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Rough Magicks
Credits
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Publisher: Simon Rogers
Written by: Kenneth Hite
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TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Contents
Contact Hounds
With Magic 12 of Tindalos (Incantation) 19
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Introduction
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Which Magic ?
“These revelations came with a godlike manipulates the literary laws of magic involves establishing such a
solemnity which left Carter unable to for the effect he wants. The result is wormhole to translate it from one
doubt. Even though they lay almost a nest of possibilities that the Keeper place to another.
beyond his comprehension, he felt that can select from as she wishes for her
they must be true in the light of that game, just as with the variant and 2QO\WKRVHZKRKDYHVXFFHVVIXOO\
final cosmic reality which belies all contradictory views of the gods and Dreamed can do magic – but this
local perspectives and narrow partial titans explored in the Trail of Cthulhu includes those who Cthulhu has
views; and he was familiar enough corebook. touched or Awakened in his own
with profound speculations to be free slumbers.
from the bondage of local and partial Like that section, this discussion is
conceptions.” deliberately compiled from as many 0DJLFLVVLPSO\DQRWKHUQDPHIRU
divergent notions of Mythos magic as psionics. Summoning monsters
– “Through the Gates of the
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possible. Some of them are inferred is a matter of sending the correct
Silver Key” from one or another Lovecraft story, telepathic message, Shrivelling
others from lesser Mythos authors or is pyrokinesis, and the Elder
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What is magic? What are the eldritch commentators, some come from real- Sign is a powerful post-hypnotic
secrets of blasphemous lore to which world magical practitioners’ theories, compulsion implanted on
Lovecraft’s narrators and sorcerers and some just sounded cool to me. Cthulhu billions of years ago and
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mystifaction, both Keepers and players theories have rules implications: with a brain can train itself in
can benefit from just a little grain of if magic is only possible with the psionic disciplines, though some
definition. Whether you’re a player intervention of Yog-Sothoth, then species (and some specific beings)
taking the role of a reluctant adept, or would-be wizardly Investigators need have far more potential than
a Keeper putting herself in the mindset to hunt up the Contact Tawil at-’Umr others.
of a twisted immortal wizard, it helps spell on p. 19 tout suite. But that said,
to know just what the Lovecraftian mad magi and deluded Investigators :KHQWKH(OGHU7KLQJVGRPLQDWHG
magus thinks is actually going on alike can believe some, none, or all of the globe, all their technology
behind all the sonorous chants, the following – and somewhere in the was fundamentally biological.
prehuman runes, and coruscations of countless spheres, they might all be The crinoids controlled not just
unearthly ultraviolet. true. the shoggoths, but their stone
buildings, their metal tools,
Defining even real-world magic has 0DJLFLVDK\SHUVFLHQWLILF their weapons and prisons and
baffled not just magicians and occultists, discipline of visualizing and experimental power plants
but anthropologists, theologians, and manipulating trans-dimensional and everything with a vastly
historians for centuries. Attempting to energy fields. Acoustic signals complex set of network and
fully define Lovecraftian magic would (words of power) and geometric circuit protocols embedded in
seem to be a simpler task. Indeed, we matrices (sigils and gestures) the very genes of their servants.
make just such an attempt later on in act as control systems, which The Elder Things maintained the
this book (see “Magick in Theory and have transcended mere material control codes and distributed
Lovecraft,” p. 00). But really, we’re all technology. The energies bleed switching relays for the system
better off not knowing. between universes through in a specially designed plankton
pinpoint wormholes, often fog stored in the oceans. These
Just as Lovecraft artfully contradicts dependent on specific patterns relays transmitted signals and
himself on the nature and history of of stellar and cosmic radiation. information using quantum dipole
Cthulhu or the Old Ones, so too he “Summoning a monster” merely connections between certain
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Rough Magicks
molecules. When the shoggoths technologically, and it is merely but at a higher (or lower) energy
rebelled, the system crashed hard. tangent to the weak gods of Earth. state, often wielding great local
Pieces of it rewrote themselves, It relies on signifiers, secrecy, and power, but only perceptibly in
gained partial sentience, went rotes, and is more connected to short bursts.
berserk, and programmed perception than it is to mentation.
themselves to nest and reproduce. Hence, beings that can “see” 7KHDERYHLVWUXHRQO\HYHU\
Some of them evolved into into more dimensions are more spirit is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.
mammals, and then into humans. naturally gifted magi. The magus’ Hence, only those who have
Magic, on Earth anyway, consists will is what focuses his perception, communed (knowingly or
of “tapping into” the surviving and brings about effects. unknowingly) with Nyarlathotep
shoggoth “circuit diagram,” which can work magic. Or their
is in almost all terrene matter, not 0DJLFLVSHUFHSWXDOJUDYLW\ descendants – a fine option for
least in DNA, crystals and igneous The more important the entity, Investigators with In the Blood as
rocks, and metal. the more it warps reality in its their Drive.
vicinity. Said vicinity includes
7KHDERYHVFHQDULRLVRQO\RQHRI where the entity is looking – even 1RHYHU\VSLULWLVDIDFHWRI
the times that a similar disaster human physicists are beginning Yog-Sothoth. Hence, to work
has happened. The first and worst to understand that observation with more than local spirits, the
was the crash of the Azathoth is action is location – where magus must contact the Opener
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entity, which dropped whole it’s been, and where it’s being of the Way to get permission
universes into a mere three or four asked to look. Hence, magical (Clearance? Code words?) to
dimensions and left barely sentient spells invoke powerful entities communicate information across
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so often an alien species learns for “unreal” actions. effects of the energetic collision of
enough about the local diagram the great elemental gods. Where
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system bottlenecks, primarily the poles. I shall go to those poles when gained from following that Drive
“overweighting” of Stability. For the earth is cleared off, if I can’t break to Magic instead. This option
some players, it feels more “realistic” through with the Dho-Hna formula only applies if the Investigator has
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(whatever that means in a game about when I commit it. They from the air Magic 0; the horrific experience
cosmic monsters); for others, it feels told me at Sabbat that it will be years
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