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Things aren't always as they seem.
Is the little Rhode Island carnival
just a place of innocent playfulness, or does it house dark secrets? Is
the newest exhibit at the Museum of Natural History a crude
representation of an elephant, or is it a thing from out of the depths
of time? Who would kill for a ceremonial dagger? What mere vision is
powerful enough to kill a wizened rabbi?
Four Odysseys into Deadly Adventure
Curse of the Chthonians contains four detailed scenarios for the Call of Cthulhu
roleplaying game, plus an examination of the Kabbalistic science of
Gematria—which seeks to derive secret or mystical meaning from the very
letters that form the words of Scripture and occult texts.
Dark Carnival
It is the Roaring Twenties. The
decade will be marked forever in the annals of bloody death and
catastrophe by such events as the clash of rival gangs in the St.
Valentine’s Massacre. The decade ended in disaster befalling millions of
Americans as a great stock market crash wiped out just about everyone
who had money in stocks, bonds, or banks.
But still, in the hot lazy days of
May, there are those who care little for the rest of the world. It is
summer ... a time for dreams.
Just outside the city of Providence,
Rhode Island, hard by the Swan Point Cemetery, and not many miles from
the Butler Insane Asylum, sprawls the gaudy neon-lit pavilions of the
North Star Amusement Arcade and Pleasure Pier, fronting the Seekonk
River.
Here young swains take their ladies on hot summer nights and children of all ages frolic the humid summer days away.
Though a bit run down around the
edges, and its gay façade cracked and peeling, the carnival is still
enjoyed by the people of Providence.
People disappear from time to time,
sometimes correctly attributed to the river’s tricks. Butler Insane
Asylum is packed with gibbering and ranting people to whom no one
listens.
Curse of the Chthonians
The day begins typically in the big
city. Newspapers proclaim the usual events of the day — robberies, a
gangland killing, revolution in some banana republic or another, a
“ripper” killing at the Museum, Bolshevik atrocities in Siberia, another
failed attempt at a transatlantic flight, the display of a new
invention by Tesla, and the regular assortment of odds and oddities that
obsess the readers of such journalistic endeavors.
One of the investigators receives a
call from a distressed old flame. Miss Staunton asks to come and speak
about a problem that she hopes he can help her with “for old time’s
sake.”
She acts agitated, but will not talk about it over the phone.
She wants to see him in person.
Thoth's Dagger
PUBLIC AUCTION: The
library and art collection of the late Dr. Karl von Petersdorf will be
sold at public auction on the 23rd of November at his estate outside
Boston at 10:00 am.
The late Doctor was well-known among
art collectors, scholars, and occultists for his study of ancient
Egyptian antiquities. mythology, and magic. His views were never
accepted by the scholarly community at large. He postulated that
Egyptian religion did not evolve from the primitive and superstitious
animal-worship of savages, but instead devolved from a forgotten higher
form of worship, of which only hints and obscure references have come
down to us.
The Doctor’s library includes many
rare books on Egyptology, as well as a number of unique copies of
ancient Egyptian manuscripts. The art collection includes some
remarkable Egyptian artifacts, many of great beauty, and some of which
are unique.
The City Without a Name
In the blazing deserts of the
lifeless Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula, almost entirely buried
by endlessly-moving waves of sand, lies an ancient city of dark terror.
Time has benevolently erased its
name from the memory of all living men — it is the “City Without a Name”
— and only echoes of its foulness have crept down through the
centuries, in arcane and worm-eaten parchments written by shaking hands.
Dread secrets lie buried in the sands, requiring only a blowing wind to
be exposed once more to the unsuspecting world.
The Kabbalistic Science of Gematria
Rounding out this book is an article on Gematria.
Gematria is essentially the giving
of numeric values to the letters in an alphabet, from which are derived
numeric values for entire words, which are then symbolically or
mystically associated with other words with related numerical values.
Many ancient alphabetic languages didn’t have special written characters
for numbers, but used the regular letters of the alphabet to represent
numbers in writing.
The main use of this system by the
Jewish Kabbalistic mystics was to determine the hidden allegorical or
mystical meanings of obscure passages of Scripture.
Variations of the gematriac methods
were adopted by Christian occultists in the Renaissance, who reworked
the entire system and gave it a Christian interpretation, then injected
it into numerous magical and mystical systems.
By David A. Hargrave, Bill Barton,
and William Hamblin. Cover by Tom Sullivan. 160 pages, illustrated. 8.5 x
11" perfect-bound paperback, with index and handouts. Second Edition.
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