That which is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die
-- Kitab Al-Azif - The Book of the Approacher
MYTHOS SOURCE
The Kitab Al-Azif
(The original (and still the best) Arabic Necronomicon)
This tome circulated in manuscript form between scientists and philosophers
from the 8th century, to the 10th century, and was finally declared lost to
man in it's original form in the 12th century.
Though it has been copied and translated many times, to get closest to the
true meaning of the text, it should be read in the original Arabic form.
A form that was thought lost.
Until now.
(8th century AD)
The book travelled to China... and was acquired by a Chinese sorcerer who
carefully read the work, and cast many spells to secure it from danger,
rendering it almost immune to the ravages of time.
He passed it on to his apprentice on who passed it on to his, through the
centuries, many times it was taken by a greater magician who had bested the
current owner in a contest of spells and wit. The Al-Azif always sought a
more worthy student.
(19th century AD)
It was brought to the United States during the boom-era when gold was
discovered all over America, and the rail-roads were being built. It came
over as part of the last effects of a direct descendant of the original
sorcerer, carried by one of his many sons.
It was bought from the descendants of the original owner by the sorcerous
Carnby Twins, one of whom, John Carnby slew the other, and in turn was
slain by the animated-corpse of his dead-brother. It was last seen by His
erstwhile secretary, a Mr Ogden, who left the book after the second Carnby
twin joined his brother in whatever afterlife awaited them.
Their Oakland mansion was abandoned for several years after their death,
until it was destroyed in the in the 1906 earthquake , when the book was
thought to be lost, but moisture was baked out of it, and falling rubble
sealed it, seemingly forever, into a dark dry tomb.
Never again to be exposed to man.
(20th century AD)
Until the 1989 San Francisco earthquake which re-opened the rubble under
which tome had lain.
Patiently.
It was discovered by a homeless man who added it to his shopping basket of
possessions, and made sure it was protected from the cold, and the fog, and
the rain.
Until he was run over by a speeding car.
His body and effects were taken to the county morgue, where it was
discovered by an over-worked morgue attendant who had been placed by Stefan
Alzis one year before the earth-quake struck, with orders to examine the
effects of every John Doe to enter the morgue.
He was shot in the Emergency room one month later by a drug-crazed patient.
His effects and the rubbish-filled contents of a storage unit he rented
were auctioned off to a junkyard owner.
Who overdosed and died of a siezure.
And so on.
In the last year, the book came into the possession of a chemist for the
San Francisco tongs, who was also a student of the occult.
As he skimmed through the warped and smoky manuscript, he became more and
more fascinated by the Chinese annotations to the work. small cramped
ideograms formed a counterpoint to the swirling Arabic glyphs on each page.
The Al-Azif had been translated into Mandarin.
Tong-Chemists' Notes
Obviously, the tong chemist did not speak Arabic, however he did possess a
smattering of Mandarin, and the where-with-all to obtain more. He had made
some progress on transcribing the accursed book into English, his parent's
adopted tongue.
These notes were mostly nabbed by the fireman, and passed on to the leader
of the American Underground army, it is from these that he has gained his
(limited) occult power.
Mandarin Transcriptions
Translated and scribed by a number of Chinese wizards, this book has been
faithfully passed down from wizard to wizard for nearly one thousand years!
Even so, the transcription is not complete, and only a partial set of
spells and mythos information is present in Mandarin.
However, to make up for this, one or two _extra_ spells were scribed by
Sorcerers who wished to keep all their knowledge in one place!
Technical Details
Arabic Original Mandarin Chemist's Notes
Translation
Language: Arabic Mandarin English
Sanity Loss: 1d10/1d20 1d6/1d20 1d3/1d10
Cthulhu +18% +15% +5%
Mythos:
Spell x5 x4 x1
Multiplier:
Study Time: 12 Weeks 16 Weeks 1 Week
Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth, Steal Life, Shriveling,
Call/Dismiss Cthughua, Shriveling, Dominate
Call/Dismiss Hastur, Mental
Call/Dismiss Nyogtha, Suggestions,
Call/Dismiss Shub Mind Transfer,
Niggurath, Elder Sign,
Call/Dismiss Yog Voorish Sign,
Soothoth, Contact Send Dreams
Cthulhu, contact Deep
One, Contact Elder
thing, Contact Ghoul,
Elder Sign, Mind
Transfer, Voorish
Sign, Dismiss
Bugg-Shash, Create
Gate (From the Sphinx
to Yog-Sothoth,
Chant of thoth,
Dominate
Condition: Bad; the front three pages are missing, Average; a few pages
and some burning around the spine and are missing at the
corners. There is also a little start and end, and
discolouration from smoke. The book has the paper is smoke
had a hard existence! damaged, it is also
a hand-written
transcription, and
not a published
manuscript.
References Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith Thanks to Dan
Harms :);
Call of Cthulhu v5.0
Curse of the Necronomicon
It has been said that "those whom the gods wish to destroy, first they make
mad", in the case of the Outer Gods, they give them a copy of the
Necronomicon, in one form or another.
This copy is no different to any of the others, any person who came into
possession of it - and who was not worthy of the esoteric knowledge
contained within - has died, quickly. Perhaps it is the book itself that
causes these unpleasant coincidences, perhaps the curse of the original
Chinese sorcerer, trying to defend his property from the foreign dogs who
have taken it. Perhaps it's is all coincidence.
No Matter.
Anybody who possesses the book will suffer.
Unless they possess stronger magics themselves.
Quotes
"We returned to the study, and Carnby brought out from a locked drawer the
volume of which he had spoken. It was enormously old, and was bound in
ebony covers arabesqued with silver and set with darkly glowing garnets.
When I opened the yellowing pages, I drew back with involuntary revulsion
at the odor which arose from them -- an odor that was more than suggestive
of physical decay, as if the book had lain among corpses in some forgotten
graveyard and had taken on the taint of dissolution. "
I deciphered the paragraph, slowly and with some difficulty, and wrote down
a rough English version with the pad and pencil which Carnby offered me.
Then, at his request, I read it aloud:
'It is verily known by few, but is nevertheless no
attestable fact, that the will of a dead sorcerer hath
power upon his own body and can raise it up from the tomb
and perform therewith whatever action was unfulfilled in
life. And such resurrections are invariably for the doing
of malevolent deeds and for the detriment of other's. Most
readily can the corpse be animated if all its members have
remained intact; and yet there are cases in which the
excelling will of the wizard hath reared up from death the
sundered pieces of a body hewn in many fragments, and hath
caused them to serve his end, either separately or in a
temporary reunion. But in every instance, after the action
hath been completed, the body lapseth into its former
state.'
-- "Return of the Sorcerer" - Clark Ashton smith
Links
Dan Clore's Necronomicon Page
NEW MAGIC
Verzaubern Sie Dolch von dem Vorlagen
(Enchant the Dagger of the Master)
A variant of the enchant sacrificial dagger spell, this spell is inscribed
only In Bitterich's personal copy of Mein Triumph, along with it's sister
spell, Enchant Dagger of the Servant.
It creates a sacrificial dagger as per normal, but the dagger can also be
keyed to other Sacrificial Daggers created in the Servant's Dagger ritual,
allowing it to receive the POW collected by those daggers!
Needless to say, Dr Bitterich will not be letting this spell out of his
sight.
Verzaubern Sie Dolch des Bediensteten
(Enchant the Dagger of the Servant)
A variant of the enchant sacrificial dagger spell, this ritual creates an
enchanted SS Officer's dagger which is keyed to the Master Dagger (see
above). This dagger may collect POW in the normal manner, as per an
enchanted Sacrifical Dagger, but it may only release that POW when in the
presence of the Master Dagger, and the owner of that dagger decides where
it goes; it can be released into the master dagger; into the master
dagger's wielder; or finally, into the wielder of the servant's dagger.
This spell exists in all copies of the Mein Triumph, but it cannot be cast
without the presence of a Master dagger, to which the servant's dagger will
be attuned.
Verzaubern Sie Amulet
(Enchant The Amulet)
This spell is a permanent version of the Voice of Ra spell, imbuing an
amulet with the powers of that spell (+1d10 App, +5 POW for the purposes
of reaction checks, etc, and +20% on various social skills; Bargain, Credit
Rating, Fast Talk, Persuade, Psychology.
This spell is only found in Bitterich's version of Mein Triumph, and he has
not allowed it to be copied by anyone.
It requires the same ritual to be performed as the normal spell, but a
blood sacrifice (or 1 point of POW, permanently) must be undertaken by the
caster.
Binden Sie den Amulet
(Bind the Amulet)
This binding spell locks the Amulet of Ra to one user until their death. It
requires the wearer to provide 1 POW (permanent), or a human sacrifice of
equal or greater POW than themselves.
This spell is found in Bitterich's version of Mein Triumph, and has been
released to one or two of the least charismatic (but most promising)
Bischoffe's in the past. In turn they have bound amulets to Ritter here and
there.
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COPYRIGHT of the Delta Green Partnership, who have licensed its
use here. The contents of this document are COPYRIGHTS of the
respective authors, excepting those elements that are components
of the Delta Green intellectual property.