Talents: Enduring 2 (increase the Soak
walking, they bury rating of the
their roots to triffid by 2).
obtain nutrients Sanity Damage: 0/1.
from the earth like Abilities: Poison
normal plants. (anyone struck by
Like all other the triffid's sting
carnivorous plants, must make a Hard
triffids hunt, kill, (ddd) Resilience
and consume check or suffer 6
insects and animals points of
for additional unsoakable Strain
nutrients. Unlike damage. If the
other carnivorous check fails with a
plants, however, y, the character
triffids also feed also adds an
on larger mammals automatic f to
– including humans. all skill checks
To feed, they sting for the remainder
prey, poisoning and of the encounter,
killing them this is a
quickly. Then the cumulative effect).
triffid waits for Equipment: Sting
their kill to decay (Brawl; Damage 6;
for several days Critical 3; Range
before stripping [Engaged]; Pierce 1,
away and eating the Poison).
rotten flesh.
Triffids normally ambush their prey,
380 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
TROLL (RIVAL) TUNNELERS BELOW (RIVAL)

Trolls are large ape-like creatures descended They were worms about as long as a man and as
from prehuman hominids. (Their own name for thick as a man’s thigh, cylindrical and
themselves is unpronounceable; they are called untapering. From end to end, as many as a
“trolls” here for convenience.) They are slightly centipede’s legs, were pairs of tiny wings,
smaller than humans. They have dull white coats translucent like a fly’s, which vibrated
and dark eyes, and are scavenging omnivores. unceasingly, producing an unforgettably sinister
There faces are almost indescribably ugly, and lowpitched hum. They had no eyes – their heads
they have a pronouncedly unpleasant rancid were one circular mouth lined with rows of
smell. triangular teeth each like a shark’s.
Trolls normally avoid mankind, hiding The tunnelers below are so-called
so well that they are almost forgotten. because no proper name for them is known.
For much of the year they lair in glacial This mysterious and rarely encountered
caves, only emerging at night to forage species is gifted with great psychic
for roots, small rodents, and carrion. powers, most notably a powerful form of
They have extremely good night vision. telepathy that allows them to
In winter they are more active, but their communicate with any living creature.
camouflaged pelts and reclusive habits Tunnelers can also use this ability to
make them almost undetectable. Like invade dreams, steal thoughts and
wolves they will attack humans if the memories from unwilling victims, and even
odds are right. communicate with spirits long since dead.
Trolls have a crude language Tunnelers use this telepathy to fuel
consisting mostly of growls and hoots, their insatiable lust for Mythos
and a primitive tribal culture based on knowledge. These strange creatures are
food sharing and the placation of their drawn to all aspects of the Mythos and
deity, Tsathoggua. These creatures are are known to congregate underneath
the direct decedents of the voormis and strong sources of mystical energy,
may be the link between the voormis and psychic power, and the most alien-
sasquatch. influenced earthly locations.
The tunnelers live in a globe-spanning
web of caves, traversing far beneath
even the beds of the oceans. They have a
large nexus point beneath the sunken
city of R’lyeh, a favorite spot where they
Silhouette: 1. can glut themselves on the psychic death-
Skills: Brawl 2, Melee 1, Resilience 2, dreams of mighty Cthulhu and his
Stealth 1, Survival 1. retinue.
Talents: Durable 3 (reduce the result of Tunnelers below are not hostile unless
all Critical Injuries against the troll by provoked. If disturbed, a favorite tactic
-30, to a minimum of 1), Enduring 1 to dispose of pests is to burrow a series
(increase the Soak rating of the troll by of fragile tunnels beneath the home of
1). the chosen target and eventually bring
Sanity Damage: 0/1. the structure crashing down. If
Abilities: Darkvision (the troll can encountered in person, a tunneler can
remove up to bb imposed on checks from attack with its massive maw of shark-like
darkness). teeth. However, the most dangerous aspect
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 5; of a tunneler is something it can’t
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1), control, a by-product of its very presence
Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 3; Range and its incredible psychic powers.
[Engaged]), or by weapon type.
Adversaries 381
where relief can be long-lasting).

4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1).
Silhouette: 1.
TYPHONIAN BEAST (RIVAL)
Set was represented by the so-called Typhonian
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Coordination animal, or wore its head on human shoulders. This
1, Magic 1, Resilience 3, Survival 1. strange animal with its long curving snout,
Talents: Defensive 1 (increase the Defense square upstanding ears and upright tufted tail
rating of the tunneler below by 1), has not been identified.
Durable 1 (reduce the result of all These black, jackal-like creatures
Critical Injuries against the tunneler inhabit a dark and distant dimension.
below by -10, to a minimum of 1). They are lean and agile, covered in short
Sanity Damage: 1/2. coarse black hair. They have long fang-
Abilities: Blindsense (tunnelers below are filled snouts, tall stiff ears, and long
blind, but can sense vibrations on and in stiff tails ending in a brush of sharp
the earth out to Long range, effectively hairs. Their eyes are narrow, slanted, and
pinpointing its origin as a sighted glow red in the dark. Typhonian beasts
creature would be able to), Psyhic are about the size of a very large dog.
Sending (every tunneler continuously
communicates Mythos findings, ideas, and
knowledge to every other and sometimes,
if there are a number of these creatures
within close proximity to humans, these
Silhouette: 1.
telepathic communications can be picked
Skills: Brawl 1, Coercion 2, Perception 1,
up unwittingly by sensitive humans. When
Stealth 2, Survival 1, Vigilance 1.
this happens, the hapless recipient of
Talents: Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to
such thoughts experiences vivid dreams,
upgrade the difficulty of all incoming
may begin to sleepwalk when he or she
combat checks once), Durable 1 (reduce the
has never done so before, and eventually
result of all Critical Injuries against
hears constant, whispering voices
the typhonian beast by -10, to a minimum
imparting secrets of the Mythos at all
of 1).
hours of the day and night. A human
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
picking up the telepathic thoughts of
Abilities: Jumper (the typhonian beast
the tunnelers below starts to take 2
can leap great distances, and can move 2
Sanity damage per week. Within a number
range bands when jumping – counts as
of months equal to 10 minus the
spending a single Maneuver for
sufferer’s Willpower, these whispering
movement), Low Light Vision (the
voices and dreams become constant. When
typhonian beast can remove up to b
constant, the victim takes 1 Sanity
imposed on checks from darkness),
damage per day. This goes on until the
Paralytic Gaze (the spectral glowing eyes
sufferer dies, goes completely insane, or
of a typhonian beast have a hypnotic
until the tunnelers below are somehow
influence over humans. By spending a
driven off. If these telepathic
Maneuver, the typhonian beast can
communications are accidental, the
attempt to gaze at anyone within Medium
target’s suffering may be relieved simply
range, who must make a Discipline check
by moving; if the sendings are
against the typhonian beast's Coercion
deliberate, there is no place on earth
skill, or stand Staggered and Immobilized
382 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
with fear. The paralysis lasts only 1

turn per uncanceled t on the check, with
a minimum of 1 turn, or until the victim
suffers physical damage. A paralyzed
victim may attempt to break free of the
beast’s hold each turn by attempting a Silhouette: 1.
new Discipline check against the Skills: Brawl 3, Cool 2, Vigilance 2.
typhonian beast's Coercion. A typhonian Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the
beast may strike a hypnotized victim difficulty of all combat checks against
with either its claws or claw and the unspeakable possessor twice),
bite attack without adding any Enduring 3 (increase the Soak rating of
difficulty dice to its combat check). the unspeakable possessor by 3).
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 5; Sanity Damage: 1/2.
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1), Abilities: Darkvision (the unspeakable
Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 4; Range possessor can remove up to bb imposed
[Engaged]). on checks from darkness), Death (the
unspeakable possessor can spend x or
UNSPEAKABLE POSSESSOR aaa on its touch combat check to
attempt to rip away the life from its
(NEMESIS) target. Anyone so affected must make a
And certainly they saw the thing that came Hard (ddd) Resilience check or be
crying out at us fromthe sinking ruins behind,
the distorted caricature of a human being, with killed outright. On a failed check, the
its eyes sunk to invisibility in thick masses of target dies instantly and painfully,
scaly flesh, the thing that flailed its arms foaming at the mouth and ears.), Drain
bonelessly at us like the appendages of an (the unspeakable possessor thrusts its
octopus. tentacle-like, jaw-tipped fingers inside
Unspeakable possessors are creatures the victim’s body and suck out the body
created by Hastur when it collects on a fluids, any damage dealt by its touch
binding oath (known as the Unspeakable attack heals the unspeakable possessor
Promise) made to it by a human. of an equal amount of damage suffered).
Eventually Hastur possesses all who make Equipment: Touch (Brawl; Damage 9;
the Unspeakable Promise. When it Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Death, Drain).
happens, the mind of the Great Old One
takes over and transforms the victim’s
body. The body must still be alive (if the VAMPIRE (NEMESIS)
Vampires have become tragic or romantic
victim is dead, the transformation begins figures. Vampire are largely seduction tales.
anyway, but stops after a few hours). If They're no longer the scary creature in the dark.
the caster of the Unspeakable Promise is Every player will be interested in
deceased, Hastur possesses his or her matching wits with these blood-suckers,
nearest blood relative instead, after a but stories about vampires and their
delay of 1 to 6 days. The victim’s skin powers so conflict and contradict that
takes on a gray-green, scaly texture, the the individual keeper must determine
body becomes a bloated parody of a which vampire facts are true in play, and
humanoid shape, and the limbs become which are merely legendary. Here are
boneless and fluid. some options.
Once possessed, the resulting thing is • A vampire casts no reflection.
usually content to wreak whatever havoc • A vampire may have to return to soil
is deemed most vital, often merely in which it originally was buried in
killing and devouring.
Adversaries 383
order to pass the daylight hours. hounds of hell” - to guard their lairs.
• The third bite from a vampire causes • Removing the stake from the heart of
a character to die, and then to become a vampire revives it.
one of the undead. • A vampire never drinks... wine.
• A vampire has no special powers in A vampire can change into smoke, mist,
daylight, and may be unable to move a wolf, or a bat at will, requiring a
abroad, or be unable to move from its Maneuver. If smoke or mist, it drifts at
coffin. the rate of one range
• Vampires have band per combat
hairy palms, turn.
repulsive breath, and Once physical
cry tears of blood. attacks have
• Killing the exceeded its Wound
original or “chief” Threshold, the
vampire cures his vampire turns into
victims of their smoke or mist at the
vampirism. end of the combat
Alternately, killing round, thereafter
the lead vampire regenerating wounds
instantly kills all at the rate of 1
those vampires he has point per turn.
created. However, if the
• In Catholic vampire’s Wound
cultures, the cross Threshold have been
gives protection from brought exactly to
a vampire, at least one over its
for a while, and holy threshold, its head
water touching the has been hit: the
thing sears and vampire falls and
scalds its flesh (6 cannot transform into
points of damage per smoke. Then a stake
1 oz vial). A Star of driven through its
David may provide heart kills it
the same protection forever.
to those of the Like ghosts, there
Jewish faith. are any number of
• Vampires cannot different kinds of
cross moving water. vampires told of in
• Garlic wards off vampires, and legends and folklore. The GM is
ingesting garlic harms a blood-sucker (3 encouraged to create his vampires as he
points of damage per clove of ingested sees fit, and from the stories and legends
garlic). he prefers. Here are a few options.
• A vampire may turn into a bat, a • Some vampires are handsome and
wolf, a dog, or a cloud of mist. charming gentlemen.
• Vampires employ human servants to • Some vampires are beautiful
guard their secrets and protect them seductresses.
during daylight hours. • Some vampires are ladies or
• Vampires employ vicious dogs – “the gentlemen out of place in their fancy
384 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
dress clothes from times long-past. This Regeneration (a vampire recovers 1 wound
is often top hat, tails, walking stick, at the beginning of each of its turns).
monocle, etc. for men and elaborate Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical
period gowns for women. 4; Range [Engaged]; Blood Drain, Pierce 1),
• Some are ugly, pasty-faced, bald- or by weapon type, Touch (Brawl; Damage
headed, rat-fanged things with pointed 3; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Impede
ears. Magic).
• Some have no fangs but instead open
veins with razor-sharp fingernails. VILE FUNGUS (MINION)
• Some vampires are just flying heads At first glance, the vile fungus seems to be a
with masses of bloody entrails trailing collection of mushrooms. Their color and outline,
gruesomely from the neck. however, constantly appear to change, so that the
observer cannot focus properly on them and
suffers from visual defects. Dead earth, on which
nothing grows, surrounds their location in a
radius of several meters. Black shadows creep
around them like dark smoke screens, and fungoid
filaments crawl over the floor or hang down if
Silhouette: 1. the fungus grows on a ceiling, to loop themselves
Skills: Brawl 2, Resilience 2, Stealth 2, around a human, whispering, rasping, smacking,
endlessly distant and quiet.Warm, soft, and sticky
Vigilance 1. blackness.
Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the The fungus is as a kind of parasitic
difficulty of all combat checks against life form, neither really plant nor
the vampire twice). animal in nature. It is suspected that
Sanity Damage: 0/1. this material originated on cold Yuggoth
Abilities: Blood Drain (if the vampire and subsequently spread through the
spends aaa or x on its bite combat cosmos with the mi-go. Perhaps this alien
check, it drains 1 point of Brawn from fungus occurs naturally on Yuggoth, or
the victim. Lost Brawn are returned at perhaps it was created by the mi-go for
the rate of 1 point per week spent some unguessable purpose. In any event,
resting. Anyone brought to Brawn 0 is it is a nightmarish life form that can
slain and may become a vampire himself), infect any organism it comes into contact
Darkvision (a vampire can remove all b with.
to imposed on checks from darkness), Firearms and other weapons inflict no
Hypnotic Gaze (if the vampire spends a damage on the fungus. Attacking the
Maneuver it can direct its gaze at a parasite with firearms or weapons only
sighted being within Medium range. The shreds and scatters the material, making
creature must make a Cool check against accidental infection to anyone in the
the vampire's Charm skill. The victim is immediate area a dangerous possibility.
charmed and compelled to follow orders Fire, chemicals and similar attacks are
from the vampire each turn that the most effective on the alien fungus.
vampire spends a Maneuver to maintain Vile fungi are incapable of moving
the charm. If these instructions are self- itself about.
destructive, at the start of the turn the
character may attempt a new Cool check
to snap out of the hypnotism), Impede
Magic (anyone touched by the vampire's
hand suffers a cumulative and automatic
f to all Magic skill checks for 24 hours), Silhouette: 0.
Adversaries 385
Skills (Group Only): None. longer boasts DNA of any sort. There is
Talents: None. no treatment available at this point to
Sanity Damage: 0/1. save the infected, and anyone examining
Abilities: Infection (its sticky filaments the victim runs the danger of being
adhere to anything they come into infected. The victim does not die, but
contact with: if the filaments come into becomes a horrible, immobile fungal
contact with bare flesh infection begins. parody of his former self).
Within minutes, the filaments begin to Equipment: Filament (No skill; Damage -;
penetrate the skin and transform the Critical -; Range [Engaged]; Infection).
living flesh into fungal tissue. If the
contaminated investigator can somehow WATCHER (RIVAL)
remove the sticky fungal filaments Resembles a gigantic, bloated leech, its thick,
within 2D10 minutes he avoids infection. glistening black hide rising bonelessly to a
Simply rinsing with water does not gaping maw lined with hundreds of serrated
remove the fungus. It must be washed off teeth that can shred a human body in seconds. It
is a blind thing, but its other senses compensate,
with some form of strong chemical making it a deadly predator... The creature
solvent or fungicide, either of which may possesses three snakelike grasping tentacles
inflict damage upon the investigator in which extend from its underside just below the
the form of chemical burns or poisoning, yawning orifice of its mouth.
at the GM’s discretion. Alternately, fire Watchers are giant leech-like horrors
may be applied to the area, but this that dwell in murky lakes and deep
inflicts damage to the investigator. A rivers. They are generally employed by
severely contaminated victim may require forces of the Mythos to watch over and
multiple applications of chemicals or guard important artifacts or locations.
fire to completely destroy the parasite.
Immediately upon infection the internal
tissues begin to mutate into fungal
matter, even though the victim shows no
outward signs of infection. The victim
becomes quiet and uncommunicative under Silhouette: 1.
the puppet-like control of the alien Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Resilience 2.
parasite, and refuses any medical Talents: Durable 2 (reduce the result of
examination or treatment. The victim’s all Critical Injuries against the watcher
life can be saved only by amputating the by -20, to a minimum of 1), Enduring 1
body part which came in contact with the (increase the Soak rating of the watcher
vile fungus within two hours. Otherwise by 1).
the parasite spreads throughout the Sanity Damage: 2/3.
body and the will of the host is Abilities: Amphibious (a watcher can
unconsciously altered to do everything breathe both underwater and on land,
it can to facilitate the transformation and never suffers movement penalties for
into a fungus. This entails a retreat from moving through water), Blood Drain (by
social life to somewhere dark and dank. spending aaa or x on its bite combat
Each month the victim loses 1 point each check, the watcher the leech-thing
of Brawn and Intellect. Once a victim’s fastens onto the chest of its victim, its
Brawn and Intellect both have reached 0 teeth tearing through clothing and flesh
the transformation is complete and he and opening up a wound through which it
has changed entirely into a fungus. His can draw out blood. The victim suffers an
body fully becomes a spongy mass that no automatic 5 points of unsoakable damage
each turn, unless spending an Action to
386 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
attempt to remove the watcher with a through the icy night sky.
successful Average (dd) Coordination They are savage, solitary,
check), Darkvision (the watcher can territorial creatures.
remove up to bb imposed on Only while under the
checks from darkness), Fire sway of sorcery or the influence of
Immunity (the watcher is immune Ithaqua, do wendigo cooperate and
to all damage and effects coexist. Otherwise, when two or more
based on fire), Poison wendigo meet they fight to the death, the
(anyone bitten by the victor eating the fallen wendigo, and
watcher must make an destroying its heart with fire.
Average (dd) Resilience check The only way to truly slay a
or be Staggered and wendigo is to melt its icy heart,
Immobilized until the end of the either by piercing it with a sharp
next turn, plus one additional turn object heated to incandescence, or
per uncancelled t on the check), by removing the heart, crushing
Regeneration (the watcher recovers it, and throwing it into a fire. If
1 wound at the beginning of each the heart is not destroyed, the
of its turns). “slain” wendigo rises from the
Equipment: Tongue (Brawl; dead at the next sunset, fully
Damage 4; Critical 4; Range regenerated. Even removing its
[Short]; Ensnare 2), Bite (Brawl; head or limbs does not prevent
Damage 5; Critical 4; Range the wendigo fromregenerating
[Engaged]; Blood Drain, Pierce 1, fully. A truly slain wendigo
Poison). quickly decomposes into a skeletal
mummified husk that shortly
crumbles to dust and blows away on
WENDIGO (RIVAL) the wind.
He found no difficulty in following the
tracks for the first few miles. The stride
soon began to increase in length, till it finally
assumed proportions that seemed absolutely
impossible for any ordinary animal to have made.
Like huge flying leaps they became. The feet that
printed the surface of the snow thus far had now,
Silhouette: 2.
apparently, left the ground!... The face was more
animal than human, the features drawn aboutSkills: Brawl 2, Resilience 2, Stealth 2,
into wrong proportions, the skin loose and Survival 2, Vigilance 1.
hanging. Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the
The wendigo are a savage race of difficulty of all combat checks against
hoofed or footless humanoids who worship the wendigo twice), Durable 1 (reduce the
Ithaqua in the cold northern regions. result of all Critical Injuries against
Wendigo subsist on a diet of moss, fungus, the wendigo by -10, to a minimum of 1),
and frogs, although by far their Enduring 2 (increase the Soak rating of
favorite food is human flesh, which they the wendigo by 2).
seek out at every opportunity. Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Occasionally, a wendigo captures hunters Abilities: Chilling Terror (a bitten victim
or trappers for Ithaqua to transform must successfully make a Hard (ddd)
into additional wendigo. Wendigo have Fear check or become struck with an
the ability to run through the air and absolute, chilling terror. Anyone so
often accompany Ithaqua as he races terrified immediately drops everything
Adversaries 387
and flees the area. This icy terror lasts into a werewolf at the next full moon.
for 10 minutes minus the victim’s current In bestial form the werewolf is
Sanity damage. A successful Hard (ddd) notoriously resistant to injury,
Psychoanalysis check quells the fear regenerating 1 wound every combat turn.
immediately), Darkvision (the wendigo can Scars and welts of such damage may
remove up to bb imposed on checks from remain after the ravener reassumes
darkness). human form. Such healing is weakening,
Equipment: Claw (Brawl; Damage 9; often forcing the shape-changer to spend
Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 2), days in bed. Werewolves are immune to
Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range most weapons, but they can be damaged or
[Engaged]; Chilling Terror, Pierce 1). killed by fire or by silver weapons that
impale. (Its fur set afire, the werewolf
WEREWOLF (RIVAL) suffers wounds faster than it can
If being a werewolf is really a curse, you've regenerate.)
got to treat it honorably. If werewolves are Silver, the lunar metal, is poisonous to
going to carry on, there has to be an incredibly the werewolf.
powerful force. There is the business of the
craving, the hunger for the kill. It has to be
deeply pleasurable and more than
an appetite for meat. There has to
be a sensual dimension to it.
As the first sort, a normal
human is cursed and Silhouette: 1.
occasionally thereafter Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Coordination
turns into a monster, half 1, Perception 1, Resilience 2, Survival
human and half beast, 1, Vigilance 1.
classically at the full Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the
moon. This unfortunate difficulty of all combat checks
may be unaware of his against the werewolf once).
curse or may detest his Sanity Damage: 0/1.
fate. The second sort may Abilities: Darkvision (the
fully transform into a werewolf can remove up to bb
wolf, glories in his imposed on checks from
transformations, and darkness), Immunities (the
has more control werewolf is impervious to
over the metamorphoses than damage from all sources, aside
the first. Ravenous and from magic and silver),
savage attacks, much like Lycanthropy (if the werewolf
the classical mad dog or the spends aa or x on its bite
rabid human, are typical of combat check, the victim is
both. The mass of the exposed to the lycanthropic
individual does not change, affliction. The victim must make a
even though the shape does. Hard (ddd) Resilience check to avoid
Both types apparently propagate by becoming affected by the lycanthropic
transmitting a transformational agent curse and turning into a werewolf
through the saliva while biting; thus himself at the next full moon. Each
even an unsuccessful attack is perilous. successive bite from the same werewolf
If a target’s skin is broken by a that lands a aa or x result increase
werewolf’s bite, the victim transforms the difficulty of the Resilience check
388 Adversaries
Strange Aeons
once), Regeneration (a werewolf recovers 1

wound at the beginning of each of its
turns).
3; Range [Engaged]; Lycanthropy, Vicious
1), Claw (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical 4; Silhouette: 1.
Range [Engaged]; Pierce 1, Vicious 2). Skills (Group Only): Perception 1, Stealth
1, Survival 1.
Talents: None.
WOLF (MINION) Sanity Damage: 0/0.
Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all,
weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing Abilities: Low Light Vision (a wolf can
has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced remove up to b imposed on checks from
the big bad wolf. What frighten us today is darkness), Scent (the wolf adds bb to
exactly the same sort of thing that frightened Survival checks when tracking by scent).
us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This
fright complex is rooted in every individual. Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 6; Critical
They may hunt in packs when dogging 4; Range [Engaged]; Vicious 1).
herds of elk or caribou; they as often
hunt singly or in family pairings. Wolves ZOMBIE (MINION)
are normally shy, and verified attacks on And this shall be the plague with which the
healthy humans are said to be rare Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war
against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while
or non-existent. they are still standing on their feet, their
Wandering alone or in packs, eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues
wolves sit at the top of the will rot in their mouths.
food chain. Ferociously Though everyone knows what film
territorial and zombies are like, not many stories
exceptionally wideranging have been written about these things.
in their hunting, wolf Zombies may be created in a number
packs cover broad areas. A of different ways. The use of voodoo
wolf ’s wide paws contain and black magic seems most common.
slight webbing between Zombies may also be created through
the toes that assists in the intentional or accidental
moving over snow, and its exposure of corpses to toxic
fur is a thick, chemicals or radiation. Some debris
waterresistant coat from space that falls to Earth in
ranging in color from gray meteorites may contain a substance
to brown and even black in which animates the dead. Malevolent
some species. Its paws contain spirits may possess and reanimate
scent glands that mark the the dead.
ground as it travels, Some zombies are the slaves and
assisting in navigation as servants of sorcerers or witch
well as broadcasting its doctors. Other zombies may be
whereabouts to fellow pack uncontrollable, flesh-eating
members. Generally, a wolf monsters.
stands from 2-1/2 to 3 feet As the keeper wishes, a few
tall at the shoulder and spells and substances may
weighs between 45 and 150 deactivate these things. According
pounds, with females to voodoo tradition, zombies could
being slightly smaller. be destroyed by being fed salt; their
Adversaries 389
makers would first sew shut their mouths spiritual or physical meat as well, for
to guard against this. In addition to the many dreamers have entered their wood
voodoo tradition, we note also the notion and failed to return.
in the Cthulhu Mythos of Resurrecting Zoogs attack by biting with their tiny
the dead (which, though, seem mostly in razor-sharp teeth.
control of their faculties); and the new
rationales that weird science or vile
pollution might also create zombie-like
things.
A zombie literally must be hacked
apart before it ceases to act. Setting one Silhouette: 0.
aflame also seems to be effective. Skills (Group Only): Athletics 1,
Resilience 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1.
Talents: Dodge 1 (suffer 1 strain to
increase the difficulty of all incoming
combat checks once).
Sanity Damage: 0/1.
Silhouette: 1. Abilities: Low Light Vision (a zoog can
Skills (Group Only): Brawl 1. remove up to b imposed on checks from
Talents: Enduring 1 (increase the Soak darkness).
value of the zombie by 1). Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical
Sanity Damage: 1/2. 5; Range [Engaged]).
Abilities: Darkvision (the zombie removes
up to bb imposed on checks from
darkness), Immunities (all attacks, aside
from magic, deals only half damage
(rounded down) against the zombie),
Shambling (a zombie can only perform a
single Maneuver for movement, and it
cannot downgrade an Action to a
Maneuver for movement either).
4; Range [Engaged]), or by weapon type.
ZOOG (MINION)
Over the nearer parts of the dream world they
pass freely, flitting small and brown and
unseen... one can see their weird eyes long before
one can discern their small, slippery brown
outlines. hanging.
Zoogs live in the Dreamlands and are
small and brown, with a rodent-like body
outline. Small tentacles dangle from
their snouts, concealing their small
sharp teeth. Zoogs live in burrows and
tree-trunks in the Enchanted Wood. There
are several prominent zoog villages in
their domain. Though they live mostly on
fungi, zoogs have a taste for either
390 Adversaries
ARKHAM
SOME PLACES ARE SIMPLY BUILT EVIL
Willard stopped thrashing about, his The next several pages introduce GMs
body slumped on the surface. His eyes and players to Arkham, describing how an
wide open, but he saw nothing but bright investigator might get a place to live,
luminiscent light. His mouth was wide employment, and loans; telling what the
open, as in a mid-scream, but no sound University has to offer; discussing crime
escaped from his lips. and criminals (alas, even in Arkham), and
Every muscle in his entire body was so on. GMs may want to consider this
flexed to the extreme possible extend, chapter a summary for themselves; more
yet his body was at a state of rest. liberal GMs might photocopy parts of
He heard Celine call his name out loud, this chapter and distribute them, to
he heard his mother whistling the merry quickly give players some idea of what's
tune she always did when she was baking possible.
cakes in his childhood home, he heard his Other GMs may want to ignore much of
father commenting on his college grades, this initial chapter and go directly to
and he heard a cacophony of other the "Guide to Arkham", a lengthy chapter
voices, all mixing and blending, but all listing and describing representative
being distinct and unique at the same town characters and appurtenances
time. useful to GMs, such as shops, strange
Willard could see nothing but the places, cemeteries, boarding houses,
luminiscent shine, so bright and schools, hotels, restaurants, and offices.
aversive, yet so dim and alluring at the By the time play begins, GMs should be
same time. If he only could have seen, he familiar with the background material;
would have seen a large, foul shadow the scenarios do not contain instructions
falling upon the campsite. And if he for moving from point to point in town.
could have heard, he would have heard
the rhythmic chanting growing more and HOW TO FIND ARKHAM
more pitched and frantic. Arkham is in the Commonwealth of
Then Willard saw a strange city in a Massachusetts, not far from the Atlantic
shrouded haze. With towering Ocean, athwart the banks of the
constructions that were impossibly high Miskatonic River, about 22 miles NNE of
and bolstered an architecture that he Boston, a little more than 12 miles south
could not describe. Walkways and bridges of Newburyport. Travelers reach it by
were elevated high above the clouds, car, bus, train, or small boat. Fare for
connecting the towers like strands in a the B&O commuter train from Boston is
spider's web. But the city was eerily $2.20, and from Newburyport is $1.40.
quiet and deserted. Not a single soul was
to be seen on the bridges or through the
slightly tinted windows of the jungle of ARKHAMS CLIMATE
towering structures. Arkham receives three or more inches
When he came to, he found himself of precipitation monthly throughout the
laying on his back, all restraints were year. Summer and fall thunderstorms are
removed and not a sign of the gypsies likely; occasionally a great hurricane
was to be seen. He looked at his hand, he swoops north. Winter storms occasionally
had no recollection of where he was, and can be severe.
not even of who he was. Then he saw an Temperature varies more than rainfall.
alien-like rune tattoo branded on his Early October shows Arkham's trees in
right forearm, and that seemed familiar. full autumn color. The hills become
fabulous carpets of reds, yellows, and
392 Arkham
golds. Temperatures are brisk, with

nighttime lows in the 40s and daytime GENERAL HOURS OF
highs in the 60s. By November, fallen BUSINESS
leaves litter everywhere, and the trees Financial institutions generally are
are nearly bare. open to the public from 10:00 A.M. To 3:00
Occasional light snow-showers occur as P.M., Monday-Friday. Governmental offices
early as late November, but the snow does are open 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., but closed at
not last, and Arkham rarely enjoys a lunch-time. Most merchants are open from
white Christmas. January and February 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Some, especially
are cold, when low temperatures are hardware and department stores and
normally 20°-30°F. Anything lower than lumberyards stay open for part or all of
10°F is considered remarkable. Saturday. Sunday closures are nearly
On the first weekend of February the absolute.
town now celebrates Winterfest, a Shops and stores that vary from these
recently-established commercial festival. hours are noted in their individual
The merchants sponsor a parade, a descriptions. Restaurants usually
snowman-building contest, and an indoor maintain hours that suit their clientele;
pageant to select an annual Winter Queen early-rising Arkhamites find the notion
to rule over the festival. of eating at 8:00 P.M. decadently
Winter thaws in March, but cool continental and conceivably un-Christian.
temperatures can last into early April. Commercial activity halts on Sunday.
By the end of April, flowers begin to With certain exceptions, it is against the
bloom and the trees begin to leaf. law (and the law will be enforced) to
May and June bring the first 70°F days, operate any business of any kind between
and July the first summer heat. In the hours of 6:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. on the
August, when the onshore breezes fail, Sabbath. Then we hear the sound of money
temperatures can soar to 90°F and more. only in collection plates.
The air hangs in the valley, humid and However, on Sunday, with the express
stagnant, creating uncomfortably sticky permission of the selectmen, Western
days and nights. These periods are Union receives and delivers wires, but
usually short, however, and temperatures does not transmit them; the telephone
above 85°F are exceptional. In general, exchange is open and operating, as is the
the evenings cool off considerably and, B&M rail line and the local taxi service;
especially near the river, a light jacket restaurants, speakeasies, gift shops, or
might be considered. The Miskatonic is other luxurious enterprises, with a
often cool for comfortable swimming, single exception never open on Sunday.
though hearty souls and young men Sunday dinners are family affairs, not
showing off regularly make the plunge. commercial opportunities.
In September, the weather cools, and
the first light frost may fall at the end
of the month. This time is sunny and GETTING A PLACE TO
breezy, with scattered showers. Students
return to school, leaves turn, and the
LIVE
Investigators may wish to establish
cycle begins again. residence in Arkham. Hotels, apartment
buildings, and boarding houses of
varying quality exist; those with rooms
to let are listed in the want-ad section
of the Arkham Advertiser.
393 Arkham
Strange Aeons
The quality of an investigator's hours weekly, and keep hours appropriate

housing depends upon annual income. An to newspaper deadlines. An untenured
investigator can spend up to 35% of total full-time University professor (academic
income for lodging, food, and utilities load of 18 classroom hours a week) earns
without living beyond his or her means. about $300.00 a month.
An investigator may spend more or less No one in Arkham gets paid vacations,
than this percentage, but significantly there is no social security, nor does
greater or lesser allotments should recognizable hospital insurance exist. An
reflect on Credit Rating, which alters investigator can, of course, insure
the chance for personal or commercial individually against death or injury
loans. Other ramifications of housing with any insurance agent, and build up a
choice will arise from time to time; in a cash equity usable as savings in an
small town, everyone notices everything. emergency. Emergency hospitalization
Folks know the value of a dollar. does exist on a charity basis, but
Boarding house prices usually include payment arrangements must be made.
two meals a day, housekeeping, and When getting new employment, the
possibly laundry. investigator's player should roll to
Residence costs for an apartment and a establish the annual income of the job.
hotel room vary proportionately for GMs might require annual rerolls for
food, service, and utilities: deduct, free-lancer income, to reflect the ups and
respectively. downs of self-employment. Holding down
any small-town job will be impossible if
FINDING EMPLOYMENT an investigator makes frequent journeys
to solve Mythos mysteries, since
Many job opportunities exist in businesses and shops are small, and every
Arkham. Skilled investigators might person has a vital job.
procure work. Journalists could free-
lance or get a job with either of the
newspapers; jobs exist in and around the GETTING A LOAN
University from academic positions to The following are guidelines only;
janitorial services, though competition adjust concepts and parameters as needed
for them may be keen. As the GM wishes, and desired.
any shop, store, business, or service could Credit is available to investigators
hire an investigator looking for work. who wish to purchase autos, airplanes,
Though costs are low compared to and other high-priced equipment. Two
Boston, no investigator is going to make banks (Arkham First Bank and Miskatonic
much money in Arkham, where hourly Valley Savings) serve Arkham, and at
rates and salaries remain fixed for least one alternate personal loan service
decades. (Arkham Loan Agency) exists. Compute
A janitor makes $1 +1D100 cents per interest charges at 3% to 5% per year.
hour on a 48 hour week, for instance. A Investigators could try each
skilled senior craftsman might make up institution to shop for the best deal.
to $3.50 an hour. A cub reporter for Loan types are auto, personal, home
either newspaper makes $20-25.00 a week equity, and commercial. All loans require
(the lesser amount if from out of town, collateral, and each type of loan has a
the higher if known to the editor); a maximum limit on amount: auto, no more
seasoned hand makes about $45.00 a week, than 40% of the investigator's annual
not counting an occasional bonus. income; personal, no more than 25% of the
Reporters always work more than 40 investigator's annual income; home
Arkham 394
equity, no more than 50% of the home's female, add b to the check.
assessed value; commercial, no more than Co-Signer: downgrade the difficulty of
the lender thinks advisable, or 50% of the check once. A co-signer must be a life-
the value of the collateral. long resident of Arkham or be an
Each lending institution has a exceptionally important resident of
different chance of granting each type Boston.
of loan; see their individual entries for Term of the loan depends on the
terms. amount: for $ 1,000 or less, ask repayment
The chance of successfully acquiring a in one year or less; for $ 1,001 to $4,000,
loan is based on the investigators ask repayment in two years or less; for
Negotiation skill. The GM sets a $4,001 and up, ask repayment in three
difficulty of the loan, usually Average years or less. Tailor large financial
(dd), or even Hard (ddd) if the bank transactions, such as bond floats,
deems the investigator unlikely to be individually.
able to make due payments on the loan. In the 1920s, purchases of homes were
Use your judgement in each given arranged somewhat differently than now.
individual situation. And modify the Middle and lower-income homes might be
difficulty of the check by applying the paid-for weekly, for a dollar or two, for
modifiers below. five years; after sixty months, a large
Residency: less than two years a balloon payment became due, amounting
resident, increase difficulty once. to most or all of the loan principle. The
Lifelong resident, reduce the difficulty weekly payments might satisfy only the
once. interest on the mortgage. Future bank
Property Owner: own a house, decrease loan applications would certainly be
the difficulty of the check once. Owns affected negatively by eviction.
house and additional real estate,
downgrade the difficulty of the check THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
once.
Room and Board Level: frugal, add bb
REPUTABLE
to the check (spends 25% or less of income Because the STRANGE AEONS game often
is played as a series of globetrotting
on room and board). Respectable, add b to
adventures, many games and campaigns
the check (spends 26%-35% on room and
rarely use or think about the
board). Spendthrift, add b to the check
availability of cashflow except as a
(spends 36%-50% on room and board).
momentary hindrance: “To get dynamite,
Wastrel, add bb to the check (spends 51%
roll your Negotiation or Streetwise
or more on room and board).
check, and we'll see if you strangers
Current Employment: less than two
impress the storekeeper as upright
years, upgrade the difficulty of the
citizens." But a campaign based in Arkham
check once. More than five years at same
and played out in Arkham and its
job, downgrade the difficulty of the
surrounds means that many town
check once.
characters become neighbors, and that
Savings: if only a small amount, add b investigator reputations and contacts
to the check. Large savings amount to accumulate from adventure to adventure.
significant collateral, add b to the Gossip is a staple in Arkham:
check, and should be judged on a per-case investigators should find that most
basis. residents quickly get all the news not
Marital Status: married, add b to the fit to print. 'Notorious' implies that a
check. Single male, no modifier. Single
395 Arkham
Strange Aeons
resident will know of and judge another • Arkham Amateur Theatre Company:
by his or her reputation. headquartered at the Manley Theatre (670
Investigator choices and actions will Gedney Street, entry 109).
certainly alter investigator reputations, • Daughters of the American
and to that end their notoriety changes Revolution: a conservative women's
should be part of scenario conclusions, organization dedicated to community
should be taken into account when service and patriotic Americanism (432 W
participating in clubs and activities, and Saltonstall Street, entry 813).
should be at issue wherever the GM finds • Eye of Amara: a mystic society
the theme pertinent. headquartered in a mansion (131 E
GMs may want to note sizable losses or Saltonstall Street, entry 904).
gains of fame in Arkham-related • Gun Club: pheasant and partridge
incidents, and insist that investigator shooters meet at various private homes or
sheets also record notably good or bad in the field. The owner of Parrington's
deeds. Doing so makes sense of the fact gun shop (417 W Main Street, entry 416) is
that those invaluable Arkham president and founder.
connections mean nothing to a yawning • Historical Society: dedicated to the
New York City police sergeant. preservation of Arkham's historical sites
On the reverse of their investigator and memorabilia (531 S. Garrison Street,
sheets, players may also want to note who entry 901).
in Arkham their investigators meet and • Masonic Lodge: a secretive mens'
get along with – good deeds and good 'mystic society' with strong professional
connections can open all the resources of ties, frequently involved in civic affairs
the town. (679 Brown Street, entry 107). An informal
associate group for women exists. The
JOINING A CLUB Catholic church forbids membership in
this organization.
Once settled in, an investigator might
join a club or two, to get to know people. • Miskatonic Club: a posh club for
Various organizations exist and many people of good family who have money
bestow tangible benefits for membership. (411 W High Street, entry 812).
A list follows, noting each club's address • Rotary: a service organization
and entry number in the “Guide to devoted to good deeds in the community
Arkham". (650 N Garrison Street, entry 205).
• Astronomical Society: amateur • School Board: members must be
astronomers meet weekly in the warmer popularly elected, but the positions
months of the year for stargazing field carry prestige (Town Hall, entry 221).
trips. Contact Dr. Morris Billings,
Department of Astronomy, at the
University; entry 612.
MISKATONIC
• Athletic Club: a young male UNIVERSITY
professionals' association formed several Prior to the recent Dunwich Horror,
years ago as a refuge from Prohibition apparently no one at the University took
and incidentally to play handball and seriously the horrible truths to be
rugby (602 Crane Street, entry 605). found in the Necronomicon and certain
• Chamber of Commerce: a businessmen's other books on University library
organization active civically (520 Gedney shelves. Only a visit to the library by
Street, entry 125). Wilbur Whately alerts Armitage to the
dangerous knowledge within these awful
Arkham 396
tomes. Few people connected with the horrors first-hand before being
University had ever taken the time to convinced.
scan these volumes, and of those few none Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee,
bothered to make serious study. whose body was once possessed by a
Students consulted these books from Yithian, also has some knowledge of the
time to time, and outsiders such as Wilbur Mythos and is presently laying plans to
Whately of Dunwich and Ephraim Waite of accompany a future expedition to
Innsmouth were allowed free access to Australia. Peaslee has shared some of his
the volumes. In 1922, the Necronomicon information with his son, Prof. Wingate
was loaned to doctors at the Arkham Peaslee. Although Prof. William Dyer will
Sanitarium who, in an attempt to cure a eventually head the Australian
victim of amnesia, allowed their patient expedition, the Peaslees may not have
to read through it. shared their Mythos knowledge with the
While certain holdings of the library other seven professors.
were recognized as rare and as As evidenced in Lovecraft's stories,
contributing to the school's scholastic these nine individuals possess the only
reputation, it is not until October, 1928, scraps of Cthulhu Mythos at the
that anyone suspected some tomes to be University. Armitage apparently knows as
any more than odd and blasphemous. much as anyone – how much must be
Since Armitage's experiences in decided by the individual GM: the old
Dunwich, the Necronomicon and certain librarian could be conducting quiet
other volumes have been placed on a research into the matter, still not
“special restricted list". No one may grasping the ramifications of the
consult them without the express situation; at the other extreme, his alarm
permission of (usually the presence of) might be total, and he could have
Dr. Armitage. This is possibly contrary to established a global network of
the University's charter, but Armitage's correspondents – including some in the
policy has not been challenged. federal government – have hired clipping
Of course, many student librarians do services, and be actively scheming to
not know this rule, and Armitage often stifle the terrible threat to mankind.
leaves the library.
Armitage and Wilmarth know each other UNIVERSITY FACILITIES
and have discussed what their oddly- Besides the Library and Museum
linked experiences might mean. (described separately in the “Guide to
Rice and Morgan, the companions of Arkham"), the University offers other
Armitage in his excursion to Dunwich and useful services.
witnesses to the death of Wilbur Whately, Clues are often found written in
also share in Mythos knowledge. strange languages. Post-graduate
Professors Dyer, Pabodie, and Lake, students can usually be hired to make
three members of the upcoming University translations from languages unknown to
expedition to the Antarctic, have been investigators. The going rate is about
told by a concerned Wilmarth of what three dollars per thousand words, or five
might lie ahead for them. Some of them dollars total for short messages. Brain
have gone as far as to inspect the power at the University is excellent;
Necronomicon but, despite this and these academicians thrive on new ideas
despite their respect for Wilmarth and and unsettling events. Most of the
Armitage, they're good scientists, and professors have high value in at least
they'll have to experience Mythos one skill, and the younger faculty at
397 Arkham
Strange Aeons
least still have inquiring minds; if they Gazette for the years 1845-1848 and 1864-
cannot answer an investigator's question 1868. The Advertiser's volumes for the
immediately, they know where the answer years 1851-1863 are also missing, as are
might be or will continue to ponder the the Arkham Bulletin's editions for the
matter. Any professor will be intrigued years 1823-1826, and the Miskatonic
by the strange problems investigators Valley Gleaner's editions from the years
bring in. 1830-1831.
Time spent researching or testing Complete numbers for the Gazette and
objects in University labs will often be the Advertiser exist at their respective
done without charge to the investigators, newspaper offices, as any University
though the faculty is honor-bound to ask librarian will promptly say.
payment for expensive chemicals, The missing Bulletin and Gleaner
photographic plates, construction of volumes are not known to exist, but they
special machines, and so on which involve can be located in hand-made wooden
replacement of materials by the storage boxes resting undisturbed,
University. uncatalogued, and unknown in the
Investigators with good University crowded, dingy basement of the Arkham
contacts (perhaps through Armitage) can Historical Society.
get big favors performed. Investigators
known and trusted by faculty might be
given the loan of valuable scientific ARKHAM GOVERNMENT
equipment, allowed the occasional use of Town Hall, on Peabody Avenue, holds
Miskatonic facilities and vehicles, or the town offices. Arkham has an elected
introduced into the global fellowship of mayor and nine elected selectmen, all
first-rank scholarship. part-time positions. Posts are held for
GMs are cautioned that while two years; elections occur every even-
University scientific facilities are numbered year on the first Tuesday in
excellent for the period, period November. Long-time Mayor Joseph
equipment and organization is not that Peabody is being seriously challenged
much better than one might find in a for mayor by the University's energetic
decent high school these days: accurate young president, Dr. Wainscott.
balances, glasswork, optical devices, Occasionally the mayor can be found in
preparations for a variety of his Town Hall office during the week.
quantitative and qualitative analyses, The council of selectmen meets in Town
specimen collections, and established Hall the first and third Tuesdays of
technique; perhaps most importantly, the each month.
University glass-blowing facility and its
machine shop are excellent. POLICE AND COURTS
The police force, inured to student
NEWSPAPER FILES antics, are forgiving of some behavior –
As part of its service to the community, harmless high jinks are expected. Though
the University library has kept fear of offending an influential family
systematic files of both the Arkham curtails the reach of law enforcement
Gazette and the Arkham Advertiser (along into the campus community, police are not
with its two predecessors) in bound so forgiving when dealing with
volumes in its basement archives. transients and immigrants.
Portions of this collection were ruined They are unsurprised to find (if they
during the flood of 1888, including the find) professorial types snooping around
Arkham 398
old houses and cemeteries, especially if relatively immune to one-time bribes

given excuses like “field trip" or from investigators and their ilk. The
“historical research". motorcycle police assigned to traffic
Discharging a firearm in Arkham is duty are the most vulnerable, often
illegal without good reason, as is accepting a few dollars in lieu of
possessing significant explosives such as speeding citations.
dynamite or dynamite caps. Carrying a Justice Court is held five days a week,
concealed weapon is legal, though almost starting promptly at 8:30 A.M. and lasting
suspiciously pointless in this placid as long as court business provides. Judge
place. Keezar Randall likely presides. For more
Charm, Coercion, Deception, Knowledge, information about him, see entry 210 in
Leadership, and Negotiation skills are the “Guide to Arkham".
always valuable when dealing with the Most misdemeanor arrests mean at least
town constabulary, but a high reputation a night in jail, longer if it's a weekend.
renders a person nearly invulnerable to Misdemeanors and other minor crimes call
quick arrest. The police are basically for warnings, fines, or short jail terms.
honest, but they do not move without Major felonies involve murder, kidnaping,
good reason against men and women whom grand larceny (theft of anything valued
they rightfully see as their employers. in excess of $100), and major destruction
From Chief on down, the police know of property: such proceedings are bound
that beer and liquor have been entering over for trial at the Essex County
town despite Prohibition. Since even the Courthouse in Salem.
Chief enjoys a glass of Scotch in the Proceedings for some Commonwealth and
evening, the police ignore social all federal crimes are held in Boston,
infractions by private citizens as much though arrests for them can be made
as possible. Helpful officers often escort anywhere in the state.
home drunks, especially those inebriates
with high reputations. Drunks who are CRIME, CRIMINALS AND EVIL
rowdy and abusive risk being subdued, Arkham, despite long acquaintance with
taken to the station, and booked; Judge strange and often unexplained events,
Randall frequently hands out stiff views itself as a New England town
penalties to those who cannot handle isolated from and superior to the
their liquor. divisive problems and crude dangers of
The speakeasy on the north side of cities – an island of civilized virtue in
town is a unremarkable fact to most; the countryside, carved out of the
police force, government, and citizens wilderness by energy, thrift, and
look the other way, tolerating its probity, held together to this day by
existence, since it creates no problems respect, religion, and education, a place
for the town. Though they've long been superior both to the mutant hive-like
aware of gangland problems in the big cities and to the ignorance and filth of
cities, they consider Prohibition to be rural backwaters.
the responsibility of the Commonwealth Education is important in Arkham
and federal agencies. mostly as the passing on of received
Unfortunately, the bootleggers have truth which should be not unduly
spawned additional crime. A lieutenant, a disputed, analyzed, or reinterpreted.
sergeant, and a few patrolmen routinely Free inquiry decently exists only in
receive weekly pay-offs. As a whole, the business dealings and in the obligatory
force is well-paid and satisfied, and tip of the hat to the long-ago Protestant
399 Arkham
Strange Aeons
rebels in far-off Europe. tiny operations in gambling and

Murders, kidnapings, burglaries, prostitution.
disappearances, fisticuffs, and drunken Opening the Lucky Clover Cartage Co.,
and indecent behavior traditionally O'Bannion soon expanded sales of illegal
occur among the poor, especially the alcohol in Arkham and the entire
immigrant poor, not among Arkham's Miskatonic Valley. O'Bannion was not
respectable families, who ignore or never satisfied with only one racket, and began
learn of such matters. running numbers among factory workers
The occasional burglary of a fine home and in immigrant communities. As
or an important shop reaps headlines; the O'Bannion squeezes, Potrello retreats,
disappearance of the Stolkowski's knowing the game is lost.
youngest child doesn't raise an eyebrow. • Street Gangs: made up of teenage boys
• Arkham And Alcohol: some of Arkham's who have little future and lots of time,
placid character has changed since the Arkham's two street gangs, the Rocks and
18th Amendment, which barred the sale the 'Finns are ethnic Italian and Irish,
and use of alcohol for consumption on respectively.
January 16, 1920. They incidentally lie, cheat, and steal,
Like many places, Arkham never really but mostly they gather together to
went Dry. Imbibers, anticipating lean swear, boast, and gain respect. They never
years, hoarded beer, wine, and liquor. As cause trouble in wealthy neighborhoods
those sources were exhausted, illegal because they know that there the police
liquor distribution networks evolved must be unmerciful. Occasionally a new,
from Canada and Europe. Later still, turf ambitious leader arises, but an O'Bannion
wars and price competition led criminals thug either hires him or has him beaten
to set up their own distilleries. until he flees town.
Back to the days of the rum trade, Large fights between the two gangs
alcoholism in the U.S. was epidemic, linked have been infrequent lately, because
with innumerable cruelties and territory boundaries have been observed.
brutalities, but the systematic That can easily change.
prohibition against alcoholic beverages For the Irish, see entry 513; for the
created systematic crime, concentrating Italians, see 720.
fortunes in the hands of ambitious thugs. • The Evil Coven: this cruel and secret
In the early days of the 18th group has plagued Arkham since the
Amendment, most of the alcohol coming town's beginnings. For a description of
into Arkham passed through the hands of them and an instancing of the central
Joe (Giuseppe) Potrello, who still lives on members, see entry 1007.
the Lower Southside (see entry 913). • Independents: the following scoff-
Potrello handsomely profited from laws may know of each other, but never
alcohol, enough that an important source, work together. Investigators might
a Boston Irish mob, decided to annex encounter them. Some may have witnessed
Arkham. Backed by mob money, Danny Mythos events and may have been
O'Bannion (see entry 412) was sent in to influenced by what they saw. These
buy out Potrello “peaceable-like" and lawbreakers include Bartholemew Appley
become the local king-pin. His offer IV (entry 139), Larry Freen (entry 104),
refused, O'Bannion lured a Potrello Greg the Monster (entry 501), Alex Hearne
henchmen to Boston and there murdered (entry 130), Jonathan Shear (entry 816),
him. Potrello then quickly struck a deal, and Melissa Thorne (entry 310).
giving up the booze business in favor of
Arkham 400
Thurston, Tillinghast, Tilton, Tobey; U –

LOVECRAFTIAN FAMILY Updike; W - Wade, Waite, Wanton, Ward,
NAMES Warren, Washburne, Waters, Wayland, Webb,
As GMs create new characters for Weeden, West, Whately, Wheeler, Whipple,
Arkham, bear in mind that a visitor or White, Whitefield, Whitmarsh, Wilcox,
immigrant might be called almost Willett, Winthrop.
anything, but that a native would likely
bear one of a limited number of family
names. Not infrequently, a native of the
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
area might bear a surname as a given ARKHAM
name – Abbot Bicknell, for instance, or Wherein GMs learn of Arkham's past, of the
Brewster Carrington. Surnames follow in famous and the infamous, of war and trade, and
alphabetical order: of the good and evil that men do; how Arkham
became a beacon of civilization.
A - Abbott, Alexander, Allen, Angell,
A considerably younger town than
Arnold, Arthur, Ashley, Averill; B -
neighboring Kingsport or Innsmouth,
Barnard, Bellingham, Bennett, Bicknell,
colonials settled the Arkham area first
Birch, Bishop, Bixby, Bosworth, Bowen,
in the late 17th century. They were
Bradbury, Brewster, Briden, Brown,
'liberal thinkers' fleeing the oppressive
Burroughs; C - Cabot, Cahoone, Capwell,
Congregationalists of Salem and Boston.
Carew, Carrington, Carter, Chaplin, Chase,
Led by such educated men as Jeremiah
Checkley, Clark, Coffin, Corey, Cotton,
Armitage, Jebel Whately, Tristram Curwen,
Crane, Crawford, Crowninshield, Curwen,
and Abel Peabody, these earliest settlers
Cushing; D - Dalton, Danforth, Davis,
laid out the first streets on the slopes
Derby, Dexter, Dole, Dudley, Durfee,
of what is now known as French Hill. Town
Dwight; E - Eliot, Elton, Endicott; F -
meetings for “the Plantation of Arkham"
Farr, Field, Fenner, Fenton, Fowler, Frye,
were held once a month in a small wooden
Fuller; G - Gammell, Garrison, Gedney,
hall on “the first wet day of the month
Gerritson, Gifford, Goddard, Graves,
when all are to appear there at the beat
Greene; H - Halsey, Harris, Hart, Hartwell,
of a drum."
Hacket, Hathorne, Hawkins, Hill, Hetfield,
Among the least desirable of Arkham's
Holt, Hopkins, Hoppin, Houghton, Howland,
first generation were Keziah Mason and
Hutchins, Hutchinson, Hyde; I – Ilsley,
Goody Fowler, suspected witches who
Ives; J - Jackson, Jenckes, Jenkin, Jermyn;
brought with them from Salem a dark and
K – Keezar; L - Lawson, Leslie, Liddeason,
hideous cull. In 1692, Mason was
Lillibridge, Low, Lyman; M – Manning,
apprehended by King's men from Salem;
Marsh, Mason, Martin, Mather, Mathewson,
Fowler fled into the forests northwest of
Merrill, Monroe, Mowry; N – Nichols,
town. Mason was gaoled but soon
Nightingale, Noyes; O - Olney, Orne,
mysteriously escaped, never to be seen
Osborne, Osgood; P - Parker, Parsons, Peck,
again. When the New England witch-scare
Peters, Phillips, Pickering, Pickman,
ended, Goody Fowler quietly returned to
Pierce, Potter, Putnam; R – Randolph,
Arkham and resettled in her collage
Reid, Rice, Rider, Robbins, Robinson,
southwest of town. Here she indulged in
Ropes, Rowlandson, Russel; S -
evil until, in 1704, an angry mob dragged
Saltonstall, Sargent, Sawyer, Seaton,
her to a hill west of Arkham and there
Sewall, Shepley, Slocum, Smith, Snow,
hanged her by the neck. Her murderers
Spaulding, Soames, Somerby, Soulhwick,
were never arraigned or punished.
Spencer, Stafford, Stuart, Sullon; T –
Yet the dark cull remained active. One
Talbot, Thornton, Throckmorton, Thurber,
401 Arkham
Strange Aeons
member is thought responsible for library and a small museum of oddities

summoning or creating the Unnamable brought back from the West Indies and
thing present in the attic of an old beyond by Arkham ships. This collection
house on N Boundary Street. This thing can still be seen at the Miskatonic
later murdered 15 people in a nearby University Exhibit Museum. John Adams
parsonage. Pickering, Harvard-educated and of the
Arkham grew slowly through the early Arkham Pickerings, was chosen the
18th century, overshadowed by nearby- college's first president.
ingsport's successes with fisheries and During the Revolutionary War, the
trade. Arkham grew as a quiet farming Derbys and Ornes turned privateer.
communily; when prices were good, a few Operating mainly out of Kingsport, they
fishing boats slipped down to the sea. sank or captured 23 vessels under the
For many years the only way to cross the British flag, turning handsome profits.
Miskatonic was by way of Evan's ferry, After the war, the families subsidized
just large enough for a coach and four. the purchase and development of the old
In 1761, Francis Derby and Jeremiah Town Common – previously used for
Orne returned to Arkham following pasturage and militia training – and soon
successful careers as Salem sea captains. installed a now-healthily-endowed
They brought five ships between them, Miskatonic College on the new campus. A
determined to turn Arkham into another new town square was laid out on the
West Indies trade port. They built docks north side of the river, near the center
and warehouses along the north side of of town, and, after much debate, named
the river, in the area around Fish Street, Independence Square.
and for a few years Arkham was host to The end of the war marked the decline
ships plying the triangular trade, of Arkham's sea trade. Salem, Boston, and
moving slaves to the Caribbean and the New York rapidly consolidated most of
South, bringing molasses, sugar, and rum the China trade; the local remnant went
to New England, and exporting skins and to Kingsport. In 1808, the Federal
dried cod. Customs Office in Arkham was closed, and
At the height of this trade the first Arkham lost its status as a port of entry.
permanent streets north of the river Despite the loss of international
were established, and the first great trade, Arkham grew rapidly in the first
Arkham mansions – the Derby and Orne half of the 19th century, thanks to the
homes and those of their captains – rose vision of such men as Eli Saltonstall.
in the area now called Easttown. Orne and Saltonstall, formerly a captain sailing
Derby built the first bridge to span the for the Pickman family, foresaw the end
Miskatonic River, a wooden creation near of Arkham's short-lived sea trade,
the site of the present Peabody Avenue opening in 1796 Arkham's first textile
bridge. mill, on the south side of the river at
Jeremiah Orne died in 1765, leaving a the foot of East Street. More mills opened
library of 900 volumes and a bequest soon after and, as New England farming
that, administered by trustees Francis declined, Arkham grew industries.
Derby and George Locksley, was used to The industrialists – the Saltonstalls,
found Miskatonic Liberal College. The Browns, and Jenkins – laid out new
school was housed in a large two-story streets south of the college campus along
building on the south side of College the top of South Hill, and there
Street, overlooking the old Common. constructed grand Georgian/Federalist
A large second-story housed the Orne mansions, financed by large textile
Arkham 402
profits. passed limiting the proximity of taverns

In this period, in 1806, the town's first in the campus area.
newspaper, the Arkham Gazette, was In 1882, a strange meteorite landed
established, underwritten by the west of Arkham, on a farm belonging to
Federalist Derbys. Republican Nahum Gardner. Professors from the
industrialists were later to help found University investigated the meteorite
the Arkham Bulletin. By this time the but were unable to learn its true nature.
Federalist sea merchants were dwindling. In the end, the Gardner family succumbed
Their last building spree saw the to a strange disease that eventually left
construction of the mansions that border the area barren and scorched.
the Common along Federal and Curwen Unprecedented spring rains in 1888,
Streets. coupled with offshore storms that drove
By 1820, mills and supporting the sea up the Miskatonic's estuary,
industries lined the south bank of the swelled the river far over its banks. The
river, from Peabody Avenue east. Arkham worst flooding ever recorded in Arkham
became increasingly urbanized. By 1850, a caused extensive damage to the riverside
telegraph line linked the town with mills. Southwestern Arkham, as far as
Boston. Reputable scholars, in part drawn part of the University campus, was
by Miskatonic College's already famous inundated, damaging the basement
library and by the proximity of the town archives of the library and destroying
to Boston, began to join the staff. irreplaceable acquisitions.
Southwestern Arkham took on the feel of In the next years, new concrete drains
an Ivy League town. and levees eased the danger of a second
Industry continued to expand. By 1850, killer flood. A little later, trolley lines
brickyards, leather shops, shoe factories, were installed, and the first homes
watchmakers and, later, costume jewelry turned from gas light to electricity.
manufacturers lined the shores north and Telephone lines appeared. Before the end
south on the eastern side of town. A great of the century, a public sanitary water
string of warehouses, eventually system was completed.
reaching West Street, were constructed As though to spite these efforts, in
along the south shore during this period. 1905 a terrible cholera epidemic swept
In the American Civil War, Arkham's Arkham, killing many in the sudden
finest formed a company of the 23rd plague. Among the many victims was Dr.
Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. Allen Halsey, then dean of the Miskatonic
Twenty-seven young men died in the School of Medicine and a public
struggle; a memorial in Christchurch benefactor loved by all. A statue to his
Cemetery commemorates their sacrifice. memory was erected on campus and
After the Civil War, Miskatonic College presently overlooks the town he loved.
became a fullfledged university. Gas Arkham's textile mills never fully
street-lighting was nearly complete by recovered from the flood of 1888. New
1870. Visitors were frequent enough that England had lost much of the trade to
a cab service existed, working out of the the South; most of Arkham's firms,
rail depot. In 1873, Arkham created a underinsured against the disaster, never
municipal police after members of a then- reopened.
illegal fraternity got drunk at Doc In the Great War, Arkham gave its
Howard's Bar and sparked a riot that share; a bronze plaque at City Hall and a
damaged many shops and stores along Commons bronze doughboy commemorates
Church Street. A law was soon after those who fell.
403 Arkham
Strange Aeons
The economic boom in the 1920s passed employers of the poorer classes, lay off
by most of New England, whose industrial workers, and more than a few close their
base was by now in rapid decline, but doors forever.
reached Arkham by way of the University.
Town and school became inextricably
linked. Many Arkham shops cater greatly A LOVECRAFT
or exclusively to the needs of the CHRONOLOGY
University community. In 1928, the school This is H.P. Lovecraft's chronology of
is the heart of the town's economy. Its events in or near Essex County, as can be
administrators and faculty form part of reckoned now. Certain notes in the “Guide
the newest of Arkham's aristocracies. to Arkham" chapter differ from this
chronology.
ARKHAM TODAY 1643: Innsmouth founded.
1692: Whatelys, Bishops come to Dunwich
Though New England's fortunes
declined after the Great War, local from Salem.
survey shows that 83% of Arkham 1747: The Reverend Abijah Hoadley,
homeowners possess electric irons, 77% newly come to the Congregational pulpit
have gas or electric washing machines, in Dunwich village, preaches against the
and 51 % have or plan to purchase vacuum well-known rumblings in the surrounding
cleaners. Nearly 50% of Arkham families hills, claiming them to be the work of the
own at least one automobile, and devil. Soon after delivering the sermon,
merchants complain of those who park the Reverend disappears.
their machines in front of shops all day. 1846: Marsh is followed out to Devil
The interurban trollies that once Reef one night and, along with 32 others,
linked Arkham, Ipswich, Kingsport, is arrested and jailed. Shortly after
Bolton, and Salem have been abandoned this, Marsh escapes jail and half the
with the coming of the automobile. A bus town is wiped out by “epidemic and riot".
line has recently re-established some of 1846: Captain Obed Marsh takes a second
these routes. wife; no one in Innsmouth ever sees her.
Problems persistently arise between 1863: Federal conscription agents visit
Town and University. At present, the cost Innsmouth after this date, but take no
of campus police protection is being action.
debated. The University's young 1882 (June): A meteorite falls on Nahum
president, Dr. Wainscott, has dared to Gardner's farm just west of Arkham, not
enter the controversy by running for close enough to town to be heard. News of
mayor. Even if the election in November it reaches Arkham the next morning.
goes to the University, the perennial Three University professors promptly
struggle for power between Town and visit the site, then return the next day
University will not end. when their first specimen fades away
Though there is no boom, the new when placed inside a glass beaker.
construction of apartment buildings, 1883 (March): Vegetation around the
University buildings, and filling Gardner farm grows noticeably large.
stations attests to general prosperity. University professors again visit and
However, much of this construction slows dismiss the phenomenon as unimportant.
or dies after the stock market crash in 1890: Lavinia Whately's mother
1929. Arkham, feels the effects much less disappears under strange circumstances.
than other towns in the area, but it is 1905: Typhoid strikes Arkham, killing
hurt. Most of Arkham's industries, many. At the height of the epidemic, an
Arkham 404
insane killer strikes, killing 15 people lips and cheeks fuzzy with a coarse, dark
before capture by police. He bears an down.
uncanny resemblance to Dr. Allan Halsey, 1922 (Yule): The unnamed protagonist of
former Dean of the School of Medicine at “The Festival" experiences horror in
Miskatonic University and a recent Kingsport.
typhoid victim. 1923: A second great siege of carpentry
1908 (May 14): Prof. Nathaniel Wingate begins as Old Whately guts the second
Peaslee collapses while conducting a floor of the house.
class at the University, and is subjected 1924 (August 1, Lammas night): Dr.
to many years of amnesia. Houghton of Aylesbury is summoned to
1912 (April 30, evening): Loud noises in the Whately house by Wilbur. At 1 A.M.
the Dunwich hills are heard in Arkham. Houghton witnesses the death of Old
The sound marks the conception of Wilbur Whately.
Whately and of his twin brother. Soon 1925: Dr. Henry Aimitage of Miskatonic
after, Old Whately renovates the second University calls upon Wilbur Whately at
floor of his house and boards up the the latter's home in Dunwich. Armitage
windows on that floor. has corresponded with Whately for some
1913 (February 2, Candlemas): Wilbur time.
Whately is born in Dunwich. 1926 (October 31): Lavinia Whately
1913 (October 31, Beltane): In Dunwich a disappears.
great blaze is seen atop Sentinel Hill. 1927: Wilbur Whately moves his library
1915 (April 30, evening): Powerful and effects into two sheds and begins new
tremors emanate from Sentinel Hill, felt carpentry work on the house, boarding up
as far away as Aylesbury. This occurs all the ground floor windows and
annually for the next ten years. removing the interior walls.
1915 (September): Prof. Laban 1927 (July 15/16): An outsider's visit to
Shrewsbury of Arkham disappears while Innsmouth precipitates an investigation
walking alone down a country lane west by the federal government.
of town. 1927 (November 3): Unprecedented
1915 (October 31, Beltane): Powerful flooding in Vermont washes strange pink
rumblings from atop Sentinel Hill are bodies down the swollen rivers.
accompanied by bursts of flame on the 1927 (Winter): Federal officials make a
summit. This occurs annually for the next secret and continuing investigation of
ten years. strange conditions in Innsmouth.
1917: When the Dunwich draft board has 1927 (Winter): Continuing into 1928,
trouble filling its quota, several Wilbur Whately visits the Miskatonic
federal inspectors and doctors arrive to University Library to copy a formula
investigate. Stories of wholesale from the dread Necronomicon. Dr. Armitage
degeneracy are picked up by the Boston refuses his requests to borrow the book.
Globe and the Arkham Advertiser, who 1928 (January): Walter Gilman
promote the area's weirdness to increase experiences bizarre dreams while rooming
circulation. Stories include Wilbur's in Arkham's Witch House.
precociousness, Old Whately's black magic 1928 (February): Federal and state
and his shelves of strange books, the officials make a coordinated series of
sealed second story of their ancient arrests and raids on Innsmouth, followed
farmhouse, and the hill noises. A photo by the deliberate burning and
shows Wilbur at four and a half years dynamiting of a number of empty
old, although he appears to be fifteen – buildings along the waterfront. Most
405 Arkham
Strange Aeons
people believe the actions connected with escapes the Vermont farmhouse in terror
whiskey smuggling. A submarine of what he has learned.
reportedly torpedoes certain portions of 1928 (September 14, Friday): Armitage,
Devil Reef, a mile and a half east of Rice, and Morgan set out for Dunwich by
Innsmouth. motor. They soon learn of the destruction
1928 (May 1): Walter Gilman dies when of the Frye farm and discover that five
his heart is eaten out by Keziah Mason's state policeman are apparently missing.
familiar, Brown Jenkin. That night Seth Bishop, Sally Sawyer, and
1928 (June): Prof. Wilmarth receives a her son Chauncey, are all destroyed by
phonograph recording from Vermont. The the Horror.
recording contains the voices of the Mi- 1928 (September 15): Armitage, Rice, and
Go. Morgan destroy the Dunwich Horror atop
1928 (August 3, Tuesday): Wilbur Sentinel Hill.
Whately attempts to steal the 1928 (October 7): While on a visit to
Miskatonic's Necronomicon but is killed Arkham, Randolph Carter mysteriously
by the school's watchdog. disappears. His abandoned auto is
1928 (September 2, Sunday): After discovered parked at the foot of Elm
nearly a month's work, Armitage succeeds Mountain.
in translating the first complete passage 1928: Probable year in which Edward
from Wilbur Whately's annals. Derby and Asenath Waite marry.
1928 (September 3): Armitage reads all 1930 (September 2): The Miskatonic
day. University expedition to the Antarctic,
1928 (September 4): Morgan and Rice sponsored by the Nathaniel Pickman
visit Armitage and he tells them Derby Foundation, leaves Boston harbor
something terrible. They leave pale and aboard the brig Arkham and the barque
shaken. Miskatonic.
1928 (September 5): Wilmarth receives a 1930 (October 20): Miskatonic's
warning from his Vermont correspondent, expedition reaches the Antarctic Circle.
Akeley. “Look out for yourself too," is 1931 (January 24): Atwood and Lake fall
part of the message. victim to the horrors in Antarctica.
1928 (September 9, Sunday): The Dunwich 1931 (March): A gale destroys the roof
Horror is spotted for the first time by of Arkham's now-deserted Witch House.
Luther Brown, a hired boy of George 1935: Miskatonic's expedition to the
Corey's, who was walking the cows to western Australia desert begins.
pasture. Sally Sawyer's son, Chauncey,
later discovers that the Whately house is
destroyed, as though it had been A GUIDE TO ARKHAM
Important, Exemplary, and curious Locations in
exploded from the inside. The first
the Town of Arkham and Environs, With Notes;
wounded cows, belonging to Seth Bishop, Particular Inhabitants Are Described and
are discovered. Pictured, and Pertinent Statistics for them
1928 (September 11): The Horror attacks Supplied.
Elmer Frye's farm, destroying his barn Arkham has nine neighborhoods.
and three-quarters of his cattle. Beginning north of the Miskatonic with
1928 (September 13, Thursday): The the Northside, those neighborhoods in
Dunwich Horror wipes out the Elmer Frye this guide are numbered 100-300, left to
family at 3 A.M.. right across the town; south of the river,
1928 (September 13): After a short visit neighborhoods 400-900 are treated
with his 'friend', Akeley, Wilmarth similarly. Each neighborhood has its own
Arkham 406
section in this guide. W Saltonstall Avenue is found on the

Neighborhood maps are sub-divided north side of the street, facing south
into two or three map areas, often and near the corner of Garrison.
occurring on separate pages. This does Addresses followed by 1/2 (110 1/2
not affect the consecutiveness of the Walnut, for example) may indicate
printed entries. separate secondfloor apartments or
Every town entry in the “Guide To offices.
Arkham" has been assigned a three-digit Some streets, such as Walnut, which
number: the first digit indicates in which occur only in one quadrant of town do
of the nine neighborhoods the reference not bear the mostly-ubiquitous N/S/E/W
can be found. The succeeding digits are prefix.
the index number for the particular Twists and turns sometimes throw the
building, business, residence, or location. numbers awry, as will new structures or
Thus entry reference 202 is found in the additions. Addresses located on courts or
Downtown area, neighborhood 2, as the alleys can also make street numbers
second entry listed for that confusing.
neighborhood. Entries are ordered not by Alleys, with the exception of Orne's
consecutive street address, but by an Gangway, are not noted on the maps and
arbitrary entry number. are left to the GM's discretion. Typically,
After all town entries, a tenth section, alleys are numerous, twisting, badly-
Outskirts, numbered 1001-1015, discusses lighted or pitch-black, and uninviting.
points of interest beyond the town.
No attempt has been made to populate
the entire town. Though of absorbing NORTHSIDE
interest to scholars, Arkham is on the The ground in this part of town slopes
whole an unexceptional small university up more or less steadily from the river
town, rightly regarding itself as until cresting along Derby Street.
ordinary and as a cut above average. As a Derby and Curwen Streets, particularly
home or as a place to visit, Arkham must near the intersection of Brown and
be able to grow and to change. No two Jenkin, boast a number of large Georgian,
campaign-Arkhams can or should be Classical, and Victorian mansions. Most
identical in details have large yards, often enclosed by stone
walls and iron gates; estates along the
north side of Derby may have extensive
FINDING AN ADDRESS grounds.
As recently adopted by the selectmen, South of Curwen Street begins a
Arkham possesses a systematic house- commercial and financial area containing
numbering system. Beginning at the many professional offices. Landmarks
intersection of Main and Garrison, blocks include the seven-story Tower
have been numbered in ascending 100s, in Professional Building, the Boston &
the four cardinal directions. Maine rail station, and Arkham's two
Larger blocks, such as College and newspapers, the Gazette and the
Pickman Streets west of Garrison count as Advertiser.
four blocks in the scheme. Along High Lane, stretching north out
Traveling as the house numbers ascend, of town, is a small industrial strip home
even-numbered addresses occur to the to a few small factories, but in part
right, and odd-numbered addresses to the abandoned.
left.
Thus Albert N. Wilmarth's house at 118
407 Arkham
Strange Aeons
101: PUMP HOUSE & WATER 102: POTTER'S FIELD

TOWER 945 N Garrison Street. The traditional
560 W Derby Street. This pumping resting place of indigents, transients,
station pulls water out of the and those without friends or next of kin.
Miskatonic, filters it (though it does not Herbert West made use of Potter's Field
purify it), and pumps it to a high storage when conducting his reanimation
tower nearby. The gravity feed from the experiments. Ghouls inhabit the place.
tower insures decent water pressure for
the entire town. The pump house is 103: LABAN SHREWSBURY
manned at all times. 498 (formerly 493) W Curwen Street.
Over 60 feet high, the tower overlooks Home of the noted anthropologist, Dr.
the town. Iron rungs are attached to one Laban Shrewsbury, who disappeared in
of the legs and lead up to a narrow 1915. The house is kept locked and the
catwalk that encircles the storage tank. taxes and insurance paid from
From this vantage point the entire town Shrewsbury's estate by attorney E.E.
of Arkham can be viewed. The tower also Saltonstall, who also keeps the keys for
acts as an emergency reserve in case the the place.
pumps break down. Useful books and manuscripts exist in
Public health officials declare that Shrewsbury's library: a second hand-
purer water is needed, and engineers written copy of the Celaeno Fragments,
emphasize that the town has outstripped identical to the one deposited at the
its present supplies, and that a reserve Miskatonic University Library, copies of
of less than 100,000 gallons is the Sussex Manuscript, Zanthu Tablets,
dangerously insufficient. The proposed and the Eltdown Shards as well as copies
reservoir west of town would solve of his own books, Cthulhu in the
Arkham's water problems. Necronomicon and An Investigation into
Arkham 408
Myth Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives 106: GUARDIAN APARTMENTS

with Especial Reference to the R'lyeh 622 Brown Street. Built in 1925, it's
Text (see the Miskatonic University four stories tall. Threeroom apartments
Library for details). rent for $60 per month and are spacious
Stashed in a locked desk drawer is a and comfortable. Maintenance is good.
full translation of the R'lyeh Text, Each apartment has hot and cold running
transcribed in code. Those lacking water, a bathtub, a kitchen sink, an
experience in Cryptography cannot icebox, and a four-burner gas stove with
decipher it. oven.
Although he disappeared in 1915, Professor Shalad of Miskatonic's
Shrewsbury is actually in Celaeno, Oriental Studies department resides here.
studying the forbidden books and
manuscripts contained in that gigantic
library. 107: MASONIC LODGE
679 Brown Street. A practical 'mystic
society' for men only, more dedicated to
104: THE SPEAKEASY rational thinking and professional
721 N Garrison Street. This clandestine contacts than airy dreams. Membership is
tavern is for respectable Arkham $65 a year, by invitation only. A member
residents; laborers and other rowdy may add an automatic s to Social skill
types are not admitted, and that (and its checks when someone responds to the
quasi-respectable business hours) secret handshake. In Arkham, a
explains in great part why the community professional or businessman has a 25%
tolerates it. The speakeasy pays a small chance of being a Mason.
stipend to the regular beat patrolmen,
but the police know it exists; they
tolerate it because it never causes them 108: ARKHAM GAZETTE
trouble. 350 W Hyde Street. Arkham's first
Enter it down unmarked basement newspaper, the Gazette was established in
stairs. The doorman opens a window in the 1806 by Aaron Crane, its first editor and
door and decides who can enter. Sam publisher. It began daily publication in
always admits strangers accompanied by a 1894; before then it was a fat weekly. It
regular patron. Established regulars is still owned by the Crane family;
come and go as they please. Expect to Michael Crane, 62 years old, is managing
spend 25-75 cents a drink, depending on editor, though he does little more these
quality, availability, and the presence days than read the mail and curse his
of a band. Business hours are from noon rival publisher, Harvey Gedney.
to 9 P.M.; closed Sundays. The Gazette is published at 3 A.M. Six
O'Bannion's Boston mob financiers own mornings a week; Sunday papers are run
the place; local thugs can be found there Saturday afternoon at 2 P.M. and
regularly. distributed that evening. Though it has
happened five times since 1900, it takes a
big event for a Gazette special edition.
105: JENKIN PUBLIC SCHOOL Issues currently cost 4 cents, since it's
488 W Hyde Street. Grades 1-8 meet here a bigger paper than the Advertiser,
from the first Monday in September till publishing about 20% more text daily
the last Friday of May. than its Arkham rival. Sunday issues cost
7 cents.
Of the two Arkham newspapers, the
409 Arkham
Strange Aeons
Gazette is the more conservative, The Arkham Amateur Theatre players pay
featuring town and valley news to the a major portion of the rent (the season
virtual exclusion of international begins rehearsals in February and lasts
events. It is specially notable for its through August), as do Mrs. Turner's
large number of county correspondents University Players (see entry 615), who
which report family visits and other schedule performances throughout the
crossroads events. It has never missed an school year.
edition in 122 years of publishing. Crane Arkham Amateur Theatre Company: the
has been more protective of area company rehearses and performs in the
businessmen, notables, and old families, Manley Theatre. Their last production
and they have rewarded his concern with was Eugene O'Neill's “Anna Christie",
larger display ads and longer starring Elizabeth Peabody, youngest
subscriptions. daughter of Arkham's mayor. Joseph
Stored in the basement is a complete Peabody.
collection of Gazettes – at the GM's Investigators inclined to strut the
option, a small portion might be missing. boards find it inexpensive to join (a $20
This collection is priceless, since no initiation fee and $10 annual dues). Hours
other exists. Beginning in the 1880s, can occasionally be long. Cast parties at
issues were printed on acid-processed the end of a production are reputedly
paper, and these later years have become wild.
more fragile. Access to these archives is
grudging. 110: JEDEDIAH MARSH &
Gazette office hours are 8 A.M.-5 P.M.,
Monday-Friday, and 8 A.M.-noon on ASSOCIATES
Saturday. 622 Jenkin Street. A highly reputable
firm with both legal and accounting
branches, specializing in New England
109: MANLEY THEATRE genealogies, burials, cargo salvages, tax
670 Gedney Street. The Manley shows a records, title searches, etc. They are
few movies and a bit of vaudeville, but especially familiar with the Miskatonic
prides itself on being a legitimate stage.
Arkham 410
Valley, including Innsmouth, Aylesbury, to repossess. Use the following base rates
and Newburyport, and are well-known in to figure the chance for a loan with the
New England. Negotiation skill: auto, Daunting
Their fees are reasonable, but they (dddd); personal and commercial, Hard
delay outside work in favor of their (ddd); home mortgage, Average (dd). By
retainer clients. They undertake appointment only.
ordinary historical or legal researches
for $5.00 hourly, with an 80% chance of 113: ARKHAM FUEL & COAL CO.
successful completion.
562 High Lane. Bulk coal and fuel oil
delivered or you haul it away. Open 8
111: TERRACE BUILDING A.M.- 5 P.M., Monday-Friday.
611 Gedney Street. This four-story
building, only ten years old, offers rooms 114: CONSTRUCTION SITE
for $45 a month. It is a decent place to
570 N West Street. Bulldozers and steam
live, though not as well-fitted as the
shovels grind around this lot. At the
Guardian Apartments, for instance. Baths
perimeter of a large excavation,
are shared. One tenant is a professional
foundations are being poured for a new
psychic and medium.
four-story apartment building. Builders
optimistically tout a May opening, but
112: ARKHAM LOAN AGENCY most Arkhamites are betting they'll be
621 N Gedney Street. This tiny lucky to be ready for the University's
establishment specializes in higher-risk fall semester.
loans, or other sorts of loans which the
local banks will not place. Accordingly, 115: HARDING HOUSE
interest rates are higher. They are quick
561 Brown Street. A middle-priced
411 Arkham
Strange Aeons
boarding house run by William and Grace mysteriously during a late-night

Harding. Open respectable hours. Rooms go autopsy.
for $75 a month but the landlords are Dr. G.R. Feldman, Dentist, Suite 1B:
notoriously crabby and rule-bound. The besides performing fillings and
nearby construction site is currently extractions, he is a competent oral
noisy. surgeon who does emergency
reconstructive work without needing to
116: TARANOWSKI BAKERY refer to a Boston specialist. He uses the
511 Brown Street. The best in town. controversial-tosome gas anesthetics,
Taranowski opened this first shop on the always in the company of a nurse, and
north side five years ago, shortly after keeps ample supplies of nitrous oxide in
coming to Arkham. He soon opened a second his storeroom.
shop near campus. Delicious. Open 4:30 A.M. Gedney & Brown, Brokers, Suite 2A:
to 3 P.M., Monday-Saturday; closed scions of these two long-time Arkham
Thursday. families have operated this brokerage
for 12 years. The market has been strong
for most of the decade, and business is
117: MISS CHRISTIAN'S SCHOOL profitable. They've reinvested most of
FOR MODERN WOMEN the profits in the Market, unfortunately:
577 Jenkin Street. Teaches elocution to when the Crash comes next year, the
women only, and in effect functions as a brokerage is wiped out, and James Gedney,
feminist assertiveness school. Initial 38, commits suicide the next day by
classes costs a mere $12 and last three jumping from the Tower Professional
hours a week for four weeks. Building roof. Gordon Brown keeps his
nerve and later holds an important
118: TOWER PROFESSIONAL command in World War II.
Manton & Manton, Real Estate, Suite 2B:
BUILDING buying and selling property in rural New
350 W Armitage Street. This seven-story England can be a slow business. The
office building is one of the tallest University generates some activity, but
structures in town. It has two six-person much of the Manton income derives from
elevators, front and back stairs, and two work done as property managers and
fire escapes. It houses a number of factotums. Their most recent sale was of
different professional offices. A Crowninshield Manor to Edward Derby and
watchman, 67-year-old Sawyer Lyman, his bride, the former Asenath Waite.
patrols it at night. There are four suites Stieglitz & Son, Suite 3A: Elliot
per floor; usually 4 to 7 suites in the Stigleitz, 48, and his son Michael, 23, will
building are unoccupied. be happy to sell you life, home, auto, and
Dr. Ephraim Sprague, Suite 1A: this commercial property insurance. They do
Arkham-born physician is 42 and owns a not underwrite business ventures, freight
moderately successful practice. For the shipments, or sea voyages.
last two years he has also been Essex Edwin Cassidy, Attorney-At-Law, Suite
County's medical examiner for Arkham, 4A: he is 28, a bright young Harvard
taking up such responsibilities when the graduate who has inherited a
County Coroner is unavailable. As one seconduncle's declining practice and will
might guess, 1928 proves to be a banner attempt to improve it for the next few
year for this part of his income. Dr. years despite the indifference and
Sprague purchased his practice from the downright hostility of his straight-
estate of an aging M.D. who died
Arkham 412
necked New England neighbors. He and 120: HARDWICKE'S STAMP &

crotchety Judge Keezar Randall of the
municipal court do not get along; COINS
increase the difficulty fo any check if 562 Jenkin Street. Mr. Hardwicke is
he deals with Judge Randall. expert in North American coins and
Dr. Allen Turner, M.D., Suite 5A: Now 59 stamps, and a sound historian of New
years old, and semi-retired, Dr. Turner England to boot. He deals his rarities
has taken an interest in psychoanalysis, mostly by mail. He's always eager to buy
a fashionable treatment for neurotic collections. He belongs to the Arkham
disorders, and has quietly begun an Historical Society.
experimental practice in it – 'quietly'
because few Arkhamites believe that 121: UPTOWN LAUNDRY
anything having to do sexual fantasy, 565 Gedney Street. The shop has
identity, or perception can be much above laundry and dry-cleaning services; pants
gutter talk. He depends entirely for can be pressed while you wait; shirts
patients upon references from a handful always return heavily starched.
of Boston-area physicians.
122: WORLDWIDE CLIPPING
119: J. J. ABBOTT, TAXIDERMIST SERVICE
588 Jenkin Street. Out of the corners of 520 Jenkin Street. Located between the
his eyes, around his wire-rim glasses, the Advertiser and the Gazette, for $1.50 a
mild-mannered Abbott surreptitiously week Worldwide keeps an eye on the two
examines his clients, imagining them local papers and selected papers from
stripped and armatured to pedestals. Boston and New York, clipping items
Abbott enjoys his work, whatever he concerning a specified interest. For $4 a
mounts. week and up, they'll make national and
413 Arkham
Strange Aeons
international searches. Each specified protection and growth of town business,

topic requires separate payment. trade, and finance. Membership costs $50 a
year, and the member must be a property-
123: E. E. SALTONSTALL & owner. Membership allows an investigator
to add s on Negotiation skill checks and
ASSOCIATES has no real requirements, except that the
511 Gedney Street. This venerable member runs a 10% risk each month of
lawyer occupies the Saltonstall serving on a charity or special-project
ancestral home on W Saltonstall Street; committee.
he wears high stiff collars and black Election to the Chamber's governing
suits, as befits a man of substance. He has board requires a minimum Negotiation
exceptional influence with Judge skill of rank 3, and a commitment of 16
Randall: as Saltonstall wishes, increase hours to the Board each month.
or decrease any skill check concerning Membership on the board allows the
Saltonstall and Randall's court. investigator to decrease difficulty of
Saltonstall accepts as clients only the Negotiations checks once after three
most respectable, and turns down any man months of successful service.
he feels is a cad, no matter what the fee. The governing board is presently split
over whether to invite new industry to
124: RARE BOOKS AND MAPS Arkham, or to be content as a center for
588 Gedney Street. This shop is too the University and the surrounding
expensive for most locals. Like countryside.
Hardwicke's stamp and coin business, the
majority of Edwin Tillinghast's trade is 126: ARKHAM BALER COMPANY
done by mail. Valuable books and maps 523 W Armitage Street. Founded in 1872,
are not on display. Students rarely Arkham Baler presently flounders near
frequent this place, though people like bankruptcy. The company boomed during
Stuart Portman and Edward Derby do. the World War. They now employ 12 people,
Original editions of Mather's works, and mostly manufacturing and shipping
holographs by Washington, Jefferson, replacement parts. The majority of the
Hamilton, and others are among the many plant has already been sold. The company
gems of Tillinghast's collection. He is disappears in 1930.
strong in 15th-16th century Dutch,
Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English
charts, and in Colonial-era coastal 127: ARKHAM BUS LINE
sailing guides. 411 N West Street. Compared to the
Those who express an interest in train, the ride is slower, bumpier, and, in
esoterica are offered a splendid edition the winter or rainy months, occasionally
of Cultes des Goules for a mere $750. hazardous, but the bus can stop almost
Tillinghast belongs to the Arkham anywhere.
Historical Society and has a lively Salem/Boston: Monday through
interest in New England and Western Saturday, holidays excepted. The fare to
European history. Boston is $1.45, to Salem 35 cents. The
coach leaves Arkham at 7:15 and 9:30 A.M.,
and 12:30,4:30, and 7:30 P.M., respectively.
125: ARKHAM CHAMBER OF The bus arrives in Salem 15 minutes later,
COMMERCE stops for five minutes, then continues on
520 Gedney Street. This business to Boston. It arrives in Boston at 8:30 and
organization is dedicated to the
Arkham 414
Advertiser tends to print more features

10:45 A.M., and 1:45,5:45, and 8:45 P.M. From
Boston, daily departures for Salem and (especially about technical and scientific
Arkham occur at 9:00 and 11:15 A.M., and at
wonders, which Gedney favors), comics, and
2:15, 6:15, and 9:15 P.M. ethnically-slanted international news
Kingsport: Monday through Saturday, than does the Gazette.
except holidays. Fare is 25 cents one-way. Regular office hours are 8 A.M. to 6
It departs Arkham at 9:15 A.M. and 12:15,P.M., Monday-Friday. Someone is usually in
3:15 and 7:15 P.M., respectively. The trip
the office or the pressroom, even at
takes 20 minutes. Departures from midnight, but everything closes tight
Kingsport occur at 9:55 A.M., and at 12:55,
from 10 P.M. Saturday to 8 P.M. Sunday.
3:55 and 7:55 P.M., respectively. The regular morning edition runs off at
Dean's Corners/Aylesbury: Monday, 3 A.M. If news warrants, revised editions –
Wednesday, and Friday only; no holiday extras – run at 8 A.M., or 11:30 A.M., or 4:30
schedules. Dean's Corners costs $3.50 andP.M. These later editions are in small
Aylesbury $3.75. Departs Arkham at 10:30 quantity, for local street-sale
A.M., arriving in Dean's Corners at 1:15 P.M.
distribution only. A story is rarely big
After a five-minute stopover, it arrives enough to warrant four editions in one
in Aylesbury at 1:45 P.M. The return tripday. Only one edition each appears
to Arkham begins at 2:00 P.M., reaches Saturday and Sunday. The Sunday edition
Dean's Corners at 2:30 P.M., and returns to
is run and distributed Saturday night.
Arkham at 5:15 P.M. Daily editions cost 3 cents; the Sunday
Ipswich/Newburyport: Monday-Friday, paper costs 7 cents. Special editions are
except holidays. Buses leave Arkham at printed for the Fourth of July, Armistice
10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. Ipswich costs 75Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter,
and Newburyport 95 cents. Buses arrive inwith as many display ads as Gedney can
Ipswich at 10:15 A.M. and 2:15 P.M., wait 15
sell to local businesses.
minutes, and then arrive in Newburyport The publisher and managing editor is
11:25 A.M. and 3:25 P.M., respectively. 42-year-old Harvey Gedney, whose family
Return trips to Arkham depart has owned the paper since 1832. He
Newburyport at 12 noon and 4:00 P.M., employs two full-time reporter/editors, a
stopping at Ipswich at 12:55 and 4:55 P.M.,
secretary, a linotypist, a caseman, two
and reach Arkham at 1:25 and 5:25 P.M. pressmen, a circulation manager, an
This is the company's newest line, advertising manager, and part-time help
established only last month. and correspondents as needed.
Along two walls behind the secretary's
128: ARKHAM ADVERTISER desk is a nearcomplete bound collection
389 W Armitage Street. The Arkham of the Advertiser since it began
Bulletin, the forerunner of the publication. Richard Gedney, who first
Advertiser, first published in 1821. In bought the paper, foolishly discarded
1828, the paper changed hands and was the Bulletin and Gleaner years. Some
renamed The Miskatonic Valley Gleaner. issues can be located at the University's
The Gleaner appeared for four years, library. Few people are interested in old
then was sold, reappearing as the Arkham newspapers, and the staff is always
Advertiser. flattered when anyone wants to take a
The Advertiser is the more aggressive look. Though they would be justifiably
of the two Arkham papers, even printing furious if someone mutilated a back
extras and what Gedney calls “five-PMs" issue, no one thinks the collection of
for Arkham, when news dictates. The much value.
415 Arkham
Strange Aeons
ruled by the police, single men and women

129: THE DESOLATE HIGHWAY are not admitted; frequently they meet
outside and form temporary couples to
CAFE evade the restriction. Open Friday-
387 W Armitage Street. University Saturday only, 7 P.M. to midnight, when
intellectuals, emigres, the smart set, and the police make sure they close..
bohemians with money like the tasty It's a rare Saturday night at the
French country-style cooking. The owners, Commercial House that police don't arrest
Reid Vandervelden and his partner Josh, someone for disorderly conduct, throwing
occasionally sponsor exhibits or rocks, mopery, or worse.
readings, but the attraction here is
conversation, posturing, and flirting.
Criminals will be bored. 132: B&M TRAIN STATION
Years ago Edward Derby often read his 298 W High Lane. Passenger trains from
poetry to acquaintances here, and Derby's Newburyport and points north arrive at
friend Justin Geoffrey once delivered 9:00 A.M., noon, and 5 P.M. for Boston,
People of the Monolith to a table of departing ten minutes after the hour.
listeners following his return from Trains from Boston and points south
Hungary, shortly before he went mad. arrive at 7:30 and 11:30 A.M., and 5:40 P.M.
There is a chess board available, for the north, departing ten minutes
though none but immigrants play the later. Fare for Boston is $2.20, and for
game. The wide selection of current Newburyport $1.40. Freight trains are
newspapers is of more interest. A few frequent.
frequenters have access to opium or Western Union Office: for a fraction of
marijuana. Customers known to the the cost of a longdistance telephone call,
management can have wine served Western Union can get a telegram to
surreptitiously with their meals. Open almost anywhere in a matter of hours.
11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M., and from 4:30 to 9:30 Incoming telegrams are delivered by
P.M., Tuesday-Saturday. young bicycle messengers, the best of
whom is 14-year-old Bobby Ashbourne, who
knows every shortcut and every dead-end.
130: BORDEN ARMS
488 W High Lane. A cheap hotel for
transients, failures, and worse: rooms are 133: AUNT LUCY'S
90 cents a night, and the operators and 237 W Armitage Street. Stools line the
clientele alike are often no better than long, curving counter of the diner where
they ought to be. fried chicken or boiled beef, gravy, limp
green beans, and mounds of mashed
potatoes are slopped onto heavy white
131: COMMERCIAL HOUSE crockery. It's the fast-food of the epoch.
297 W Armitage Street. Once a tavern Tables line one wall, but there is service
popular with students and residents, the only at the counter. Lunch without pie
present owner has turned it into a dance costs 35 cents. Open 5 A.M. to 6 P.M.,
hall with live jazz bands. As often as Monday-Friday.
possible, the club books the East-town
Five, a black band, or settles for the
Arkham Swingtime Band, a student band 134: TILDEN ARMS HOTEL
from the University. If you don't like to 179 W Armitage Street. A decent hotel
dance, don't come. Admission is $1.50 per charging $2.25 a night and up for room
couple, refreshments extra. As recently and bath, handy to the train station. It
Arkham 416
is four stories high. To conserve heat in town open Sundays. It mostly serves
the winter and preserve order in the transients or those without facilities to
summer, the manager has locked all the cook. Sunday mornings can be crowded.
fire escapes. Oops.
138: RAILROAD PROPERTIES
135: NEWSSTAND The area astride the tracks and along
SW corner, Armitage and Garrison. the river is crowded with sidings, small
Though it's a legitimate newsstand, with warehouses, storage sheds, an old water
papers, magazines, candy, and tobacco, tower, and sided freight cars. Hoboes
Ernie Trout also peddles underworld occasionally put up for a night in the
information to shady types and the yard, daring railroad guards who are
police, and under-the-counter notoriously violent.
publications of “the kind men like" to
more respectable customers. 139: BARTHOLOMEW APPLEY IV
Appley, 36, lives in a fancy house on
136: SANDER'S WAX MUSEUM Saltonstall Street, where he throws huge
443 N Garrison Street. It contains all parties every Saturday night. When he is
the standard scenes and figures, Caesar dry – a rare event – he complains of a
and Cleopatra to Lucky Lindy. It sports hangover and prepares for another binge.
as well a small chamber of horrors – a Those who attend his parties eat the
guillotining, an iron maiden with piteous best food and drink the best Canadian
occupant, a witch in flames, as well as whiskeys, and always show up for more.
ten edifying Biblical brutalities. Police and neighbors shake their heads
The exhibits are poorly lit, but but don't intervene, since Appley so far
impressively life-like and detailed. The has taken care of himself.
museum is regularly open on Saturday Annoyingly, he habitually hops in a
and holidays, 1-5 P.M., and for the entire car whenever he notices one with the keys
month of August, when Boston folk left in, and drives it off with
encamp up and down the valley and cast enthusiasm. (His neighbors all now know
about for something – anything – to do. to take out their keys and lock their car
Admission is 10 cents. doors.) When he's done with a borrowed
Pete Sander is more hobbyist than car, he turns it off and wanders away,
businessman, and earns most of his money blocks from his home or perhaps miles
as a portrait photographer and sign- from town. His chums now call him Mr.
ainter. At the GM's option, Sander may Toad, after the character in The Wind
have surprising techniques for modeling and the Willows.
his figures. Appley did not always drink. His
problem started four years ago, after his
137: GRAFTON DINER father died. He was paying his respects
106 W High Lane. Adjacent to the train at the family crypt when he heard
station, this place does a good business strange scrabbling noises from inside. He
with its 35 cent lunch. Having tried the stepped inside and found a pack of
food, though, local customers tend to go ghouls fighting over his father's
to Lucy's. The Grafton opens at 5 A.M., remains. A weak man, he ran home and
closes at 7 P.M., seven days a week (except drank to forget.
holidays).
The Grafton is the only eating place in
417 Arkham
Strange Aeons
DOWNTOWN there. Several abandoned mills decay at

the water's edge.
Downtown is hillier than the Northside.
Although the ground rises steadily north
from the river, there are dips and ridges 201: ARKHAM SANITARIUM
as it climbs. The town square is the most 225 E Derby Street. This institution,
level part of Downtown. supported partly by Commonwealth funds,
North of Curwen Street this thickly- is at the edge of town. For paying
built neighborhood is mostly residential, patients, who supply the great majority
and mostly lower class. The houses of the sanitarium's trade, the cure chance
bordering The Common (the town square) is 45% per year. Indigents, while
on the north and east sides are stately receiving adequate care, get little
mansions, but the homes behind them, therapy; the yearly chance of a pauper
topped with gables and gambrel roofs for a cure is 20%. Normal in-patient
and built around 1820, are commoner and treatment costs $110 a month. With 50
more crowded together. Arkham beds, Arkham Sanitarium is the largest
Sanitarium was originally a huge such institution between Boston and
Georgian double home built by the Portland, Maine
Pickering brothers, Paul and Thomas Jr., Dr. Eric Hardstrom, a hard-working if
in 1822. uninspired man, heads the facility, and
Most of Arkham's civic services are shares duties with two other physicians.
located on the west and south sides of A staff of 12 nurses and orderlies, a
the Common (Independence Square as it is groundskeeper, and a maintenance man
formally known). They include town hall, work under them. There are also small
the courthouse, the police station, and pathological and clinical laboratories. A
the fire hall. Most of these buildings number of the county's doctors have
were constructed in the mid-18th century staff status at the sanitarium.
in a classical style with large pillars The Arkham Sanitarium employs modern
and pediments; some have wings added psychiatric treatments. Though the
later. Town hall is a four-story building grounds are fenced and the sanitarium
of late Georgian/Federalist Revival windows barred, restraints and strait-
design. Professionals, particularly jackets are rarely used. Sleep-producing
lawyers and bailbondsmen, are found and -alleviating drugs, dietetics,
here, as are Arkham's two major banks. physical culture, hydrotherapy, and
The Common is surrounded on its other electric shock are often prescribed.
sides by large and impressive Federalist Among the indigents housed in the
homes built in the early 19th century. basement ward is one as yet unidentified.
Many have been divided into apartments The young man was found wandering the
or boarding houses. streets of Kingsport around Christmas of
A small area along Garrison Street 1922 (see the Lovecraft story, “The
features good restaurants and a variety Festival") in an amnesiac state. Various
of family entertainment. This area may treatments were attempted. The
be busy on weekend evenings, unusual in University library's valuable copy of the
Arkham. Necronomicon was even borrowed when the
Peabody Avenue, Fish Street, and patient referred to this book in his
Federal Street are lined with small shops ravings. Alas, allowing him to peruse the
and industries, constituting one of terrible volume did nothing to restore
Arkham's dirtier, smellier areas. A few his mind or memory.
local markets and diners also appear
Arkham 418
202: FLEETWOOD DINER office.

715 Dyer Street. A workingman's diner Heath is unexpectedly slight of build
with seven counter stools and six wooden and wears wireframed glasses. Not at all
booths. Breakfasts are notable, and men the Sam Spade type, Heath is a scientific
may be lined up for theirs. Open 4 A.M. to criminologist and an intellectual. He
2 P.M., Monday-Saturday. dodges spouse-watching jobs, if he can
afford it, preferring to concentrate on
more intriguing problems.
203: INNSMOUTH BUS In particular, he has been working on
705 Dyer Street. There's no waiting room one case since 1926. The body of a
or office, just an ancient sign. The dirty Miskatonic student was found floating in
gray bus travels between Arkham, the river a few days after Halloween. The
Innsmouth, and Newburyport. The fare evidence seems to link it to a similar
from Arkham to Innsmouth is 40 cents, murder he investigated years ago in the
departing at 8 A.M. and 9 P.M, and leaving Red Hook section of Brooklyn. In the
Innsmouth for Arkham at 7 A.M. and 8 P.M. Miskatonic case, the police were baffled
The trip takes half an hour. and concluded that the student had
drunkenly fallen into the river and
204: KENNETH HEATH, PRIVATE drowned. The student's parents knew their
INVESTIGATOR son for a teetotaler, and did not accept
136 E Curwen Street. Heath is 34 years this explanation. Heath so far has been
old, a veteran detective of the New York able to link the young man to a local,
City police. He rents this storefront very secretive cult, about which he has
office along with the upstairs apartment. been able to learn little. He is patient,
Three years ago Heath, while halting a and the statute of limitations has years
bank robbery, lost the four fingers of to go before it runs out.
his left hand to a shotgun blast. He was Heath is familiar with the Lucky
subsequently pensioned by the force. He Clover bootlegging operation but, as no
and his wife, Madeline, moved to Arkham, one else seems to care, Heath does not
her hometown, where Heath opened this either. In fact, in a desk drawer he has a
419 Arkham
Strange Aeons
bottle of bonded whiskey which Bobby present brick building. Archives

Sills just gave him. therefore contain records only back
Heath can be hired for $10 a day plus until 1815.
expenses. He owns his own car, a sporty Dr. Ezekiel Wallace, the pastor, has
Chevrolet roadster. warned certain members of his
congregation against joining any
205: ROTARY CLUB Innsmouth church.
650 N Garrison Street. This service
organization is devoted to good deeds for 207: DIAMOND CREDIT AGENCY
the community. It's a more active group 682 Marsh Street. Three brass balls
than the Chamber of Commerce, and its above the front door of this
members tend to be younger and to have establishment establish its function. An
less money. To join, a sponsor must be item pawned to the shop must be claimed
found. Membership is $20 a year. within 60 days, including a 20% profit to
Membership requires a commitment of 12 Diamond Credit. If unclaimed, it is put up
hours a month for meetings and service for sale at three or more times the
activity. amount for which it was pawned. Handle
Wade, owner and sole employee, sometimes
206: ASBURY M.E. CHURCH fences items for thieves known to him.
640 Marsh Street. “M.E." means
Methodist-Episcopal. Founded by 'Bishop' 208: ARKHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY
Asbury (along with hundreds of others 630 Marsh Street. Supported mostly by
round the same time) in 1789. The original private donations, the Arkham Public
wooden structure burned in 1815, Library was founded in 1845 by
replaced the following year by the philanthropic citizens concerned for the
betterment of the community. Hours are
Arkham 420
11 A.M. to 7 P.M., Monday-Friday, and 10 civil actions involving more than $500
A.M. to 2 P.M. Saturday. This good are bound over to Salem's county or
circulating library of 18,000 volumes is circuit courts.
overshadowed by the massive collections The Salem courts also adjudicate and
of the University. record wills, name changes, adoptions, and
On its shelves are Shrewsbury's annulments. Adoption records are sealed
Cthulhu in the Necronomicon and An by the court and not allowed to be
Investigation into the Myth Patterns of opened, even by the adoptee.
Latter Day Primitives with Especial Investigators wishing court orders for
Reference to the R'lyeh Text (see entry exhumations, subpoenas for personal
623 for details). Misplaced behind other files, bank accounts, business records, or
works is the Rev. Ward Phillips' police files, or to get injunctions or
Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New relief must start with Judge Randall,
England Canaan, findable with a who may or may not pass them along to a
successful Formidable (ddddd) county or state court for final
Perception check. dispensation, and who may or may not be
A copy of Edward Derby's controversial overruled by appeal. (Appealers are not
Azathoth and Others is kept behind the popular with Judge Randall.)
librarian's desk. Although available on Arrested investigators may appear
request, librarian Ellen Whitmarsh, 57 before Judge Randall. He is white-haired,
and a spinster, narrows her eyes at nearly 80, and he dispenses justice much
anyone who asks for that collection of as bachelors eat – as he sees fit. Major
poetry. matters are bound over for trial in
Salem, but Randall is supreme in smaller
209: BEE'S DINER affairs, and makes most of his decisions
332 E Curwen Street. Gets lots of office intuitively. He favors housewives who
workers at lunchtime. The establishment haven't betrayed their traditional role,
offers a superior maple ice during college students who are respectful and
sugaring season, and excellent chowders welldressed, and anyone with an old
the year round. Open 6 A.M. to 2 P.M., Arkham family name. He hates long-haired
Monday-Friday. intellectuals and short-haired flappers,
and can be particularly insulting to
immigrants and minorities. When he's in a
210: COURTHOUSE & JAIL bad mood, no one can placate him, though
666 N Peabody Avenue. This building, certain lawyers have a lot of influence
constructed of stone in 1910, contains two with him, notably E. E. Saltonstall, Sr.
courtrooms (one the regular court of Depending on the charge, Randall can
Municipal Judge Keezar Randall), court sentence up to 60 days and fine up to
records since the early 19th century $500.
(earlier records are with the Arkham A man from Aylesbury, Attorney Lee E.
Historical Society), court offices, and the Craig, represents the town's legal
town jail. interests. Craig, 41, a Harvard man with
All public records can be examined by roots in Tennessee, functions much like a
any citizen from 8 A.M. to noon, and 1-5 district attorney, offering advice,
P.M., Monday-Friday. handling the prosecution of small crimes,
The municipal court handles an array and defending Arkham against rare
of misdemeanors, civil actions, and minor lawsuits. He and Randall have clashed
felonies, but major felonies as well as repeatedly, and Craig – motivated by
421 Arkham
Strange Aeons
unusually strong ethics – is vehicles which conform to the maxim over

contemplating a formal complaint to the the entrance, “Instruct and Entertain".
Bar. If upheld, Randall will retire. Newsreels are updated continually;
Investigators in tight legal situations Cthulhoid clues can pop up in an
may find Craig a valuable ally. otherwise innocuous film about New
Defense attorneys for the indigent or Guinea primitives. Always two cartoons
incapacitated are appointed from a Friday-Saturday. Admission is 15 cents
rotating pool of the county's lawyers. for adults, 6 cents for children. Open 6-11
Since the appointments are without fee, P.M. Monday-Friday, noon-11 P.M. on
Randall has lately taken great glee in Saturday, and 1-5 P.M. Sundays. Special
appointing brash young Attorney Ed show for the kids on Saturday afternoon.
Cassidy to as many cases as possible;
Cassidy is another on Randall's growing 213: CRAWFORD'S RESTAURANT
list of enemies. NE corner of Garrison and Armitage.
There is a six-cell jail in the basementSpecializing in gigantic old-style eight
of the courthouse. and ten-course meals, Crawford's is the
most expensive restaurant in town. A man
211: INDEPENDENCE SQUARE can pay as much as $5.00 for supper here,
(THE COMMON) though few Arkhamites would think that
Officially opened in 1797, Independence a worthy thing to do. Crawford's has been
Square is a vast expanse of open green, in the same location since the Civil War,
nearly eight acres in size, owned by the the menu changing little in all that
citizens of Arkham. It replaced the old time. For history buffs, a bronze plaque
militia training ground south of the memorializes the table at which General
river, which was ceded to Miskatonic Sheridan once sat. Open 5-8:30 P.M. Tuesday
College. through Saturday.
The square is surrounded by an iron
fence, four feet high. The official 214: ARKHAM FIRST BANK
entrance, a massive arch thought to have 150 E Hyde Street. Rooted in the
been designed by Salem architect Samuel community for generations, it's not
Mclntyre, is found on the Peabody Avenue unusual for this bank to grant generous
side, facing Town Hall. The Common (as extensions to customers, provided the
everyone calls it) serves as a picnic debtor is of good character and making
ground and gathering site. There is a honest efforts at repayment: they never
roofed bandstand as well as a baseball dispossess a friend or neighbor. This
diamond on the grounds. This is the site admirable policy results in the closing
of Winterfest, Fourth of July, of the bank in 1933.
Thanksgiving, Forefathers' Day (weather Saving and checking accounts are
permitting) and other celebrations, available. Use the following base rates
observances, and gatherings, and of the to figure chances for a loan: auto
annual summer Founder's Day Festival. Average (dd), personal Easy (d),
commercial Hard (ddd), home mortgage
212: TELENEWS CINEMA Hard (ddd). Hours are 10 A.M. to 3 P.M.
552 N Garrison Street. A large blue Monday-Thursday, extended to 5 P.M. on
world globe marks Arkham's newest Friday.
theater. The manager prefers versions of
the classics, documentaries, and other
Arkham 422
the bootleggers.
215: ART'S BILLIARDS
139 E Armitage Street. This scummy 217: FEDERAL BOND AGENCY
Northside pool room is a hangout for lots 589 1/2 Marsh Street, upstairs. This
of men, including street punks. A few small office is a branch of a larger firm
members of the University football team headquartered in Boston. The agency can
can be found here despite the fact that provide bail for an investigator but the
Art's is off-limits to students. In the person must put up 10% of the bail in
past, fights and scuffles between the cash or other securities – a property
Rocks and the 'Finns have broken out deed, an automobile title, and so forth.
here. Local mobsters frequently kill time After the trial, the bondsman collects
here. Open noon to 9 P.M., Monday- interest upon the total loan, at the rate
Saturday. of 20% per year.
216: BERTRAND CHAMBERS, 218: DR. SINDERWALD, COSMETIC

ATTORNEY SURGEON
589 Marsh Street. A thin man with slick 567 Marsh Street. A licenced physician
hair and a pencil moustache, Chambers is and a well-regarded practitioner,
38, originally from New York City. No one Garrison Sinderwald can undertake
knows why he opened shop in Arkham, but reconstructive surgery should an
the police suspect connection with investigator have the need. Small facial
O'Bannion's boys. Chambers is a not-too- scars depart for $50; major work runs
scrupulous fellow who defends some local into the thousands of dollars.
criminals with unusual vigor and Sinderwald owes large gambling debts
ingenuity. He has no compunction about to shady people who demand favors in
over-charging clients not connected with
423 Arkham
Strange Aeons
return: treatment of injuries that the with Janet Larkin.

mob does not want reported, and recently Public Room: the mayor, 51-year-old
the alteration of the face of a gangland Joseph Peabody, meets in open sessions
friend from Boston. Sinderwald fears this twice a month on the second and fourth
criminal activity but feels that he has Wednesday with the selectmen. Here
no choice. policy is argued out and decided upon in
public. (The topic of zoning is being
219: DR. HEINRICH T. MUELHIG hotly debated. Until now most American
555 Marsh Street. Muelhig studied with cities had no zoning laws – a factory
Freud and then with Jung before could conceivably be plunked down in the
emigrating to the United States after the midst of a residential neighborhood.)
World War. Among those who know his Town Manager's Office: after selectmen
skill, his reputation is outstanding; and mayor expostulate, the town manager
however, his office is unmarked and he gets to make sense of their frequently
accepts no patient who has not been bizarre decisions and to remember all the
referred to him by a licensed physician, things that they forgot. Darrell Slocum,
since psychoanalysis has no medical 37, is the effective head of municipal
standing in Massachusetts. government, and is paid nearly $5000 a
Muelhig has accumulated a number of year in the full-time position. He does
Mythos-related facts about the Arkham not know that his wife is a member of the
area that could interest investigators or evil coven.
prove valuable in a particular Clerk's Office: As the manager creates
adventure. Although the doctor refuses effective policy, the town clerk creates
to compromise his patient effective ways of implementing and
confidentiality, he might be able to recording it. Janet Larkin, 38, holds the
supply some information. If burglary is post.
not ruled out, his files contain the facts. The following records are open to the
public: deeds, deed transfers, local census
records, local birth/death/marriage
220: DEMOLITION SITE certificates, business licenses, military
NW corner of Marsh and Armitage. An draft records 1917-1919, assessment and
old three-story building, gutted by fire tax records, town budgets and
last summer, is being slowly dismantled expenditures dating back to the
by a work-crew. The owners of the beginning of the 19th century, and other
property have no immediate plans to records at the GM's option.
rebuild, offering the GM the chance to Auto registration is a Commonwealth
create something significant here. matter, the information held in Boston.
Engineer's Office: variously maintains,
221: TOWN HALL inspects, judges, or records (1) building
551 N Peabody Avenue. This large brick permits and designs since 1891, (2)
building, built in 1901, houses the town's Arkham's water and sewer systems, (3) gas
administrative offices. Hours are 8 A.M. to lines, (4) electric lines, (5) streets, curbs,
noon and 1-5 P.M., Monday-Friday. bridges, and the Miskatonic embankments,
Mayor's Office: since the post is a part- (6) parks, (7) school and office buildings
time job, the Mayor is here one hour a and other town property. Frequently
day (roll 12 or less on D100 to catch him records are not methodical, but the staff
in). Knock first, then try the door. He has will go to a lot of effort to help out a
no secretary, but messages can be left citizen.
Arkham 424
Assessor's Office: establishes property Saturday. There is no Sunday service.

tax rates, assesses property, collects Depending on the time of day, a trolley
taxes, and disburses money as the passes every 5-15 minutes.
selectmen authorize. All monetary Interurban lines, which once connected
transactions are matters of public Arkham with Boston and the rest of the
record. east coast, were abandoned several years
School Board: meets once a month. Most ago. However, the rails and switches still
people in Arkham agree on what exist and would operate given power and
schooling's for and on what needs doing intact cables.
about it – policy questions fall to such
pointless levels as whether or not 225: AMHERST THEATER
Easter-egg hunts are lascivious and anti- 480 N Garrison Street. Much newer than
Christian. the Manley, the Amherst is dedicated to
feature talking films, a profitable
222: ARKHAM GAS COMPANY decision; it no longer books vaudeville
235 Armitage Street. It sells natural acts.
gas for heating needs and industry, as The theatre is open 1-11 P.M. daily,
well as gas stoves, ranges, and equipment closed on Christmas, New Year's Eve, and
converting coal-burning furnaces to safe, Easter.
efficient, natural gas. The company's not Big films this year were The Circus
considered a public utility in Arkham, (Charlie Chaplin), A Girl in Every Port
and company records are not open to the (Victor McLaglen), and Our Dancing
public. Daughters (Joan Crawford). In 1929, hits
include Cocoanuts (Marx Brothers),
223: ARKHAM BELL TELEPHONE Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock), Bulldog
345 E Armitage Street. Arrange for Drummond (Ronald Coleman), The Iron Mask
service, pay bills, interview operators – (Douglas Fairbanks Sr.), and The Virginian
there's no dialing in Arkham, and an (Gary Cooper).
operator manually switches plugs for
every call that's made. With a successful 226: PENNY ARCADE
Fast Talk, an investigator might NE corner of High Lane and Garrison.
scrutinize a suspect's phone bill or Hand crank movies, claw machines,
successfully Fast Talk an operator mechanical boxers – play them all for one
coming off duty. cent apiece. A few University students
who dare to be childish visit here, but
224: ARKHAM TROLLEYS the customers mostly are loutish locals.
404 E Armitage Street. Trolleys are The 'Finns frequently meet here. Open 4
electrical trains that run on rails set in P.M. (after the grade school kids have
the streets. They draw electric power gotten home) to 10 P.M., Monday-Saturday.
from special overhead wires.
The ride costs 5 cents plus a penny for 227: DENNISON'S ICE CREAM
transfers (necessary to change from one EMPORIUM
line to another). Transfers are most 148 E Armitage Street. Dennison's is
easily made at the main station, by the clean and decorated in a wilted 'French
B&M depot, or in the Merchant district. cafe' style. A favorite with anyone who
The trolleys operate from 5:30 A.M. until 7 has 5 cents for a double scoop, 3 cents
P.M. weekdays and until 9 P.M. Friday- for a single. Open 11 A.M. to 7 P.M., Easter
425 Arkham
Strange Aeons
afternoon to whenever it cools off for alone is $8500; coachwork goes for $2500
the winter. Closed Sundays, like all and up.
decent establishments, but open holidays. Ballard also gives driving lessons. It
costs $10.
228: NORTHSIDE MARKET
467 Marsh Street. Meat and produce are 230: ARKHAM EDISON
shoddier than Benson's, and more 470 Marsh Street. Here accounts can be
expensive. On the other hand, this store opened and bills paid. Records are not
is open till 9 P.M. six days a week. Owner available to the public.
Robert Czyenck is a member of the secret
evil coven. Open 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. Monday- 231: MISKATONIC VALLEY
Saturday.
SAVINGS BANK
420 Marsh Street. A Massachusetts bank
229: BALLARD'S AUTO LOT which opened in Arkham in 1924. To
NW corner of High Lane and Peabody. thrifty customers, they offer a quarter-
Harvey Ballard always has 2D6 used cars percent higher passbook interest than
on the lot, for sale or rent, price Arkham First, but tend to be quicker to
depending upon auto and condition. close on unpaid loans and defaulted
Rental rates range from $1.50 a day for a mortgages. Base chance for investigator
rusting Model T to $5 daily for a loans are auto Hard (ddd), personal
gleaming Packard.
Easy (d), commercial Daunting (dddd),
Ballard has connections with Boston
and home mortgage Daunting (dddd).
auto dealers. At no cost to the customer,
Hours are 10 A.M. to 3 P.M., Monday-Friday,
he'll handle dealer arrangements and
open till 5:30 on Friday.
deliver your new car to your front door.
He is paid a commission by those dealers.
Ballard or his assistant are usually on 232: ARKHAM POLICE STATIONS
the lot from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. A sign on the 302 E Armitage Street. Always open.
front door of the tiny office gives Arkham has a nominal force consisting of
Ballard's home phone number. a chief, a captain, three detectives with
In 1928, a new Chevrolet or Ford Model the rank of lieutenant, three sergeants,
A (both with 25 hp engines) could be had and 15-20 patrolmen. Finances rarely
for $400-700. Six-cylinder Dodges, allow Nichols the luxury of a full
Hudsons, or Buicks could run close to complement. There is also a little-known
$2000; the big Chrysler Imperial 80 went police reserve, consisting mostly of
for $3500. Eight-cylinder Cadillacs and retired patrolmen and military men,
Packards cost as much as $6000, while which can join the ranks during
Lincoins run $4600-7400. The Packards, emergencies.
with a 39.2 hp engine, were the fastest of Depending on the part of town,
the lot until the newest Studebakers, patrolman walk their beats singly or in
with a top price of $2500, started pairs. They check in with the station at
appearing with a 43 hp engine powering regular intervals by telephone from
the car to a speed of nearly 100 mph. locked police call boxes, installed
For the well-heeled investigator, the systematically across town. Police cars
new Dusenberg J is available Dec. 1. are not driven on patrol, but officers at
Sporting a 256 hp engine, this huge car the station have several with which to
has a top speed of 111 mph and matchless move quickly when trouble arises.
acceleration. The price of the chassis As a general rule, only a duty officer
Arkham 426
at the station is awake and available build a new combined jail and police
between midnight and 6 A.M., except station.
Friday and Saturday nights, when several Arkham has no policy concerning
men stay on to make sure that rowdy concealed weapons, since any adult
activity ceases at a decent hour. citizen has that right. Over the years,
Sergeants effectively command hour- though, Nichols has accumulated a lot of
by-hour police dispositions, and rarely confiscated weapons. These he keeps in a
appear on the Street except at the scene trunk now filled to the brim in his
of a crime. office. Once in a while he opens the trunk
The department possesses three cars and smiles, considering how many
(one of which the Chief takes home) and criminals do not have these weapons.
two motorcycles. Neither cars nor
motorcycles have radios. 233: U.S. POST OFFICE
Armed officers carry department-issued 487 N Peabody Avenue. The only point
.45 revolvers, specified by Chief Nichols of federal power in Arkham. The
as the smallest handgun likely to stop Postmaster is Eli Whittaker, 61. Postmen
an angry man. Department riot guns, begin to case their mail at 4 A.M., and
rifles, and two submachine guns have begun their rounds by 6 A.M. There
(purchased during the Great Red Scare of are no Saturday deliveries, but mail to
1919-20) are kept in locked cabinets. post office boxes is cased that day.
A holding cell each for men and for Postal windows are open 9 A.M. to 4 P.M.,
women stand ready in the rear of the Monday-Friday, closed for Easter, Fourth
building, but the six-cell jail actually of July, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
is in the basement of the courthouse. In Access to postal boxes is always
1935, a successful suit concerning the available.
death of a prisoner forces the town to
427 Arkham
Strange Aeons
234: ARKHAM CAB CO. Benijah Adams.

433 N Peabody Avenue. Depending on
demand, up to four cabs are on the 237: BUNDEN'S BINDERY
streets from 6 A.M. until 10 P.M. seven 420 N Peabody Avenue. This small
days a week. The company has asked to business's main customer is Miskatonic
provide 24 hour service, but the University Press, which publishes
selectmen hesitate, believing that this numerous scholarly monographs. Malcolm
might promote crime and loose behavior. Bunden also operates a small fine-press
Two cab stands exist, one in front of business which publishes three or four
the cab company and one by the hand-set and hand-bound limited editions
newsstand at Garrison and Main. At the yearly, for subscribers only.
latter, a direct phone line links the
stand with the cab office. At the GM's 238: TATTOOS
wish, other direct lines exist at St. 443 Fish Street. This establishment
Mary's Hospital, Hotel Miskatonic, and so occupies a cramped dingy storefront of
forth. questionable sanitation. Any investigator
Cab orders can be taken by phone in receiving a successful Average (dd)
the grungy secondfloor office, and cabs
Medicine or Hard (ddd) Knowledge check
sent directly from the stand outside. No
notice that, among many odors, a faint
cab has a radio; two-way radios are much
scent of opium lingers here. The middle-
too large, too expensive, and too delicate.
aged proprietor, Pin Liou, lives alone in
Trips around town are flat-rate: 25
the building's back room.
cents in town as long as no bridge is
Many tattoo designs, mostly in Chinese
crossed, 25 cents each time a bridge is
and Japanese styles, decorate Liou's
crossed, 25 cents for each mile out of
walls. A sharp-eyed investigator spots an
town, and 50 cents an hour to wait. A cab
occasional Elder Sign woven into a
and driver can be hired for eight hours
design. If the GM wishes, Pin Liou can
at a cost of $4 and the promise of a tip
have knowledge and skills directly
of more than a dollar.
useful to investigators.
The door is never locked; Mr. Pin seems
235: PHILLIPS 66 STATION present day and night. When the signs are
NW corner of High Lane and Peabody. inauspicious, he may not leave his
Gas is the same price as the competing establishment for weeks. Sometimes a
Esso dealer but the owner, Abel Sykes, is woman (or is she?) who is possibly his wife
friendlier. He has a slow and cautious (and possibly not) arrives from Boston,
way of talking. Help is clean, polite, and bringing strange books and artifacts.
efficient. Open 7 A.M to 6 P.M., Monday-
Saturday. 239: SHEEHAN CONTRACTOR
236: FIRE DEPARTMENT SUPPLY
411 Fish Street. Features a wide
418 E Armitage Street. Downstairs holds
assortment of plumbing, electrical, and
five fire trucks (one hook-and-ladder, one
roofing supplies; for a wider stock, a man
pumper, two hose engines, one chemical
would have to drive to Boston. Trade
engine). Nine firemen usually sleep
discounts to reputable contractors. Some
upstairs. Arkham has reciprocal fire-
equipment, such as jackhammers and
fighting agreements with Salem and other
compressors, may be for rent, or Sheehan
area towns. The fire chief is 62-year-old
will have an idea where the item –
Arkham 428
bulldozer, crane, scaffolding, etc. - can in the 1st Battalion of the old
be found. Open 7:15 A.M. to 3 P.M., Monday-Massachusetts 23rd Volunteer Regiment,
Saturday. reconstituted since the Great War.
Once a month these members put on
240: ADAMS LUMBER YARD uniforms and report to the armory for
315 E Water Street. Wholesale and compulsory drill. Most train every
retail lumber. Stocks some hardwood summer at the state National Guard camp.
blocks, as well as construction lumber. The company is far under strength;
Large orders can take up to a week to only 56 guardsmen currently use the
assemble. Open 8 A.M. to 4 P.M., Tuesday- facility. Commanding is 55-year-old
Saturday. Colonel William Hathome. His executive
officer is Lt. Colonel Aubrey Bridgeton,
48. Major Charles Hart is responsible for
241: SLAUGHTERHOUSE the weaponry stored in the armory as
400 E Water Street. Though there are well as the motor pool. Additionally,
some independent cattle- and hog- there are usually two or three
butchers in town, this feed-lot and lieutenants present.
hanginghouse supplies most of the town's Sergeant Groat is directly responsible
meats. for the motor pool and keeps the keys for
the unit's two large trucks. This unit
242: RAILROAD PROPERTIES will riot be fully motorized until after
Sidings, empty freight cars, equipment World War II.
sheds, and the B&M right-of-way fill this Securely locked in a reinforced
block. concrete vault are 120 greased and
packed .30-06 bolt-action rifles and
243: FIRST NATIONAL GROCERY 12,000 rounds of ammunition, 150
bayonets, ten .45 caliber automatic
STORE pistols (greased and packed) and 500
422 N Garrison Street. This large store rounds of ammunition, 24 M11A1
is part of a national chain. The manager fragmentation grenades with Bouchon
is 37-year-old Arthur Anderson, formerly igniters, one Browning M1917 water-cooled
of Philadelphia. The company transferred tripodmounted .50 caliber machine gun
Arthur here about a year ago and he and (greased and packed) with 5,000 rounds of
his family like living in Arkham. Besides armor-piercing ammunition, two 3-inch
the Arkham store, Anderson as district Stokes mortars (greased and packed) with
manager is also responsible for stores in 24 practice rounds each, four field
Kingsport and in shunned Innsmouth. He telephones with 6,000 yards of wire, and
visits both stores at least once a month 20 trench helmets, sizes 7 and 71/8 only.
and is well-aware of Innsmouth's oddities. Tents, a field kitchen in a small wagon,
hospital supplies, etc., are stored in the
244: MASSACHUSETTS GUARD armory, but not in the weapons vault.
ARMORY
560 Marsh Street. The National Guard is
equipped and trained identically to the
EASTTOWN
The northern part of Easttown, above
U.S. army but is under the command of the Whately Street, contains many fine old
individual state governors. Most members homes of pure Georgian design. These
of Arkham's Infantry Company B are homes were built by Derbys, Ornes,
residents of Essex County. B Company is Pickmans, and Pickerings – the sea
429 Arkham
Strange Aeons
merchants who made up Arkham's first Captain's wife, Ethel, presently the
aristocracy. Most of these homes, finest collection of Early American
unfortunately, have fallen into neglect; furniture in town. A comprehensive
as a whole, Easttown is seedy and collection of New England handblown
decaying, some of it beyond repair. Of the glass is on display.
few old Arkham families still residing The Pickering House is operated by the
here, most teeter on the brink of ruin. Arkham Historical Society and open to
Streets are of brick, 40 feet wide, and the public 1 -3 P.M. Thursday and
in some need of repair. Tree roots have so Saturday. There is no admission fee,
buckled and raised the brick sidewalks though donating a dollar or more is a
that walking in the streets is more good way to strike up a conversation with
comfortable. the volunteer attendant, who may prove
South of Whately Street, the ground to be of consequence in town.
slopes sharply to the river. The homes
are modest and tightly spaced, and the 302: FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
streets are narrow. Those few Negroes (as
in the 1920s many prefer to be called) in OF ARKHAM
Arkham live here, clustered together as 656 Federal Street. The church and its
every group in Arkham is except the old- records date back to 1778 but the present
line Wasp majority. Some make a good brick building was constructed in 1875.
living, and some are popular, well- Dr. Willet Spencer is the minister and
respected citizens who can trace their presides over the church's large library.
Arkham ancestry to before 1788, when the Among several rare volumes kept locked
Commonwealth outlawed the slave trade. away is a copy of the Book of Dzyan.
As a group, though, they are poor and
feel looked at and looked down upon. 303: THE PRISONER OF THE
A number of small businesses exist ATTIC
along Armitage and River Streets. 753 Noyes Street. This large, decaying
Freight trains pass through day and house is home to Mrs. Ellen Crawford, who
night. Arkham's last operating textile has lived here since the death of her
mill, steam-powered, can be found here. husband 23 years ago. Mrs. Crawford has
kept her mad sister, Beatrice Allen,
301: PICKERING HOUSE locked in the attic for decades, unwilling
698 Federal Street. This mansion was to send her to an institution and
built in 1828 by Captain Thomas unwilling to publicly reveal what she
Pickering, a sea trader then operating considers to be a shameful illness.
ships out of Kingsport harbor. Although Mrs. Crawford declared that Beatrice
rumored to be a privateer, Pickering also was dead of a fever in Europe. Her coffin
traded heavily along the coast of in the Allen mausoleum at Christchurch
Southeast Asia and spent considerable Cemetery is empty.
time in and around the developing Beatrice escaped just once, in 1919, and
continent of Australia. One room of the Mrs. Crawford believes she was
house is, in fact, devoted exclusively to responsible for a horrible mutilation
Australian aboriginal artifacts, murder that took place during that six
including a stone axe that bears the day period. (The victim was a student at
traces of an Elder Sign carved in its Miskatonic University, and the crime was
head. never solved.) Two days after the murder,
The house was furnished by the Beatrice turned up at the back door in
Arkham 430
the middle of the night; Mrs. Crawford

has since kept her securely locked away.
304: NORTHSIDE TRANSFORMER

STATIONS
606 Whately Street. This station
controls the electrical power to town
north of the river. Unmanned, it's
dangerous, and enclosed by a high fence.
Once entered, the investigator needs a
successful Hard (ddd) Mechanics check
to shut off power and darken this part
of town. A Mechanics check with a y
result gives 14 points of electrical
damage to the investigator.
305: MARTIN PUBLIC SCHOOL

511 Noyes Street. Grades 1-8 meet here
from the first Monday in September till
the last Friday of May.
306: TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH

571 Halsey Street. The black church in
Arkham. Arousing service begins at 9:30
Sunday morning, members of the Eastown 5
provide the music.
307: ANDERSON'S CHEMICAL

SUPPLY
650 Armitage Street. The company stocks
a large variety of liquid and powdered
chemicals, including acids. A fire here
would generate explosions and corrosive,
nauseating fumes. Open 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.,
Monday-Friday.
equipment, this dying concern employs a
308: ICE HOUSE few dozen Southside immigrants.
600 E Water Street. As ownership of
electric refrigerators widens, this 310: MELISSA THORNE
business slowly dies. Two horse-drawn Since she runs her business out of her
wagons now serve all of Arkham. own house and has a select and genteel
clientele, Mrs. Thorne considers herself
309: ARKHAM WORSTED MILLS more a companion with whom grateful men
leave gifts than a prostitute. Her
750 E Armitage Street. A victim of
neighbors, a few of whom know the truth,
mismanagement and antiquainted
find her quiet, reliable, and considerate,
431 Arkham
Strange Aeons
and make no trouble. She numbers a Streets is now abandoned to decades of

selectman and a police official among her litter, requiring skill for a driver to
beaus. negotiate.
Her husband gambled away their The two blocks of warehouses east of
savings and then died, leaving her with a Garrison, mostly made of wood, were long
house and little else. As a woman used to ago converted to tenements and
pampering, she began to borrow. Little by settlement houses. Here the street is
little the loans became gifts. In 1935, a clearer, the result of a volunteer effort
favorite client names a new Arkham in 1926.
street after her, a great source of pride The two shopping blocks east of
to her in later years. Garrison and south of Main are composed
of shops housed in buildings older and
MERCHANT less impressive than those along Church
Street. Many are tightly-crowded
This narrow two-block stretch lies on converted residences. The tall Georgian
low, level ground near the river. Perhaps steeple of Christ Church dominates the
75% of Arkham's stores and shops can be skyline.
found here: Church Street is the most This neighborhood's western edge is of
important artery, and Main is of older residences, growing very old near
secondary importance. People ordinarily Boundary Street. Boundary north of
call such an area downtown; here they Church Street is unlit; north of Main the
say instead “Goin' to Merchant" since street is sparsely populated.
Downtown is a part of town north of the
river.
The old East Church and West Church 401: OLD WOODED GRAVEYARD
are found here, and several rows of early These grounds have not been used for
18th century Georgian-style warehouses generations. The newest tombstone is
line the river. These latter mostly stand dated 1818. A number of the tombs bear
unused, though one serves 17th century inscriptions; it was in one
surreptitiously as a bootlegger depot. of these that Randolph Carter placed the
The heart of the district is the long bones that he found in the attic of the
block bordered by Main, Garrison, Church, unoccupied (Unnamable) house. The oldest
and West Streets, where stand two to legible stone is that of Abigail Armitage,
four-story early-19th-century brick row dated 1694.
buildings. The whole graveyard is surrounded by
Church Street, from Main to West, is a dilapidated iron fence three and a
cobblestoned, originally laid down in half feet high.
1773. Occasional alleys, barely wide The graveyard is dominated by an
enough for skilled truck drivers to get ancient willow tree whose huge, twisting
in and out of, give access to the service trunk has nearly engulfed an illegible
courts in the rear of the shops. These slate tombstone. This portion of
dingy courts are more often than not Boundary and Aylesbury is without
cluttered with crates, packing materials, street lamps. At night the graveyard lies
and machines that don't work but are too in darkness. Ghouls infest it.
good to haul away.
River Street was once heavily 402: HANGMAN'S HILL
trafficked by stevedores moving goods The highest point of the Old Wooded
between docks and warehouses, but the Graveyard, it was upon this hill that
stretch between Garrison and West Arkham citizens hung the suspected
Arkham 432
witch, Goody Fowler, in 1704. Legend heart with ectoplasmic extensions from
maintains that spending the night alone the fingers of her other hand, holding
on the hill on May Eve or Hallowmass herself so that the resulting spray of
guarantees a visit by Goody's ghost. blood passes through the upper portion
Some claim to have attempted the vigil of her shape.
and to have seen nothing. Others swear Goody appears only to single
they have seen Goody's ghost. A few claim individuals. Tales that she talks or
to have talked with her. Some have fled reveals secrets are lies; she is single-
in terror and refused to speak of what mindedly vicious and only attacks.
happened. A few have disappeared
without trace, other than odd hoof- 403: THE UNNAMABLE HOUSE
shaped tracks found the next morning. 188 N Boundary Street. A site of
Elijah, the old stonecutter (see entry bizarre psychic emanations. Something
405), is the only living witness to these horrible once lived and died in the attic
events. of this house, the product of a 17th
An investigator attempting this vigil century wizard, a member of Arkham's
most certainly meets the ghost of the secret cult. The thing seems to be
long-dead witch. Seeing her costs 1\2 brought back to life by thinking or
Sanity damage. The investigator stricken speaking of it. The skull of the monster,
with temporary insanity must stand interred by Randolph Carter along with
paralyzed by fear while the ghostly hag the rest of its skeleton into an
slowly strangles his or her life away. unmarked, slate-slab-covered tomb in the
Goody Fowler's Ghost: she always old wooded graveyard, was semi-human
condenses from a white fog on the summit but bore four-inch horns.
of Hangman's Hill, the highest point in This creature was last brought back to
the Old Wooded Cemetery. Goody has an existence by Carter and his friend, Joel
evil, wrinkled face and a body veiled by Manton (entry 406), while they sat in the
a burial shroud. To attack, she extends graveyard discussing the story of the
one hand around the victim's throat, to monster. It pursued and attacked the
hold him or her, and skewers the victim's pair across Arkham. They were finally
433 Arkham
Strange Aeons
found, after dawn, wandering aimlessly Arkham with safe, fresh dairy products
in the vicinity of Meadow Hill. for some 50 years. A dozen delivery men
Although neither of them could hit the streets at 4:30 A.M.; milkmen can
remember much about their assailant, be handy witnesses to strange goings-on.
Manton once described it as “everywhere –
a gelatin – a slime – yet it had shapes, a 405: ELIJAH THE STONECUTTER
thousand shapes of horror beyond all 113 S Boundary Street. In his eighties,
memory. There were eyes—and a blemish. It Elijah Potts has cut headstones for
was the pit – the maelstrom – the Arkham's dead for 60 years. He lives and
ultimate abomination. Carter, it was the works in a decaying 17th century house
unnamable!" on Hill Street, across from the cemetery.
The man who owned the house was When he was younger, he carved capitals
buried in 1710 near the unmarked slate for the columns of some of the
slab in the Old Wooded Graveyard. The University's ornate buildings.
house was left deserted, the attic door Elijah is well aware of the ghouls that
still locked. Despite strange noises and infest the place after nightfall. He
rustlings coming from the place, none doesn't bother them and they don't
dared enter. A short time later, bother him. He has also, on occasion, seen
everybody in a nearby parsonage was the ghost of Goody Fowler appear on
horribly murdered. Hangman's Hill on May Eve and
In 1793 a boy, looking for evidence of Hallowmass. Once, in 1901, he witnessed
the thing, was driven inexplicably mad the murder of a man who intended to
after entering the house alone. In 1922 spend the night alone atop the hill.
Randolph Carter and Joel Manton Sitting atop the hill the stranger from
accidentally unleashed the thing again. Boston waited for the ghost. He didn't
This 'unnamable' being is mentioned in notice the dark forms slinking between
Cotton Mather's demonic sixth book as the tombstones, silently circling the
“the thing with the blemished eye, more hill. When the ghost of Goody Fowler
than beast, but less than a man." This appeared, the stranger was taken by
thing, before the death of its keeper, was fright and attempted to flee. But Goody's
rumored to prowl at night, peeking in ghost seized the man and strangled him
windows and once a post rider saw it with her claw-like hands. After drinking
being pursued over Meadow Hill by an his blood she tossed the body to the
unknown man. ghouls who dismembered it horribly, then
This house has remained vacant since dragged it to their burrows for a feast.
1710, and is in remarkably good shape for Elijah watched this whole thing from
its 200+ years of neglect. his window, afraid to move. He has never
If somehow called forth, the being spoken to anyone about it. Police, looking
causes 2/5 Sanity damage and for the stranger, found traces of blood
automatically causes Temporary Insanity, atop the hill and questioned, along with
during which time the thing pursues its others, the old stonecutter. Elijah
maddened victims, slashing with its horns claimed to have seen nothing.
and striking with its hooves. It rarely The old man is friendly and reasonably
kills its victims but may inflict talkative about most subjects but only
permanent scars. the direst of circumstances could induce
him to mention the ghouls or Goody
404: ARKHAM DAIRY Fowler's ghost. He is immune to further
559 W River Street. It's provided losses provoked by seeing ghouls.
Arkham 434
406: PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING An altar, of similar substance, rests in

601 W Main Street. A small building, the center of the smaller stones. The
mostly given over to maintenance stones are said to be older than the
equipment and shops. Joel Manton, 42, is Indians.
presently superintendent of Arkham's Superstitious peasants occasionally
schools, mostly responsible for preparing claim to see the witch, Keziah Mason, and
the yearly budget and mediating between her familiar, Brown Jenkin, roam the
principals, the school board, and the island. The secret cult that meets in the
assessor's office. A past friend of the dark vale beyond Meadow Hill may also
now-missing Randolph Carter, it was have ties to this place.
Manton who, in 1922, sat with Carter in There are charges pending against a
the old wooded graveyard when they were group of Miskatonic students accused of
attacked by the Unnamable thing from the unChristian ritual slaying of
the house at 188 N Boundary Street domestic animals on the island. The dogs
(entry 403). Manton can tell little about and cats were obtained from the local pet
his experience, unless hypnotized. His shop and were allegedly killed in a
home is at 180 W Lich Street. bizarre fraternity initiation stunt. The
names of the accused are being withheld
by police.
407: HUBBARD GRADE SCHOOL
622 W Church Street. Grades 1-8 meet
here from the first Monday in September 410: THE DOCKS
to the last Friday in May. The waterfront. Long, dark, and
rotting, no one but bootleggers use these
docks. The street between them and the
408: THE WEST CHURCH warehouses is crowded and unlit at night,
561 W Main Street. This wooden church and stuffed with junk and litter, it more
was built in 1801, then abandoned in 1878 resembles a forbidding alley than a
when moaning sounds came from the street. Hoboes make temporary homes here.
coffin of Trisham Goddard. Goddard, an
early co-founder of the church, had died
in 1810 and his body had been interred 411: THE OLD WAREHOUSES
beneath the building. Despite his active North side of Main Street, from West to
church membership, many rumors held him Garrison. Constructed in the early 19th
to be a sorcerer; when stirring sounds century, these great brick Georgian-
were detected from within the stone styled warehouses have stood next to the
coffin four generations later, the river for a century. Most are unused,
already-failing congregation hurriedly although a few local businesses use one
voted to merge with a nearby church, and or two for temporary storage from time
the building has been sealed off since. to time. Lucky Clover Cartage has
recently leased a larger unit.
Watermarks five feet above the ground
409: THE UNVISITED ISLAND can be seen on the sides of these
Visible from the Garrison Street buildings, scars from the flood of 1888.
bridge, this small uninhabited island is
almost never visited. It is low and
swampy, and covered with thick 412: LUCKY CLOVER CARTAGE CO.
undergrowth. On its eastern tip, visible 200 W Main Street. Lucky Clover will
from the bridge, are a series of gray truck your freight where you need it or
standing stones, covered with green moss. lease you a truck for $5 a day so you can
435 Arkham
Strange Aeons
do it yourself. Lucky Clover is also a lights off, make their way upriver to
front for the bootlegging operation Arkham.
centered in Arkham, which O'Bannion Outside town, the boats kill their
grabbed from Joe Potrello. The front motors and wait at anchor for the next
part of the warehouse is offices, leaving scheduled freight train to pass through
the rear for storage, a truck lot, and Arkham. When a train approaches Arkham,
maintenance. Bootlegged liquor is loaded the boats head up-river, the passing
from boats at the river and stored here. freight dimming their noise. If timed
Potrello trucked in booze from Boston. right, the boats reach the wharfs while
O'Bannion's increased volume of sale has the noisy freight still rumbles through.
called for a new approach. Now whiskeys The craft tie up and are quickly
and scotches are loaded onto small motor unloaded by a waiting crew which stashes
launches from a ship anchored off it in the rear of the Lucky Clover
Kingsport, beyond the 12-mile limit. In Cartage Co. warehouse.
the dead of night the motor boats return From here the booze is disbursed to
to the Miskatonic estuary north of volume retailers such as the Northside
Kingsport and in the dark, running speakeasy and the Arkham General Store,
Arkham 436
who in turn may supply smaller dealers. 415: ACE ALARMS & LOCK-SAFES
Helped by pay-offs to a few police 433 W Main Street. The company custom-
officers, the routine works admirably; installs electrical burglar alarm systems
Arkham has become the distribution point in businesses and homes, for $50 and up.
for nearby communities, including For $1 an hour Richard Henry Ace can
Aylesbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Newburyport, scrape up a trustworthy watchman to
and (in inordinate amounts) Innsmouth. patrol a business or the grounds of a
O'Bannion employs ethnic numbers house, but the men are of indifferent
runners among the various immigrant quality. On less than short notice, Ace
populations, and occasionally recruits a can hire an off-duty officer from the
new hoodlum from among the local Irish Arkham police, for $2 an hour.
thugs. O'Bannion also loan-sharks for Ace carries a variety of fireproof
good profit. files and safes, and can install fireproof
O'Bannion wants to put Joe Potrello (up to 2000°F) safes of up to 180 cubic
out of the picture permanently. Arkham feet.
is too small a town for an outright hit, Ace is the only locksmith in town who
but O'Bannion feels sure that if he is will come to your house on short notice
patient enough his chance will come. or at night.
413: ESSO SERVICE STATION 416: E. PARRINGTON, GUNSMITH

NE corner, Main and Garrison. The gas is 417 W Main Street. Edward Parrington is
the same price as at the Phillips 66 a skilled gunsmith who can repair or
across the Miskatonic, but the service is custom-tool many sorts of firearms. He
ruder and the station dirtier. Despite reloads bullets to order, and may joke
this, the mechanic is slightly better. about the time “some nut came in and
Open 7 A.M. to 6 P.M., Monday-Saturday. ordered 20 solid-silver bullets, then
never picked them up" (GM's choice as to
414: GALLERY OF ART caliber). He stocks a variety of handguns,
451 W Main Street. Andreas ver Hoven shotguns, and rifles, though never exotic
comes from New York and was educated in weapons such as elephant guns. Unusual
France. He displays whatever he feels has weapons requests are referred to
merit. He is a student of contemporary Abercrombie & Fitch in Boston.
American art and owns one of the late Parrington knows ways to get access to
Pickman's ghoulish works. Ver Hoven has a illegal automatic and heavy weapons, but
good level of sales, because he would only indulge in such risky
persistently hustles his collections in behavior for another Gun Club member
Boston. who had a problem, such as Communist
Also an appraiser and art historian, he agitators at a factory, which calls for
writes occasionally for the Gazette. force.
He frequently does restorations and, Arkham Gun Club: Parrington is
though that craft is not much advanced president of the uppercrust Arkham Gun
in his rather too-decisive hands, has Club (dues are $50 yearly, by invitation
several times perceptively removed an only), which often meets at his shop. Asa
indifferent painting to reveal a minor Nichols, the chief of police, is the
masterpiece beneath. treasurer this year.
Members have unlimited use of a
shooting range northeast of Meadow Hill
and invitations to a picnic in the summer,
437 Arkham
Strange Aeons
and sit-down game dinner in the fall. 420: MANELLI'S MUSIC STORE
307 W Main Street. Keeping his prices
417: ANDERSON'S FURNITURE low because of a favorable lease, Manelli
AND CARPETS does a brisk trade in sheet music,
353 W Main Street. Fine furniture, rugs phonograph records, pianos, violins, and
and draperies, established in 1869. Ben clarinets. Ukuleles are falling from
Anderson is interested by and has a favor, even in Arkham. Alberto Manelli
personal collection of furniture such as also gives vocal lessons, still popular
writing desks which feature hidden among those with aristocratic fantasies.
compartments. Popular songs in 1928 include “I Can't
Give You Anything but Love" and “Makin'
Whoopee"; in 1929 look for “Star Dust",
418: ARTHUR MURRAY SCHOOL OF “Happy Days Are Here Again", and “Tiptoe
DANCE Through the Tulips".
333 W Main Street. Learn all the latest He was trained as a baritone in Italy,
steps. An eight-week course costs $20. but forfeited his future when a tragic
love affair forced him to flee the Old
419: PET SHOP Country. He settled with relatives in
321 W Main Street. Pure-bred puppies, Arkham.
parrots and canaries, and tropical fish Flamboyant and demanding of his
are for sale, as well as supplies. This new students, Manelli yells and screams,
enterprise is run by an outsider, Albert breaks furniture, tears out his hair, or
Cunningham. cries with joy when he teaches. Twice-a-
Recently Cunningham sold several week lessons cost a dollar an hour.
domestic animals before discovering that
they were being used as sacrifices in a 421: CURIOS & ANTIQUES
fraternity initiation. The rituals were 261 W Main Street. Run by George
held on the Unvisited Island in the Tillinghast, younger brother of Edwin,
center of the river. the bookseller. Although brothers, and
The police were notified, the suspects both members of the Arkham Historical
suspended, and Cunningham is suing three Society and the Rotary, they have not
of the families involved for civil spoken to each other since disputing a
damages under an obscure provision of division of property in their father's
Massachusetts drayage law intended to will.
protect horses from mistreatment. Two of Tillinghast's store collection includes
the defendant families, unnamed by several fine antiques.
police, are local and influential within
the community. The incident has been 422: OPTOMETRIST
hushed up so far. Cunningham has been 237 W Main Street. Bernard Evans
gently warned that he should not broach performs eye examinations and prescribes
the offenders' names in public – at least eyeglasses. He ordinarily uses an optical
not until after the trial – and how he service in Boston, but he can custom-
handles this matter in large part grind lenses if investigators need and if
determines whether or not he succeeds or they can supply the glass blanks.
fails in Arkham.
423: MALLOY'S TIMEPIECES
205 W Main Street. He stocks and
Arkham 438
repairs all types of clocks and watches. Perception or Average (dd) Knowledge
John Malloy, 55, has operated this shop check to notice). Walters bought it
since 1911 and is an avid collector of cheaply at an auction. The accompanying
rare and antique timepieces. In his home manuscript (written in German) claims
is an odd coffin-shaped floor clock that the lenses were abnormal, but when
marked with strange hieroglyphs and he tested the instrument Walters found
bearing four hands. He obtained the clock nothing unusual (he didn't look in the
from a private collection broken up for right spots). Still, he considers it a
auction. For 12 years he has tried to collector's item and he will not part with
learn something about the timepiece, to it for less than $50.
no avail. Also an accomplished commercial
photographer, Walters has evolved some
424: THE RADIO CENTER dry-ice techniques of great value to
197 W Main Street. Owned by Robert astronomers, and might be able to help
Valencia, 29. He sells radios, phonographs, investigators to photograph what's
and records. In the back room he repairs usually unphotographable.
and services A.M. radios. He owns a large
short-wave radio and transmitter. He's an 427: E. WAITE, GOLDSMITH
enthusiastic hobbyist who never stops 478 W Church Street. He retails silver
learning. and gold jewelry, often set with precious
stones. He can cast personal settings. He
425: FENNER AVERY, and the jeweller, Lazlo Caselius, do a
lateral business together, with Waite
TOBACCONIST purchasing gems from Caselius and
185 W Main Street. Deals in imported Caselius ordering settings from Waite.
tobaccos like fine Balkan Sobranje as Waite moved here from Innsmouth in
well as domestic brands, and in pipes and 1918, Caselius loaning Waite some of the
cigars. For protection from rowdy money that started him up, and accepting
youngsters, the traditional wooden some Innsmouth jewelry Waite brought
indian stands just inside the front door. with him as collateral.
Waite is still trying to pay the debt
426: WALTERS' OPTICS AND and recollect the pieces. He is nervous
FANCY TOYS and fearful that someone from Innsmouth
131 W Main Street. Timothy Walters, 42 might discover that he has broken his
years old, sells fine cameras, microscopes, trust and shown the pieces to strangers.
binoculars, and telescopes, as well as Waite may or may not carry the
scale-model trains and ships, and Innsmouth taint: he is 34, and his hair is
superbly-painted toy soldiers. quite thin.
Walters is an active amateur
astronomer, a good friend of Prof. 428: HATTIE'S BOUTIQUE
Billings at the University. His older 428 W Church Street. This store was
brother, Harvey Walters, the celebrated opened in 1926 by the refined (though
New York mystic and scholar, occasionally ill-born) Hattie O'Brian of Boston. Miss
visits Arkham, staying with Timothy in O'Brian is 42. She stocks the store with
the latter's apartment. the latest fashions. She has enough of a
One of Walters' telescopes is of an odd knack at quiet flattery to meet broad
design (successful Hard (ddd) approval in Arkham, and is expert with a
439 Arkham
Strange Aeons
needle. fountain pens, pencils, office furniture,

ledgers, adding machines, typewriters,
429: CASELIUS'S FINE JEWELERS and other supplies.
388 W Church Street Good-quality to
expensive jewelry using ready or custom 432: MISS JENNY'S BEAUTY
settings. Although he does little of it PARLOR
these days, Lazlo Caselius is a trained 288 W Church Street. Run by Jenny
stone-cutter. He is familiar with American Aberstrom. Popular with younger women.
and European antique jewelry styles. They dress and cut ladies' hair. The
In his displays are a few pieces of town's barbers, all licensed, once
Innsmouth gold Caselius has on deposit unsuccessfully filed suit to staunch the
from die goldsmith, Waite. latter competition.
430: PIKE'S HABERDASHERY 433: UNIVERSITY SHOE STORE

338 W Church Street. Clothing for men. 268 W Church Street. Shoes for men and
All suits are individually tailored. Also women. Repairs in the back.
has clothes for shooting and riding.
434: JAYWIL'S BOOK STORE
431: GILMAN'S OFFICE SUPPLIES A large store devoted to new editions
298 W Church Street. Stationery, and textbooks, Jaywil's also has an
Arkham 440
active personal order business. Nearly tenements and almshouses, and remain so
7,000 titles on a wide range of subjects today. Twisting alleys and lanes run
are in stock. Regular shipments arrive between the structures. Some are
from Britain and the Continent. The builtupon an old wharf once used to
majority of their business is with unload raw wool and cotton for the mills.
Miskatonic's faculty and student body.
Malvina Jaywil, 56, is the crusty, 440: THE OLD WAREHOUSES
intelligent owner. Open 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 North side of Main Street, from
P.M., including lunch hour, Monday-Friday. Peabody to West. Constructed in the early
The year 1928 saw the publication of 19th century, these great brick Georgian-
Aldous Huxley's Point Counterpoint and styled warehouses have stood next to the
Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (the river for a century. Most are unused,
latter's widespread ban included although local businesses rent one or two
importation into the United States). In for temporary storage from time to time.
1929, Jaywil's will offer Hemingway's A Lucky Clover Cartage has recently leased
Farewell to Arms, Faulkner's The Sound a large one.
and the Fury, and Wolfe's Look Homeward, Watermarks five feet above the ground
Angel. can be seen on the sides of these
buildings, scars from the flood of 1888.
435: THE UNIVERSITY SHOP
224 W Church Street. Everything for 441: NEWSSTAND
the male Miskatonic U student – pennants, SE corner of Main and Garrison.
sweaters, blazers, boaters, banners, school Although the two newsstands in town
ties, beer steins, embossed stationery, etc. have much the same fare, the one nearer
the campus is larger and carries more
436: MARSH'S CONFECTIONERY out-of-state newspapers. It also stocks a
172 W Church Street. Fresh candy by the large number of confession, pulp
pound or piece can be gotten here; there adventure, and crossword puzzle
is a soda fountain. magazines, all very popular. Open 6:30 A.M.
to 5:30 P.M., Monday-Saturday.
437: KROGER'S
SW corner of Main and Garrison. Brand- 442: BELL CAFE
name canned and packaged goods at low 132 E Main Street. A clean, friendly
prices. One of the first chain markets. lunchroom featuring better-than-average
cooking: breakfast 25-45 cents; lunch 50-
438: WOOLWORTH'S 5 & 10 60 cents. Comfortable booths line the
110 W Church Street. Nothing in this back wall and front window, and there is
store costs more than a dime, including a counter. Open 6 A.M. to 3 P.M., Monday-
household goods, books, candy, orders Friday.
from the soda fountain, thread, needles,
can openers, and so on. 443: MARKWIL'S THEATRICAL
SUPPLY
439: EASTERLY WAREHOUSES 148 E Main Street. Rent or buy costumes
North of Main Street, from Garrison to and purchase stage makeup, phony beards,
Peabody. These old wood warehouses are moustaches, wigs, etc. Ben Woodward, who
similar to their brothers west of here. owns and operates the store, does regular
Years ago they were converted to business with the many local amateur
441 Arkham
Strange Aeons
productions. His supplies for stage woman, works here. Unknown to family or
effects includes flash powder, chemical co-workers, she belongs to the Evil Coven
fog, and rubber spider webs. (see entry 1007).
444: CHURCH STREET CAFETERIA 447: ARKHAM GIFT SHOP

NE corner of Church and Garrison. The 195 E Church Street. Knick-knacks,
cheapest place to eat south of the river. ceramics, fancy stationery, Mah Jong sets.
A meal of sorts can be had for as little Owned and operated by elderly, kindly
as 15 cents. Open 5 A.M. to 2 P.M., Monday- Mrs. Edith Winkler who lives above the
Saturday. shop. A charming woman, Mrs. Winkler is
admired by her friends for her courage
445: BRYANT'S APOTHECARY in carrying on after Mr. Winkler ran off
135 E Church Street. Mather Bryant, 61, with a Southside floozie 20 years ago.
has run this store for nearly forty Unless first discovered by the
years. Competition with the newish investigators, when Mrs. Winkler passes
Walgreen's could leave business lean, but on, the new owner of the property
Bryant's old customers are loyal. discovers the bodies of a man and a
woman, victims of cyanide poisoning,
buried in the basement.
446: TARANOWSKI'S BAKERY
157 E Church Street. The second
Taranowski's, and just as good. Baked 448: CHRISTCHURCH EPISCOPAL
goods and coffee. Open 5 A.M. to 2 P.M., 150 S Parsonage Street. This church was
Monday-Saturday, closed Wednesday. founded in 1792. The present stone
Sheila Torsten, a bulky 22-year-old structure has housed the worshipers
Arkham 442
since 1824. Father Archibald Bishop but 61-year-old Jasper Benson finds
heads a prosperous and satisfied (even himself hard-pressed to keep up with a
perhaps smug) congregation. new competitor, the Kroger store, on
canned goods prices.
449: CALEB MARKHAM,
LOCKSMITH 453: BARGAIN HOUSE CLOTHIERS
206 E Main Street. An Arkham native, 390 E Main Street. A second-hand
48, Markham makes keys, re-keys locks, clothing store. For the destitute
sells and installs locks and other investigator or for the wise resident who
closures, including small wall safes. He'll appreciates a dollar.
come to your house, but “mebbe not for
three-four days." He is an honest man, and 454: STEWART'S CARAVAN
never performs improper or illegal 211 E Church Street. Owned and
actions. He's expert at opening old chests operated by 32-year-old Gerald Stewart,
and cabinets without damaging them. this store caters to campers and hikers,
Markham has a ferocious temper. The shop activities much in vogue as motor-car
is open 8 A.M. to noon, and 1-5 P.M., ownership widens. Includes tents packed
Monday-Friday. into small trailers.
450: HARDEN'S USED BOOKS 455: F&M TRAINS AND TOYS

226 E Main Street. A shabby store with 233 E Church Street. A fairly recent
a pedestrian selection of used textbooks, addition to the area, F&M opened last
cheap novels, and a century's-worth of fall featuring a line of electric trains,
religious tracts. Herbert Harden enjoys square-rigged ships, paper biplanes,
reading, but has no taste. There is a 5% chessboards, dolls, wooden and metal toys,
chance per half-day search that an and so forth. Owned and operated by Dean
investigator finds a volume of interest. Martelle of Quebec and Clell Flint,
For 90% of the time, it's a book of value Scotland.
such as the signed Dickens first edition a
lucky student walked out with last week 456: CHELSEA HOUSE
for 25 cents; for 10% of the time, the find
is a minor Mythos tome the investigator APARTMENTS
desires or at least does not have. Harden 267 E Church Street. This apartment
will not know what he is selling and lets building is three stories high and offers
it go for 1d100+10 cents. clean four-room apartments with private
baths for $65 a month. Bobby Sills,
henchman to Danny O'Bannion, lives on
451: B.F. JONES, HARDWARE the second floor.
244 E Main Street. Nuts, eye-bolts,
tools, rope, flashlights, magnets, cable,
hooks, pipe, bolt-cutters, in one 457: GLEASON'S DEPARTMENT
convenient location. Jones sells dynamite STORE
and caps to regular customers, but not to 310 W Church Street. Four floors of
“strange foreign types up to no good". clothing, appliances, furniture, books,
toys, tools, bedding, etc. Gleason's offers
452: BENSON'S MARKET prices somewhat lower than other Arkham
276 E Main Street. This long-time merchants in exchange for less-personal
establishment still does a good business, service. The company owns a large
443 Arkham
Strange Aeons
delivery truck and a smaller van. Time spent investigating the loss of
family pets, small farm animals, and the
458: SEARS-ROEBUCK CATALOG occasional missing child might yield
insight into that mass.
STORE The man is very quiet, never speaking
168 W Church Street. Miss Henrietta unless spoken to. All conversations are
Harrison, 41, manages this small short and grudging. He lives in a culvert
storefront. Things not findable in which once emptied into the river but was
Arkham can be ordered from Sears. Allow blocked off by later construction. Bony
1 to 6 days for delivery of small items, remnants from his meals lie at the bottom
and 1 to 2 weeks for large items. of the river.
RIVERTOWN 502: ARKHAM GENERAL STORE

This section of town lies partially on 421 E Main Street. Besides the general
the north face of French Hill, which run of merchandise, the General Store is
slopes steeply toward the Miskatonic a major outlet for liquor supplied by
River before flattening at River Street. Lucky Clover Cartage. Some local home-
Inhabitants south of River Street tend brewers supply a limited amount of keg
to be French-Canadian or East European, beer (much less profitable than whiskey,
the population becoming more and more and heavy to handle), of which the
Irish as the hill ascends. General Store sells a good many barrels
This is the old trade district of to University fraternities.
Arkham. Long-time outlets such as the The proprietor, Rider Adams, also sells
Arkham General Store remain here. Many firearms, ammunition, and dynamite. There
of Arkham's skilled tradesmen, native and are no regulations concerning purchase,
immigrant, here combine homes and shops. though storage of dynamite within city
The houses are modest, old, and built limits is regulated by ordinance dating
tightly along the streets. Most are sited to 1866, when a souvenir cannonball from
with their ends to the street, the front the seige of Petersburg blew away Eliot
doors opening onto small courts or lanes Olney's mantelpiece, chimney, and bedroom
that lead to the streets. wall. The store is open 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.,
Monday-Saturday.
501: THE SHORE
Rivertown. Between River Street and 503: THE EAST CHURCH
the Miskatonic stand empty, long- 444 E Main Street. This brick structure,
abandoned mills. A few of Arkham's built in 1842, is owned by Miskatonic
poorest live among the crumbling University and serves as the University
structures, sharing space with hoboes and Chapel. Non-denominational Protestant
an occasional petty criminal. With its services are held here on Sundays for the
twisting dark alleys and foreboding student body.
doorways, even the police venture in
cautiously. 504: ELEANOR PEABODY
Greg the Monster: no one knows Greg's
real name, or where he came from. He CHARITY HOME
frequents the riverbanks and wherever 174 S Powder Mill Street. This is a
he can find edible garbage. Immensely charity home for the destitute elderly.
overweight, the people who know of him Funded by the late Eleanor Peabody's
wonder how he manages to stay so huge. estate.
Arkham 444
505: ARLEY'S BOAT & BAIT 506: GREGOR WEILDER,

Foot of French Hill Street. Bert Arley GLASSBLOWER
will rent you a rowboat or canoe for $1 a 191 N French Hill Street. He brought
day, and throw in a can of worms to boot. this trade with him from Europe. He is
The current on the Miskatonic is usually nearly 60, stout and powerful, and speaks
slow, especially when the tide is in, and a with a thick middle-European accent. He
relaxing row up and down the river may is married and lives in the rear portion
be just the thing. Don't get too near the of the building that serves as his shop.
deserted island and don't linger too long
around the old warehouse leased by
Lucky Clover Cartage. 507: ARKHAM PRINTING
Arley occasionally rents boats to the 106 N Powder Mill Street. Specializes in
bootleggers. Living in his shack on the flyers, stationery, business cards, etc.
dock, he's well aware of their activity. Quick service.
A short time back he rented boats to
college students traveling to the 508: EAST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL
Unvisited Island. He didn't know anything 550 E Main Street. Principal Eldon
about the animal sacrifices, but he's been Jenkin, 55, keeps strict discipline over
dragged into the police investigation. the ethnically-diverse student body. The
high school team name is the
445 Arkham
Strange Aeons
“Musketeers". Arkham's second high from the minister of the First Baptist
school, East was established in 1902. Joel Church, he inspected the crumbling
Manton, who accepted the post of mansion of Alijah Billington and chanced
Superintendent of Schools in 1926, was to gaze through the strange, prismatic
the former principal. window in the second floor study. He was
shaken by the event (he saw something
509: BEACON OF HOPE moving) and although he does not think
he would return for a second look, he is
SETTLEMENT HOUSE fascinated by the existence of the
608 E River Street. A Baptist charity window. If investigators raise the
for the destitute, a person can shelter subject, he may be willing to speak about
here until finding work. One room is for it.
men, and another is for women. Prayers,
supper, a blanket, and a cot are provided.
This makes a good if unappealing hide- 511: BLACKSMITH
out, though the police occasionally SW corner of East and River. Though he
inspect here to learn who's new. doesn't shoe as many horses as he used to,
semi-retired Jacob Asker still does a lot
of trailer hitches and other ironwork to
510: G. SCHMIDT, GLAZIER order. People know that they can get
137 N Sentinel Street. Gunther Schmidt quick service from him, and that his
emigrated to Arkham shortly after the hasps and gates and tongues either last
end of the Great War. He operates his or get fixed for free.
shop out of the lower floor of this In a paddock he keeps four saddle
building while he and his family occupy horses, which he rents out from time to
the second. time.
Schmidt is a skilled craftsman trained
in stained glass work and has done
extensive restoration work in three 512: HIRAM THE JUNKMAN
different Arkham churches. 211 N East Street. Hiram, about 60,
Two years ago, following a suggestion makes daily the rounds of Arkham in his
wagon. His horse, Nessie, wears a hat with
Arkham 446
holes cut for her ears. As they plod congregate around the Southside Gym, for
along alleys and back streets, he is ever- the moment regarded by both gangs as
vigilant for sellables; he also hauls neutral territory. For the Italian gang,
trash to the dump for a small fee. see entry 720.
In the 40-odd-years he's ridden the
byways of the town, he has witnessed
many strange things, and found even CAMPUS
stranger things in certain people's trash, The campus area is an Arkham
which he may remember for a small fee. Heshowplace. Landscaped and kept
also knows some details of the local immaculately clean, the University
bootlegging operation, and his regular grounds are a cool and shady place for a
inspection of folks' garbage tells him summer walk. Almost all of the
who the best customers are. University's buildings are found here,
The junkman, while friendly, always including the hospital and the field
poses as a dolt. Whether or not house.
investigators can get anything out of Like the merchant district, the campus
him depends on their skillful persuasion.is on low ground which noticeably climbs
He has a special fondness for peach only south of College Street.
brandy and friendly company; perhaps an North of Crane Street and west of West
evening with him could be well-spent. Street is a block of substantial
residential homes, designed in the
Georgian/Federalist style. Many of these
513: DUNHAM'S BRICKYARD large homes are no longer residences, but
500 E River Street. Closed since 1912, are maintained as offices by the
the yard was once second only to the University or other organizations. This
University as the major Arkham employer. block is as wellgroomed as any part of
The brickyard's buildings are boarded up the campus.
and decaying. One shack has an intact College Street contains, besides campus
roof. buildings, many old family homes that
The 'Finns: the name's derived from have been converted to apartments and
Sean Finn, a reference mostly lost on boarding houses, where live most of the
present members of the group, who even Junior and Senior men who do belong to
spell it fins.) They follow O'Bannion's fraternities.
operations with great interest; the West of Boundary Street are blocks of
talented and the obedient can look older, more modest residences. Hill Street
forward to jobs from him as they mature. is an unlit dirt road underlain by a
Gang members indulge in petty foundation of ancient rotting timbers,
thievery and an occasional burglary, but poking up through the road in places.
there's not much to buy in Arkham, and Residents here lack sewers, and draw
there's no fence here who'll trust kids. water from one of three public wells
Mostly they gather on corners and in along the street. This very rustic section
vacant lots, and talk and posture. of town contains many 17th century
The Irish gang feels safest in most of homes, and the families of the
the French Hill district, while the inhabitants have lived in them for ten
Italians favor the lower Southside east generations and more, datable to the
of Garrison and south of Pickman. first settlement of Arkham.
The 'Finns have recently made a
headquarters in an abandoned shack in
Dunham's brickyard. The Rocks often
447 Arkham
Strange Aeons
601: MISKATONIC VALLEY 605: MISKATONIC ATHLETIC

VETERAN'S HOME ASSOCIATION
224 S Boundary Street. Supported by 602 Crane Street. This men's club was
community and church funds, this home formed in 1920 as a solution to
houses the worst of Arkham's war Prohibition, and membership is by
casualties. Triple and quadruple invitation only. Of the 80 or so members,
amputees abound; faces ruined by most are businessmen, professionals, or
shrapnel gaze piteously; bodies rotted by tenured professors from the University.
poison gas sometimes drift ghost-like The small mansion is open from 3 P.M. to
across windows and disappear. 10 P.M. six nights a week.
Social drinking, cards, billiards, and
602: SOUTHWEST TRANSFORMER conversation are the major activities;
drunkenness is cause for expulsion.
STATION Cost of joining is $200 plus monthly
322 S Boundary Street. This dues of $10; drinks at the bar are 25
transformer station controls power to all cents.
parts of Arkham south of the river and
west of Garrison St. Unmanned, it's
dangerous, and enclosed by a high fence. 606: NATHANIEL & WINGATE
Once entered, an investigator needs a PEASLEE
successful Hard (ddd) Mechanics check 588 (formerly 27) Crane Street. A fine
to shut off power here, and darken this home with large, well-kept grounds, the
part of town. A Mechanics check with a y residence of Professor Nathaniel Wingate
result gives 14 points of electrical Peaslee and his son, Professor Wingate
damage to the investigator. Peaslee.
603: ARKHAM PUBLIC HIGH 607: JONATHAN EDWARDS HALL

SCHOOL (LL&A BUILDING)
665 W Church Street. Grades 9-12 meet 270 S West Street. Construction
here from the first Monday in September continues on this imposing brick
till the second Friday of June. The building, intended to house the new
student body contains more old Arkham School of Language, Literature, & the
family names than the more diverse East Arts. Foundation, frame, and roof are
High. The school's team name is the completed, and work now concentrates on
“Commanders". the interior. Furnishings will be
supplied in late spring, and the facility
604: WHITECHAPEL MORTUARY opens to instruction for the Fall 1929
581 W Church Street. It offers most semester.
services, though no facilities for
cremation exist. Embalmment has become a 608: AXTON FIELD HOUSE
requirement for burial in Arkham, after 378 S West Street. Named for past great
much controversy and much to the football coach Peter “Dump" Axton, this
discomfort of religious groups backing field house was constructed in 1920, two
various theories of physical years after Axton's untimely death at
resurrection. the wheel of a car. Coach from 1908-1918,
Axton brought three championships to
the University, and was very active in
Arkham 448
Arkham civic projects. A saddened alumni clay tennis courts. The baseball team
quickly raised the funds and named the uses the Arkham High School field or The
structure in his honor. Commons field. The main athletic field,
The field house is open from 7 A.M. to 6 including the football field and
P.M., Monday-Friday, and by arrangement bleachers, is a mile and more west of
other times. All the coaches and staff town.
have keys. Facilities are technically Instruction may be individual or as a
closed to the public, but no one much class member. Fees should vary, and be
cares who uses them unless they become somewhat arbitrary.
rowdy or interrupt classes. Department of Physical Education: this
Facilities include classrooms, offices, a healthily-endowed department is headed
pool, squash and handball courts, a by Mr. Donald Kanum, the director. On the
basketball court, mats, and gym staff are football coach Flip Parkinson,
equipment. Adjacent outdoor facilities basketball coach Adam Hopkins,
include a quartermile track with a gymnastics and fencing coach Henry
practice field inside, and two well-used Cartwright, and Douglas Arthur for track
and field. As the seasons progress and
one sport eclipses another, head coaches
449 Arkham
Strange Aeons
in one sport become assistant coaches in 610: LAUNDRY AND STEAM PLANT
another. 611 W College Street. Industrial
Department of Facilities and Grounds: capacity; does linens, etc., for the
in a corner of the Field House is the University dorms, med school, and
maintenance division of the University, hospital. Some odd things, bundled in
headed by Robert (Bob) Bradbury, 56, a sheets, might turn up here.
former civil engineer. Bradbury is an The steam plant supplies heat and
easy-going, bald-headed man with a staff emergency electricity for much of the
of nearly 20, who clean, paint, clip, University, especially the hospital.
hammer, and oil the University's physical
assets. Bradbury also manages the
University's garage, entry 707, and the 611: ST. MARY'S TEACHING
athletic field, entry 1004. HOSPITAL
450 S West Street. This is Arkham's only
609: SCHOOL OF MEDICINE hospital. It has 165 beds and operates a
676 W College Street. This three-story 24-hour receiving room. The School of
structure, completed in 1910, sits Medicine provides all the residents and
adjacent to and connects with St. Mary's interns; doctors with private practices in
Teaching Hospital. Several wings have the area are associated staff. A doctor
been added, and the structure now who is expelled from hospital association
sprawls over most of the block. It is a has effectively had his Arkham career
short walk to intern quarters on Pickman ended.
Street. An establishment rock-ribbed in its
Over the years the School of Medicine Protestantism, the hospital changed its
and the hospital have intertwined: for name at the behest of the last will and
instance, the head of the medical school testament of Mrs. Mary Elliot Wharton, an
now serves double-duty as chief Episcopalian, who left the trustees
administrator for St. Mary's Hospital. $150,000 for a new wing in 1892.
Facilities include pharmacy and The campus physician is Doc Waldron;
pathology labs, an extensive medical his infirmary and office are in the
library, and modern dissection/autopsy basement of Science Hall. See entry 612,
labs. The Essex County Coroner and subhead “Campus Physician".
Arkham's own Medical Examiner often
make use of the autopsy room and morgue; 612: SCIENCE HALL
they're the best this side of Boston. Miskatonic Campus. Constructed in 1859,
Misfiled somewhere in the library are then rebuilt in 1899, Science Hall stands
some early notes of student Herbert West. three stories high, with hot and stuffy
While not granting any Cthulhu Mythos offices another floor higher, pushed into
knowledge, they may dearly cost the the garret. The first floor and basement
reader who learns about West's early are occupied by large lecture halls and
experiments with animal segments and the School of Biology. The Schools of the
parts. Physical and the Natural Sciences, and
As most medical schools continue to be, the department of Mathematics share
the School of Medicine's philosophy of floors two and three, and they all share
mental disorders is rigidly psychiatric portions of Tyner Annex, together with
and interested only in serious illnesses. the new School of Applied Sciences.
Students train at Arkham Sanitarium. Astor Department of Mathematics: so
called after receiving a long series of
Arkham 450
contributions and endowments from leaves.

Benjamin and Athena Astor. School of Biology: in 1954, this large
Dr. Hiram Upham chairs the department, department transforms into the School of
which also supports three associate Life Sciences. Areas of emphasis include
professors, four graduate assistants, and anatomy, general biology, some
a secretary, in a sumptuous style envied biochemistry, botany, zoology, animal
by every other faculty member on campus. behavior, and human psychology. The head
The department is not large enough to be of the school is Dr. Conrad Miller, 58
a school but, since its funding is years old.
independent, it has equivalent freedom Among the staff is 31-year-old
and prestige. Professor Percy Lake who is slated for
The department is pleased to provide the forthcoming expedition to the
mathematical liaison with other Antarctic. Wilmarth and Armitage,
departments, but its creative impulses trusting him, have (or will) confide their
curve toward topology and extra- fears to Lake. Lake, because of this,
dimensional explorations. reads the Necronomicon.
Upham teaches advanced mathematics The botanists operate a small
and numbers among his students the greenhouse attached to the south side of
brilliant Walter Gilman. Upham has the building. One, 29-year-old Professor
noticed the young genius's recent nervous Robert Angley, has raised eyebrows with
problems (mainly acquired since moving his active opposition to the proposed
into the Witch House) and has suggested reservoir project. Angley uses the
the young man take some time off to arguments of altered ecologies and
relax and recuperate. endangered species, although those
School of the Physical Sciences: concepts lack the supporting evidence
essentially the departments of chemistry available later in the century. He may
and physics, aiming to give every take some of his students on a weekend
undergraduate a sound education; upper field trip to the area of the Blasted
division and graduate classes explode in Heath.
many directions, from the implications of Assistant Professor Alex Warden
quantum theory to the synthesis of presses radical proposals such as mass
exciting new hydrocarbon compounds. parapsychological screening, much to the
The Dean of the School of Physical faculty's amusement and aggravation.
Science is Dr. W.E. Cameron, 48. Dr. Warden, unknown to anyone, belongs to
Archibald Greely, 62, takes special the Eye of Amara Society.
pleasure in guiding courses such as Wingate Peaslee, son of economist
quantitative and qualitative analysis Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, was the only
which are often geared to pre-med member of the elder Peaslee's family to
students. Dr. Harold Shear heads the not desert the man after his strange
Chemistry department. psychological attacks. His father's
Professor Donald Atwood, a physicist problems led young Wingate, in his early
turned meteorologist who really should thirties, into psychology. Peaslee is
be in the School of Natural Sciences, has scheduled to accompany the University
recently been chosen to participate in expedition to Australia and, among other
the upcoming Miskatonic expedition to things is a skilled airplane pilot. He
the Antarctic. Wilmarth and Armitage owns his own plane and keeps it stored in
persuade him to read portions of the the hangar of Arkham Airfield.
Necronomicon before the expedition School of Applied Sciences:
451 Arkham
Strange Aeons
headquartered in the new Charles Tyner The head of the school is Dr. William
Laboratory Annex, the Dean is Dr. Dyer, 50 years old, also the leader of the
Lawrence Abbott, an engineer by training. upcoming Antarctic expedition. He later
The school represents his ambitious leads the University expedition to
dream of a science fully interactive with western Australia. Dyer, who has had
modern society. discussions with Wilmarth and Armitage,
Dominant among the disciplines are has read the Necronomicon.
engineering, electrical engineering, civil Dr. Morris Billings, 28, is the
engineering, and metallurgy. University's token astronomer, teaching
Metallurgist Dr. Dewart Ellery will two observational and two theoretical
test and fail to identify the metal in a astronomical courses each semester, and
statuette of an elder thing brought to helping out the Physical Sciences people
him by mathematics student Walter with a course there in ballistics. The
Gilman. This mysterious piece eventually department owns a well-mounted eight-
finds its way into the Miskatonic inch reflector that is kept in the
University Exhibit Museum. athletic field house, and Billings is keen
In engineering, the rising star is to get a five-inch refractor for
Frank H. Pabodie, who is presently planetary and lunar observation. He
running final tests on a powerful new founded and leads the Arkham
drill of his own radical design. The drill Astronomical Society, featuring field
will take geological core samples during trips as nature allows and occasional
the upcoming Antarctic expedition. He has lectures.
also designed fuel-warming and quick-
start devices for the airplanes they are 613: CHARLES TYNER SCIENCE
taking with him. Pabodie, 32, is one of the
members of this expedition contacted by ANNEX
Wilmarth and Armitage in regards to Miskatonic Campus. The building houses
what might be found at the bottom of the the School of Applied Sciences, along
world. Pabodie reads parts of the with advanced experimental labs for
Necronomicon at their urging. physics and chemistry. The science annex
Faculty-member Prof. Woodbridge, 36, was constructed eight years ago and
has spent time with Robert Goddard, the named after Miskatonic graduate Dr.
liquid-fuel-rocket proponent. Woodbridge Charles Tyner, who, working for a
occasionally launches experimental succession of large corporations, made
rockets from a field south of town. significant discoveries.
Electrical engineer Dr. Hamlin Hayes, a An auxiliary powerhouse within the
young man despite his thin white hair, is annex provides the large electrical loads
presently developing special storage called for by some experiments.
batteries better-resistant to the intense
cold of the Antarctic. 614: COPLEY MEMORIAL BELL
School of Natural Sciences: an TOWER
experimental grouping of disciplines Standing eight stories high, this neo-
like geology, paleogeology, paleontology, gothic stone tower was built in the
astronomy, ethnography, oceanography, memory of three sons who perished in the
and meteorology. Some, such as Geology, Civil War. The tower is the tallest
are full-fledged disciplines; others, like structure south of the river.
oceanography, are the merest shadows of
what they will become.
Arkham 452
introductions to tongues such as
Japanese or Mandarin Chinese are

615: LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING sometimes offered.
Miskatonic campus. Constructed in 1861, Department of Classical Languages:
four stories high, this is the last year offers courses in classical Greek,
the old building houses the School of classical and medieval Latin, and an
Languages, Literature, and the Arts. It introduction to Hebrew or Aramaic on
will be renovated in 1929-1930, turned alternate semesters.
into new dormitory space renamed Herber Professor Warren Rice, witness to
Hall. With the Depression, it stands half- Wilbur Whately's death as well as the
empty for many years. Dunwich Horror itself, is acting chairman
School of Languages, Literature, and while Dr. Aaron Chase recuperates from a
the Arts: the first floor is occupied by heart attack. Rice is 48, has an iron-gray
offices and classrooms dedicated to the beard and hair, and is stockily built.
massive English Department; other Department of Oriental Studies: a new
departments fit in on upper floors as department created by Miskatonic's young
they may. Dr. Peter Crownin, a former president, Dr. Wainscott, this tiny
professor of English, is Dean of the department actually concerns what we
School. would now call the Middle East. The
Department of Modern Languages: chairman, Dr. Shalad, is expert in Arabic,
chaired by Dr. Allen Peabody, an expert Persian, Urdu, and Sanskrit, and
in Romance languages. Extensive occasionally offers courses in Middle
coursework in French and German is Eastern history, philosophy, art, and
available, with some classes in Spanish, culture.
Italian, and Russian. One-year
453 Arkham
Strange Aeons
Shalad is a taciturn, private man, 50 discoveries in Vermont have left him

years old. He has acquired some Mythos shaken. He has developed a close
knowledge and is familiar with the relationship with Dr. Armitage and the
Necronomicon and its history, and has two of them spend a great deal of time
aided other faculty members in their together researching their separate
study of that terrifying book. He has experiences in Dunwich and Vermont. This
several times consulted the Miskatonic diversion of Wilmarth's energies may
Library's copy. Dr. Armitage suspects the undo his chance for the chairmanship.
man's motives. Aside from his knowledge of language
Dr. Shalad is presently teaching a and letters, Wilmarth is also a learned
special course in medieval metaphysics, New England historian and a member of
with emphasis on the difficulties of the Arkham Historical Society. Harvard-
translation from Arabic originals, that educated, he was born and raised in
numbers Asenath Waite among its most Arkham and is presently master of the
interested students. family home at 118 Saltonstall Street.
Department of English: the aging Dr. Department of Fine Arts: headed by Dr.
Eastman is interim chairman; already Arthur Goddard, the department has a
there is talk of his retirement and the few practice and theory courses, as well
name of Albert N. Wilmarth, senior as classes in historical styles of
professor in the department, has been European art and architecture modeled
mentioned as his replacement. from Ruskin. Much of the department's
Though there are a handful of efforts are devoted to the creation of
historically-oriented literature classes cultural events for the University.
at the graduate level, most readings are In music it fields an enthusiastic
done in conjunction with the extensive string quartet, a small orchestra, and
composition classes which seek to enliven several choruses and choirs. Much of this
and perfect student expression and style. activity occurs without grant of
There are also some descriptive academic credit. Artist-in-Residence:
linguistics courses analyzing or David Rosen, an academic but technically-
codifying (depending on the instructor's accomplished oil painter and sculptor
bent) the grammar, structure, and executes University commissions as they
transformations of English, and a arise. He has worked here most of the
solitary theoretical course seeks to decade. In March and April of 1925, Rosen
discover the underlying principles of all was beset by a series of powerful dreams
language, taught by Dr. Stanley Whitman, concerning cyclopean structures, sunken
49. cities, and the dreaming dead. His
The department also guides Miskatonic attempts to work off the dreams through
University Press, and the publishing and painting and sculpture were to no avail;
printing of books is now a substantial although he produced his most powerful
activity. Dr. Swanson Ames, 51, oversees works, the strain forced him to take a
the work. Ames is also responsible for medical leave of absence. Since his return
publication of the student newspaper, he has had no further problems.
the Miskatonic University Crier. He reads University Marching Band: an
every line of copy, and wields a unofficial volunteer group unconnected
notoriously capricious blue pencil. He with and in fact despised by Fine Arts
hates the student editor, Howard people because of their propensity for
Penobscott. public drunkenness and rowdy behavior.
Albert N. Wilmarth: his recent University Players: though there are
Arkham 454
no drama classes or other such trade- slightest inkling that the Cthulhu
school intrusions at the University, the Mythos exists.
department maintains a resident director The youngest member of the department
of theater, Mrs. Alice Turner, whose task is Professor Tyler M. Freeborn, scheduled
is to yearly present six worthy stage to accompany the planned Miskatonic
plays for the edification of the expedition to Australia.
community, beginning in November of the Department of Archaeology:
year. Cast and crew are volunteers, and archaeology is a young science and still
receive no academic credit for their work. too headlinehungry to have a good
All must be University students, faculty, academic reputation. The youngish Dr.
staff, or their relatives. Francis Morgan is chairman and the only
Presentations must include “one play fulltime member of the department; he
from the classical Greek theater, two dreams of establishing rigorous methods
works from the reign of Elizabeth, one and standards for all archaeological
stage play written by an American living digs, so that the past is not irrevocably
or dead, one work written by a European lost.
living or dead, and one new play written Morgan was one of the three people who
by a member of the University community, actually viewed the corpse of Wilbur
which may be a farce." Whately. Soon after, he accompanied Prof.
Philosophy Department: a one-man Rice and Dr. Armitage to the village of
affair, nearly out of touch with the rest Dunwich, where he experienced the true
of the universe: 61-year-old Dr. George Horror. He is athletic, skilled with
Kilbraith teaches as if Henri Bergson was firearms, and a veteran of expeditions to
the only philosopher since Thomas primitive locations. He is currently
Aquinas. Kilbraith also offers a taking flying lessons at the Arkham
hopelessly muddled class in formal logic. Airfield and is a member of the Arkham
School of History & the Social Sciences: Gun Club.
this school occupies portions of the Department of Economics and
Liberal Arts building. Its dean is Dr. Sociometrics: this department teaches
Harvey Wilcox, a historian. economics as a theoretical science rather
Department of History: Dr. Martin Fen, than a business course, but does
53, heads the department. He's an expert emphasize as it can the friction of
in European history since Napoleon. reality. Great reliance is placed upon
Though large in quantity of course, much governmental statistics and
of the department is given over to independently-developed information and
required courses in Commonwealth and methods. Harvey Cox has been active in
United States history. gathering global statistics which might
Department of Ancient History: though be used by investigators to trace
presently without a chairman, specialist worldwide patterns of large-scale Mythos
Ferdinand C. Ashley, 36, is expected to activities.
accompany the upcoming expedition to Dr. Anthony Westgate is department
Australia. chairman, but he still defers to Dr.
Department of Anthropology: despite Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee who, until
chairman Abram Bethnell's extensive 1908, was department head.
education and familiarity with the 12 Peaslee, who resides at 590 (formerly
original volumes of The Golden Bough 27) Crane St, is on indefinite medical
and the rather ingenuous works of leave from the University but still acts
Margaret Murray, he has not the as an advisor and maintains an office in
455 Arkham
Strange Aeons
the building. His work is now devoted to pedestal seven feet tall, gazing benignly
wide-ranging research in a number of upon Church Street. A small garden
subjects. surrounds it, complete with benches and
In August of 1908, while teaching a pigeons.
class in political economy, Peaslee was
stricken by a strange amnesia that lasted 617: LOCKSLEY HALL
until 1913. He returned to work for a Miskatonic campus. A graceful red-brick
short time in 1914 but retired soon after, Georgian structure, built in 1779, it's the
complaining of an inability to oldest building on campus. Along with the
concentrate. During this time he was, of present 250-seat auditorium, Locksley
course, possessed by one of the Great Race Hall also contains offices and conference
of Yith who used Peaslee's body for rooms.
research and to make travels across the
globe.
Peaslee, through dreams, has come to 618: THE WEST DORMITORY
recall some of this. Due to these dreams, Miskatonic campus. The West Dorm was
and despite his medical history and built in 1888 and while far from
advanced age of nearly sixty, he has luxurious, it is heaven compared to
asked to accompany a Miskatonic-backed nearby East Dorm – Hell East, as many
expedition to Australia planned in the say. It is occupied by upperclassmen and
next few years. a few sophomores.
616: STATUE OF DEAN HALSEY 619: THE EAST DORMITORY

Miskatonic campus. Commissioned in 1906 Miskatonic campus. Built in 1863,
and erected two years later, the grateful everyone calls it Hell East, because of
citizens of Arkham subscribed to and noise, commotion, a faulty heating plant,
paid for this statue, honoring the drafty doors and windows, and inadequate
beneficent doctor's contributions, and his plumbing. Freshman men must live here,
final sacrifice during the plague of unless living at home in Arkham.
1905. The statue is nine feet high and
stands upon a carved Carrara marble
Arkham 456
620: DOROTHY UPMAN HALL Armitage has convinced the board of

Miskatonic campus. Constructed in 1879, trustees that more security is needed. The
this is the women's dorm. Dorothy Grace University has asked Dick Ace to install
Upham, near the end of her life in 1875, an expensive electric burglar alarm
offered the trustees a notable bequest system.
should women, for the first time, be The director of the library is, of
admitted to Miskatonic University. Part course, Dr. Henry Armitage, A.M.,
of the monies accepted then went to build Miskatonic; Ph.D., Princeton; Litt. D.,
the edifice named after her. Cambridge. Armitage is 73, white-bearded,
Female scholars must live here until and lives with his wife, Eleanor, in their
age 30, or with their families, or with home at 348 W High Street. He has
their husbands. The building is neat, directed the library since 1906 and knows
clean, and cheap. its secrets better than anyone.
Although long its caretaker, Armitage
did not realize the significance of the
621: FACULTY / GRADUATE Necronomicon until after he met Wilbur
RESIDENCE Whately, the strange young man from
Miskatonic campus. In 1910 the building Dunwich. After Whately was killed by the
was converted to its present use as a library's watchdog while attempting to
residence for bachelor faculty, graduate steal the Necronomicon, Armitage was led
students, and visitors. A porter controls to discover its secrets. Accompanied by
access to the building 24 hours a day. Prof. Rice and Dr. Morgan, also of the
University, he traveled to Dunwich and
622: THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE there met and, with the aid of strange
Miskatonic campus. A hideous neo- magicks, defeated Wilbur Whately's
classic residence built in 1892. Wainscott terrible twin.
has begun to mutter about building The aged Armitage's health has been
something better, but has no funds for damaged by his experiences in Dunwich.
the task. For more about Wainscott, see He is presently under the close care of
entry 625. his physician and taking medication for a
weakening heart.
General Holdings: bound periodicals
623: UNIVERSITY LIBRARY and University records are stored in the
Miskatonic campus. The gem of the basement.
University, a repository for over 400,000 The library has near-complete
carefully chosen books and pamphlets. collections of the Arkham Gazette and
This three-story Gothic structure was the Arkham Advertiser (and the latter's
built of native granite in 1878, predecessors), though the disastrous
replacing a smaller wooden building. Miskatonic flood of 1888 destroyed
Although the marble halls are cold portions of this collection, including the
and drafty, the library is well lit by Arkham Gazette, 1845-1858 and 1864-1868;
tall, arched windows that allow maximum the Arkham Advertiser for the years
light to penetrate an otherwise dreary 1851-1863; the Arkham Bulletin 1823-1826;
structure. The library is open 8 A.M. to 9 and the Miskatonic Valley Gleaner for
P.M., Monday-Friday; 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. on the years 1830-1831. There are also bound
Saturday; 1-6 P.M. Sunday the reference volumes of the Aylesbury Transcript
room is open. (1844-present), the Innsmouth Courier
The mastiff chained near the front (1833-1846), “Kingsport Chronicle" 1829-
steps still stands guard at night, and
457 Arkham
Strange Aeons
present, and the Newburyport permission of Whately family heirs,

Correspondent (1839-present). Armitage took possession of Wilbur
The major book holdings are contained Whately's library. It included a ragged
on the upper floors of the building. John Dee translation of the
Mythos Holdings in the Library: Necronomicon, a copy of the Pnakotic
Armitage has shared his secrets with only Manuscripts, and the Latin Liber Ivonis,
a few but is actively pursuing knowledge along with a number of other volumes.
about the Mythos. He has restricted Wilbur Whately's diary, which Armitage
access to the Necronomicon (as well as once vowed to burn, is still in his
other books) and is concerned about the possession and kept locked in his desk
special course in medieval metaphysics drawer, along with his decoding notes and
presently being taught by Dr. Shalad. translations. Although he continues to
Having compared his experiences with work on the translation of the diary, he
those of Albert Wilmarth, he justifiably allows no one to read his notes.
fears strangers who wish to see this book. At a high price, Armitage has acquired
In the anthropology section are the a copy of the Cultes des Goules and is
complete original 12-volume edition of currently bargaining with a strange
Frazer's The Golden Bough and also correspondent in France for a copy of De
Witch-Cults in Western Europe. Justin Vermiis Mysteriis. (Armitage might need to
Geoffrey's People of the Monolith and send someone abroad to retrieve the
Edward Derby's Azathoth and Others can book).
be found with other American poets. Also restricted are both of Dr. Laban
The catalog lists Thaumaturgical Shrewsbury's books, Cthulhu in the
Prodigies in the New England Canaan but Necronomicon and An Investigation into
the copy has been misplaced and cannot the Myth Patterns of Latter-Day
be located. Wilmarth is presently trying Primitives with Especial Reference to the
to track it down and, if he finds it, will R'lyeh Text. And the Eltdown Shards, a
have Armitage place it in the upstairs questionable translation of strange
vault and add it to the restricted list. markings found on clay shards discovered
Other Mythos titles discovered by in southern England, published in 1913,
Armitage have been pulled from the has also been restricted.
shelves and are presently in the vault. Material Still Unrestricted: Armitage
He has systematically gleaned the has not identified some pamphlets and
library in search of these items and has reports pertinent to the Mythos.
placed most of them on the restricted There is a copy of the very rare Eli
list. “Restricted" means that Armitage Davenport monograph of 1839, a
must personally approve the reader who collection of old folk and Indian legends
is to study or handle the listed book, and regarding the activities of the Fungi in
that the book must be read under the New England.
watchful eye of a trustworthy staff- A transcript exists of a sermon
member. preached in Dunwich in 1747 by the Rev.
Prior to the Dunwich Horror the Abijah Hoadley. The pastor railed against
library already possessed one of the five the well-known rumblings in the ground,
known copies of the Necronomicon in claiming them to be the work of the devil
Latin translation, as well as a (Reverend Hoadley disappeared soon after
fabulously-rare original edition of the delivering the sermon).
Unausprechlichen Kulten and a slightly An 1882 report made by Miskatonic
worn copy of the Book of Eibon. With professors regarding the meteorite that
Arkham 458
fell on the Gardner farm that year draws Elder Thing made from an odd blue stone,
no conclusions but lists alarming and the misshapen skeleton of Brown
evidence. Jenkin.
In 1902 the University conducted a
ground survey in the Dunwich area, 625: HOYT ADMINISTRATION
attempting to explain the strange
ground rumblings that have been heard BUILDING
in the area for centuries. 333 W College Street. This three-story
Recent and current copies of the structure, built in 1912, overlooks much
Journal of the American Psychological of the campus. The first floor is used
Society contain articles written by mostly for information, registration, and
Professor Peaslee of the Economics counseling (and contains the offices of
department, written in regard to his the student newspaper) while the second
strange amnesia and the odd dreams that floor holds the bulk of administering
he subsequently suffered. staff. The third floor contains the
Finally, Armitage has forgotten the offices of the president, vice-president,
Celaeno Fragments, a manuscript staff, and some class or conference rooms.
deposited by Dr. Laban Shrewsbury The building is open 8 A.M. to noon, and 1-
shortly before his mysterious 5 P.M., Monday-Friday.
disappearance in September of 1915. A semester's tuition at Miskatonic costs
$455 a semester. A dormitory room costs
$25 a semester. Three meals daily at a
624: UNIVERSITY EXHIBIT dormitory cafeteria cost $87.25 per
MUSEUM semester.
687 W College Street. Constructed in Miskatonic University has welcomed a
1902, this building is open to the public certain number of women since 1879, and
10 A.M. to 6 P.M., Tuesday-Saturday. Among small numbers of church-sponsored
the exhibits is a large natural history students from China, Africa, and
section including a mounted “brontosaur" Polynesia, but 95% of the student body
skeleton and many other, smaller fossils. are white Anglo-Saxon Protestant males,
A series of halls contain geological usually linked with well-to-do, often-
samples, stuffed animals, and dramatic local families.
dioramas concerning primitive man. The University takes seriously its in
(Fraternity legend holds that a date's loco parentis duties, prescribing student
interest in these latter, somewhat under- hours and behavior in detail. Curfews at
clothed scenes betrays her enjoyment of 10 P.M., strict segregation of the sexes,
other primitive behavior.) and enforcement of school traditions are
Examples of Innsmouth jewelry can be normal to the time, but perhaps far-
found in the Folk Arts section. According fetched to those who must fend for
to the story “Dreams in the Witch House", themselves in looser eras. Students who
this year the museum also gains a small fail to rise when their instructor enters
metal miniature of an Elder Thing, the classroom may be expelled, for
broken by Walter Gilman from the instance. When not in classroom or
balcony railing of a prehuman city. library, an unruly student may be
After the collapse of the Witch House confined to his or her room, and a system
in 1931, and aside from books and papers of proctors and hall monitors sees that
turned over to the library, the museum this is done.
acquires an oddly-fashioned sacrificial Faculty and staff must not be merely
bowl and knife, a small statue of an competent, but must be of sound morals
459 Arkham
Strange Aeons
and reputation. Those who become day for the worst room; one top-floor
entangled in bizarre situations or become suite commands $50 a night during
the subject of gossip may not last long homecoming and commencement.
at Miskatonic.
Though the University offers only 20 627: ARKHAM SPCA
full-tuition scholarships each semester, 111 W College Street. This new
various private charities and trusts also organization is dedicated to the
offer full or partial scholarships. Those prevention of cruelty to animals; it is
winning them must still work for or well-funded by some of Arkham's most
otherwise pay for room, board, and pocket prosperous citizens. The president, 62-
money. This is not an easy time in which year-old Wilma Peabody (sister of the
to be poor. Mayor), has filed suit against the
Fall semester runs from September to students, who apparently sacrificed dogs
mid-January, with a three-week break in and cats in some ritual. She has hired
December. Spring semester begins either Edwin Cassidy to represent the Society,
the fifth Monday of January or the first and hopes to get rulings which
Monday of February and concludes the eventually will remove domestic animals
second Friday in June. A few tutorial from the status of absolute chattels and
classes or introductory classes required into a new class where death or injury
for graduation are offered during may be promoted only for very restricted,
summer vacation, but never specialized specified causes.
upper-division or graduate-level
instruction.
The Miskatonic University Crier: its 628: HARRIET BOTSFORD HOTEL
enemies call it the Sniveler. The weekly FOR WOMEN
student newspaper's managing editor is 122 W Pickman Street. Partially
Howard Penobscott. He's a Henry Luce fan supported by a trust left by Harriet
and an annoying young trouble-maker. Botsford, this hotel provides large, well-
Skinny, habitually winking through his furnished rooms for single working women
wire-rim glasses, Penobscott prefers at the bargain rate of $ 16 per month.
editorializing to journalism, and glories Strict rules apply, however. Only lobby
in tweaking the school administration. telephones are allowed. Men may enter
Clashes with his faculty advisor and only the front lobby (very nice,
censor, Swanson Ames, are on-going. fireplace, piano). Overnight female guests
Penobscott enjoys nothing more than must be registered and are limited to a
slipping something controversial by Ames, one-week visit. The front door is locked
an oblique and distracted man. Even the at 9 P.M., and no admittances are made
fair-minded President Wainscott finds it after that hour without special
impossible to like Penobscott, though he arrangement. Residents have no lobby
admits that his young nemesis is keys; residents and visitors alike must be
ingenious. personally admitted by manager Abigail
Flint. Any serious violation of the rules
626: HOTEL MISKATONIC is grounds for eviction, and evictions are
200 block of W College Street. Offering quick in Arkham.
the finest and most expensive lodging in
Arkham, it stands five stories tall and
enjoys beautiful prospects across the
Miskatonic campus. Rates begin at $5 a
Arkham 460
461 Arkham
Strange Aeons
FRENCH HILL
French Hill, surmounted by the dark
spire of Bayfriar's Church, includes some
of Arkham's oldest homes. Still populated
predominantly by Irish, brick row houses,
gambrel roofs, and occasional decayed
Georgian houses of impressive
proportions line the hill. Some houses
perch here precariously, tilting crazily
over the narrow streets. Many of the
lanes and alleys are no more than
flights of stairs that twist upward to
end at dark doorways.
The more prosperous Irish live on the
east side of the hill and down across
East Street in newer, more expensive
homes with small front and back yards.
The north slope of the hill is populated
by the poorest Irish, a few Poles, and
many of Arkham's French-Canadians. The
western slope is mostly poor Irish and a
few Poles.
The Polish district, an area of
clustered gambrel- and gable-roofed
houses, is roughly the six blocks within
College, Peabody, High, and Garrison, on
the southwest foot of the hill.
701: WALGREEN'S DRUGS

SE corner of Garrison and Church. Part
of a national chain. Prescriptions,
notions, cosmetics, soda fountain, film-
developing, etc.
702: CAMPUS BICYCLE SHOP

146 E Church Street. Buy a bike ($24),
rent a bike (75 cents a day), or get one
repaired. Stocks lots of tires, tubes, and
patch kits.
703: ALMEN'S FLOWERS

259 S Garrison Street. Dr. Homer Winside, a botanical expert, specializing in plants
formerly of Miskatonic University, runs poisonous, carnivorous, and otherwise
the shop. Winside was a professor at the exotic. Years ago he studied the Blasted
University and participated in many Heath, with inconclusive findings.
expeditions to the tropics. He retired a
few years ago and opened this shop. He is
Arkham 462
704: COLLEGE BARBERSHOP 706: UNIVERSITY SPA

271 S Garrison Street. Offers good 311 S Garrison Street. A student-
haircuts and non-stop gossip. Many oriented lunchroom with decent food.
University students and faculty go here. Lunch costs 35-45 cents. Open 6 A.M. to 3:30
P.M., Monday-Saturday.
705: MEHLER'S FUNERAL PARLOR
171 Lich Street. Mehler's clients are 707: MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY
well-to-do. For an extra fee, the coffin is GARAGE
drawn to the cemetery by a pair of 334 S Parsonage Street. A storage and
matched white Arabian mares rather than repair facility for University vehicles,
carried within a motorized hearse; few under the general direction of Bob
Arkhamites desire such ostentation. Bradbury of Facilities and Grounds. For
Cremation, though not advertised, is a dollar a week, the operators will store
available, with storage available in any private automobile. Herb Gordon is
Mehler's private mausoleum or in Mehler's the part-time mechanic. Open 7:30 A.M. to 6
crypt in Christchurch Cemetery.
463 Arkham
Strange Aeons
P.M. Closed Sundays. detected around the outside window or

even coming from under the door of
708: LEWISTON HOUSE Walter Gilman's room.
181 E College Street. This small hotel Walter Gilman, a brilliant mathematics
rents modest, clean rooms for $1.75 a day. student at the University, is aware of
Cheaper rates are available by the week the hyperphysics that may have been
or month. Renters are carefully used by the so-called witches of
scrutinized; young men who keep centuries ago. He is presently rooming in
irregular hours will be evicted. the Witch House and has, by choice, taken
the third floor attic room – the one with
the odd wall and ceiling – in the hope
709: KEENAN'S LAUNDRY that he might learn what the old woman
152 E College Street. Starch to order. knew. He is beginning to experience a
Older gentlemen prefer this laundry's bizarre series of unsettling dreams.
treatment of winged collars. Local rumors have for centuries
persisted about Keziah Mason,
710: NEW ENGLAND SCHOOL OF accompanied by her familiar, Brown
BOOKKEEPING Jenkin, roaming the streets in search of
103 E Pickman Street. The semester-long sacrifices. These rumors are true. She
introductory course costs $40. conducts private rites of the deserted
island in the Miskatonic and, with other
members of the Evil Coven, in the barren
711: WITCH HOUSE valley beyond Meadow Hill. Sighting
197 E Pickman Street. An unpopular Brown Jenkin at May Eve or Hallowmass
rooming house, inhabited by the poor and portends the imminent kidnaping of a
by students Walter Gilman and Frank small child.
Elwood. The building is leased to Mr. and Although often referred to by the
Mrs. Dombrowski who in turn rent rooms uneducated and superstitious as “the
for $25 monthly and function as Witch-House", its sordid past is
landlords. unremembered by most Arkhamites.
Now nearly 235 years old, this Investigators applying for the available
structure may be the oldest building in room next to Walter Gilman's are unlikely
Arkham. It was once occupied by Keziah to recognize the place for what it is
Mason who, after being captured by Salem unless they are life-long Arkham
authorities, escaped their gaol and residents and can make a successful
disappeared. Keziah had signed in blood Daunting (dddd) Knowledge check.
the great Book of Azathoth possessed by Research at the Arkham Historical
The Black Man (one of Nyarlathotep's Society brings its true history to light.
many forms) and learned to travel
through space and time.
Since then, Mason apparently has 712: OLD ARKHAM GRAVEYARD
revisited at least twice annually the 250 E Church Street. A remnant from
cramped, walled-in space above the third- Arkham's founding, this cemetery contains
floor attic room, and here conducted some of the oldest graves in the town.
child sacrifices. A crevice between the Many 17th century headstones exist; the
outer and inner walls holds the newest is dated 1743; some are weathered
innumerable bones of these victims. A beyond legibility. Ghouls have plundered
violet glow is present when she occupies the place.
the secret space, and it can sometimes be
Arkham 464
713: SOUTHSIDE BATHHOUSE a stuffy pair and though the rooms are
209 S Peabody Avenue. Though modern spacious and well-ventilated and the
plumbing is slowly eroding this business, food is good, they are nosy about their
warm and comfortable baths are still at boarders. A tenant late for dinner also
a premium in some parts of town. This finds that the meal has been promptly
establishment offers a chance to get put away or disposed of; the Smiths never
clean for only 20 cents. Mornings are offer a snack. There are four other
reserved for women; afternoons are for boarders, including Alain Couzon and Mr.
men. Open 6 A.M. to 7 P.M. Tuesday- Elisha Waite, the goldsmith.
Saturday.
717: SCHOOL OF POSITIVE
714: BAYFRIAR'S CHURCH THINKING
540 E Church Street. This boarded-up, 297 E College Street. As given by Dr.
soot-darkened brick church, built in the Delbert Chanson (“why, a doctorate in
mid-19th century, sits ominously atop Memoryology, my lad"), this six month
French Hill. It has been sealed for course of one night a week costs $50.
generations; no one seems to remember
why. Among the rotting books lining a 718: ST. MICHAEL'S CATHOLIC
basement shelf is a copy of the Cthaat
Aquadingen. CHURCH
432 Lich Street. Founded in 1854 after
purchase of an old Presbyterian church
715: FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF and consecrating it as St. Michael's.
ARKHAM Father Paul Sheene presently presides
214 Lich Street. Arkham's oldest over the flock.
surviving church was built in 1743; the He feels uneasy about accepting
towering steeple dominates the skyline. healthy cash donations from Danny
The Reverend Charles Noyes leads the O'Bannion, but his theology is up to the
congregation. Among its charities, the task of distinguishing man from money.
church funds a shelter on River Street Father Sheene used the money for a boy's
for the poor. athletic program to help keep some of
In the late 18th and early 19th the kids off the streets. A sentimental
century the church was headed by the man, O'Bannion regularly confesses to
Reverend Ward Phillips, scholar, mystic, Father Sheene but, a crooked man as well,
and author of Thaumaturgical Prodigies he lies whenever matters get sensitive.
in the New England Canaan. A copy of this
work can be found in the church archives, 719: EBEN S. DRAPER PUBLIC
along with bundles of Phillips' letters,
sermons, and unpublished essays. Records SCHOOL
of births, deaths, and marriages within 373 S Powder Mill Street. Grades 1-8
the church are also here. meet here from the first Monday in
September till the last Friday of May.
716: SMITH'S BOARDING HOUSE
288 Lich Street. This well-regarded 720: SOUTHSIDE GYM
boarding house is operated by Mr. Phineas 348 S Sentinel Street. A sweaty smelling
Smith and his wife, Harriet, both in their place frequented by amateur boxers and
mid-fifties. A second floor room with a handful of semi-professionals. The gym
board costs $49 per month. The Smiths are is owned by Luca Maruzzo, who's also the
465 Arkham
Strange Aeons
trainer. For $20, he'll train a male entry 513.

investigator for six months. Over that
time, the student boxer has a 20% chance 721: Y.M.C.A.
to get a decorative broken nose. 477 Powder Mill Street. This facility
Maruzzo refuses to train females. In offers young men a locker and a cot to
this place, they're just cause for sleep on for 35 cents a night. There is no
whistles. Y.W.C.A. in Arkham, though one could be
The Rocks: made up of Italian-descent founded.
teenagers and named after their
traditional weapon, they often
congregate around the Southside Gym, for 722: ORNE'S GANGWAY
the moment regarded by both gangs as Next to 780 S French Hill Street. This
neutral territory. narrow, dark alley leads to a small
The Rocks were once under the wing of courtyard behind several buildings.
Joe Potrello, but now operate without Dirty, filthy with trash, it's
patron. The Rocks hate the 'Finns as Irish unremarkable except that Keziah Mason
interlopers, ironically unaware that two and Brown Jenkin are frequently sighted
distinct waves of Irish immigrants have here.
passed through Arkham already, the first
more than sixty years before, long before 723: FRENCH HILL
Italian immigration. TRANSFORMER STATIONS
They steal a little and cheat a little, 471 S French Hill Street. This place
but there's not much to buy in Arkham, controls electrical service for the town
and no fence will trust kids. The Rocks south of the river and east of Garrison
meet in the afternoons, sauntering and Street. Unmanned, it's dangerous, and
swaggering as they go nowhere. enclosed by a high fence. Having entered,
The Irish gang feels safer around the investigator needs a successful Hard
French Hill, while the Italians favor the (ddd) Mechanics check to shut off the
lower Southside east of Garrison and power and darken this part of town. A
south of Pickman. For the Irish gang, see Mechanics check with a y result gives 14
Arkham 466
points of electrical damage to the old Arkham families thrive here.

investigator instead. Hill Street is unlit and little lived-on.
Houses here are ancient, tottering
UPTOWN affairs, sagging under moss-grown
gambrel and gable roofs. Some stand
Most of this neighborhood is well-off, vacant; most are without electricity, gas,
but Saltonstall and High Streets deserve or town water. The dirt street is
the most attention. Perched terrace-like underlain by timbers laid down lifetimes
atop South Hill, overlooking campus and ago.
the river, these two brick streets are a Old, disused farm buildings can be
full 60 feet wide and lined with fine seen, half-fallen and overgrown; hidden
shade trees. Mansions of among luxurious trees and high-standing
Georgian/Federalist design, once mill- grasses are long-abandoned gardens and
owner homes, line both sides of both the remains of old family plots. This
streets from Boundary to Garrison. The area has yet to be incorporated.
houses are placed side by side, uniformly Residents get water from wells scattered
12 feet back from the brick sidewalk. A along the street.
small 'green easement' four feet wide is
between the sidewalk and the street.
There is little space between the 801: THE FRANKLIN PLACE
houses, although a few sport small 587 W Pickman Street. A first-floor
gardens on the side. Descendants of the room with board here is available for $95
original families still own a few homes; a month, well worth the price. Mr. and Mrs.
University folk now own many of the Franklin, in their late fifties, are a
houses. A few more have been purchased friendly couple, and hired help keeps the
by organizations. Some are boarding place spotless. Their cook prepares
houses or apartments. No commercial breakfast and supper.
buildings stand in this area. Among the four present boarders is
Police patrols here are frequent; Professor of Engineering Frank Pabodie.
loitering, particularly after dark, is not
permitted. 802: DANIEL SHAY PUBLIC
Houses along narrower Pickman Street SCHOOL
are of an earlier, more modest vintage. 602 W High Street. Grades 1-8 meet here
Here are numerous two- and threestory from the first Monday in September till
gambrel-roofed houses, mostly of wood, the last Friday of May.
and many have been divided into
apartments. Some are hidden behind other
houses, reachable only by narrow alleys. 803: DANIEL UPTOWN,
Several older Georgian mansions stand CONSULTING ARCHITECT
out. Residents here include poorer 662 W Saltonstall Street. Upton is in
faculty and older University students. his late 40s, married, and the father of
These buildings are generally well- one son. This successful man's home is a
maintained. showplace of Georgian architecture.
A few Georgian homes occur on Upton graduated from Harvard and
Miskatonic and Washington Streets but belongs to the Arkham Historical Society.
much of this area was built up in the He is versed in New England architecture.
later 19th century, and consist of larger Upton is a close friend of the poet
Victorians owned by middle-class Edward Pickman Derby and has met
property-owners and professionals. Some Derby's bride, Asenath Waite. He is
467 Arkham
Strange Aeons
worried for Derby, who has told him some attack of amnesia in 1913. He may have
unnerving things. Upton possesses several learned things from Peaslee useful to
small objects of strange geometric investigators.
character which Derby gave to him.
806: FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
804: WHITECHAPEL NURSING CHURCH
HOME 651 W Saltonstall Street. Founded in
602 W Saltonstall Street. This nursing 1801, the old church was sold in 1854 and
home costs $100 monthly, including meals a new brick building opened that same
and medical care. In-home nursing care, 24 year. Dr. Eben Sutton leads the
hours daily, costs $10 a day. congregation.
805: HORTON WILSON, M.D. 807: MORTON HARTWELL, M.D.

522 W Saltonstall Street. Now 74 and 507 W Miskatonic Avenue. He's Armitage's
semi-retired, Dr. Wilson was and is the personal physician. He is nearly 70,
personal physician of Professor maintaining only a small practice of
Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee; he treated long-time patients.
the man during and after his strange
Arkham 468
808: DR. AND MRS. HENRY this volume among the hundreds of
priapic homages crowding the shelves.
ARMITAGE Also to be found here is a copy of the
417 W Miskatonic Avenue. The fine Zekerboni (in a dialect of Italian). This
Edwardian home of the University Mythos tome was handtranscribed in 1630
library's director. by Pietro Mora, a coven-leader, and now is
probably the only copy. Its existence has
809: STEWART PORTMAN not been reported since 1744. In 1631,
299 W Pickman Street. A handsome, Mora and most of his coven were arrested
sophisticated dilettante, Portman and executed by authorities for alleged
possesses the finest collection of rare complicity in the spread of plague.
books in Arkham, including Tillinghast's. The binding, boards, and pages of the
Many rare and first editions grace his Zekerboni are treated with a contact
shelves. He has a fine selection of poison absorbable through the skin;
illuminated manuscripts. whoever handles the book must make a
Unknown to most, Stewart, 43 and a Hard (ddd) Resilience check against the
life-long bachelor, is a perverted brute. poison, which takes effect in about 30
Should a female whom he desires visit minutes. At first, the reader's hands feel
Stewart, he drugs her (Hard (ddd) numb and cold, then the effect spreads.
Resilience check to ward off the drugs) Failure to resist the poison leads to
and, as the chemicals take effect, has his death in 12 hours. Gloves negate the
way with her. As a cover story, he douses danger. Portman knows about the poison
her clothes with whiskey. but never tells anyone, seeing the poison
Any female investigator who presses as a delectable curiosity, and as
charges meets implacable bias from Judge righteous punishment of thieves.
Randall, who declares at length that no
decent woman would ever visit a 810: TIMBLETON ARMS
bachelor's home alone. Portman says 111 W Pickman Street. This five-story
blandly that she came to see his etchings, building has luxury apartments to rent,
and that honor prevents him from saying starting at $83 a month. The price
more. Since the Portman family is of long includes laundry, maid service, and a
standing in Arkham, the victim's full-time doorman. The penthouse
reputation thereafter is severely apartments go for $120 a month. Gangster
tarnished against Arkhamites, and she is Danny O'Bannion lives in one.
subject to many minor cruelties and
injustices.
Portman has a special gallery of books 811: MAY LADIES BEAUTY SALON
locked in glass cases. This, the largest 122 W High Street. Patronized by
collection of pornography in Arkham's female gentry, it's the most
Massachusetts, would scandalize the expensive salon in town.
citizenry of Arkham; starting rumors
about it would in some measure turn the 812: MISKATONIC CLUB
town against the cad, but unfortunately 411 W High Street. This exclusive men's
not restore the reputation of the club owns its own Georgian mansion. It is
unfortunate victim. always open to members, and a porter is
Among the foul works is a copy of the always on duty. Amenities include a
Revelations of Glaaki. A Formidable library, a billiards room, a commons room,
(ddddd) Perception check uncovers a bar, a small dining room, and three
469 Arkham
Strange Aeons
bedrooms are available. No women are of Hattie's Boutique), and accountant

allowed past the porter's booth. Meyer Golditz. Mr. Golditz's link with
Membership is by invitation only. organized crime is, of course, unknown to
Initiation costs $300, as do annual dues. Miss Clark. She presently has one room
Drinks, food, and rooms are extra. available, with private bath, at $105 per
Members includes the president of month.
Arkham First Bank, Judge Randall, and
financier/developer Robert Beckworth, 815: ALBERT N. WILMARTH
owner of the Tower Professional Building 118 W Saltonstall Street. A fine
and the Hotel Miskatonic. An investigator Georgian mansion, the Wilmarth ancestral
able to join this club adds automatic s home is presently the residence of Dr.
to all Social skills in town, and becomes Albert N. Wilmarth, Professor of English
a friend of Judge Randall. at the University.
813: DAUGHTERS OF THE 816: HAROLD SHEAR

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 680 W Miskatonic Avenue. A well-kept
432 W Saltonstall Street. Open to women Georgian home, with severely precise
only, applicants must be 18 or older, grounds, it's home to this professor of
demonstrate lineal descent from someone chemistry at the University, and his
who directly aided in the cause of the family.
American Revolutionary War, and be
“personally acceptable". Membership in a 817: ARKHAM RESERVED
particular chapter is by invitation only.
Arkham dues are $50 annually.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
These blue-bloods defend American 651 W Washington Street. When the old
culture against immigrants, anarchists, church burned in 1909, a new and grander
communists, and unionists. They are the one was built in a more prosperous part
core of Arkham's gentry. of town. A high steeple – that is, higher
than any other church in town – was not
part of the design, and many
814: CLARK'S RESIDENTIAL contributors are still upset. Rev.
ACCOMMODATIONS Wharton Armbruster presides,
276 W Saltonstall Street. This splendid imperturbable.
Georgian mansion is the ancestral home of
Miss Elizabeth Clark, 49; she is the last
of this branch of the Clarks. Renters
LOWER SOUTHSIDE
Here are narrow, twisting lanes and
help pay the property taxes, and rather
crowded tenements. Some Irish and Poles
more.
live here, but from High Street south the
The house is the best boarding
area is mostly Italian.
establishment in Arkham. Rooms are by
The Southside is located on low marshy
the month only, and include two meals a
ground in a pocket between French Hill
day, breakfast at 7 A.M. and supper at
and South Hill. The air is muggy in the
6:30 P.M. Miss Clark rents only to the
summer, cold and damp in the winter. Most
select few with whom she can feel
of the wood buildings show signs of
personal affinity, presently including a
decay. A few single homes still exist. On
male professional and a female
Powder Mill Street, south of Saltonstall,
professional determined by the GM, a
stand several good examples of late 18th
businesswoman (Miss Hattie O'Brian, owner
Arkham 470
century wooden row houses. certainly aware of Innsmouth and

Badly lit, always the subject of calls Dunwich, and the strange folk who reside
for reform but never changing, the there. Peabody is a valuable ally in
neighborhood is overcrowded, noisy, and research, one quite likely to be willing
inhabited by some of Arkham's poorest to help solve a complicated genealogical
citizens. Tiny shops, markets, and puzzle.
restaurants can be found here, often
unmarked and known only to neighbors, 902: LARKIN ESTATE
pressed in between tenements and 166 E Pickman Street. A gigantic
apartments. Victorian mansion converted to a private
psychiatric hospital in 1919 by Dr.
901: ARKHAM HISTORICAL Parker Larkin, a skilled practitioner and
SOCIETY author.
531 S Garrison Street. The headquarters Hospitalization here costs $220 a
of this privatelysupported group are month. Patients have private rooms. There
housed in a restored Georgian mansion set are six beds. The two resident physicians
back from the street. The building is working under Larkin are excellent.
open to the public 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., A current patient of interest is Dr.
Monday-Friday, at no charge. Nathaniel Corey, who treated Dr. Amos
Several downstairs rooms are decorated Piper, formerly of the anthropology
in colonial and federalist styles and department at the University, after the
numerous Arkham artifacts, such as the latter stumbled upon the existence of
community's first pump handle, are on the Great Race. The Yithians were
display. Paintings of famous past attempting to possess Piper but Piper
Arkhamites line the walls and include escaped Arkham and disappeared. Corey
Bishops, Armitages, Whatelys, and others. was left to pen a manuscript revealing
The upstairs of the house contains the all he knew before he himself was driven
society's vast library and collected insane by the Great Race. After Corey's
records. Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the admittance to the Institute, the
New England Canaan can be found on the manuscript was discovered in his desk by
shelves; obscure records, not found his wife. She gave the manuscript to Dr.
elsewhere, can sometimes be located here. Larkin, who saw it at first as the ravings
Stored in the basement, in musty boxes, of a madman. Over time, however, Larkin
are the missing issues of the Arkham came to believe that there was truth in
Bulletin (1823-1826) and the Miskatonic the ravings of his patient. How much
Valley Gleaner (1830-1831). either man may now know about the
The society acquires new materials as Mythos is up to the GM.
they can be purchased or as granted in
bequests by Arkham natives. 903: MISS ANDREW'S SOCIAL
Mr. E. Lapham Peabody, 61, has been the PARLOR
Society's curator for over 30 years. He is 109 E High Street. A place in which
expert in local genealogy. He has also a older Arkham women of gentle character
working knowledge of most of the church can socialize, and play cards and Mah
and town records, library holdings, Jong. Miss Andrews, 62, also supplies
historical societies, and graveyards small glasses of fruit or dandelion wine
found in the Miskatonic Valley region. upon request.
While perhaps not knowing the cosmic
proportions of the Mythos, he is
471 Arkham
Strange Aeons
904: EYE OF AMARA SOCIETY by majority vote. Membership in other

131 E Saltonstall Street. Eye of Amara mystic societies, such as the Masons, is
is a small, openly occult society making strictly forbidden.
perfunctory gestures of respect to An investigator who belongs to this
Christian belief to pacify the neighbors. society would be expected to tell of his
Its members tend to be dilettantes, Cthulhoid discoveries as they happened;
writers, artists, and other outlandish withholding information is grounds for
sorts who crave to harness the magicks expulsion.
that they intuitively believe exist. Meetings are mostly discussions. Few of
Membership is by invitation only and the members believe enough in material
costs $30, plus annual dues of $25. magic to try to achieve anything except
Members must attend a minimum of ten of the same charismatic influence over
the monthly meetings (some held on others that their leader, Jason Gaspard,
nights such as Hallowmass and May Eve) holds over them. Illegalities are rare;
and a member can be expelled at any time
Arkham 472
even alcohol is barred from the meetings. guest at her supper table.
A benefit of membership is access to Dr. Stanley Malkowski: the kindly
the society's occult library. It includes doctor has boarded here for ten years; he
copies of the Liber Ivonis, the Sussex has a room on the first floor. Dr.
Manuscript, the Ponape Scriptures, the Malkowski is a 59-year-old native of
Eltdown Shards, The Golden Bough, and Poland who works mostly in Arkham's
Witch-Cults in Western Europe. poorer neighborhoods. He performs
Although most of the Society's twenty- services for free. Dr. Malkowski is
odd members are employed, the leader of protective of his community and may fail
the group, Jason Gaspard, is not. Gaspard to report certain injuries to the police
is an intense, charismatic figure who if not in the best interests of his
lives on the membership proceeds. patient. It is also rumored that he has on
Intriguingly, Gaspard has absorbed much occasion performed abortions, a criminal
of the Mythos, but has never learned a offense.
single spell. Although intelligent, and a
reasonably diligent scholar, his style of 908: TARAN HALL
living off the labor of others has made 552 S Powder Mill Street. Taran Hall is
him lazy and indolent. a public banquet hall available for rent
for $10 a day, $15 with chairs and tables.
905: VETERINARIAN It can seat up to 250 people. If this hall
184 E Saltonstall Street. Old Doc is busy, investigators might try renting
Pinter, 69, works out of his home. Bill a hall from a church or school.
Pinter has been Arkham's favorite vet
for years and is familiar with livestock 909: SACRED HEART CHURCH
and pets. If need be, he performs his 554 S French Hill Street. Our Lady of
services free of charge. the Sacred Heart Catholic church was
established in 1891, leasing for a
906: ST. STANISLAUS CHURCH nominal sum a Unitarian building. Father
522 Walnut Street. Established in 1878, Anthony Morency, 54, presides over a
this Catholic church occupies a former mostly-Italian congregation.
Baptist church that could be bought At a recent meeting with ranking
cheaply. The congregation is mostly church officials, he received permission
Polish. There is a daily mass at 7 A.M., to seal over a portion of the catacombs
Saturday confessions from noon to 4 P.M., and the crypts they contain. Unnerving
and Sunday masses at 9 A.M. and 11 A.M. burrowing sounds have been heard along
the south wall: GM's choice as to the
907: SZYMANSLD'S BOARDING origin of the sounds.
HOUSE
574 Walnut Street. Widow Szymanski 910: ELEAZAR'S FUNERAL HOME
owns and operates this cramped, slightly 549 S French Hill Street. This place is
dingy house. A second floor room is owned by Jaspar Eleazar, an
available for $75 a month. Rooms are kept unscrupulous man who overcharges the
clean; the food, while simple and poor whenever he can. He will, for a price,
inexpensive, is well-prepared and tasty. overlook certain oddities about corpses,
Mrs. Szymanski speaks with a thick Polish and (for substantial fees) has twice
accent and the majority of her boarders embalmed corpses lacking death
are Polish. Father Casimir is a frequent certificates. An old rumor has him selling
473 Arkham
Strange Aeons
pauper corpses to the University for police are on O'Bannion's payroll and
dissection. fears that they might set him up (not so –
Arkham's police are not yet that corrupt).
911: SIMPSON APARTMENTS Potrello came to the United States in
648 Walnut Street. Small, drafty 1900 at the age of 12, sent here by his
apartments in a poor neighborhood. For widower father to live with relatives in
$30, a second-floor room is available, Arkham. He grew up in Arkham's poorest
next door to Madame Dulagi, the Italian section, working in mills here and
astrologer. in nearby Bolton. By age 18, he led a
Madame Dulagi: for $1, she casts a handful of toughs specializing in
horoscope. What is learned by the muggings and shopkeeper extortion.
investigator is up to the GM; hints about Dismissed from the Army after a few
future adventures within the planned weeks when the Armistice was signed,
campaign are a good idea. The woman is Potrello established an ingenious illegal
less than five feet tall, at least 70, and numbers game modeled on rackets popular
very wrinkled. in New York. The game turned a good
profit. When Prohibition arrived,
Potrello had the capital and contacts to
912: ANTON'S RESTAURANT locally distribute profitable booze from
689 S Powder Mill Street. The best overseas.
Italian food in Arkham. A modest, clean Potrello comports himself modestly,
place; supper can be had for 50-65 cents. and dresses in common working-class
Anton's is frequented by some members of clothes. Most Italian-speakers know of
O'Bannion's gang as well as by Joe him; many admire him. He is a good
Potrello. contributor to the Church, though
professing a belief that his actions
913: THE CLUB contradict. Those he has wronged know
620 S French Hill Street. Unione him as a stern opponent, and fear to
Italiano is on the window. A storefront speak to the police. The police fear him
fraternal organization for Italians only, as a cool, shadowy figure who may
this one sports Joe Potrello as a member. someday become respectable enough that
Here he drinks coffee and wine, plotting the Italians will elect him to the Town
impossible revenges against O'Bannion Council.
and his gang. Numbers and race-betting
operations, both rackets of the O'Bannion 914: TENEMENT
gang, operate here, and stolen items 615 S French Hill Street. By no means
(though not items stolen from Italians) the only tenement on the block, this
can be bought here. The manager is 1840s brownstone has a third floor walk-
Virgilio, who sports “Big Red" as a up available for $14 a month. The
nickname. Rumor has it that O'Bannion building is cramped, dirty, noisy, and the
backs the place, and takes the profits. water and heat are unreliable. Windows
Joe (Giuseppe) Potrello: he's a sorry are drafty and an investigator hears
sight these days, his power ruined, his crying babies, fist-fights in the streets,
influence gone, he has left one loyal and children running up and down the
henchman. Not even the Italian youth- halls. The next-door-neighbor is an
gang, the Rocks, respects him. occasional prostitute, Mona, who also
He knows the O'Bannion mob has him performs petty theft when she can.
marked for death. He also knows that
Arkham 474
915: HALSEY PUBLIC SCHOOL Climbing the wall is possible but

391 E Miskatonic Avenue. Grades 1-8 requires a ladder, a successful Hard
meet here from the first Monday in (ddd) Athletics check, or a lot of help.
September till the last Friday of May. Once atop the wall the character will
have to make an Average (dd)
Coordination check or less to avoid
916: PETRUCCI'S BARBERSHOP injuring himself on the rusty iron spikes
708 French Hill Street. This barber set in the top. These cause 5 points of
shop is often frequented by the Italian
damage, tt on the check results in
criminal element. Aldo Petrucci knows
infection by tetanus if treatment is
most of them but is loyal and would not
neglected.
speak a word of what he hears.
Investigators nosing around here are
immediately reported to Potrello as THE OUTSKIRTS
potential assassins from O'Bannion. Beyond all neighborhoods.
917: CHRISTCHURCH CEMETERY 1001: BILLINGTON'S WOODS

South edge of town. Christchurch is the Northwest of town. This dark looming
newest cemetery in Arkham; rich and poor forest, much of it untouched by axe or
find burial here. Despite the inevitable saw, has been in the Billington family
reference to Christchurch Episcopal, since colonial times; the present owner is
these plots are non-denominational. The a member of the English branch of the
Congregational church is handiest to this family. No one has lived on the property
location. since 1821.
The cemetery is surrounded by an With some effort, a carriage-way can be
eight-foot-high stone wall, topped with traced leading off the Pike and through
iron spikes. Entrance is through the main the woods to end at the house.
gate only, located at the foot of Peabody The house is remarkable for the four
Avenue. The gate is open 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. pilasters on the facade. The most
daily. A watchman lives near the gate. interesting part of the house is the
475 Arkham
Strange Aeons
twostory study, where a huge circular property, atop a small island in the bed
window of “many-coloured glass" of a dead tributary stream. A circle of
dominates the western wall. Tall, dust- rough-shaped but carefully placed stones
coated bookshelves line the other walls. surround it.
Books in the Study: a search of the It is built of stones 15 inches thick. It
shelves turns up copies of the Liber stands 20 feet high, and is 12 feet in
Ivonis, De Vermiis Mysteriis, Cultes des diameter at the base. A conical roof
Goules, and Thaumaturgical Prodigies. surmounts the tower. A single arched
A small holographic manuscript headed doorway in the base provides entry.
“Of Evil Sorceries done in New England The interior is hollow. A narrow flight
of Daemons in no Humane Shape" is of crude stone steps curl up the interior
present, at the GM's option. The essay is wall. Chiseled into the wall along the
fragmentary; what's present concerns stairway is a primitive but impressive
sorceries only in early New England. The bas-relief, a design that repeats itself
author is unknown. all the way to the top.
The most important book here is Al-Azif At the end of the stairs is a small
– Ye Booke of ye Arab, a translation or platform that one can crouch upon. An
interpretation of part of the opening in the tower's roof, facing east
Necronomicon, written in crabbed and toward the house, has been sealed off by
meandering provincial English in the a large block of limestone that bears
16th century. some type of Elder Sign. If this stone is
The Circular Window: concentric circles, pried loose, the platform can be stood
split by rays emanating from the center upon, placing the investigator's head
to the perimeter, grow darker toward the above the peak of the roof and leaving
center of the glass. The center is a single most of him exposed.
round pane of clear glass, like the pupil With the stone removed, rites and
of an eye. This window looks westward, incantations can be performed here. To
across trees and a small marsh, directly call the Lurker at the Threshold, an
at a stone tower a few hundred yards incantation must be made thrice and
away. certain diagrams drawn in sand while
Gazing through this window for an standing within the circle of stones. The
extended time induces visions of hazy, Lurker manifests through the opening in
nebulous Mythos scenes with a Sanity the tower's roof and, filling the tower,
damage of 1/2 points for each exposure. pours out through the arched opening,
At night, if the tower is stared at demanding its sacrifice. Pointing toward
through the window, the spirit of long- a nearby village suffices.
gone wizard Alijah Billington may Description of the Lurker: a dark
attempt to possess the character at the formless mass, huge and slug-like but
window. To defeat the attack, the moving rapidly across and through the
character must receive a successful Hard earth. It is not completely material. It is
(ddd) Discipline check. If successful, thought to be a form of Yog-Sothoth.
Billington possesses the character for
his own purposes. The possession is not 1002: SNAKE'S DEN CAVE
strong, however; moving the possessed Southwest of town. The cave appears in
character from the house for 1 to 20 days the south face of Elm Mountain, in the
breaks the subjugation. dark woods just north of the old Carter
The Stone Tower: the tower seen from mansion. Local folk keep shy of the cave,
the window stands in a low spot on the fearing adders (as all poisonous snakes
Arkham 476
are known here) or worse, but Randolph and garbage end up northwest of Meadow
Carter played here as a child. Hill, in a big excavated pit. At night the
At the rear of the cave is a fissure place is infested with raccoons, skunks,
which, if an investigator can squeeze oppossums, with an occasional black bear.
through (requiring a Daunting (dddd)
Coordination check) leads to a rarely- 1006: CHAPMAN FARMHOUSE
visited inner cave. This second cave North of town. An old farm near Meadow
contains a pylon of roughly-shaped stone. Hill, it was given up in the late 19th
On the back wall can be seen the faint century and the fields left fallow. The
traces of a carved arch and what looks family rented out the house. In 1904,
like a gigantic hand. This is a Gate Herbert West accidentally burned it to
through which Carter, with the aid of a the ground, and with it his papers and
strange silver key, passed out of this equipment. The farm was then abandoned
world. for two decades. In the last few years,
the Arkham Gun Club has paid the
1003: THE OLD CARTER MANSION arrears and uses a field a half-mile from
Southwest of town. Located along the the farmhouse for skeet shooting. The
road from Boston, the old Carter place ground here is littered with the shards
lies halfway up Elm Mountain on a knoll of countless clay pigeons.
cleared of trees. The mansion has been in
the Carter family since shortly after the 1007: MEADOW HILL
founding of Arkham. Christopher Carter, North of town. This dark hill can be
great-uncle of Randolph, last lived in it. made out from high points in town.
Christopher Carter died shortly after Beyond it is a dark vale wherein stands a
the turn of the century. single white stone, an uncarven monolith
Unmaintained and unlived in, the thought to be older than the Indians. In
entire roof has since collapsed into the this valley nothing ever grows and the
rest of the house earth is barren and compacted.
The stone, long of evil reputation, is
1004: UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC the meeting site of the Evil Coven headed
FIELD by the witch, Keziah Mason. Every May
West of town. This facility is located Eve and Hallowmass the members of the
approximately 1.5 miles west of Arkham cult meet here and conduct unholy
on Aylesbury Street. Here is a football rituals. Last May the Arkham police,
field with stands, a non-regulation along with Essex County deputies, raided
baseball diamond, and a quarter-mile the meeting and scattered it, arresting
cinder track. Anyone is free to use the two mere fringe members. They were
area except during practices. released when no criminal evidence could
Some equipment and additional be found at the scene.
disassembled bleacher stands are stored The Evil Coven: Beyond mere
in two large sheds at the edge of the criminality is a group secretly present
property. in Arkham since the town's beginnings.
The Astronomy Department stores its Still headed by Keziah Mason (along with
eight-inch telescope here. Nyarlathotep in the avatar of the Black
Man), the coven's other members have
changed over the generations.
1005: TOWN DUMP If possible, a child is sacrificed at
North of town. Most of Arkham's trash each meeting; some of the children who
477 Arkham
Strange Aeons
have disappeared from Arkham over the • Robert Czyenck, cult name Regneh.
centuries were victims of this horrible Czyenck is 41 years old, 6'4" tall, and
cult. More often, though, young slaves weighs 275 pounds. He owns the Northside
were offered up beyond Meadow Hill or Market.
filthy urchins were seized or bought in • William Danvers Johnston, cult name
the alleys of Boston, and fetched there Ahmala. Johnston is 54 years old and
to be murdered. vice-president at Arkham National Bank.
The members take care not to associate A central member of the coven for over
except on coven business. The number of twenty years, Mason keeps him second-in-
central members is always thirteen, command due to his intelligence and
including Keziah, though their actual influence. He belongs to the Miskatonic
number varies. All have signed their Club, as well as a number of civic
names in the Book Of Azathoth, in the organizations.
presence of Nyarlathotep. • Abigail LaRue, cult name Tama. A 71-
Members often cultivate a fringe year-old Creole woman who spent much of
follower or two to perform risky deeds her life in New Orleans, she is steeped in
like child stealing or poisoning. Other voodoo traditions and has a high Occult
members prefer to commit their own evil skill. She works as a maid for the Neeley
deeds. Books and cult items are kept in a family, residing in the Neeley's spacious
secret walled-off portion of the attic in home on west Miskatonic Avenue.
Keziah Mason's house. The other (mortal) • Keziah Mason, cult name Nahab. She is
members keep no evidence in their homes. an original Arkham settler, alive today
This secret cult has no connection with because of her mastery of Gates which
the Miskatonic students currently allow her to pass through time and space
charged with sacrificing animals, nor do at will. Mason is the undisputed leader
other town personalities such as Asenath of the coven. See entry 711 for her and
Waite have links with them, nor do folk her familiar's stats.
who may practice white magic or the Old • Edwin White Perkins III, cult name
Religion of the Goddess. Central members Jabal. Perkins is a dilettante residing in
follow. the family's Arkham manse. He is 34 years
• Joe Ambrose, cult name Jergat. He old. At the urging of the coven, he joined
works at Arkham Worsted Mills as a the Eye of Amara Society to learn how
maintenance man, and has a high much they knew of the Mythos. His answer
Mechanics. Ambrose is a single man, was “very little".
rooming at a boarding house on French • Maria Slocum, cult name Shana. She
Hill. works as a saleslady at Hattie's Boutique,
• Harold Beemis, cult name Balazar. A and lives in a nice home with her
tramp, Beemis has wandered and slept in unsuspecting husband, Darrell. She is 32
the Arkham area for the last eight years. years old.
He grudgingly does odd jobs, but prefers • Ellen Whipple Smith, cult name
to beg or steal. His great personal power Camlas. Mrs. Smith is 55 years old, a sweet-
has left him with friendly relations with acting nurse at St. Mary's hospital and a
most of Arkham's police. Beemis is about life-long resident of Arkham. She is a
40, dresses in ragged clothes, and is widow and a psychopathic killer. Some
usually unshaven and smelly. He was deaths at the hospital could be
already knowledgeable in occult before attributed to her, once someone became
coming to Arkham. He usually sleeps in suspicious.
Rivertown. • Daniel Swain, cult name Sugga. Swain
Arkham 478
is 41 years old, a teacher at Arkham High community. Potter's General Store was
School. He is married and has two often visited by local farmers such as
children. Ammi Pierce. However, the village was
• Jennifer Tilstrom, cult name Yula. At located along the old road running west
18, she is the youngest central member. out of Arkham and after the meteor fell
The lascivious Swain recruited her; the on Nahum Gardener's farm, the road fell
coven induced her during Beltane rites into disuse. Once a new road, running
in 1928. She lives with her parents. south around the Blasted Heath, came to
• Sheila Torsten, cult name Belag. Just be used, the village economy collapsed.
22 years old, she works at the campus Now remaining are scattered, rotting
branch of Taran's Bakery. She lives with buildings at an overgrown spot along the
her parents. ghost of a road, darks' Corners will be
• James Allen White, cult name Katal. inundated by the planned reservoir.
He's a baby-faced lawyer at E.E.
Saltonstall & Associates. White is 28 1009: GOODY FOWLER COTTAGE
years old and married, without children. Southwest of town. This gray saltbox
The coven is ruthlessly protective. At cottage has stood here since the early
any hint of discovery, they move swiftly 1680s. The home of Goody Fowler, the
and decisively to destroy their enemies. reputed witch, townsfolk swear that not
Careless investigators quickly wind up in a living soul has entered the house since
Christchurch Cemetery. Every central 1704, when Goody was carried out by an
member knows dangerous spells; the most angry mob and hanged.
accomplished ones are walking nightmares Amazingly, the stories are true.
of magic. Everything is as it was the day of
Keziah becomes physically involved Goody's murder more than 200 years
only in the most dire circumstances. If before. A half-skein of yarn rests on the
she does appear, Nyarlathotep may spindle; food dries in the cooking pot; a
accompany her should the GM wish. successful Daunting (dddd) Magic
The following dates are sacred to the check suggests that potent magicks eddy
coven: February 2 (Candlemas), March 20 here still.
(vernal equinox), May 1 (Beltane), June 21
(summer solstice), August 1 (Lammas),
September 23 (autumnal equinox),
1010: THE BLASTED HEARTH
November 1 (Samhain), and December 22 West of town. A few miles from Arkham,
(winter solstice). the Blasted Heath is on the site of the
Beltane and Samhain are celebrated on former Nahum Gardner farm, bordering a
their eves, with a full gathering of the now-unused road.
coven at the white stone in the vale In 1882, a strange meteorite landed on
beyond Meadow Hill; rites are celebrated this property near the Gardners' well.
and a child sacrifice usually offered. Within the year, the family was going to
The other dates may or not be observed ruin and the farm falling to pieces. The
individually, and involve no human livestock soon died or ran off; crops
sacrifices. swelled grotesquely and then died.
Gardner's neighbors spoke of a strange
glow round the farm at night and began
1008: CLARK'S CORNERS to shun the place. After a while, only
West of town. This hamlet has existed Ammi Pierce, one of Nahum's oldest
for at least 150 years, and within the neighbors, dared visit.
last 40 was the center of a thriving
479 Arkham
Strange Aeons
Professors from Miskatonic visited the 86, the only one who remembers (or is
farm soon after the meteor landed, but willing to talk about) the strange days
their test results made no sense. The after the meteorite came in June, 1882. He
meteor soon shrank away and disappeared; knew Nahum Gardner and his family well
a year later the Gardners were all dead. and witnessed their slow decline and
All vegetation died in a five-acre destruction.
patch of ground centered on the farm's
well which crossed the old road at its 1012: CROWNINSHIELD MANOR
southern extremity. Arkhamites soon Eastern end of High Street. This is
abandoned this road, which ran on presently the home of Edward Pickman
through Clark's Corners, and chose a new Derby and his wife, Asenath Waite Derby.
one to the south that avoided the area. Edward, now in his late thirties, is the
Within a few years, most of the old- author of the poetry collection, Azathoth
timers had sold their farms, those closer and Others, a past student at Miskatonic
to the Gardner farm being sooner to University and a life-long Arkham
leave. A succession of French-Canadians, resident. His wife, Asenath, hails from
Italians, and Poles tried their hands, but Innsmouth and carries in her the tainted
none could stand up to the dark Innsmouth blood. She is a graduate of
foreboding aura that seemed to poison Kingsport's Hall School, and attends
the area for miles about. Eventually all classes at Miskatonic University.
the farms were deserted, except for that Derby would prefer to live in the
of Ammi Pierce. Clark's Corners ceased to Derby family house on W Saltonstall
exist. Street, vacant since the recent death of
A fine gray powder now covers acres of his father, but Asenath prefers the
the original Gardner farm, and nothing Crowninshield manor, which they have
has grown in the desolation for more just purchased with her money.
than 40 years. The ruins of the Gardner They keep three Innsmouth-born
farm buildings still can be made out. servants—the aged couple Moses and
Reports concerning the meteorite and Abigail Sargent and a young,
its effects must be filed somewhere at fishysmelling wench, Eunice Babson.
the University, but they seem to have Asenath's body is inhabited by her
been misplaced – perhaps by Armitage. The father, Ephraim Waite, who murdered
remaining eyewitness to the events is an Asenath after forcing her mind into his
old, nearly illiterate Yankee, Ammi own aging carcass. Ephraim/Asenath
Pierce. Pierce firmly believes that one of prefers a male body and thinks Edward
the strange entities from the meteor Derby's would do just fine. Ephraim is a
still lives in the well. member of a secret cult that meets in
Plans are afoot to flood most of this some underground place in Maine. His cult
area, including the Blasted Heath, to name is Kamog.
create a reservoir and a secure water Ephraim/Asenath already effects
supply for the town of Arkham. temporary personality displacement,
often using Edward's body to drive their
powerful Packard up to Maine, to attend
1011: AMMI PIERCE grotesque cult ceremonies. Derby has been
West of town. Often described as a left shaken and paranoid by these
queer old bird, Pierce lives on a episodes and now rarely ventures from
ramshackle farm off the disused road the house. Ephraim/Asenath intends a
that leads to the Blasted Heath. Pierce is permanent transfer; he'll then kill
Arkham 480
Derby-while trapped in the Asenath body. three hours a week is $7.50, and the
Derby suspects plots and may or may not course lasts six months.
have confided his suspicions to his Storage space for investigator planes,
friend, Daniel Upton, the architect. as well as skilled maintenance, can be
Asenath and Derby have many occult negotiated.
and Mythos books. Mythos tomes include Harrington charges 25 cents per take-
Azathoth and Others, People of the off or landing.
Monolith, De Vermiis Mysteriis, a Only Prof. Wingate Peaslee of the
Bridewell Nameless Cults, and the Book University currently rents hangar space.
of Dzyan. He keeps here a five-seat closed-cockpit
high-winged monoplane of radical design,
1013: ARKHAM AIRFIELD one which Harrington and his mechanic
East of town. The new flying-field is adore. A prototype of the Caproni 101
owned by ex-ace Stanley Harrington. A (without military fixings), this expensive
Boston native, Harrington downed six tri-motor has Alfa Romeo engines, a
German aircraft in the war before being maximum speed of 120mph, a ceiling of
shot down himself. He survived the crash 20,000 feet, and an effective range of 600
but severely burned his right leg; he was miles.
retired from the Army and sent home. Stanley Harrington: he turned 30 this
After spending a few years barn- year and, despite a severe limp he hasn't
storming, a second near-fatal crash lost his sense of adventure. Carefully
convinced him to settle down, opening greased and hidden away in the hangar is
Arkham Airfield – a short dirt runway, a a .30 machine gun of World War vintage
hangar with doors at either end, two that can be fitted to either of his two
planes, an small office beside the planes, and 5000 rounds of ammunition to
hangar, and a windsock. go with it.
The planes are, respectively, a two-seat
and a three-seat biplane. Harrington will 1014: KINGSPORT HEAD
rent one to a licensed pilot or to someone East of town. This high isolated
who has Piloting of at least 2 ranks. headland, atop cliffs towering hundreds
(Pilot licenses are quite new, provoked of feet above Kingsport, is more easily
partially by barn-storming excesses in reached from Arkham than the town it
other states, a development of which overlooks. Soon to be constructed here is
Harrington disapproves.) a powerful shortwave wireless station to
Renting a plane requires a $50 deposit be jointly owned and operated by
and Harrington's approval of the Miskatonic University and the Arkham
applicant's character. Hourly charges are Advertiser.
$2 and $3, respectively, for the two- The Strange High House in the Mist,
seater and the three-seater. Renters pay also found on the Head, is on the
for gasoline and any damage. Day rates southern tip, overlooking Kingsport
can be negotiated. hundreds of feet below. There are
For $2 more an hour, and without the shuttered windows on the sides of the
cash deposit, Harrington will do the house but the only door faces out
flying. directly over the precipice of the head,
Stanley Harrington is a qualified into empty air. Only birds can reach it.
flight instructor who will teach Piloting The house is a mystical gate to the
to people he approves of, but they must Dreamlands, a fact discoverable only by
have at least Agility of 2. The price for sleeping in the town of Kingsport.
481 Arkham
Strange Aeons
1015: FENNER'S ROAD HOUSE

On the highway toward Newburyport,
just ½ mile north of Harper's Woods. After
Arkham's sedate speakeasy closes, those
craving fast living drive out to Mel
Fenner's, a large three-story house
isolated in the country. Though Fenner's
offers varied opportunities for sleazy
behavior and is therefore a true
alternative to Bolton, Fenner's main
downstairs room is the only meeting place
near Arkham which may be open after
midnight; this grants the place a certain
acceptance and cachet even among young
women. Closing time depends mostly on
how Fenner feels that night, and whether
or not the right county deputy is on
patrol. Definitely closed Sundays.
Arkham 482
483 Arkham
1.
THE DREAMLANDS
SEND BACK EARTH'S GODS TO THEIR HAUNTS ON UNKNOQN KADATH
The alien-like rune seemed to glow Behind your eyelids, inside your mind
with an unearthly hue, like no tattoo and beneath your subconscious, lies
should be able to. He watched in equal another world. It is a fantastic realm
parts awe and terror as the rune started where dreams are real and where
to shift and part, one becoming two, two nightmares prowl just beyond the limit
becoming four, and so forth. Rapidly of vision. These are the Dreamlands of
these strange alien runes multiplied, Earth, a dimension lying just parallel to
each rune different, yet oddly familiar ours. Its fabric exists solely for and is
to him, finding place on his arm as they sustained by the minds of Earth’s
crawled under his skin, like some alien dreamers, human or otherwise.
ant-like creature. Yet he felt no pain, The Dreamlands are, in a sense, an idea
nor any discomfort. formed by men. While a man may die
He heard strange voices, calling out to easily, ideas are much harder to kill;
him in strange tongues. Their voices they live on in myths, legends, and racial
carried along on the winds, but not a memories. So the Dreamlands have
single wind was stirring. The voices were survived through the ages. They have
resonating deep within his troubled witnessed the rise and fall of many great
mind. Calling from everywhere and civilizations of the Waking World. Each
nowhere at the same time. Calling, yet rise and fall has left its mark upon this
whispering. Talking in strange voices unseen world which lies so close to, and
that he could understand, yet not put yet an eternity away from, our own. Yet
any English words to. the Dreamlands are much as they were
The man that was once Willard stood when the minds of the first men conjured
firmly on his legs, his eyes locked on the them forth. They are a realm of the
shifting runes on his forearm. If anyone fantastic and the fanciful, the weird and
was there, they would have seen that his the wonderful, the joyful and the
eyes were black like the eyes of a shark. terrible.
But no one was around, not for miles and So lie back, close your eyes, and dream,
miles. for in dreams all things are possible.
A single word resonated more clearly
among the voices inside his head, a INTO THE DREAMLANDS
single word that was pronounced Though there are a great number of
“Kadath”. He knew not of the place, yet ways to enter the Dreamlands, there are
he felt like he was intimately familiar only two basic methods of doing so. Most
with it. The Willard-thing looked people dream their way into the
towards the stars in the sky above, Dreamlands, but a few actually
raised his arms and bellowed out a sound physically enter that far-away and
that could not possible be uttered from fanciful realm.
a human throat.
He heard another voice in the swirling PERCHANCE TO DREAM
chaos of voices, it called out “Celine”. The most common dream-path into the
Then the voice was silenced, drowned in Dreamlands is down the Seventy Steps of
the myriad of strange alien chanting Light Slumber to the Cavern of Flame.
from the countless voices that called One night, in his dreams, an investigator
out to him in the haze of his mind. may come across a huge stairway leading
The Willard-thing snarled a single downward from whatever ordinary dream
word; “Kadath”. he is having. If the investigator has been
485 The Dreamlands

Strange Aeons
seeking the Dreamlands, he may recognize form of terrible pursuers or some such.
this staircase as the Seventy Steps of Once over the edge the investigator will
Light Slumber on a successful Daunting find himself gently floating downward
(dddd) Magic check. No matter the form past dark shapeless forms, faintly
or setting of the investigator’s current glowing spheres, and laughing winged
dream, the seventy steps always bear the things. Although these shapes, spheres,
same appearance—a highly ornate, almost and winged things may alternately
baroque marble staircase. Furthermore, terrify or amaze the investigator, they
the staircase may appear anywhere. It can not harm him. Suddenly a bright rift
could be inside a building, inside a large will appear in the air before the
vehicle such as a ship, in a cave, or investigator. Through this rift he can
outdoors leading into a hole in the see a fabulous vista of a location in the
ground. The stairs will always lead down Dreamlands. Upon passing through the
from wherever the investigator currently rift the investigator will settle softly
is. to the ground. While King Kuranes
Whether or not he recognizes the arrived in the valley of Ooth-Nargai via
stairway, a dreamer may choose to follow this method, the GM should feel free to
it down. GMs who need to have an have investigators arrive at any point in
investigator descend the stairs and enter the Dreamlands.
the Dreamlands should feel free to move The last of the three primary dream-
the stairs about and have them paths to the Dreamlands is the White
continually appear in the investigator’s Ship. The White Ship only appears to
path (after all, strange things happen in dreamers near the sea. In his dreams, the
dreams) until the investigator either investigator will see a white ship with
chooses to descend or wakes up. Assuming masts and rows of oars approaching him.
that the investigator descends, he will The White Ship glides smoothly over the
arrive in a large cavern with a pillar of waters toward the dreamer no matter
flame stretching from floor to ceiling. what the weather conditions or wind
This is the cavern-temple of the priests direction are. As the ship draws closer it
Nasht and Kaman-Thah. At least one of can be seen that it actually sails
these two priests is always awake to slightly above the crests of the waves.
greet anyone who descends the stairs to Upon the deck of the ship stands a tall
his home. At the far end of the cavern bearded man dressed in robes. He seems to
from this entrance is another set of beckon to viewers to come aboard his
stairs. These are the seven hundred steps vessel. Should an investigator choose to
which lead to the Gate of Deeper Slumber, do so a bridge of moonbeams will stretch
which open into the Enchanted Wood of forth from the White Ship to the
the Dreamlands. investigator. Once on board the ship, the
However, the seventy steps are not the bearded man will introduce himself as
only dream-gate to the Dreamlands. Some the Captain. He has no other name. The
dreamers may find themselves at the edge Captain is most familiar with more
of a cliff in their dreams as did King pleasant regions such as Sona-Nyl or
Kuranes. The investigator will be Ennon, but he is knowledgeable about
overcome with a feeling of curiosity and much of the Dreamlands and can voyage
a sense that no harm will come to him by to any region accessible by water that
stepping off the edge. If need be, the GM his passengers might wish to visit. He has
should feel free to offer some source of even sailed beyond the Basalt Pillars of
inducement to leap off the cliff in the the West twice and successfully traveled
The Dreamlands 486

to fabled Cathuria once. He will speak of members of his group. Investigators

these voyages, but is reluctant to floating down from the precipice will
undertake the trip a third time. If his arrive at the same point in the
passengers have no specific destination Dreamlands once through the rift, and
in mind he will sail for either Sona-Nyl the White Ship may sail from point to
or Ennon. No matter where his ship sails, point and pick up a different member of
it will always arrive at night and under the group at each location before sailing
a full moon. Again the bridge of on to its final destination.
moonbeams will extend, allowing his While these are the three primary
passengers to disembark. Neither he or dream-routes leading into the Dream
his crew will join the investigators lands they are by no means the only ones.
ashore except in Sona-Nyl, Ennon, or The GM should feel free to create other
Cathuria. dream-routes which suit his own campaign.
If an entire group of investigators is
attempting to enter the Dreamlands at ENTERING PHYSICALLY
the same time, while asleep, the GM While it may seem strange for someone
should have them all use the same route. who is awake to enter a region known as
Each investigator will arrive at this the Dreamlands, there are a great number
route in his own way (for each person’s of examples of such physical doorways.
dreams are his own), but once they have The most numerous of these are the
arrived they may encounter others of burrows dug by ghouls into almost every
their group already there. For example, cemetery around the globe. Old graves,
while each investigator in a group will forgotten mausoleums, and ancient crypts
find the top of the Seventy Steps in his are often the haunts of these creatures,
own way once he has descended to the whose disturbing dietary preferences
Cavern of Flame he may meet other bring them to the Waking World each
487 The Dreamlands

Strange Aeons
night. Their tunnel-like burrows will bridge in fact spans the nether region
eventually lead any investigator brave between the Waking World and the
enough to crawl through them into that Dreamlands, and when completed it will
region of the Dreamlands’ Underworld serve as a gateway for the creatures of
which the ghouls inhabit. nightmare to enter our world. Even
Another known point of physical entry though incomplete, this bridge could also
into the Dreamlands is found in the serve as a means of physically entering
Enchanted Wood, which touches the world the Dreamlands. Once beyond this nether
of men in two places, though Lovecraft region and into the Dreamlands it is left
states “it would be disastrous to say up to the GM to determine exactly where
where.” The sites of these crossovers are investigators would emerge.
up to the GM – the Black Forest in The most obscure of all these physical
Germany, the California redwoods, gateways, for it is written of in no tome
Transylvania, or Roanoke Island in North or scroll, is perhaps the safest one to
Carolina are likely spots. enter by – and it is not hidden or lost at
One area of the Dreamlands which is all. High above the ancient town of
known to extend into the Waking World is Kingsport there stands the strange high
the dreaded plateau of Leng. It infringes house in the mist. From here, on fog-
upon Central Asia, and it also lies deep shrouded nights, when it seems as if the
in the interior of the Antarctic. Part of house rests upon the clouds themselves,
it may rest beneath upstate New York. the lone occupant of the House can enter
The Mad Arab Abd al-Azrad mentions Leng the Dreamlands. Only the Terrible Old
as a place where myriad realities come Man, who resides in Kingsport proper, and
together. Those who are fortunate enough Thomas Olney, who once visited the house,
to find Leng may stumble into the know of this gateway.
Dreamlands by accident, or they may find It should be noted here that although
an actual doorway. The exact details of these physical doorways do exist, they
entering the Dreamlands via this route are neither easy to locate nor safe to
are left to the GM. attempt to use. Who can say how a ghoul
It is equally dangerous to enter the would react to investigators digging
Dreamlands via the Vaults of Zin, which through his burrows? What threats lie in
are known to cover a large area deep the heart of Leng? Who knows if Atlach-
under the surface of the Dreamlands. In Nacha is once again hungry?
the Waking World, the Vaults of Zin lie
beneath the subterranean ruins of the
largest city in the red-litten realm of WHO CAN ENTER
Yoth, which in turn lies beneath the Although the Dreamlands draw their
underground realm of K’n-Yan, which can existence from the minds of all of
be accessed through the curious earthen Earth’s dreamers, its gates are not open
mounds in western Oklahoma. for all to enter. Even those who enter
Mt. Voormithadreth once stood on the the Dreamlands once may not be able to
ancient continent of Hyperborea, in what do so again. Randolph Carter, one of the
is now Greenland. It contains the greatest dreamers the Earth ever knew,
underground lair of Atlach-Nacha. Here lost the ability to enter the Dreamlands
the spider-being spins a great web-bridge by dreaming when he turned 30. Lovecraft
across a deep chasm. It is rumored that on writes that Carter “had read much of
the day that Atlach-Nacha completes its things as they are, and talked to too
bridge the world will come to an end. This many people. Well-meaning philosophers
had taught him to look into the logical
The Dreamlands 488

relations of things, and analyze the Dreamlands via one of the physical doors,
processes which shaped his thoughts and or through the use of an item or spell.
fancies... They had chained him down to The fact that one may not enter the
things that are, and then explained the Dreamlands through the usual dream-
workings of those things till mystery gates does not preclude entering
had gone out of the world... they turned physically. To a scientist the Dreamlands
him... toward the newfound prodigies of may simply be a vast region which has
science.” been, until now, undiscovered and
The Dreamlands are the realm of fancy unexplored.
where many wondrous things are possible. Lastly, the GM should decide how
There is no need to explain why common it is for everyday people to enter
something is; it simply is. However, the Dreamlands. Remember that the
science balks at simple acceptance – it Dreamlands are “of that vaster and more
requires answers and explanations. As an appalling universe of dim entity and
investigator becomes more knowledgeable consciousness which lies deeper than
in the ways of the science of the Waking matter, time, and space, and whose
World he will find it more and more existence we suspect only in... those rare
difficult to enter the Dreamlands by dreams beyond dreams which come never
dreaming until, finally, he can no longer to common men, and but once or twice in
do so. the lifetime of imaginative men.” Even
There are a number of skills of a allowing for the possibility of
scientific, mechanical, or Waking World forgetting everything which one might
nature which an investigator may acquire see or do while in the Dreamlands, if
during a lifetime that can impede the everyone were capable of going there,
necessary innate willingness to accept then the Dreamlands would be far more
the sometimes-queer nature of the Dream widely known than they are.
realm: Driving, Gunnery, Knowledge,
Mechanics, Medicine, Operating, Piloting, BRINGING CLOTHING AND
Ranged [Heavy], and Ranged [Light]. If an
investigator has three or more of the EQUIPMENT
above-listed skills with skill ranks of 4 Dreamlands technology is not that of
or more, that investigator cannot enter the Waking World. In general, Dreamlands
the Dreamlands via any of the standard crafts and mechanical accomplishments
dream-routes. He or she may still enter it resemble Earth’s, but an Earth centuries
physically, or through the use of an item past. Instead of machine-guns, scimitars
or spell, but not dream himself or and bows are the common weapons. Rather
herself there without aid. The person has than railways, most transport is by means
become too much a part of the Waking of sailing vessel or caravan.
World to believe in the Dreamlands on a It is the nature of the Dreamlands
subconscious level. that no object appears there until its
There are some who will never be able reality has been “set” in the Waking
to enter the Dreamlands in their sleep – World. This process takes approximately
investigators who begin with too many five hundred years. Only objects of forms
“worldly skills.” Any character that basically unchanged for that amount of
starts play with 1 rank in four or more time or greater can exist in the
of the above-listed skills, qualify for Dreamlands.
never being able to enter the Dreamlands. Dreamers who travel through the
Again, these people may still enter the Cavern of Flame arrive there naked,
without equipment. One function of Nasht
489 The Dreamlands

Strange Aeons
and Kaman-Thah is to properly garb Dreamlands one night and spend a week
dreamers passing that threshold. To within. He may return the next night to
every dreamer who asks, they provide an find that almost no time at all has
outfit of good clothing, a dagger of passed since he last left. If he were to
whatever style is desired, and three return again the next night he might
loaves of bread, a jug of water, and a find that many months had passed since
hank of spun manna. his last visit, and he might stay many
Investigators arriving in the years. Although the investigator may age
Dreamlands via other methods have their while in the Dreamlands, the effects of
clothing unchanged, but items of gear such aging will not extend into the
not already embedded in the Dreamlands’ Waking World and will vanish upon
reality soon visibly wriggle and twist, awakening. The GM should make time
until in a few minutes they change into within the Dreamlands flow to suit the
Dreamlands equivalents. For instance, a needs of his own campaign.
flashlight might be replaced by an For investigators who enter the
Arabian-style oil lamp or torch, and a Dreamlands physically, time will seem to
revolver might be transformed into a bow pass at the same rate as in the Waking
or a blowpipe. World, and will have the usual aging
If an investigator physically travels effects. For instance, someone who enters
to the Dreamlands and returns his or her the Dreamlands physically for a few
gear does not return to its original form. weeks will be gone from the Waking World
In this sense, the Dreamlands’ reality is for a few weeks; someone who enters the
more powerful than that of the Waking Dreamlands physically as a young man
World. and stays for many years will be gone
from the Waking World for many years
WITHIN A DREAM and will return to it an old man.
Once they have attained entry to the
Dreamlands, investigators will find SANITY DAMAGE
themselves in a world similar to but not A character suffers Sanity damage at
totally like their own. Time runs the normal rate for encountering mythos
differently here, varying from the flow monsters or leaning unspeakable things.
of time in the Waking World and even The means of suffering Sanity damage is
varying from land to land in the world the same as in the Waking World, but the
of Dream. Likewise, sanity gain and loss effects of Sanity damage is not.
is modified, and even death and injury If a character loses more than two
may not be permanent. points of Sanity damage in a single
encounter and also fails an Hard (ddd)
Knowledge check, one Nightmare Effect
TIME IN THE DREAMLANDS (see box below) is suffered. These
Time flows in strange ways in the
nightmares replace both temporary and
Dreamlands. To investigators from the
indefinite insanity. A character who
Waking World it may seem as if a great
exceeds his Sanity threshold is
deal of time, months or even years, has
permanently transformed into the most
passed since their last visit. Similarly, a
appropriate horror the GM can think of.
great deal of time within the Dreamlands
For instance, a person who associated
may pass within the span of one night.
with ghouls might be transformed into a
However, time will not always flow at a
ghoul. The earthly body of such an
set rate; an investigator may enter the
unfortunate goes permanently insane or
The Dreamlands 490

dies in its sleep. 7 The investigator must immediately

make a Daunting (dddd) Cool
NIGHTMARE EFFECTS check. If the check fails, he wakes
up immediately, with his hair turned
d10 ROLL EFFECT gray or white, or beginning to fall
1 An object, item of clothing, or organ out.
of the investigator melts away to 8 The investigator must immediately
nothing or becomes loathsome or make a Daunting (dddd) Cool
horrifying (such as a scimitar check. If the check fails, the
becoming a snake if the wielder investigator wakes up immediately,
suffered from Ophiophobia). The afflicted by a nervous tic chosen by
object is restored to normal on the the GM. Depending on its nature, the
character’s next trip to the tic may also reduce his Presence or
Dreamlands. Agility by 1 point, if there was a y
2 The character suddenly finds result on the Cool check.
himself unable to flee effectively. 9 The investigator must immediately
A hallway seems to stretch on make a Daunting (dddd)
infinitely, he is paralyzed, he seems Resilience check. If the check fails,
glued to the ground, or he can flee the investigator wakes up and
only in excruciatingly slow motion. immediately suffers a minor
The effect ends after the threat coronary arrest. If the check had a
causing the Sanity damage is y result, he dies.
disposed of or leaves.
10 Any other appropriate effect, as
3 The investigator’s surroundings chosen by the GM. In general, if the
suddenly melt away, and the investigator’s real body is
investigator finds himself in a afflicted, he should be forced
different location. For instance, he awake. If only his Dreamlands body
might suddenly find himself alone is affected, the investigator should
in a locked room with the threat have the opportunity to relieve any
that prompted the Sanity damage. problem, by a successful Daunting
4 One of the investigator’s companions (dddd) Cool check.
(not a dreamer, though), or a nearby
plant or animal, is transformed into
a horrid monster, probably similar DEATH AND INJURY
to whatever caused the Sanity In the Dreamlands, investigators heal
damage. The individual is restored at normal game rates. The investigator’s
to normal upon the dreamer’s next
visit to the Dreamlands.
actual body is never affected by such
wound damage. Any injuries received by a
5 An old wound, injury, disease, or
dreamer in the Dreamlands vanish upon
malformation suddenly reappears to
pain, terrify, and inconvenience the the next trip to the Dreamlands.
investigator. The wound is restored If a dreaming investigator dies in the
to normal in the dreamer’s next Dreamlands, he or she suffers a
dream. Nightmare Effect, is shocked awake in his
6 The investigator wakes, but no or her earthly bed, takes 2 point of
longer knows whether he is awake or Sanity damage, and also loses the power
dreaming. He is Disoriented and to ever again dream. An investigator
cannot direct his dreaming to a
particular person, place, or event in
physically present in the Dreamlands who
the Dreamlands until an amount of dies there never reappears on Earth.
time chosen by the GM passes, or Conversely, investigators who die in
until the investigator receives a the real world might be able to pass over
successful Daunting (dddd) into the Dreamlands with a successful
Psychoanalysis check.
Formidable (ddddd) Magic check at
491 The Dreamlands

Strange Aeons
death. to wake up if the investigator is in very

dire circumstances; for example,
EXIT THE DREAMLANDS Randolph Carter is only able to force
himself awake after he flings himself
An investigator physically present in off the back of a shantak which is flying
the Dreamlands can leave only by finding through space toward Azathoth’s court.
one of the physical paths, such as those An investigator may also be awakened
in the Forbidden Lands past the Tanarian if his body is disturbed in the Waking
Hills, the ghoul tunnels from the World, perhaps by a loud noise, being
Underworld which lead to the Waking shaken vigorously, or a similar
World, or similar means. If he walks back startlement. To remain asleep when being
up the Seven Hundred Steps to Deeper so disturbed, the investigator must make
Slumber, to find the Cavern of Flame, he
a successful Hard (ddd) Cool check.
can exit the Dreamlands by proceeding up
If an investigator awakens when on an
through the Seventy Steps of Light Sleep.
adventure, his companions simply notice
Whether or not he exits through a
that he isn’t there any more. This
different place than that he entered by,
disappearance is always fairly natural;
his Waking World point of arrival is
he might simply go into his cabin and not
always the same as that through which he
return, or they might look up from their
entered the Dreamlands. A character
places at table and notice that his food
cannot travel in the Waking World by
has been untouched – and, in fact, that he
using the Dreamlands as a shortcut.
isn’t in his seat anymore.
If an investigator’s dream self is
Any time an investigator awakens from
present, he may also leave by means of a
a dream, he risks forgetting much of what
path to the Waking World. If he takes
he learned therein. To simulate this,
such a path, as he nears the Waking
after the investigator wakes, have him
World, he first sees the town in which he
attempt an Hard (ddd) Discipline check.
lives at a distance, then he can make out
If it succeeds, then he can remember what
his own house, then, as he draws closer
happened in his dream as if it had
and closer, suddenly a blaze of light
occurred in “real life.” If the Discipline
overwhelms him. He wakes up, his dream
check fails, however, the dream
over.
experiences and discoveries are not
It is also possible for a character to
clearly remembered. Confiscate any notes
will himself awake. In order to do so the
the player kept on his investigator’s
investigator must make a successful
findings, but retain any changes in
Formidable (ddddd) Discipline check
Sanity damage.
to “convince” himself that he is in fact
just dreaming. A character who makes this
roll wakes up safe and sound. If the THE ATMOSPHERE OF
investigator fails his check he is unable
to wake up at this time, but may try DREAMS
again later. If the investigator fails the STRANGE AEONS is a game of mood, and
check with a y result, he is unable to atmosphere is one of many elements that
distinguish between his current dream contribute toward making it so enjoyable.
and reality and may not try voluntarily Yet while the details of mundane objects
to wake up again at all during his such as cars, trolleys, and hotel rooms
current sojourn in the Dreamlands. The can be largely left to the players’
GM should only allow an attempt to roll imaginations in Waking World scenarios,
the atmosphere required when playing in
The Dreamlands 492

the Dreamlands must be much more of Dylath-Leen are good examples of such
pervasive. Without the correct places. They seem much rougher and
presentation, players may feel that they stranger than the solar-hued cities, and
are adventuring in an ordinary fantasy are built of ominously dark basalt, or
roleplaying setting, rather than filled with peculiar inhabitants and odd
exploring the realms of dream. visitors. The descriptions of such
Lovecraft used several tricks to dreadful places as Leng, Sarkomand, or
present his dream world which can also Sarnath also involve another method of
be used by GMs in creating the necessary atmosphere creation: the sly, adroit
feel; his Dreamlands stories are a mine of reference to monstrous things lurking
atmosphere, and reading at least some of beneath or beyond the surface of reality.
these is strongly recommended. They will Witness the descriptions of the wide-
equip you with the full idea of mouthed merchants that come in black
dreamadventuring. While it is easy to galleys to Dylath-Leen, or the fate of
recognize the Dunsanian style used by the old couple in “The Cats of Ulthar,” or
Lovecraft in these tales, it is less easy the bulk of the legend of Sarnath (“The
to understand how the mood is built and Doom That Came to Sarnath”). The
maintained. measured use of this establishes veins of
When Lovecraft describes the cities and Lovecraft’s beloved cosmic horror which
surroundings of central Dreamlands, such can later be tapped when things begin to
as Ulthar, Baharna, and Celephaïs, he go awry. A bookful of examples can be
paints these places in solar hues (red, found in The House of the Worm by Gary
purple, yellow, orange), implying warmth Myers (Arkham House, 1975).
and coziness. He places great emphasis on The workings of real dreams can
delicate beauty or strange curiosities provide profitable play ideas. For
within these towns and cities and instance, investigators at some time may
populates them with contented, undertake a long journey. At the end, the
superstitious folk always willing to give GM tells them that they have reached
a traveler a bed for the night. These their destination, but have no memory of
cities are constructed of exquisite stone the voyage itself. This mimics the
such as veined marble, jade, or porphyry, haphazard flow of dreams, the blending
or choice wood like oak, teak, or of one scene into another, and the
mahogany. He speaks of beautiful scenes: subconscious acceptance that something
singing fountains on wide terraces, has occurred without questioning it.
scented flowers in hushed gardens, and a Every journey should not be like this, if
golden dome upon a hill. Occasionally we only because the GM wishes something to
arrive to see the city bathed in the light occur en route.
of a delicately flushed sunset. Lovecraft Although the role of the GM is
often describes cities as we approach by emphasized in building atmosphere the
ship or caravan, a device useful to players, too, have a responsibility to
atmosphere as it lodges an overall vision maintain and the GM should not be afraid
of the place in player minds, simplifying to tell them so. Remember that secrets
the GM's task later when they actually abound in dreams, oddities should not be
enter. probed too deeply, and not every
In queerer regions of the Dreamlands, curiosity encountered should immediately
the colors enter the lunar spectrum be investigated.
(white, gray, black, ice-blue); the Plateau
of Leng and the dark, uninviting streets
493 The Dreamlands

Strange Aeons
STYLES OF DREAMLAND GAME Brian Lumley, the Dreamlands may have a

certain swords-and-sorcery quality about
MASTERING them, a larger than life air that lends
However, there is more to the itself well to a swashbuckling flavor
Dreamlands than just atmosphere; there ill-suited to other Call of Cthulhu
is also style. There are three main styles adventures. It is often said in his stories
in which the various Dreamlands stories that things are often much easier in
are written, best exemplified by the dreams than they are in the Waking
stories of Lovecraft, Myers, and World. Go with that. Don’t be
Lumley. afraid to let investigators
The Lovecraftian style off the hook if they
blends elements of haven’t got the
Dunsany with Edgar necessary skills to
Rice Burroughs. On save themselves or
the one hand, miss a die roll.
Randolph Carter is Remember, the rules
traveling to exotic are little
locations and different in the
dealing with many Dreamlands, and
strange people and the gods take a
creatures, while on slightly more
the other he finds active hand in
himself leading large things than in the
armies into battle at Waking World.
least twice. Allies play The type of adventure
an important role in the that you choose to run is
Lovecraftian setting, and the entirely up to you. It could be
keeper should be aware that dark and brooding or vast and epic.
investigators may be able to call upon The Dreamlands has something for
forces which they would otherwise not everyone.
have access to in the Waking World.
Leading an army of cats against a
moonbeast outpost is quite possible in INTEGRATING DREAMLANDS
the Dreamlands, while in the waking ADVENTURES
World investigators may have trouble No matter what style of you choose,
getting the local police to believe their remember this: adventures in the
wild tales of Deep Ones. Dreamlands need have no connection to
The second style is that put forth by events in the Waking World. Randolph
Gary Myers in his stories in The House of Carter’s Dream-Quest for Kadath is not
the Worm. Myers paints a picture of the spurred on by anything which the Great
Dreamlands where all is not as it seems. Old Ones or their servants are doing in
Great evil and menace may lie just Boston. If you want to have the
beneath the surface of anything or investigators visit the Dreamland as
anyone, and appearances can be deceiving. part of a larger plot to save the world
The hand of the Great Old Ones has been from Cthulhu, feel free to do so. But,
held in check, but they are not without don’t feel that every trip to the
influence, and who knows when they may Dreamlands must have some connection to
come forth once again. events in the Waking World; the
Lastly, as written in the books by Dreamlands are a world all of their own,
The Dreamlands 494

connected to, but separate from the realm. Perhaps it would be possible for
Waking World. such a doomed investigator to escape into
The trick with running unrelated Yuggoth’s Dream-realm and then make his
adventures is figuring out how to way to Earth’s Dreamlands as a way of
integrate them into an ongoing campaign. escaping his fate. The only limit to such
The following suggestions might prove adventures is your imagination.
useful:
• Sometimes investigators go insane and

need to be confined for their own safety.
This doesn’t mean that the investigator
in question is totally out of the action.
Have the poor, mad soul take a trip to
the Dreamlands. This is an especially
good option for investigators who are
catatonic – which is really dull to
roleplay. Furthermore, insane characters
may not be able to distinguish between
waking reality and the Dreamlands.
• Similarly, investigators who are lost
at sea – adrift in a lifeboat or on a raft,
or stranded on remote islands – may find
themselves rescued by the White Ship and
taken to the Dreamlands. Such excursions
make a good interlude while the
characters are lying unconscious and
delirious on their drifting raft, only to
awaken in an infirmary bed aboard a
passing freighter.
• At the GM’s discretion, experienced

dreamers may choose to live on in the
Dreamlands when their Earthly forms
have died. This is an excellent way to
keep favorite characters – both player
characters and non-player characters –
around. Evil cultists which the
investigators thought they had
dispatched for good can really make life
hellish for their Waking World enemies
from the safety of the Dreamlands.
Be creative. Imagine an unfortunate

investigator who has had his brain
removed and taken to Yuggoth by the Mi-
Go. Such brains are still capable of
sleeping within the Mi-Go brain boxes,
and Yuggoth does have its own Dream-
495 The Dreamlands

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The Dreamlands 496

497 The Dreamlands

OTHER LOCATIONS
WHERE DOES MADNESS LEAVE OFF AND REALITY BEGIN
The Willard-thing made its way toward At some point the player characters
the lights in the distance. It did not would want to have their investigators
know what it was, but the remnant of leave the confines of Arkham. And while
Willard knew it to be Arkham – where he the map of the United States of America
once lived and worked. There was is indeed vast and have numerous
something in that settlement that called locations to explore, three key locations
out to it, although there was no actual in the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos have been
voice to be heard – neither inside its included. These are Dunwich, Innsmouth
head or outside. But it knew it had to go and Kingsport, naturally. As they are key
there to retrieve the source that was locations in the established stories that
calling out to it. H.P. Lovecraft penned.
The body it inhabited no longer And while these settlements are in no
registered any pain or discomfort. And way as thoroughly detained as Arkham,
the trak back to Arkham took it through they contain enough contents for the GM
a densely forested patch of land. It did to have a foundation to start building
not take notice of the many cuts and on. And that is what the GENESYS system
scrapes that the host body suffered does so well, allowing for the creative GM
from the branches and bushes. Not that to expand and build on the world,
it would have caused it much of regardless of how little or much Game
anything, if it was able to feel. Mastering experience the GM actually
The streets were dimly lit, and there has.
were almost no people on the streets. It was opted not to flesh and pen out
Every now and then, the Willard-thing every single aspect of Dunwich,
passed a corner or a building that Innsmouth and Kingsport in the same
seemed oddly familiar to it; a fragment extend as Arkham, as it would simply add
of Willard's soul still clung on to its too much material to the sourcebook. The
physical former shell of flesh and bone. STRANGE AEONS setting is, naturally,
It passed by a police officer on night intended to be set in Arkham, but the GM
patrol. It sensed that the human spoke should allow, if not encourage, the
directly at it, but it neither stopped or players (and their investigators) to
retorted at the human. It had no time or branch out and visit other locations. If
use for such vermin. not for a change in flavor and
environment, then for a change in
It wasn't before the Willard-thing
available encounters, quests, adversaries,
came to the Miskatonic University
contacts, jobs, and the like.
library that it stopped. Cocked its head
It is your job, as the GM, to be creative
and looked at the massive wooden plaque.
and build upon Dunwich, Innsmouth and
“Mis-ka-to-nic Uni-ver-si-ty Li-bra-ry” is
Kingsport as you see fit. But of course, it
said in a voice impossible for any human
is strongly recommended that you
throat to mimic or produce.
familiarize yourself with H.P. Lovecraft's
It was here that the calling resonated novels (“The Dunwich Horror” from 1929,
from. It was here that it had to be. It “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” (1931), “The
was here that it would found what it was Festival” from 1923, “The Dream-Quest of
searching for. It was here that it would Unknown Kadath” from 1926, and “The
call upon its brethren from a place Thing On the Doorstep” from 1933) in
beyond time and space. It was here that order to capture and understand the
it would shed the last remnants of the essence of the respective townships.
feeble human Willard.
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DUNWICH after moved from the village and built

the house near Sentinel Hill. Jacob
It was in 1692. the year of the witch attracted his own followers, including
persecutions in Salem, that the dreams some members of the Bishop family, and
first came to those who called themselves together they began the practice of
Believers. A secretive cult of agrarian their own rites atop the hills.
nature-worshippers who lived in the Meanwhile, Jacob's elder brother, the
Salem area, Believers were among those more practical Jeremiah, began
first targeted by the Puritan construction of the first mills along the
magistrates. One night, led by the glass- North Fork Miskatonic, heralding an era
maker and alchemist, Absalom Whate1ey, of economic prosperity for the village.
the Believers set out across the wilds of Over the years antagonism between these
Massachusetts searching for the paradise two branches of the Whateley family
they had seen in their dreams, a secluded grew ever greater until it culminated in
valley far up the Miskatonic River, the 1806 tragedy that foretold the
thirty miles from the next nearest eventual closing the Whateley mills.
settlement. While the town's fortunes declined, the
Here, distanced from their Puritan Whateleys of the hills continued their
neighbors, the Believers were free to blasphemous experiments. In the early
practice their religion. They reerected 20th century these experiments finally
the ancient stone monoliths they found bore fruit in the form of the Whateley
atop certain of the Dunwich hills and twins, Wilbur and his monstrous,
began the open celebration of their invisible, brother.
pagan rites, gathering on these hilltops Dunwich today is a forgotten
on certain nights of the year. For a few community isolated from its neighbors
short years all was well but then both physically and culturally, lacking
dissension broke out among the cultists. any industry, the tax base has eroded,
Jacob Whateley, the younger son of leading to depopulation, stagnation, and
Absalom, discovered certain things degeneracy. Although a few individuals
contained in a book owned by his father. such as Squire Whateley and Marie Bishop
After some experiments in the hills, show as bright spots, the township seems
Jacob broke with the Believers and soon locked in a slow, downward spiral of
Other Locations 500

decay. miles to the village center, an auto trip

that under the best of conditions takes
DUNWICH TOWNSHIP three to four hours.
Dunwich Township is an unincorporated A bus route runs between Arkham and
section of Aylesbury County in north Aylesbury, boarding three times a week
ccntral Massachusetts. The village itself and making a stop at Dean's Corners just
is a small collection of homes and mills east of the Dunwich turnoff. From Dean's
located on a bend of the Miskatonic River Corners it is eight difficult miles to the
near Round Mountain. The township, or village.
town, covers nearly 60 square miles of A train runs from Boston to Aylesbury
territory. Town meetings are held once a twice a day but again the traveler is
year, on March 15, and other times as faced with a long journey to the village.
needs dictate. Elections are held every The shortest route from Aylesbury to
third year, residents voting for three Dunwich is slightly more than twelve
selectmen, a school committee, a miles.
Constable, a Treasurer, a Clerk, and a An airplane can be flown from Arkham
Justice of the Peace. These positions pay to Dunwich in an hour or less but finding
token salaries and quite often an a suitable landing s ite is difficult;
individual will hold two or more most of the ground in Dunwich Valley is
positions. uneven, sloping, and rocky. Only the
The present selectmen are Squire occasional farmer's field provides a safe
Sawyer Whateley, Zechariah Whateley,. landing spot and investigators should be
and Sam Hutchins. Marie Bishop, Dunwich's prepared to pay a stiff fee to the farmer
school mistress. serves as head of the whose crops have been damaged.
School Committee as well as Town Clerk A dirt air strip can be found just west
and Treasurer. Squire Sawyer Whateley of the city of Aylesbury. A nominal fee
holds a second office as Justice of the of 25 cents is charged for takeoffs and
Peace, a position held previously by his landings. The Aylesbury airstrip is
father and grandfather. Tristram fifteen miles from the village.
Whateley, the Squire's son, is the Town
Constable and serves mostly to assess and EXPLORING DUNWICH
collect property taxes. All land in Dunwich is either
The Constable and the Justice of the privately owned or held in common by the
Peace are authorized to deal with community. With in the village normal
criminal matters up to and including trespass laws apply. Farms allow for
high misdemeanors. Felonies arc supposed right-of-way. Unless specifically posted
to be referred to the Massachusetts State with the required “No Trespassing" signs,
Police and the county courts in investigators may cross open farmland
Aylesbury. In practice however, matters freely as long as the farmer's property
are resolved within the township is respected.
whenever possible. Dunwich prefers to Roads are all open to the public. The
keep its secrcts to itself. Dunwich Road running through the
village is maintained by the county and
HOW TO FIND DUNWICH kept in reasonable shape. The remainder
Dunwich lies in an isolated part of the of the roads in the township are the
Miskatonic Valley a few miles north of responsibility of Dunwich and receive
the Aylesbury Pike. From downtown only minimum of maintenance. Under the
Arkham it is slightly more than fifty best of conditions. investigators driving
501 Other Locations

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automobiles find their vehicles steadily Horses are little slowed by mud or snow
rattled to pieces by the uneven, and can travel freely on or off the
washboard surfaces and numerous vicious roads. Investigators will probably want
chuckholes. Flat tires are a common to acquire riding horses but older
occurrence as well as occasional broken characters might find horse-drawn
springs or axles. Autos overheat trying buggies more to their liking. Most
to climb the steep hills and have residents of the valley are willing to
difficulty on treacherously narrow rent horses or equipment to investigators
turns. for reasonable fees. Deposits are usually
The unimproved roads are often not required though the renter will be
impassable and the intrepid driver who expected to make good any losses or
attempts to explore these byways is sure damage.
to come to grief. A few Dunwich residents The valley has many animals available
own cars and trucks, generally old and for rent. Most farmers, if they have no
ill-maintained, but most rely on the immediate use for a particular horse, are
horse. Horse-drawn wagons, carts, and happy to rent to the investigators for a
buggies are the commonest forms of little bit of cash. Yankees bid high and
transportation in Dunwich. bargain hard. The farmer will be
In the winter almost all the roads are surprised as well as pleased if
blocked by snow. Buggies are put away investigators don't attempt to haggle the
and sleighs are hauled out from summer price. 20% of the farms have a horse
storage. The county can be counted on to and/or buggy available for rent.
plow the Dunwich Road at least once a Horse Senses: Horses are sensitive
winter but the rest of the time the creatures and can smell a bear or other
township is left to its own devices. large camivore long before humans know
Automobiles are useless in winter and are of its presence. Horses are equally
beller left at home. In the spring the sensitive to paranormal creatures and
melting snow turns the roads to mud, events.
trapping any automobile that dares to
venture out. The roads eventually dry ASKING PRICES FOR HORSES
out but are again made muddy with the ANIMAL / VEHICLE PRICE
onset of the rainy season in April.
Summers find the roads at their most Sway-back nag $1-2
accessible, but even then a sudden heavy Old, servicable mount $2-3
thunderstorm can leave them useless for Healthy young horse $3-4
a day or two.
Well-bred spirited horse $4-5
Exploring the valley on foot is slow
and tiring. The hills and glens difficult Old horse with 2-seat buggy $4-5
to climb. Bicycles can get down roads Draft horse with wagon $5-6
blocked to automobiles but are nearly
Strong tandem with 4-seat carriage $6-8
useless when traveling off the road. Even
on a good road, the steep hills daunt all
but the most athletic of investigators. DUNWICH TELEPHONES
Investigators used to a full-service 24-
GET A HORSE hour telephone system will be in for a
Investigators should soon realize that surprise in Dunwich. The entire township
the fastest and most reliable way of is linked to the Aylesbury Bell
getting around the valley is by horse. Telephone system through a single
Other Locations 502

switchboard operated out of the house of led a number of locals to spend the
the Gardner sisters. All telephones are greater portions of their lives seeking it
on party lines, some shared by as many as out. Dark caves have been explored, deep
six or eight customers. Most calls must be mine shafts excavated, and even murder
passed though the village switchboard committed in the quest for the Whateley
but calls between customers sharing a gold. Unknown to anyone, the gold was
party line can be accomplished without manufactured by an alchemical process
operator assistance by using a coded discovered by Absalom Whateley in the
system of rings. Official switchboard early 18th century. Costly, and difficult,
hours are from 8 AM to 8 PM but the the secret was passed down through
sisters will connect important or generations of Bishops and Whateleys.
emergency calls at any hour of the day The last to know the secret was Wilbur
or night. Whateley who continued to manufacture
small amounts of gold until his death in
BOARDING OVER 1928. Although evidence of the
Lengthy investigations might suggest manufacture will be found, the secret is
an investigator spend the night in the lost.
village and several residents make a
practice of renting rooms. The price is THE ATMOSPHERE OF DECAY
usually less than $1 and often includes Much of the decay and degeneracy
breakfast. Most homes have only 1 single evidenced in Dunwich can be directly
room to let foreing investigators to stay attributed to the presence of certain
at several different locations. The microscopic spores in the air. These alien
following village residents usually have spores originate from deep beneath the
rooms available: Ellen Hobbes, Widow surface, entering the atmosphere through
Morgan, Allen and Harriet Ames, Jeanne numerous narrow vents, the largest of
and Sarah Kelly, and Carter and Mary which is found near The Devil's Hopyard.
Jackson. Generations of exposure to these spores
has led the people ofDunwich to suffer
THE WHATELEY GOLD from ill health, insanity, birth defects,
A long-standing mystery in the and many olher congenital problems. An
township concerns the fabled Whateley acute dose of spores can result in
gold. In the early 18th century little hallucinations and insanity. Only in a
was thought of the gold coins used for few places on the surface is the spore
trade by the Whateleys. Later, as decades concentration high enough to pose this
passed and the community's fortunes fell, threat. In general, short time visitors to
the fact that some of the Bishops and Dunwich are effected but little by these
Whateleys still used coins minted prior spores.
to the Revolution began to give rise to Various places around the township
speculation. Stories of a secret treasure and in the underground have
horde began to circulate. When concentrated patches of spores dangerous
counterfeiting dies were discovered in to investigators. The first warning sign
the house of a deceased Bishop, of spore exposure is dizziness and a
speculation changed from a possible light-headed feeling but by then it is
buried treasure to a secret gold mine too late and a Hard (ddd) Resilience
that the Whateleys had been tapping all check must be made. Failing the check
these years. results in frightening psychedelic
The fable of the Whateley treasure has hallucinations costing 1/2 points of
503 Other Locations

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Sanity damage. Those driven insane by has suffered at least 1 wound. Once in
the hallucinations act in an irrational the bloodstream the fungus grows
manner, often endangering themselves rapidly, spreading slender filaments
and others. Recovery time, once the victim through the victim's circulatory system,
has been led from the active spore area, making fundamental changes to the
is one minute per t generated on the character's physical makeup and
Resilience check, with a minimum of 1 converting human flesh into a fragile,
minute, although the effects of insanity rubbery material reminiscent of a
might last longer. mushroom. This conversion is swift; one
Investigators can partially protect hour after infection an entire limb is
themselves simply by tying a rag or turned to fungus flesh and in six hours
bandanna across their nose and mouth. the victim totally converted. This
This effectively allows the investigator horrible infection costs the inflicted
to upgrade his Resilience once as long as investigator 2 Sanity damage per hour,
the mask remains in place. every hour - no Sanity check is allowed
The alien spores find to ward it off - until the character
conditions on Earth reaches exceeds his Sanity
inhospitable and they Threshold. There is no way to
quickly encyst and go reverse the infection and
dormant. Only in the only hope of sawing the
certain pans of the victim is by gross
underground, and in amputation of the infected
one place on the limb.
surface, do the spores The converted flesh
find conditions is extremely fragile
favorable to growth. and even a small child
Germinated spores can snap off a victim's
produce a gray, still-living arm or leg.
branching fungus that An insane victim not
proves unidentifiable properly confined
with Knowledge and usually destroys
Survival checks. This himself within hours, a
fungus, besides victim of his own
producing a high panicked rampaging.
number of active Victims safely confined
spores, poses a second could conceivably live
potential danger. for centuries, immortality
Introduction of the being one of the
fungus into the bloodstream, questionable benefits of a
usually by way of an open fungus infection. A mercy
wound, can lead to a deadly infection. A killing is possible but investigators find
character failing a Hard (ddd) the victim does not die easily. Even if
Resilience check is considered infected. chopped to bits, the pieces continue to
In an area with spores, the GM can opt live, brainless limbs flopping and
that any active skill check with a gasping heads mouthing soundless words
ttt or y result may cause spores to for three or four days after
find way to an open wound – this, of dismemberment. Fire or acid destroys the
course, requires that the investigator victim's remains quickly as does stomping
Other Locations 504

the portions into pulp. found on top of the hills the remnants of
If a character gets the fungus in an an earlier society, rough monoliths that
open wound and fails a Hard (ddd) had been placed atop the hills in
Resilience check, he is infected. The GM circular designs. Before long most of
should ask the player to make this check these old standing stones had been
five to ten minutes of game time after he restored to their former positions and
has been exposed to the infection. If the the hills cleared of the forest growth
check is failed the character feels the that had covered them. Many of these
infected portion of his body going numb. domed hills are still owned by the same
A few minutes later the surrounding families responsible for first clearing
flesh changes color, becoming a bluish- them centuries ago.
grey through which dark red blood Six to ten times a year the rites are
vessels can be seen. practiced atop these hills, bonfires
A drink made from the harvested illuminating naked, cavorting Believers.
fungus is used by the Believers to Their gods are many although rumors
heighten their awareness while the speak of “a horned man" who sometimes
celebrating their hilltop rites. Zebulon attends the ceremonies. An investigator
Whateley, one of their members, knows the who witnesses these rites, or otherwise
single spot in the va11ey where the learns about the cult's practice and
fungus spores germinate and knows how to makes a successful Daunting (dddd)
process the harvested fungus into the Knowledge check or Hard (ddd) Magic
psychedelic drink. check, recognizes a mix of druidic
The spores germinate best in an beliefs, medieval alchemical magic,
atmosphere more acidic than ours. Once American Indian lore, and a smattering of
encysted and dormant, they can survive Greek mystery religions.
for thousands of years. In the late The actual pursuits of individual
twentieth century, the acid rains Believers take many different forms.
plaguing the northeastern U.S.A. pose the Some present-day members actively study
distinct possibility of a sudden blooming contemporary delvings into the theory of
of billions of encysted spores. psychic phenomena including ESP and
telekinesis. Others make use of older,
THE BELIEVERS more traditional magicks, while some
This secretive cult traces its roots pursue inner knowledge. Although united
back to the ancient agrarian fertility by a single belief in the power of the
religions commonly practiced in western forces of nature, individual Believers
Europe before the coming of the Romans. are free to explore this power in
However, the years of exposure to the whatever way they choose, forbidden only
alien spores have brought a more cosmic from breaking the few basic tenets of the
outlook to the cult. No longer cult.
celebrating the regular solstices and Membership in the Believers is for life.
equinoxes, their celebrations now take Although little is actually required of
place at irregular intervals determined members, silence regarding the cult 's
by individual Believers via their dreams. existence is the prime rule. Revealing
These celebrations coincide with stellar the secret rites, the names of members, or
and planetary events too subtle to anything else intended to damage the
predict by ordinary means. cult is punishable by death. This
Led to the valley by visions of a sentence has been executed but only a
paradise awaiting them, the Believers very few times in the last 250 years. A
505 Other Locations

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severe beating is usually sufficient to demonstrations of hostility between

bring even the most troublesome member members might constitute a breach of the
back into line. This same summary oath of silence, endangering the cult,
discipline extends to those outside the and occur only infrequently.
Believers, although ample warnings are Active members display a variety of
usually given to those incautious few talents and magicks. Some tell fortunes,
who would attempt to interfere with the some make charms and potions, others are
cult. particularly good with crops or
Despite the pretence of secrecy, the livestock. Marie Bishop studies ley lines
existence and activities of the Believers and Mythos magic under the guidance of
are known to most residents, very few of Mother Bishop while Irene Place
whom do not at least accept their prophecies from the entrails of
presence. Although the cult is generally sacrificed animals. Irene's husband,
viewed assomething dark and mysterious, Joshua Place, is a highly respected
many a farmer has been thankful for the dowser.
cult's aid when a crop has suddenly Investigator Reaction to the Believers:
withered or a child been struck with a Although the cult activities are a well-
bad fever. kept secret, investigators spending any
Those who fear and actively speak amount of time in Dunwich cannot fail to
against the Believers are in the minority discover evidence of their existence.
and truly outsiders to the community of Aware of the Dunwich reputation,
Dunwich. Observant investigators, those investigators probably fear the worst.
able to make a successful Daunting Prying into the cult's secrets attracts
(dddd) Perception check, are able to the Believers' attention and
identify those families antagonistic to investigators notice that many of the
the Believers by the globes of colored heretofore friendly residents now
glass, called witch-balls, hung in windows attempt to distance themselves from the
and doorways. characters. These residents have heard
Active members, those Believers who through the grapevine that the
regularly attend the hilltop rites, investigators are under suspicion.
number nearly twenty. You can use the Investigators may receive subtle but
cultist templates from the Adversary direct warnings from such respectable
chapter to generate Believes, but feel figures as Squire Whateley. Persistence
free to create cultists as needed by the brings more dire warnings in the form of
specific needs of your campaign. There dead birds found on the investigators'
are also those who, although initiated doorsteps in the morning, warning notes
into the cult, no longer attend tied to the carcass's leg. The Believers, if
ceremonies. Attendance at the rites has pushed too far, may be forced to try and
never been compulsory. eliminate the investigators altogether,
Strong bonds of friendship exist among taking great pains to make any
many cult members, a natural result of investigator deaths appear as though the
shared secrets, but antagonisms also exit. result of some accident.
Petty dislikes and jealousies are not Should the investigators somehow
uncommon and the cult's anarchic succeed in destroying the cult by public
structure leaves it wide open for exposure, they are still not safe. Few of
leadership struggles. Although some the cult members will suffer more than a
disputes can be settled by group short jail term but all will swear death
consensus, others cannot. Open to the persons who violated their secrecy.
Other Locations 506

Before things go too far, Marie Bishop processing it , transported vast

will probably approach the investigators quantities of the fluid to the moon,
and try to talk some sense into them. If using a natural gate found in their
need be, she is even willing to underground complex. This vast complex
demonstrate some of her mastery of was eventually abandoned by the
Dunwich's ley lines in order to prove her mysterious Mi-Go but the gate of Abhoth
point. was never closed and the being still
If the investigators have lurks below the surface.
brought trouble upon the Abhoth exists only
cult they might still be partially in this world,
excused from retribution most of his consciousness
if it is believed they still contained in his
acted out of innocence elsewhere existence.
and if they agree to Still, the dreaming
attend an upcoming Abhoth of Earth
ceremony and craves sustenance
submit to the and his dreams
initiation rite. The reach out across
ceremony involves the planet to find
the pricking of those who live in
one's palm with a fear, those
knife blade. The persecuted and
blood drawn from hounded, who seek a
the wound is cast better world
into the fire while somewhere far from
a chant is called. their enemies. To
This is a magical these desperate people
means of tagging the Abhoth offers the
individual and will be dream of a golden
used to track him down if paradise, promised to those
he ever violate his oath of who would seek it out, those
secrecy. who would come to live in the
pleasant valley shown to them in
A SECRET HISTORY OF DUNWICH their dreams. The pilgrims come and
settle, living their lives here, raising
VALLEY their children, believing they have
Long before the advent of mankind, found something of the paradise they
beings came to this place to make use of sought. But eventually Abhoth awakes.
the natural magical energies found in and awake, it hungers. Calling the
the valley. The Mi-Go used these natural pilgrims to itself, Abhoth opens a great
rifts between worlds to open a vast gate gate and the descendants of the original
far below the surface and allow a great, pilgrims march docilely into the god's
alien being to partially enter this world. maw.
This being later came to be known as The first victims of Abhoth's dreams
Abhoth, Source of Uncleanness, but the were Hyperboreans, priests and followers
Mi-Go sought only the spores this strange of the various religions then being
being produced. The gray, branching suppressed by the temples of Yhounoeh,
fungus produced by the spores was the elkgoddess. Led by their prophetic
greatly desired by the Mi-Go who, after
507 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
dreams, using a complex system of gales, study of the stars, trying to correlate
the pilgrims made their way to this their positions with the times and
unknown land far from their native locations of the rites. After several
Hyperborea and settled here. They raised years she gave the project up and now
a great pyramid and many lesser temples studies the intuitive manner recommended
and dwelt here for many centuries, far by Mother Bishop.
from their persecutors. Then one night Anyone initiated into the cult has a
Abhoth awoke and morning found the city chance of predicting the time and place
depopulated, all but a few having fallen of the next rite, by making a Daunting
to Abhoth, and become his food. (dddd) Magic check. This knowledge
Thousands of years later druids comes to the individual in the form of a
fleeing the Roman persecution sailed dream, usually one or two days before
across the vast sea to find the valley the rite is to be held. A certain
promised them in their dreams. They percentage of the Believers will share
converted the Indians they found living the dream and word of the upcoming
here to their druidic beliefs and raised ceremony will be spread amongst the
the stone circles atop the hills that cultists. Because of the unpredictable
covered the now ruined and buried timing of these galherings, the GM is
temples of the Hyperboreans. For several allowed to time them as he wishes,
hundred years this odd civilization introducing them at the most telling or
flourished but again one fateful night, dramatic moments in the adventures.
Abhoth was aroused and, hungry, led the
population of the valley to its doom. DUNWICH VILLAGE
Unguessed at by even the most astute Visitors to Dunwich are taken aback by
of the Believers, the present residents ofthe atmosphere of age and decay that
Dunwich have been led here for the same hangs over the community. Many homes are
purpose. Even now, one of their number abandoned and vacant, those still
treats with Nyarlathotep, lured by inhabited are in ill-repair, long
promises of power and influence. It may unpainted, broken windows stuffed with
not be long before Abhoth awakes again rags. Noxious weeds grow in the yards,
and depopulates the valley. and along the streets dirty children
play in the dust.
DUNWICH MAGIC The bumpy main road from the covered
No one, not even the most experienced bridge swings past Osborn's General Store
of Believers has a full idea of the beyond which can be seen the overgrown
powers found in Dunwich Valley. Attuned Dunwich Cemetery. On the left, slanding
to the movements of stars and planets, atop a hill studded with ancient
the magic is focused through rifts in the headstones, is the collapsing hulk of the
dimensions, rifts upon which the ancient old meeting house, abandoned years ago
Hyperboreans built their temples and the and left to rot. A little farther up the
later druids their rounded mounds and road the village Common lies on the
stone circles. right, overgrown with brush and
Anyone using Magic skill within the untrimmed trees, surrounded by once-
confines of Dunwich add bb to their stately mansions still owned by current
Magic skill checks, given the power of members of the Bishop and Whateley
the ley lines. families.
Marie Bishop, returning from Some of the oldest houses in Dunwich
Radcliffe, for a time made an academic are those grouped around Old Meeting
Other Locations 508

originally constmcted to house the

House Hill, the community's original workers once employed by the Whateley
center. Those homes farther west and mills.
south of Dunwich Road are a little The western portion of the village is
larger, newer, forming what was once a composed mostly of scattered small farms.
middle-class neighborhood. West of Path Some of these places are actually worked,
Street is a deserted manufacturing though most are disused, the fields lying
center where leather and other materials fallow and overgrown. The mill section
were once worked. The abandoned glass north of the village is deserted and
house built by Absalom Whateley can empty. The few farms found along here
still be seen. The homes north of Dunwich were never fruitful and are all long-
Road, particularly those grouped around abandoned. The closed-down mills are
the Common are the largest and finest rotting and crumbling, slowly collapsing
houses found ill the village. Built by into the river.
earlier generations of Whateleys and The main Dunwich road receives some
Bishops, these imposing Georgian manors attention from the county and is in
are now blighted by neglect and age. fairly good shape. Most of the other
North of here, and east of Mill Road, the roads in and around the village receive
residences are mostly old farms, few of little maintenance.
them worked to any great extent. To the
west, along Parson and Sawyer Streets
and on the east end of Hutchins road, are
a number of small, modest dwellings,
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INNSMOUTH fields sandy wastelands ravaged by wind

and erosion, the end result of unchecked
What goes on in Innsmouth is unknown deforestation. The town's harbor, once the
to most outsiders. Rumors, legends, and home port home of globe-spanning ships
gossip abound in the towns and cities of trade, is now clogged by the eroded
located safely miles away from the soil and sand that has been washed
isolated region, but as one gets closer to downstream by the Manuxet. The harbor
Innsmouth, the less one finds the locals can now only be entered safely by the
willing to talk. It is known to most that smallest of craft.
the town is dying, victim of a choked North of the harbor is a rocky spit of
harbor and a failing fishing industry. land, pierced by sea caves, that extends
Older folks remember tales of a strange out into the ocean. Due east of town, more
plague brought home by sea-traders, and than a mile out to sea, lies the long dark
of the riots sparked by the plague. A few line of Devil Reef, a low rise of black
whisper stories of pagan religions, but stone jutting irregularly above the
none know the whole truth. waves. It also is the site of numerous sea
Innsmouth lies on the coast of the caves.
Atlantic Ocean, straddling the small, but
swiftly flowing Manuxet River. Nestled
in a bowl-shaped depression, Innsmouth is THE ACCEPTED HISTORY OF
surrounded by marshlands, and further INNSMOUTH
hemmed-in by steep hills to the north Innsmouth – Founded 1643. Current
and west. South of Innsmouth the ground population estimated at 556. Region first
is level, and occasionally dotted by settled by the Hogg, Eliot, Marsh, and
stands of hardwood. The greatest of the Martin families of nearby Newbury. In
marshes surrounding Innsmouth lies jusr 1678 a shipyard was opened by Thomas
north of town. Known as the Great Martin, an industry supported by the
Innsmouth Salt Marsh, it is a vast increasingly prosperous trade in codfish.
expanse of reeds and sandbanks Additional shipyards were opened and
inhabited by terns and gulls. prosperity early embraced the town.
Arable farmland around Innsmouth was The first Innsmouth voyage to the West
scarce and any likely spot was cleared Indies was made in 1662, followed over
and planted centuries ago. These farms the years by an ever-expanding trade
are now nearly all abandoned, their with the East Indies, the South Pacific,
Other Locations 510

and China. To avoid running afoul of the trade ships made their final port of call
increasingly restrictive provisions of by the middle of the 19th century.
Britain's Trade Acts, early traders found By then the town's interests had
smuggling their only available recourse. turned to industry, spurred in part by
Illegal cargoes were unloaded far the Marsh gold refinery operated on the
offshore, then secreted into town by way banks of the Manuxet River. But the
of a complex of sea caves and man-made Industrial Revolution never caught fire
tunnels running under parts of the town. in Innsmouth, and the failing fishing
Some of these tunnels, long unused, are industry added to the town's woes. In 1846
supposed to still exist. the town was struck by a plague, believed
By the time of the American to have been carried into town by a ship
Revolution, Innsmouth had grown to a returned from the South Pacific.
community of nearly 2000 people, most of Although little is known of the incident,
them engaged in the shipping and fishing riots eventually broke out resulting in
industries. The town had by then spread the deaths of dozens of individuals. By
to both sides of the Manuxet river, now the time of the Civil War, Innsmouth had
crossed by a bridge built over the gorge fallen into a steep decline, and already
near the location of the present day the number of empty houses was a cause
Main Street. At Bunker Hill, Innsmouth for remark.
was represented by a small band of Today Innsmouth is a shadow of its
stalwart men, but for most of the war the former self, a half-deserted seacoast
town's contributions were in the form of town forgotten by time. Most of its
ships, and the privateers who took them residents are of old stock, rooted to the
to sea. The privateers were authorized by land by time and tradition.
the newly formed American government to
attack and raid ships flying under the THE SECRET HISTORY
flag of England. Privateers signed The true story of Innsmouth is known
agreements that allowed them to keep one only to its residents, and a very few
third to one half of any English booty, outsiders. Vague rumors circulate in
the rest to be turned over to the neighboring communities, and terrible
government and the cause of the secrets are whispered at firesides, but no
Revolution. one guesses the whole truth. The secret
The success of the American Revolution history of Innsmouth begins in the 1820s,
allowed the New England traders free when an uncharted island east ?f
access to the seas and Innsmouth, like Otaheite (Tahiti) was discovered by a
similar ports, prospered. But the War of young Captam Obed Marsh, then engaged
1812, bitterly opposed by many of the on a voyage to China. Marsh here found a
Federalist New England traders, brought tribe of islanders and managed to trade
an end to prosperity. The loss of ships with them for the remarkable pieces of
and men was atrocious and the end of the gold alloy jewelry they wore. Curious as
conflict found an Innsmouth crippled by to the source of the jewelry it seemed
a lack of ships as well as manpower. Some obviously beyond the abilities of the
of the town's most prosperous families natives to manufacture he was told by
were ruined by the losses they suffered the chief, Walakea, that it was given to
in the course of the war. An unfortunate them by the “sea-gods," and that his
series of maritime disasters over the people could get more of it, as much as
next few decades further crippled the they wanted.
town's growth. The last of Innsmouth's Marsh never saw the islanders' dreaded
511 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
sea-gods, but he was taken to a nearby family grew, even as that of other
island a tiny portion of land the natives families decreased.
claimed had been thrown up from the At first the jewelry was sold as it was,
ocean floor. The carved stone ruins Marsh but when too many questions were asked
found on the island were unlike anything about its source Marsh purchased the old
he had ever seen or heard of, and he did Waite fulling mill and outfitted it as
not argue with Walakea's claim that they the Marsh Refining Company. Here the
were parts of the sea-gods' city. It was jewelry was smelted down, the impurities
here that the islanders practiced their removed, and the pure gold sold on the
degenerate rites, market. In order to
offering human mask his operation
sacrifices to their Marsh also purchased
sea-gods in return loads of low-grade
for good fishing ore, doctoring his
harvests, safe records as necessary
weather, and for the to cover the profits.
pieces of gold The Marsh family
jewelry the sea-gods continued to prosper.
made. In 1838 Captain
Promising to Marsh voyaged to his
return with more of secret trading place
the glass beads only to discover the
favored by Walakea, village destroyed.
Marsh left the Walakea and his
islands, the gold in tribe were dead
his private chest wiped out by some of
worth more than all the neighboring
the cargo on the res.t tribes who Marsh
of the ship. In his knew feared and
pocket he carried loathed Walakea's
several small metal people. The nearby
discs given to him by island of the sea-
Walakea. The “deep gods was deserted,
ones," as the the natives' altars
islanders sometimes overturned, the
referred to them, ground littered with
lived all over the strangely-marked
world. If Marsh stones bearing five-
dropped the discs pointed stars.
near one of their underwater cities, and Despairing, he returned home, without the
recited the chant the chief had taught gold on which he relied.
him, the deep ones would rise to the Despite the late successes of the Marsh
surface in answer. family, the town was showing signs of
For years Captain Marsh dealt secretly failing. The trade industry was almost
with the islanders, going to great dead, and the fishing was no longer as
lengths to disguise the location of their good as it used to be. Even some of the
home to keep it safe from other traders. factories along the Manuxet had closed
The power and wealth of the Marsh their doors.
Other Locations 512

It was then that Obed hatched a nearly depleted, was the first to close
desperate plan to rejuvenate Innsmouth. its doors. A short time later it was
Using the metal discs given to him years followed by the Methodist. The Baptist
ago by Walakea, he would attempt to Church held out longer, but after the
contact the deep ones. Out beyond Devil parson mysteriously disappeared, the
Reef Obed cast the discs, muttering congregation disintegrated and it too was
softly the chant taught to him by the left abandoned. Within a few short years
native chieftain. Before long, forms rose the Esoteric Order completely controlled
up from beneath the sea. the spiritual aspect of the town.
At first the deep ones were satisfied to Numerous disappearances throughout this
trade for glass and rubber trinkets, but period went unsolved, although unsavory
before long they demanded more. As had rumors about Marsh and his followers –
the deep ones in the South Seas, these and what it was they did out beyond
wanted their sacrifices – men and women Devil Reef in the dead of night – began
from the town of Innsmouth. to be whispered about. Although a few
spoke out about the disappearances, the
A NEW RELIGION majority were willing to ignore them.
Attempting to meet the deep one's Actual evidence of wrongdoing was scarce
demands, Marsh began subtly undermining or lacking, and most were unwilling to
the religious faith of the townsfolk, risk the prosperity they now enjoyed.
preaching against a god who would do But there were those who actively
nothing to help his people, and hinting opposed Marsh. Matt Eliot, formerly the
that he knew of other gods that were first mate aboard Marsh's Sumatra Queen,
more willing to listen to the needs of had a good idea of the true nature of the
their worshipers. Marsh showed them the horror overtaking the town. It was he who
hands-on power of his religion in the first secretly warned the local religious
form of increased schools of fish in the leaders about Marsh's blasphemous doings.
area. After the churches had closed Eliot
Having suffered through decades of became more vocal, attempting to enlist
recession, many of the hmsmouth folk the aid of John Lawrence, editor of the
began to listen to what Captain Obed had Innsmouth Courier newspaper, along with
to say. Many turned their backs on the other influential members of Innsmouth's
old churches, and more and more began to Freemason lodge. But then Eliot
join the new church founded by Marsh mysteriously disappeared. Lawrence
and some of his loyal followers. This new continued to publish against Marsh but,
church was named The Esoteric Order of in an ironic twist, the by-now depleted
Dagon. Most of their rites were attended Freemasons defaulted on their loan and
by the full congregation, but some were the Masonic Hall was bought out from
conducted in secret, attended only by under them by Captain Obed Marsh. The
Marsh and his most loyal followers. Esoteric Order of Dagon moved in.
Occasional disappearances of townsfolk But in 1846 those who feared Obed
were noted, but little was thought of it. Marsh still outnumbered his followers.
The fishing harvest was increasing, Rumors of countless kidnapings, human
particularly for those affiliated with sacrifices, and other blasphemies too
the Esoteric Order. Others, eager to share terrible to recount were rampant. One
in the wealth, soon joined their friends night a band of men followed Obed and
in worship at the new church run by Obed. ills men out to Devil Reef. A brief glill
The Congregational church, its flock battle ensued, resulting in the arrest of
513 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
Captain Marsh and 32 of ills followers, that they now wanted to mate with the
all jailed on suspicion of murder and humans of the town, the same way their
kidnapping. cousins had mated with Walakea's people
Two weeks passed before the people of in the South Pacific.
Innsmouth suffered the retribution of There was no point in trying to deny
the deep ones. Pouring out of the harbor, them; they now held the town in their
swimming up the Manuxet, the horrible scaly grip. Marsh himself was forced to
fishheaded, frog-headed deep ones, the take a second wife, a spouse rarely, if
sea-gods of Walakea, took their revenge ever, seen in public. Other townspeople
on the town. were also forced to assume new
Assaulting the jail, they freed Obed partnerships, prompting a wave of
and his followers. Street riots and suicides, particularly among the
bloodshed ensued, violence female population of the town.
that was to end only when Innsmouth became a place
over half the where the wise asked no
townspeople were questions, and kept
either dead or themselves locked
missing. The offices behind doors at
of the Innsmouth night.
Courier were Thereafter many
destroyed and children born in
editor Lawrence town exhibited
never seen again. what became known
Selectmen and as the 'Innsmouth
constables not look,' the bulging,
allied with Obed watery eyes, broad
likewise were found mouth, scaling skin,
dead, or not found at and shuffling gait
all. that betray the tainted
Innsmouth was now in the blood of deep one heritage.
grip of Obed. Replacing the Those afflicted eventually
murdered officials with men of his own became so bad that they were forced to
choosing, he moved quickly to make sure stay indoors, out of the sight of other,
that the surviving townsfolk spread no normal people. Although their deaths
tales of what had taken place in would eventually be announced, it was
Innsmouth. Stories of a strange plague rarely the case. These individuals, now
and a riot leaked out, but they contained fully transformed deep ones, would
no details. Threatened by the near instead return to the sea to dwell with
presence of the horrible things from the their cousins in the depths.
sea, the few remaining survivors feared Throughout the rest of the 19th
to cross Obed. Over the next few years century Innsmouth's people continued in
most joined, or were forced to join, the their blasphemous ways, some by choice,
Esoteric Order. some without. More hybrid horrors were
born, and occasionally individuals
A BLASPHEMOUS PACT married into unsuspecting families in
But even Captain Marsh did not expect neighboring towns – forever damning the
the next demand that the deep ones made children and grandchildren of such
of Innsmouth. He was shocked when told unions. Obed Marsh ruled Innsmouth as
Other Locations 514

though a dictator, using the Esoteric and trucks are fairly common, but almost
Order of Dagon as his tool, but always uniformly old and in poor condition. With
obeying the directives of his deep one very few exceptions, the local fishermen
masters. Residents were required to take use boats powered by sail and oar.
the First Oath of Dagon. Selected others Visitors to Innsmouth are relatively
were forced to swear the horrid Second rare. Sightseers, tourists, antiquarians,
and Third Oaths. Its people inbred and and other curious types occasionally stop
decayed, their spirit destroyed by in to see the shunned town, but they
oppression and horror, their sorrow rarely stay long almost never overnight.
drowned in alcohol and forgetfulness,
the town's economy faltered. Innsmouth FINDING INNSMOUTH
began to slowly die. Taking Highway 1A north out of
Obed Marsh passed away in 1878, Arkham, an unmarked junction is found
leaving behind a legacy of horror and that leads into Innsmouth from the
degeneration which poisoned generation south. From Newburyport in the north a
after generation of townspeople. As the similar unmarked road follows the coast
number of hybrids increased, the few before rising steeply to crest Carson's
human residents lost all will to resist, Hill, overlooking the town. The small
and the Esoteric Order over the years towns of Rowley and Ipswich lie west of
relaxed its grip. There was no longer a Innsmouth, connected to the shunned town
need for strict enforcement. by unimproved and rarely traveled roads
that wind through marshes and over
THE PRESENT decrepit stone and wooden bridges. A
Little has changed in Innsmouth over branch rail line leads to Rowley, but was
the last few decades. Its economy abandoned years ago. The rusting tracks
continues its decline, its impoverished can still be seen stretching across the
residents still isolated by harsh terrain marshes west and north of town, raised
and whispered rumor. Schools of fish teem upon an embankment.
in the waters around Devil Reef, but Two small communities lying southeast
competition from the mass-production of the town fall within the jurisdiction
packers in Gloucester and elsewhere have of Innsmouth Township. Falcon Point,
eroded their value. Marsh's gold refinery home to forty or fifty people, is the
still operates, but at only a fraction of larger of these two villages and is found
its former capacity. Few outsiders visit on a rocky peninsula a short distance
the place, and most maps and guidebooks from town. Lying nearer to Innsmouth is
omit any mention of the town. Innsmouth's Boynton Beach, a fishing village next to
only connection to the outside world is a long line of cliffs with a population
the bus route driven by Joe Sargent, one of about a half-dozen families.
of those bearing the Innsmouth look.
Many of Innsmouth's residents enjoys INNSMOUTH TOWNSHIP
gas and electrical service, but many still
rely on candle light and woodburning GOVERNMENT
stoves and fireplaces. There is telephone Innsmouth and the neighboring
service in town, but less than half the villages of Falcon Point and Boynton
townsfolk have their own phones. To save Beach share a township govemment.
money the streetlights are used Annual town meetings are held every
sparingly, and usually turned off during March 15 at the Assembly Hall in
nights of bright moonlight. Automobiles Innsmouth. Elections are held every
515 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
three years. Voters choose three shore. The few pureblooded human
selectmen, a school committee, a clerk, a residents are completely under the
treasurer, a tax assessor, and a Justice control of their hybrid counterparts.
of the Peace. All residents of the Those who draw the hybrids' wrath find
township are eligible for office, but their fishing boats holed and sunk, their
those who live outside the town rarely jobs taken away, or fall victim to
even vote. The ·government has long been accidents arranged by the hybrids. The
controlled by the Esoteric Order. Current worst offenders are kidnaped and
town selectmen include Sebastian Marsh, sacrificed to the deep ones, or fed to the
F. Murray Gilman, and Jonas Waite. All shoggoth that dwells in the tunnels and
three are descended from old Innsmouth caves beneath the warehouse district.
families – and all three are tainted by Large gatherings of humans are actively
the blood of the deep ones. All other discouraged. Outnumbered two to one by
elected town offices are held by either the hybrids, the humans are cowed and
the hybrids, or by humans closely defeated, few left with the strength to
affiliated with the Order. The Town retain even the last shreds of dignity.
Constables are appointed by the Many people have chosen to side with the
selectmen and are responsible for tax hybrids or at least pay them lip service
collection and law enforcement within attempting to better their situation. By
the township. aiding the hybrids, humans can assure
themselves of secure employment in the
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT fishpacking houses or other lowpaying
Normal crime in Innsmouth is rare. jobs. Locals seen spending much time with
Kidnapings and murders committed by the outside investigators are sure to draw
Esoteric Order are ignored and covered the attention of The Order, and be
up, and few complaints are made. suspected of collusion.
Similarly, crimes committed by certain Beyond its general air of decay and
powerful hybrids also go unchecked. Town decrepitude, visitors to Innsmouth are
citizens who fall afoul of the Esoteric struck by two things: the furtive,
Order are dealt with in a summary fearful attitude of the normal
manner. There is little resembling normal townspeople, and the openly suspicious,
justice in Innsmouth. almost sinister behavior of those that
Outsiders committing a crime in bear the 'Innsmouth look.'
Innsmouth are subject to arrest and jail.
Although by law felony crimes are the THE INNSMOUTH LOOK
jurisdiction of the Essex County courts, The Innsmouth look is a local term
in practice Innsmouth deals with its describing the odd condition suffered by
problems in its own manner, many of the residents of this town.
pragmatically and in secret. Outsiders Variously blamed on inbreeding, the
arousing the·suspicion of the Order can introduction of foreign blood, orthe
be arrested on any trumped-up charge long-term result of the plague that
and legally held for up to 72 hours. Few swept through in the 19th century, it is
live that long. characterized by large, distended eyes, a
general broadening ofthe mouth, and a
THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH stooping posture. Skin diseases resulting
For nearly as long as any Innsmouth in a scaling, flaking condition often
resident can remember, the town has been accompany it. Later stages of the malady
in the grip of the deep ones living off result in an enlargement of the hands
Other Locations 516

and feet, and a change in hip structure batwings. Such offspring are believed to
that results in a hopping, shuffling gait. have been touched by the dreams of Great
It is, of course, a result of the Cthulhu and are sacred to the deep ones.
crossbreeding between deep ones and the Often suffering from impaired mental
inhabitants of the accursed town. development, these mutant offspring are
Although most offspring of such unions kept hidden from sight in the rotting
are born as normal humans, changes begin buildings along the harbor north of the
taking place usually in the victim's river. Sanity damage for seeing one of
early teens. By middle age, most hybrids “the beloved of Cthulhu" ranges between
show some form of gross deformity, many 1/2 and 1/3.
retiring to the privacy of their closely-
shuttered homes. Most make the final THE ESOTERIC ORDER OF DAGON
transformation to deep one, and return to Dagon, mentioned in the Books of
the sea. Judges and I Samuel, was the chief deity
But the hybrids do not take to the of the Philistines, worshipped in the
water unprepared. Their physical changes form of a fish-god, merman, or triton. The
are accompanied by an awakening of new name was derived from the Hebrew word
senses, and they are visited in their 'dag,' meaning small fish. Dagon's largest
dreams by other deep ones, sometimes temple was in the city of Gaza, destroyed
introducing themselves as the hybrid's by Samson who pulled the building down
forebears. They are shown vast aquatic upon the heads of the mocking
cities swarming with strange creatures, Philistines. The Bible also tells us of a
and they are taught about life under the “house of Dagon" at Ashdod. Here the Ark
sea. of the Covenant toppled a statue of the
In the final stages the dreams and god and then cut off its head and
mutations intensify until the hands. Later ages found Dagon
hybrid is either driven mad or in the role of an
undergoes the final physical agricultural deity,
change into a deep one. providing a second
Other deep ones may try possible derivation of
to lure the hybrid to the name as Dagan, the
their lairs where they Semitic word for com.
can supervise the final He was worshipped
stages of also by the
metamorphosis. Babylonians under
Approximately 10% of yet another name.
all hybrids do not Further derivations
complete the of the name link it to
metamorphosis and clouds and
spend a normal human rain,implying a
life span as a half- fertility function to
human, half-deep one. the god.
Occasionally hybrid Innsmouth's Esoteric
monstrosities are born, Order of Dagon was
creatures with tentacled founded around 1840 by
faces or arms, sometimes with Captain Obed Marsh and a
long, sinuous fin-tailed bodies, few of his closest followers.
or even flaccid, undeveloped Touted by Marsh as “a new
517 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
religion" more effective than the one of the same workmanship and material.
preached in Christian churches, those who This is the jewelry given to the people of
joined soon found themselves rewarded by Innsmouth by the deep ones in exchange
larger catches of fish and more for the human sacrifices they demand.
opportunities within the town. It was Membership in the Order has never been
obvious to many that Marsh's god compulsory, but cooperation is expected
provided its followers with a prosperity of all townsfolk.
and security that the traditional
churches could not match. More THE DEEP ONES
worshipers soon joined Obed's church, and The deep ones living off the coast of
in their new-found prosperity most were Innsmouth are part of ancient race
willing to ignore the ugly rumors believed to dwell in secret underwater
connecting Obed and the Order with the cities in numerous places around the
odd rash of disappearances lately globe. Although sources disagree about
plaguing the town. the origins of the deep ones, they are
The Order has a pyramidal hierarchy. universally recognized as followers and
Those in the lowest ranks are told only worshipers of Great Cthulhu. Although
as much as they need to know. Only those subject to accidental death, the deep
who have achieved a higher status are ones are immortal. Like some reptiles,
privileged to learn the deeper secrets of they continue to grow throughout their
the Order. lifetimes, ancient individuals eventually
The Order conducts weekly mass attaining great size. Those two known as
services, as well as other, smaller and Dagon and Hydra are believed to be the
more private ceremonies. In the early largest, and consequently oldest, of the
days of the Order these meetings were species.
conducted in one of the Marsh warehouses Deep ones practice only temporary
along the waterfront. When the monogamy, and form no true family units.
Congregational Church on New Church Ancestor worship and a deep, abiding
Green became vacant, the Order moved respect for elders is the heart of their
their ceremonies to there. A few years society. All deep ones can trace their
later it moved into its present quarters ancestry back to Dagon and Hydra, also
in the old Masonic Hall. known as the Great Father and the Great
The Order's meetings consist of sermons Mother. This pair, revered by the deep
glorifying Dagon as a sea-god who ones as gods, may not, in fact, be
bestows his benefits directly upon his individuals at all. These names may be no
worshippers. Along with healthy harvests more than titles bestowed upon the
of fish, followers are promised the gift largest and eldest male and female alive.
of eternal life for their children, if Whenever a present Dagon or Hydra dies,
they will ally themselves with Dagon. All its spiritual role is taken by next oldest
is steeped in vague Biblical allegory, individual.
with dashes of Middle Eastern and Deep ones are solitary types, rarely
Oriental occultism thrown in for good forming any lasting relationships. Cold-
measure. blooded, they are ponderous thinkers,
The Order's priests wear voluminous slow to resolve issues despite their
robes of deep blue-green, decorated with intelligence. With eternal life before
embroidered fishes, octopi, dolphins, and one, what could be the rush? The pace of
mellnen. About their heads are strange, their society is a reflection of the slow-
golden tiaras, on their wrists bracelets motion movement of a life spent
Other Locations 518

underwater. century. Being of like minds, deep

Communication is infrequent, one communities have no reason
most often a form of ESP to communicate. All
perhaps more empathic 'important' knowledge is
than telepathic. This common, and casual
natural understanding conversation considered
and agreement is undesirable.
augmented by hand Although artful
gestures and subtle design is highly
facial expressions, prized, actual
along with a few manufacture is
barks and cries limited. Individual
audible underwater. possessions are few,
A written language often limited to no
exists, based on the more than an ornate,
mysterious R'lyeh carefully carved
glyphs, but it is fishing spear. A
rarely used. tradition of soft metal-
At one with their working results in the
surroundings and their intricately carved jewelry
world, there is little the deep ones trade with
conflict or difference of humans. Made of a naturally
opinion among deep ones. All occurring alloy found in fair
perceptions are one, a deep one's view of quantity in numerous places beneath the
the world identical to that of his sea, the metal is hand formed and
neighbor. Necessary tasks are perfonned hammered, carved and chased, without the
naturally and instinctively, all in aid of heat or flame.
agreement as to what needs be done. The size of deep one communities is
Discussion and debate are nearly regulated in natural ways. As the
unheard of – and a cause for community population nears the maximum
concern when they occur. There are no comfortable size for its environment, the
laws or courts, nor any form of sex drive of both males and females
government. All worship Dagon and their decreases, resulting in fewer births. If
individual ancestral lines, along with the population continues to grow,
Cthulhu. Although some perform the pressure on the local environment
functions of priests or sorcerers, there is increases, resulting in a crowded
no true religious hierarchy. They live community and anxiety among the deep
and co-exist in a form of naturally- ones. Births are infrequent and most of
governed anarchy. those born falling victim to neglect and
The taciturn disposition of the deep abandonment, or dying at the hands of
ones results in little or no their own mothers who often murder their
communication between the various newborns in response to the
communities scattered around the globe. environmental pressure. Thus is the
The most direct contact the deep ones of growth of this nearly deathless species
Y'ha-nthlei off the coast of held in balance.
Massachusetts have ever had with the The deep ones have always been aware
deep ones of Ponape is what was told to of the existence of mankind, but only
them by Obed Marsh during the mid-19th rarely have they been moved to make
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contact. More often first contact is in preparation for the far-off day when
accidental, or at the instigation of a the lands will be conquered by those
human who has learned how to contact from the sea.
the deep ones. At first fascinated by the
human creatures, the deep ones establish
amenable relationships, trading their
hand-worked gold for trinkets of rubber
and glass, materials foreign to their
underwater experience. But continued
contact with humans awakens within the
males deeply-suppressed desires. Dreams
of expanding their race begin to invade
the sleep of the deep ones, lurid visions
of conquest and domination. A world
united as one, all worshiping Cthulhu.
Sacrifices are first demanded of the
humans, victims to be tossed to the
waiting claws and teeth of the sea
creatures. Then is made the demand to
interbreed with the humans. By breeding
on the surface, new deep ones will be
raised as humans, safe from the
infanticidal females, expanding the race
Other Locations 520

KINGSPORT filling the hollows. Numerous buildings

and houses are incredibly old,
Located on the Massachusetts shore a particularly in the vicinity of Central
few miles north of Salem, Kingsport is Hill and along the north shore of the
just a little more than three miles harbor. Many date back to the mid-
southeast of downtown Arkham. From the seventeeth century.
home of Miskatonic University, Kingsport
can be reached by taking Peabody Avenue
west out of town. This brings the GENERAL HOURS OF BUSINESS
traveler into Kingsport by way of Hill Blue laws in Kingsport are not as
Road. From Boston, follow Highway 1A strict as those of Arkham. Although most
north, taking the eastbound fork two businesses operate between the hours of 8
miles past Salem. This brings the visitor A.M. and 5 P.M. Monday through Friday (9
in by way of Jackson Street in the south. A.M. to 1 P.M. Saturday), numerous
The city is nestled in a bowl-shaped restaurants and stores, particularly
depression that encircles Kingsport those catering to the tourist trade, are
Harbor. To the north rises a series of open on Sunday afternoons. Government
rocky cliffs that culminate in the and public buildings are open five days
dizzying heights of Kingport Head. TO the a week, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., but are closed for
west and south are a number of hills. The lunch from noon to 1 P.M.
largest, called Central Hill, is the sight
of Kingsport old burying ground. Just FINDING EMPLOYMENT
over a mile out to sea lies the Jersey Job prospects in Kingsport are scarce.
Reef, named after the Channel Island However, qualified investigators may
from which many Kingporters trace their find lesser positions with great
ancestry. This dangerous reef protects possibilities at both the Kingsport
Kingsport's shores from the devastating Historical Society and the Kingsport
Atlantic waves. Chronicle newspaper. If the GM desires,
The streets of Kingsport are narrow almost any of the shops and stores might
and winding, twisting steeply through be looking for help, though most pay a
the hills to form a labyrinth of low wage. Scholarly types might find a
pathways often difficult to navigate. position teaching at one of Kingsport's
Houses are stacked at all levels and schools.
angles, bristling on the hillsides and Enterprising investigators who want to
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start their own businesses soon discover few Yankee fishermen bearing old family
that those venture most likely to succeed names. Next are the Irish, Dutch, and
are those that are based on the dollars other northern European immigrants,
of tourists. Artists find Kingsport followed by the Italians, and lastly the
especially conductive to their work, and Portugese. Few blacks live in Kingsport,
make make a fair living selling and even fewer people of Asian descent.
landscapes and portraits to vacationers. This order doesn't necessarily reflect
The sea breeze and the rolling surf, the actual income or disposition of each
combined with a mild summer climate, seem of these groups, but merely how they are
to bring out the best in an artist. The GM perceived and treated by each other – it
may wish to award small bonuses ot the is the local pecking order.
dreamy folk' income to reflect their
increased artistic sensibilities. KINGSPORT FISHERMEN
Alternately, investigators may decide Most fishermen associate in groups
to work in Arkham while residing in defined along ethnic lines, although
Kingsport, providing themselves with the there are exceptions. However, all but
widest possible range of experiences and the most bigoted and inflexible share
contacts. If all else fails, there is the common bonds of seafaring life. Most
usually a position available in one of own small one- or two-man boats capable
Kingport's factories or on the deck of one of safely carrying three or four people
of the fishing boats. and a good catch of fish. Most are oar-
and sail-powered shallops, open craft
THE PEOPLE OF KINGSPORT high in the bow and stern. Perhaps one in
There is an unofficial but nonetheless ten fishermen carry weapons in addition
easily perceived social hierachy in to the usual assortment of knives, clubs,
Kingsport. At the top of the heap are marlinespikes, and boat hooks. This
members of the old Kingsport families, weapon may be a revolver, rifle, or
including such monied notables as Norton shotgun, as the GM sees fit.
Weiss, Stephen Cabot, Martin Cabot, fish- The Fishermen's Routine: Before dawn,
packing tycoons Brandon Turner and John about 4:30 or 5:00 A.M., the fishermen
Pickering, Mayor John Jacob Hoag, and leave their homes in Harborside and Hill
banker Cyrus Abbott. Next come the Town to make their way down to the
influential professionals, such as wharves. At the docks, they check nets,
attorney Richard Court, Judge Norton traps, and sails. Normally this time is
Bedlow, Dr. Matthew Harris, and Evelyn filled with laughter, curses, and talk,
Mercer of the Mercer Art Gallery. Those and cups of coffee or liquor (or both) to
of slightly lesser stature include folk warm the body against the morning chill
like May Talbot of the Daughters of the and fog. Then the shallops begin to leave
American Revolution and John Miles, the wharves. Rowed out beyond the
principal of Hall School. Below them come breakwater where they can catch the
a multitude of middle and upper-middle wind, they quickly disperse into the fog
class business people like Dr. Enoch lying out past the reef. By evening,
Warren, hotelliers Adam and Lous Tuttle, sometimes an hour or more after dark,
and the majority of Kingsport's better they return to the docks near the fish-
downtown merchants. packing houses. There the catches are
Near the bottom end of the scale weighed and recorded while the fishermen
resides the lower class business people of boast among each other of the day's
Harborside and Hill Town, followed by a experiences. Finished, they tie up their
Other Locations 522

boats and head for home or the taverns. leniency not often extended to the city's
Now the mornings are quiet. Silent men lower-income residents.
leave their homes a little later and look Though concealed weapons are legel in
out into the fog, wondering if they will this day and age, Kingsport police have
return that night. The morning coffee bene known to confiscate such arms,
doesn't chase off the chills, and what returning them to their owners after the
little conversation there is seems half- person is ready to leave town. Possession
hearted. Checking the nets and traps of explosives and the discharging of
takes a little longer tha nusual, but firearms inside the city limits are both
finally one of the men sets out in his illegal and both excellent ways of meet
boat, chiding the others for their firsthand the various levels of
slowness. The rest of the fleet follows, Kingsport's law enforcement and judicial
but hesitantly. All try to return before systems. Good communication skills are
sunset. Only the damnedest of fools sails useful when dealing with the Kingsport
in haunted waters after dark. The catches police, but no amount of Charm, Coercion,
are smaller, and on return, the Leadership or Negotiation can convince
fishermen's talk and boasts are subdued. an officer tha the person the
The unasked question is always, “Did investigator have just shot and killed
everyone make it back today?” was already dead.
Kingsport's illegal liquor
LOCAL GOVERNMENT establishments are all well-known to the
Kingsport's elected officials include a police, but are left alone. The police,
mayor and nine city council members like most Kingsporters, feel that
(selectmen), all elected to two year terms. depriving the citizens of their taverns
The officers are part-time positions would create more problems that it would
paying only small salaries, but bringing solve. Consequently, Jonas Rigg's Rope &
their holders great prestige, as well as Anchor Tavern and Harry Penn's Billiard
certain amount of power. Mayor John Hall are left to tend to their business.
Jacob Hoag is running uncontested this People frequenting these places have
year, but 1930 promises a full ticket of little to fear from police, but those who
candidates, each claiming they can undo brawl, cause loud disturbances, or make
the damage done by the Great Depression. public nuissances of themselves are
Town Council meetings are held the first quickly taken into custody. A tourist may
and third Tuesdays of every month at get away with a minor transgression or
Talbot Hall, the site of Kingsport's town two, but a resident without influence
administrative offices. likely suffers arrest. Kingsport police
are used to dealing with sailors and
other “hard customers,” and investigators
POLICE AND COURTS who resist arrest can expect a summary
Kingsport's small police force is beating at the hands of Kingsport's no-
busiest during the summer months, when nonsense police force.
the tourist season is in full swing. Most Judge Norton Bedlow presides over
police work involves the issuing of Kingsport's Justice Court, in session
traffic citations, attenting to minor Monday through Friday, beginning at 10
accidents, mediating occasional disputes A.M. Only rarely is there enough business
between tourists and residents, and to warrant an afternoon session.
escorting inebriated vacationers back to Minor crimes and misdemeanors (public
their rented quarters. Police are usually intoxication, disturbing the peace, thefts
lenient when dealing with visitors, a
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under $100) are punished by fines or and although his employees usually
short jail terms. Felonies (murder, handle the procurement of the alcohol,
assault with a deadly weapon, thefts when it comes to up-front, physical
over $100) are bound over for trial in matters it is Rigg himself who acts as
the Essex County Court in Salem. State “enforcer”. Anyone posing a threat to
and Federal crimes are tried in their Rigg's operation receives a verbal
respective courts in Boston. warning first. If the interference
continues, the troublemaker is jumped
LOCAL CRIME and beaten the next time he wanders down
Keeping with its sleepy nature, a darkened nighttime alley. If he
Kingsport is relatively free of serious persists, he soon learns that Rigg has no
crime. Murders and major robberies are compunction against murder. The body
very rare. When they do occur, they are will be weighted and secretly dumped at
the talk of the town. Nothing resembling sea. Rigg is brutal, merciless, and always
organized crime exists in Kingsport, gets revenge.
although at least one resident, Jonas Other Criminals: Of the few other
Rigg, deals with the gangsters operating criminals in Kingsport, Alan Zevin is
out of nearby Arkham. Most crime is perhaps the most notable. Zevin's real
minor, the worst an occasional breaking name is Stuart “Keys” Rakatanski, a
and entering or a petty theft. notorious New York criminal believed to
Kingsport police deal with these cases have had a hand in the 1925 robbery of
as they see fit; a Hill Town resident the First Merchant's Bank of New York. He
whose flat is burgled is less likely to has been hiding out in Kingsport ever
see justice done than the owner of a West since, living on his small share of the
Side estate or a summer boarder on last heist and finally opening up his own
Harbor Street. On the other hand, fickle locksmith business. Zevin has so far
Kingsport justice is more likely to arrest proven to be an exemplary citizen and
the same Hill Towner for public has not taken advantage of his
intoxication than the West Sider or situations. Old habits are hard to break.
summer boarder who has just beaten the Other criminals around town include
same wretch for his drunkenness. various lesser sorts: muggers,
Links to Organized Crime: Jonas Rigg, pickpockets, prostitutes, and so forth.
the surly owner of the Rope & Anchor Street gangs exist, youths of Portugese
Tavern, is supplied twice a week with and Italian descent hanging out in
liquor through arrangements made with various places around Prospect Hill. The
Danny O'Bannion, president of Arkham's gangs rarely indulge in crimes worse
Lucky Clover Cartage Company and the than ethnically motivated assaults and
north shore's crime kingpin. Once a week, occasional petty thefts.
Rigg receives a shipment of liquor from a
motorboat, freshly loaded from its HISTORY OF KINGSPORT
offshore rendezvous with a Canadian Kingsport was originally settled in
steamer. The booze is unloaded at the 1639 by farmers and fishing folk hailing
darkened wharves near the fish-packing from southern England and Britain's
houses and trucked back to the tavern. Channel Islands, Guernsey and Jersey. The
Rigg, in turn, deals liquor throughout earliest settlement was centered on the
Kingsport, primarily to Harry Penn, but north shore of the harbor, but soon
also to the Stratton Yacht Club and after, another sprung up in the area
others. Rigg's business is largely his own, between Central Hill and the water.
Other Locations 524

Although at first nothing more than a there until early in the twentieth
tine self-sustaining fishing village, century. As maritime wealth poured into
Kingsport soon developed into a the town, the area just south of Central
shipbuilding center and eventually a Hill evolved into the community's major
port for overseas trade. Initial trade was merchant district.
with Europe, but when Britain continued During the Revolutionary War,
to increase duties and restrictions, Kingsport was a hotbed of activity.
Kingsport's Yankee sea captains were Serving as home port for countless
forced to find markets elsewhere. Trade privateers, Kingsport sailors were
with the southern colonies led to responsible for the sinking or capture of
explorations of the West Indies and, more than fifty British ships. This,
later, the East Indies, China, and Africa. combined with the fact that newly built
Captains like Ebenezer Tuttle, Stephen Yankee ships were pouring out of
Hall, and Absalom Pickering were able to Kingsport Harbor at an alarming rate,
make small fortunes and founded family led King George to bring his strength to
dynasties that are still influential bear against the town. In 1778, a small
today. fleet of British warships blockaded
In the late seventeenth and early Kingsport Harbor and began shelling the
eighteenth centuries, the small village town. Privateer vessels tied up in the
grew into a thriving town, spreading its harbor were helplessly trapped, and
way around the harbor. The southern several were destroyed by the British
shore was the last to be developed. Early guns. The day was saved when a clever
nineteenth century mansions built there youth named Argus Blaine organized a
rivaled the older Georgian manses group of men to haul several cannons up
clustered on Central Hill. Central Hill to the lower cliffs of Kingsport Head.
itself was the site of the town's first Training the cannons on the besieging
meeting hall, and later the site of the ships, the valiant Kingsporters were able
great Congregational Church that stood to drive the invaders off. Kingsport's
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captains readied their ships and went in irreversible downward spiral.

pursuit of the attackers. Four British Kingsport's one srious foray into
men-of-war went to the bottom that day, industry was made by Kirby Spencer, a
and three more were captured before the former captain who had commanded ships
battle ended. Although Kingsport for the Tuttle family. Using money he
suffered considerable property damage, had made in trade, he opened a small
including the loss of nine ships, His paint factory on a hill south of town.
Majesty's Navy was never again to molest The new company was a modest success.
the small town. A plaque commemorating With capital from other local investors,
the victory and the heroism of Argus Spencer diversified, next opening a glue
Blaine can be found in Circle Court. To works next door to the paint factory.
this day, British cannonballs are Despite thes eearly successes (both
occasionally dug out of the hillsides, concerns are still in business today),
and one such relic can be seen embedded Kingsport refused to abandon the sea,
in the wall of the Custom House, a and industrial development went no
reminder of past glories. further. In 1835, Kingsport finally lost
Following the war, life continued on its status as a port of entry, ending the
much as it had before. A brief attempt town's overseas commerce and limiting its
was made to change the town's name from shipping to the eastern coast of the U.S.
Kingsport to Georgetown, but the In 1824, Kingsport saw the founding of
stubborn townspeople refused the change, a small school, a private high school
and the name has remained Kingsport to named after Eben Hall, the well-known
this day. By the turn of the century, town official of the early eighteenth
much of New England was turning to century. Five years late, Kingsport's
industry, anticipating the Industrial first newspaper, the Kingsport Chronicle,
Revolution that was to come. Kingsport, was founded by industrialist Kirby
however, remained wed to the sea, relying Spencer. The news sheet was edited by
almost solely on fishing and overseas Graham Blaine, the capable grandson of
trade as sources of income. the Revolutiationary War hero Argus
The nineteenth century brought the Blaine. A decade later, Blaine purchased
first hint of trouble for the sea trade. the Chronicle from Spencer, retaining
Numerous restrictions regarding trade ownership until his death in 1851.
with warring Britain and France made it By the mid-nineteenth century,
illegal to do business with either of Kingsport had settled into a community
these countries, and before long, most of of ship builders and fishermen, and for a
Europe was under embargo. Conditions time both trades flourished. But the
steadily declined until the outbreak of fisherman's lot is a hard one, and many
the War of 1812 effectively put an end to Kingsport lives have been lost to angry
all shipping. Strong British blockades seas. One of the most frequently
closed the port, strangling the town's remembered of these tragedies occurred
trade and crippling the economy. A little in the summer of 1842, when eight
privateering was carried out, but was Kingsport fishermen lost their lives to a
done in mortal fear of a British navy freak storm off the shores of Innsmouth.
that now had the small Kingsport ships Having heard rumors of spectacular
badly outnumbered and outgunned. Many catches of fish being taken by the
vessels were lost – along with many Innsmouthers, the Kingsport men had
personal fortunes – and by the end of the decided to try their nets in these
war, Kingsport's sea trade had begun an neighboring waters. The storm apparently
Other Locations 526

struck without warning, destroying all town's older folk snorted at the though
the boats and leaving only one survivor – of outsiders overrunning quiet old
a young boy named Danny Houghton later Kingsport, the tactic proved successful.
found drifting north of Rockport Attracted by a number of rental homes
clinging to a piece of wreckage. Although built along the south shore, the tourist
for many years it was held that the trade grew quickly; soon becoming a major
Kingsporters had been killed by jealous part of the town's economy.
Innsmouthers guarding their fishing When Cabot was reelected to a second
grounds, Danny Houghton has always term, he turned his efforts to the
maintained that he and his companions funding and building of a modern
were the victims of a sudden storm. hospital. The crumbling old
Kingsport had its last real economic Congregational Church was purchased and
boom during the Civil War, when the torn down, a project that drew
Tuttle and Illsley shipyards supplied surprisingly little complaint from local
numerous new vessels for the Union cause. historical groups who were, no doubt,
Most of the men of Kingsport who familiar with the church's unsavory past.
contributed to the Union war effort took It was reported in newspapers that the
their places aboard ships. All told, demolition had uncovered a number of
seventeen Kingsporters lost their lives strange burrows, but these were quickly
in this war, all of them at sea. buried over by spooked and superstitious
In the years following the war, it workmen. In 1912, and on schedule, the
seemed even the sea had turned against new hospital was opened to the public.
the town. Kingsport was ravaged by a Kingsport's tourist trade continued to
series of great storms that struck the grow at a steady pace. Even during the
area in the years 1878-1888. Many years of the Great War, business remained
buildings were damaged and more than a fairly active. Kingsport contributed
dozen lives lost during this period. The dozens of men to the war effort. Of these,
last and worst of these storms struck in seven never returned home. They are
1888, washing shallops ashore as far as commemorated on a plaque mounted
Turner and Howard Streets and blowing outside the city offices at Talbot Hall.
down the steeple of the then-abandoned
Congregational Church on Central Hill. KINGSPORT TODAY
As the twentieth century began, it Kingsport's flourishing tourist trade
seemed that Kingsport's luck would not has attracted a contingent of artists,
change. The 1905 typhoid epidemic that most of whom dwell here only during the
struck Arkham visited Kingsport as well, summer months selling landscapes and
talking more than a dozen lives. But the portraits to the visiting tourists. All
following year saw the election of find the fresh air and ocean conducive to
retired sea captain Stephen Cabot to the their work, but a select few find the
position of mayor. Under his capable town's dreamy, ancient atmosphere so
guidance, the town began its resurgence. stimulating that they have taken up
One of Cabot's first steps was to tap the permanent residence. At first scorned as
already blooming tourist industry in New parasites and bohemian troublemakers,
England. Surely a town so unchanged from the artists have now earned a certain
its seventeenth-century origins – and a degree of acceptance by the townsfolk,
sea-going town at that – would be of who were perhaps encouraged by the
interest to vacationers with a taste for amounts of money these people spent in
nostalgia and history. Though some of the stores and on rents.
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Although the sea still plays a large earthly bounds and promises of life
part in Kingsport's economy, the fishing after death. They honored the dark power
fleet dwindles year by year. Competition of the flame god with horrific
from major packing plants, such as subterranean rites of necromancy and
Gorton's up in Gloucester, has put a crimp corpse-worship.
in the business of the local packers. Many The god they called Tulzscha
of the fishermen, finding the corporate manifessts itself on Earth as a large
packers paying better prices, have moved pillar of living flame, sickly-green in
their shallops on up the coast. The color. Aided by its cultists' hellish rites,
Tuttle shipyard has long been closed, but it feeds upon the dead as they lay
the Illsley shipyard continues to rotting in their graves, drawing
operate, still owned by the original sustenance through the agency of the
family. They do a steady business grat bloated grave worms that haunt the
building pleasure craft, mostly sailboats ground wherever Tulzscha appears.
and small power yachts. In return for this nourishment,
Despite a renewed prosperity, Tulzscha rewarded his worshippers with
Kingsport still lags far behind the times. life after death. When the grave worms
People prefer to do things the old- devoured the corpse of one deemed
fashioned way; washboards are often used worthy by Tulzscha, the soul of the dead
in place of modern machines, and candles person was consumed as well. The cultist
light the windows of homes where there is could live on, crawling through the
as yet no electrical service. At best, onlyunderground as a writhing mass of worms
one out of six Kingsport families owns an or, by allowing the worms to inhabit and
automobile. animate a corpse, pass as human.
It was not long before some of the
THE KINGSPORT CULT descendants of the cultists discovered
The earliest members of the Kingsport the caves lying far beneath Central Hill.
cult arrived here in 1639 and 1640, Here they renewed the rites practiced by
accompanying the Channel Islanders who their ancestors, and unknown to anyone,
first settled the area. These families – they celebrated their blasphemous
the Courts, the Waldens, and the Fishers – ceremonies, all the while posing as
had dwelt on the Channel Islands for respectable citizens, attending church
only two generations- Their forefathers services and town meetings, never giving
had but recently migrated there from their neighbors cause to suspect them. As
somewhere in the south of Europe. Indeed, generations passed, members intermarried
these families had altered and with other Kingsport families and the
anglicized their names before moving to cult spread. By 1692, nearly one person in
the Islands. Unbeknownst to their ten had some kind of connection with the
neighbors, they had been driven out of extended sect.
their homeland after they had been One cultist who turned away from
discovered to be worshipping a secret and worshipping the Green Flame was William
evil deity; a god of cold green fire that Bain, an adventurous and scholarly
dwelt in the great caverns beneath seaman born of one of Kingsport's
Lombardy and Languedoc. founding families. During a voyage to the
These worshippers had learned the West Indies, he discovered a cult similar
secret joy of ultimate corruption, not to Kingsport's. From them, he learned some
just of the soul, but of the form itself. of the more unsavory aspects of the god
Such corruption brings release from to whom he had paid homage for so long.
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He returned to Kingsport in 1685, only to accusations. Before the end of the year,
sell his property and move away from dozens of people were accused and
town. Relocating himself on the highest arrested. Thirteen of them were convicted
point of Kingsport Head, he built himself of necromancy and grave robbing and
a modest house. From this isolated spot were hanged to death.
wrapped in dreams and mist, Bain set In the early 1720's, rumors of the
forth on a series of mystical journeys to secret cult surfaced once again. Now it
alien lands, aided by secrets he had was being said that the cult's dead didn't
learned during his eartly travels. He stay dead, but continued to live,
never returned to Kingsport, and as years inhabiting dark burrows riddling the
went by, he was largely forgotten by the ground beneath Central Hill. Some said
town. Even now the eternal resident of that at night the dead emerged to wander
the “Strange High House” is only the streets of Kingsport. A report that
referred to as “the One”. old Tobias Crabbe, a long-dead
As the cult spread through Kingsport Congregational minister, had been seen
and rumors of its dark practices lurking about the churchyard on Central
increased, the stories of necromancy and Hill only added fuel to these stories.
grave robbing finally became so acute Things finally came to a head in the
that some people refused to bury their winter of 1722. During a mass meeting of
dead in the consecrated ground of the cult held in the much-maligned
Central Hill. They instead interred their Congregational Church, a nimbus of
dearly departed in a hastily defined sickly green light appeared in the night
graveyard atop a small hill west of town. sky above Kingsport, bathing the town in
Suspicions were also raised about the its spectral glow. The appearance of the
mysterious nocturnal gatherings held in light was followed by a slow rumbling
the Congregational Church atop the hill. and growling from the ground below. The
Dozens of people would be seen entering valiant mayor, Eben Hall, gathered
the church, but never a sound was heard together a contingent of armed men –
coming from the structure – nor was a shiphands, captains, and other townsfolk
lamp or candle ever lit. – and surrounded the church to await the
In 1692, amidst the fever of the Salem eventual emergence of the cultists. At
witch trials, the rumors turned to dawn, when the worshippers finally
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stepped forth, they faced sixty leveled his guns upon the officials. In the
muskets. Taken into custody, more than resulting brief battle, Corben's ship, the
three dozen people were eventually Hellene, was sunk, carrying with it all
charged with breaking and entering, hands and its cargo.
unlawful assembly, and grave robbing. Lingering traces of the old cult can
Fines, imprisonment, and banishment were still be found in Kingsport if one knows
levied against those found guilty. Those where to look; the Strange High House
accused of leading the rites were tarred, looms overhead to the north, still
feathered, and driven from town. Some inhabited by its unseen occupant. In the
members, not present on the night of the waters off Kingsport Harbor lies the
raid, escaped accusation, but there were rotting hulk of the Hellene, its strange,
too few of them, and they were too unholy cargo still intact – and alive. The
fearful to ever meet again in ritual seventh house on the left on Green Lane
ceremony. The cult's backbone had been still stands, formerly the home of a
broken. powerful cult member. And sinister things
Certain books and other suspicious still crawl unseen in the burrows
items seized in the raid were destroyed, beneath Central Hill, waiting for their
while others were confiscated and time of renewal.
delivered to law enforcement and
academic officials for study and storage. THE CULT TODAY
The Congregational Church was closed for The Kingsport cult still exist in 1928,
a few weeks while extensive work was though on a very subdued level. Only a
done on its foundation and interior, most few members of the Cult of the Green
notably the sealing of crypts below the Flame currently reside in Kingsport,
church. Of those cultists who served out perhaps as few as a dozen souls. Several
their jail terms, a surprising number other cult members travel the world
chose to remain living in Kingsport, pursuing the various obsessive hungers
spending their lives subject to scorn and that drive them. The Kingsport cult
resision. The disbanded cultists met no seldom convenes en masse except to renew
more and lived out the rest of their the solsticial rites of Tulzscha, when
lives in quiet humiliation. Tulzscha's even its most far-flung members may
power waned. By the nineteenth century, return to the ancient town for the
the cult's presence in Kingsport was Festival.
little more than a memory. Two types of Green Flame cultists exist
One powerful member of the cult who in Kingsport. The majority are normal
escaped the raid was Captain Douglas human beings who have gained knowledge
Corben. Despite the exposure and of the cult by research, accident, or, most
dissolution of the cult, Corben continued commonly, ancestry. These individuals are
to seek otherworldly secrets, exploring utilized when the cult has to deal with
little-known corners of the West Indies the everyday public, whether gathering
in search of knowledge and power. In information or dealing with lesser
1731, Corben returned from the islands enemies. Most of these “public” cult-
carryin in the hold of his ship a members will be lesser sorcerers at best,
strangely glowing object taken from one but as they prove their usefulness their
of the primitive native tribes he had awful masters may reward them with
encountered. When Eben Hall, then additional arcane knowledge. Eventually,
Customs Inspector, demanded to board the upon death, these lesser cultists may be
incoming ship, Corbed refused and turned resurrected back into the fold, becoming
Other Locations 530

the second type of Green Flame cultist. creature entry is available on page 325.
The more dreadful members of
Tulzscha's cult are the massed
graveworms that have devoured the
human remains of a dead Tulzscha
cultist; these writhing charnel masses
carry the soul of the dead cultist, giving
him or her a particularly ghastly form
of eternal life. These are the cult's most
powerful sorcerers, some of whom may be
centuries old. There may be only a
handful of these so-called “Crawling
Ones” in Kingsport; because of their
appearance the Crawling Ones usually
dwell in the endless burrows hidden
beneath the city, venturing forth only
on the rarest of occasionas. Some Crawling
One cultists, however, may inhabit living
bodies so they can have access to the
outside world – for whatever reason;
Israel Soames is one example of such a
cultist, and others may be created as the
GM sees fit – and a Crawling One standard
531 Other Locations

Strange Aeons
Other Locations 532

CHARACTERISTICS STRANGE AEONS HEALTH
INVESTIGATOR WOUNDS
C NAME
CAREER
WOUND
THRESHOLD
BRAWN
PLAYER
CURRENT
C SKILLS
WOUNDS
AGILITY GENERAL
STRAIN
C
CAREER RANK
Z Athletics (BR) BBBBB
Z Cool (WILL) BBBBB
STRAIN
Z Coordination (AG) BBBBB
Z Discipline (WILL) BBBBB THRESHOLD
INTELLECT Z Driving (AG) BBBBB CURRENT
C
Z Mechanics (INT) BBBBB
STRAIN
Z Medicine (INT) BBBBB
Z Operating (INT) BBBBB
Z Perception (CUN) BBBBB
CUNNING Z Piloting (AG) BBBBB
Z Psychoanalysis (WILL) BBBBB SANITY
C
Z Resilience (BR) BBBBB
Z Skulduggery (CUN) BBBBB
SANITY
Z Stealth (AG) BBBBB
Z Streetwise (CUN) BBBBB THRESHOLD
WILLPOWER Z Survival (CUN) BBBBB CURRENT
Z Vigilance (WILL) BBBBB
C
SANITY
COMBAT
PRESENCE CAREER RANK
Z Brawl (BR) BBBBB CRITICAL INJURIES
Z Gunnery (AG) BBBBB DDDD
Z Melee (BR) BBBBB
Z Ranged [Hvy] (AG) BBBBB DDDD
DEFENSES Z Ranged [Lgt] (AG) BBBBB
DDDD
CZC
MELEE SOAK RANGED
CAREER
KNOWLEDGE
Z Knowledge (INT) BBBBB
RANK
DDDD
DDDD
MAGIC
CAREER RANK
Z Magic (INT) BBBBB
SOCIAL
CAREER RANK
EXPERIENCE Z Charm (PR) BBBBB

Z Coercions (WILL) BBBBB Copyright ©2018 PM Games / Love the Craft
Z Deception (CUN) BBBBB Publishing / Swon Books. All rights reserved.
STRANGE AEONS is owned by PM Games. Genesys
Z Leadership (PR) BBBBB is owned by Fantasy Flight Games. Permission
AVAILABLE TOTAL Z Negotiations (PR) BBBBB granted to photocopy for personal use only.
WEAPONS
WEAPON SKILL DAMAGE CRIT RANGE HP SPECIAL
MOTIVATION CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

MERIT GENDER
AGE
HEIGHT
BUILD
HAIR
EYES
NOTABLE FEATURES
FLAW
EQUIPMENT AND GEAR NOTES
MONEY
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TALENT PYRAMID
C PURCHASING TALENTS
Talent Active This sheet tracks
the talents that you
purchase for your
character. When you
purchase your
character's first Tier
Page: 1 talent, record it in
the upper leftmost
C C box in the Tier 1
Talent Active Talent Active column.
When purchasing
talents, your
character must have
more talents in a
tier than they do in
Page: Page: the next highest
tier.
C C C
Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active
Page: Page: Page:
C C C C
Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active
Page: Page: Page: Page:
C C C C C
Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active Talent Active
Page: Page: Page: Page: Page:
C C C C C
Page: Page: Page:
C C C C C
Page: Page: Page: Page: Page:

    
TIER 1 TIER 2 TIER 3 TIER 4 TIER 5
Copyright ©2018 PM Games / Love the Craft Publishing / Swon Books. All rights reserved. STRANGE AEONS is owned by PM Games.
Genesys is owned by Fantasy Flight Games. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
STRANGE AEONSA LOVECRAFTIAN SETTING FOR GENESYSTM
Ancient and forbidden knowledge which can drive a mortal man to the brink
of madness and beyond await for those few men and women brave enough to
venture into the terrifying abyss of the uknown. Come face to face with
creatures that defy the very laws of humanity and the darkest recesses
of the imagination. Uncover secrets and horrifying truths long hidden
away from the minds of the sane. But once unearthed, is your will strong
enough to deal with the eldritch knowledge? Or will you be driven insane?
Inspired by the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the STRANGE AEONS

setting for the GENESYS system provides everything you need to explore
the expanded Cthulhu Mythos and realm of cosmic and eldritch horrors.
The STRANGE AEONS setting contains 531 pages of eldritch knowledge with:
7 archetypes • 159 careers • Merit/Flaw System • 1 New Skill • 503 Talents
1920's Slang • Cultist • 1920's Gear, Equipment, and Vehicles • Travel Rules
Expanded Magic Rules • Expanded Fear/Horror Rules • Sanity Rules
Crafting Rules • Artifacts and Alien Devices • 64 Mythos Deities
95 Adversary Entries • Arkham Expanded Guide • The Dreamlands Guide
Dunwich Guide • Innsmouth Guide • Kingsport Guide
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ISBN: 978-1-60606-123-4 Product Code: SA-01

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A LOVECRAFTIAN SETTING FOR GENESYSTM

DESIGNER COVER ART

PUBLISHER INTERIOR ART

ISBN: 978-1-60606-123-4 Product Code: SA-01

General Hours of Business...........................393

FOREWORD minds and physical world.

Willard watched from the small glass

CHARISMATIC HERO entrepreneur, or even a priest. The

• Wound Threshold: 10 + Brawn. SMART HERO

Knowledge. the bail bondsman, intended to protect

COMPANY OFFICER / EXECUTIVE responsibilities carrying with them

DENTIST as career skills: Knowledge, Negotiation,

or in the military, but also including the surrounding territory is still

cunning, the femme fatale is not shy of FILM CREW

Medicine, Resilience and Vigilance. following skills as career skills:

hustling in pool halls. GANGSTER'S MOLL

LIBRARIAN MANAGER / COACH

MARTIAL ARTIST America and the rest of the world. They

MOUNTAIN CLIMBER auto, and train.

PHOTOJOURNALIST schools and by 1923 their number had

PLASTIC SURGEON PRACTICING ATTORNEY

football, or basketball team. This may be Coercion, Cool, Knowledge, and

PROFESSOR / TEACHER PROTESTANT MINISTER

graduation they are assigned Where science is applied to creating

SALESMAN SHIFTY ACCOUNTANT / LAWYER

few, if any, employees. Family members SMUGGLER

the Army and Marines and presence and influence of the

STAGE HAND load and pack cargo on a ship (or, more

following skills as career the necessary knowledge and training to

TAXI DRIVER TENNIS PRO

TRAINER TRIBE MEMBER

In either case, they are allowed to wear these.

The farmstead was eerily quiet; no Motivation includes a character's

skill check where a potential failure is hazardous to his health.

gains a b on all Resilience skill checks to resist them.

Willard retrieved his leatherbound Skills represent what your character

• Operating (INT) between characters. When your character

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS NEW SKILL

It was with a trembling hand that Talents generally represent

The following is a breakdown of each prerequisites in terms of Tier

Skilled Jockey Yes Remove b from Driving and Piloting skills.

Exploit Yes Suffer 2 strain to add Ensnare quality to Melee check.

Know the Ropes No Add b to escape restraints, spend x to free allies in

Scavenger Yes Remove b from checks to scavenge, reduce time needed

Ascetic Caster No Additional a to Brawl checks per rank of Magic.

using aa, increase range of grenades to Medium range.

Overwhelm Defenses Yes Spend aa to reduce Defense on vehicle.

Smart Handling No Hard (ddd) Knowledge check to increase Handling of

to add automatic s or aa on combat checks targeting

Friendly Foe No Spend 1 Story Point to change y to f on combat check

Seize the Moment No Spend Story Point to attack an adversary on Critical

TALENT DESCRIPTIONS spend one Story Point and suffer 3 strain

(ddd) Coordination check as part of ADAPTABLE FLANKER

ALL-TERRAIN DRIVER it may still perform inconvenient actions

ARMOR MASTER (IMPROVED) AUGMENT HEALING

one or more allies Engaged with your BALEFUL GAZE

BAD COP BARREL ROLL

BIGGEST FAN BLINDSPOT

BODY GUARD BOUGHT INFO

headstrong and difficult to sway from CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS?

CAREFUL PLANNING Defensive quality, your character may

CHOPSHOP EXPERTISE Once per encounter, your character may