Today I bring to you the first character I came up with - Richard Cairne. For all characters (creatures and items) I usually come up with a backstory - would be silly otherwise, wouldn't it? And I'm not quite sure how to post the lot of it... first the backstory, then the character card or do it the other way round. I guess I'm otherthinking things a bit here, and having the stats come first would work out better if you'd just want a quick pre-constructed person to grab and run away with, but as its cthulhu... things are a bit different I feel.
Ah, what am I blabbering about. I'll just post the backstory first and should this not interest you at all... well just scroll down.
Ages of the characters will usually (if not stated otherwise) refer to 1920.
Richard Cairne does go together with my first self-made investigation (name still pending), though the chances that you might encounter him are, let's say, slim.
And finally as a last little disclaimer: The longer I think about the system and the background and the possibilities and and and... the more I notice that I start to bend certain concepts. Not too heavily of course, it's all stuff I consider only minor things, but this might still put purists off. So tread carefully if you're into Gla'aki related stuff and I hope you can forgive me.
Of course people playing in the group I run at the moment should also consider to stop reading onwards from here on out. *hint hint*
Old Man Richard Cairne
Lone member of the cult of Gla’aki in NY
He was once a professor at several
British universities, including such names as Cambridge, Oxford or the London
University. There he taught geology and literature, whilst his forays into the somewhat
wilder aspects of modern biology attracted only little attention as he was
considered only little more than an ‚enfant terrible‘ in most cases and thus
not taken too seriously by his academic ‚superiors‘.
During his prime around 1892 he
conducted various research on different sea-born species of the British Isles
in hopes of finding either missing links or something that he would later come
to call ‘an aspect of greatness’ in them. The first of the two he never found,
yet one of his discoveries would augur the end of his search.
In late 1893 he stumbled upon one of
the rare mistakes even a Great Old One might make, if one would even call it
such as it lead ultimately to the fulfilment of both entities cravings. (Of
course ‘mistake’ is a rather strong word for something that came to be because
of the will of the Old Ones. It might have been done on purpose by his cultists
for all we know.) What he stumbled upon was a crab impaled on a strangely
white, bonelike stick. The crustacean seemed dead enough at first glance but
upon trying to pick up this unfortunate specimen it was more alive than it had
appeared and quickly vanished into the darker depths of the lake he had been
visiting at the time – somewhere in Severn River Valley.
Fascinated and likewise frightened
by what he had seen, Cairne took back to London only to return shortly
afterwards during the spring of 1894 for an extended 4 week holiday at the
lakeside. The village he stayed in seemed normal at first, quiet and somewhat
desolate maybe, but it did not deter him. No, it even was rather inviting he
felt.
After about a week he discovered
another crab impaled on a spike, he later wondered long whether it might have
been the same, however this time he took the opportunity to grab the animal and
carefully take it along.
The following night he had the first
of his dreams.
He only saw a round shape in the
mist, something his dreaming mind would not dare to project onto him, and he
heard a myriad of voices all calling out his name. They spoke singular and yet
in unison.
Still sweating he woke the next
morning, the feeling of intense dread lingering on at his side.
But it only spurred him on. Taking
the crab from its watery confinement in a small bucket he felt merciful putting
it out of its misery. The stick he would not remove, he thought, he would need
to see what it had impaled, or rather, how it had managed to miss any internal
organ at all.
Just about as was beginning to open
the shell, the crab sprung to life again, the nail driven through its little brain
not mattering anymore it seemed.
Shocked to his core he almost flung
it away. Constraining himself just barely enough, he rather jumped himself back
in the end.
Still telling himself his nail must
have missed, he took upon a second to finish the job. But this too did not
affect the creature. It had refused to die.
It had indeed, until Cairne
eventually decided to pull out the bony stick. It felt more like cold rock to
the tips of his fingers and as soon as he had wedged it free, the crab dropped
dead and cold. Still startled he failed to make the connection at the time, but
as it turned out to come, he would not have to.
The following night his second dream
followed. This time the nebulous entity spoke. The voice was smothering and the
language painful to his very ears. But he still did not see more than the form.
Waking from his uneasy sleep he
found himself not in his cozy if cheap bedding but in a cave surrounded by the
bleak visages of the villagers. None of them spoke as fear flooded into him.
Following his first instinct he tried to jump up and run, to where would not
matter, but the many cold white hands reacted too fast, holding him in place.
Only seconds later however the tore him to his feet and forced him along what
seemed to be the only exit of the cavern.
Then the dread returned.
It was as if he had been here
before.
And soon understanding followed, as
from the bottom of the liquid darkness that engulfed him he found himself
before the grand white terror that was Gla’aki. Spikes protruding from his oval
body without limbs, the three eyes watched his newest initiate carefully as one
of the many bony pins took aim. The villagers seemed to avert their
gazes as the Great Old One thrust the spike into the heart of Cairne.
As the world grew dark he began to
dream his third dream. And as he dreamt, so came to him understanding.
After he woke the spike was gone and
only a spot of red liquid remained behind, thin lines slowly growing from its center.
He finally knew, this was the true ‘touch
of greatness’ he had yearned for, for so long. The grasp of his very existence
had changed and during the same year he decided to move to the US in hopes of
bringing the teachings of his new master to the new world. Or maybe this was
his master’s wish all along...
Ever since he had been teaching geology
and biology at the University of NYC to various degrees of proficiency.
At times he, Cairne, seems almost
mechanical in his ways, but the Old One kept enough of him alive to undergo
this endeavor to bring his blessing to successfully the New World.
Cairne has not yet aged a day after
the incident in the Severn River Valleys which will be abound to attract
attention sooner or later, but it would not be of Gla’aki’s concern. He was
just a mere puppet in the end, something not dead or alive but caught in a
limbo in between.
Unfortunately the Old One has yet
been unable to repeat this sudden success with one of his worshippers, also
reducing the effectiveness of Cairne in turn (who himself had been unable to
bait a student or colleague into researching the Severn River Valley).
Due to Gla’aki mainly taking upon
truly undead servants (aka zombies) Richard Cairne’s personality is slowly
dwindling. His master will syphon away his intelligence until eventually
nothing more than the empty shell of the former professor remains. At this
point Cairne will also act solely by the call of his master, whereas at the
present he is still more or less independent (although considerably influenced
by the Great Old One).
Should Cairne find any success in
recruiting ‘new cultists’ for his master, then this process might be slowed
down. Or it might not. All will happen according to Gla’aki’s wishes, and his
alone.
Richard Cairne,
43(71) – Professor of Geology and Literature (and Biology); Cultist
of Gla’aki
STR
22 CON 24 SIZ 13 INT 19 POW
17
DEX
8 APP 8 EDU
21 SAN 0 HP
19
Dmg Bonus: +1D6
Weapon: Fist 70% 1d4+db
Spike of Gla’aki 30% 1d6+db (when a successful roll >10% is made the
victim gets impaled and takes an additional 1d6 dmg; should the spike not be
removed until the end of the day, the victim, no matter whether alive or dead,
will rise as a servant of Gla’aki) – yep he kept the thing from the crab...
Spells: Bait Humans; Bind Soul;
Compel Flesh; Contact Gla’aki; Gray Binding; Mental Suggestion
Skills: Archeology
(20%); Art – Literature (73%); Biology (40%); Cthulhu Mythos (55%); Geology
(60%); Library Use (47%); Natural History (70%); Occult (38%); Psychology (25%)
Possessions: A single ripped-out
page of the ‘Revelations of Glaaki’ discussing it as an aspect of death itself and a few vague connections to Eihort and Shubb-Niggurath (in
English). Sanity Loss 1/1D4; Cthulhu
Mythos +3 percentiles; half an hour to read and comprehend.
yup... these kinds of entries will be fairly long
I came up with the character on my own and I apologize if he seems taken from one of the existing books or maybe even a real person - hopefully not an undead one. Just let me know if there is anything up with Mr. Cairne that makes him seem like a rip-off.
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