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A cult on present-day Earth aids and abets Great Race visitors. In exchange, the

visitors share technological and magical knoledge!. "all o# "thulhu, Edition $.%

The International Order Of Librarians

Structure and RationaleThe International Order Of Librarians (IOOL) is one of the less sinister organisations

to be involved with the Mythos, but thats starting from a very low basis of

comparison The order is divided into two levels, plus an au!iliary body The Outer

Order (as the other groups call it) is all that "#$ of the members ever see, or are even

aware of It is an international fraternal organisation, which, li%e most such

organisations, e!ists to let librarians, archivists, curators, archaeologists and other

such professionals hold an annual conference at which they dress up and eat large

dinners, plus conduct occasional charitable activities and overseas trips

The Inner Order, who also refer to themselves (against the ob&ections of some femalemembers, who prefer the original name of the 'aughters of ypatia) as the na%otic

*rotherhood, e!ists to facilitate the visits of members of the +reat ace of -ith .s

well as places to stay, stipends, and other such material support, they assist

individuals possessed by the +reat ace in their /uest for %nowledge by providing

unrestricted access to all the collections, libraries, galleries, museums, and other such

institutions over which they have influence The unparalleled %nowledge of

humanitys entire history that the +reat ace can impart ensures that members of the

Inner Order can e!cel in their academic careers

The Inner Orders primary motive for being is an altruistic one The Inner Order has

learnt enough from previous +reat ace visitations to %now that biological humanitywill end owever, through helping +reat ace members e!perience and record as

much of human culture as possible, they %now that at least the history and culture of

humanity can live on after the species itself is rendered e!tinct

The +reat ace have refused to give details of, or a time for, the e!tinction event

0rom their own %nowledge (which, given that they have the worlds libraries to draw

on, is /uite e!tensive) and details that +reat ace members have let slip, the Inner

Order has inferred that humanity will be destroyed by an uprising and1or invasion of

alien creatures, in a similar way to the e!termination of the former +reat ace vessels

by the 0lying olyps 0rom the increasing fre/uency of +reat ace visits, they have

also inferred that it may happen some time in the near future Inner order membersnervously scan the newspapers, %eep their pantries well stoc%ed, and often &oin 20O

spotters groups

Membership of the inner order draws upon members of the outer order and the wider

professions who have shown e!ceptional dedication to the cause of uncovering and

preserving %nowledge, and1or those who have previously encountered the +reat ace

or other Mythos entities 0ormer victims of -ithian possession are often targeted for

recruitment 2sually the relief of being among those who understand what they have

been through, plus %nowledge of the greater altruistic purpose of the Order, is enough

to /uash any lingering resentment towards the +reat ace the former victim may

have The Order also wor%s to help restore the memories of these victims, in order to

better understand their erstwhile patrons e/uests to the -ithians that they should

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cease wiping the memories of former victims have so far been met with refusal In

general, members are /uite dedicated to the Order and their cause owever, since

their cause is providing access to stores of %nowledge, of which they are usually the

custodians, they rarely have to employ violence or any illegal activity 3 with a few

specific e!ceptions, listed below

The Inner Order is head/uartered in erth, 4estern .ustralia, which is the ma&or

western metropolis closest to na%atos (the ancient city of the +reat ace, located in

the +reat 5andy 'esert) They also have members in 6anberra, as they do in the

capitals of most 4estern nations, where they hold positions in national libraries,

museums, et al .t the world 7 in erth, the Order hold the worlds largest

collection of various versions of the na%otic Manuscripts, with which all Inner Order

members are e!pected to be familiar, and an e!tensive collection of ancient +ree% and

8gyptian te!ts (some believed lost by the rest of the world), including a +ree% version

of the *oo% of 8ibon (unfortunately fire damaged 3 study of this manuscript has been

discouraged by +reat ace representatives, who do not wish their servants to

inadvertently 5ummon .9athoth) plus a miscellany of other te!ts in which the +reatace have e!pressed an interest or are mentioned . copy of The :ing in -ellow is

also %ept loc%ed away, re/uiring special dispensation from the leaders of the order to

be consulted The Inner Order also possesses a few lightning guns, a memory wiping

unit (sometimes used by the 'ar% *rotherhood against their enemies) and a temporal

communicator, usually held by the resident as a sign of office

One reason the Order has relocated to erth is that possessed victims usually ma%e at

least one &ourney to na%atos, consulting records there and ensuring that nothing has

disturbed the stasis cubes in which the records are held against the +reat aces

physical return The Inner Order also monitors the area of na%otos for any signs of

olyp activity, often by sending representatives on mining or prospecting trips as

consulting archaeologists or the li%e There is general agreement that governments

should be alerted and told the whole story if there is irrefutable proof of a olyp

rising, but until then everything +reat ace or olyp related should be %ept out of the

media

The Inner Order is only tangentially aware of the other races, beings, etc, of the

Mythos +reat ace representatives have e!ercised a mi! of caution and chauvinism

and assured the Order that the other intelligent alien races with an interest in earth

(6thulhus 5tar 5pawn, The 8lder Things, The Mi;+o) were thoroughly defeated by

the +reat ace and driven off the planet many aeons ago

The 'ar% *rotherhood (who have given themselves an intentionally melodramatic

and sinister name) is the

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even being e!posed to any human %nowledge or cultural activity that bears the taint of

the :ing 5uch poisoning of the wells of human culture is therefore a source of

intense anger and shame to members of the Order, who do what they can to combat it

In most cases this is merely an intensification of the petty rivalries, &ealousies,

bac%stabbing and Old +uard versus .rt >ouveau confrontations that permeate the

world of art, literature and culture +rant applications are denied, gallery space isunavailable, and other such obstacles are thrown up This phase of the struggle tends

to involve all members of the Inner Order, as they are often well placed to throw such

spanners in the wor%s In some cases, however, particularly when the play of The

:ing In -ellow itself is somehow involved, the 'ar% *rotherhood ta%es direct action

to destroy the wor% and ruin, mindwipe or even %ill the artist behind it 4hen

conducting a

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e!perience, she was inspired by the se!less race who devoted themselves to

%nowledge 5he compared their lives favourably to the ignorance and loveless

marriages forced upon many women of her time, and resolved to become a

philosopher and continue the /uest for %nowledge that she had already pursued as a

possessee er grounding in >eo;platonic philosophy, which included the doctrine of

transmigration of souls, may also have helped her overcome the mental shoc%inherent in her condition

In the year A"?, the library of .le!andria, which encompassed the nearby Temples of

the Muses and of 5erapis, was destroyed by a 6hristian mob as part of a campaign by

the 8mperor Theodosius I to wipe out all remnants of paganism ypatia, whose

father Theon had taught mathematics at the museum, was still a young woman, but

was already beginning to ma%e a name for herself as a philosopher 5he was outraged

by the destruction and fearful of the conse/uences when the ne!t member of the +reat

ace should visit and find the library destroyed +athering her family and friends and

hiring bodyguards, she rescued many of the most precious manuscripts from the

buildings before they could be put to the torch 4ith these, she established a secretcollection and tradition of %nowledge preservation Those of her students who showed

similar dedication and a belief in the philosophy of transmigration were told of her

e!perience with the +reat ace and urged to watch for the ne!t visit by one of these

Muses 5uch a visit evidently occurred at some point, for the cult survived, though

ypatia herself would be burned by another 6hristian mob in E?# .'

Originally opposed to 6hristianity, ypatias heirs eventually came to believe that

there was no future in continuing paganism in the face of imperial persecution The

increasing adoption of latonist and other +ree% philosophy by the 6hurch as it

became the dominant spiritual and intellectual power of the ancient world also helped

to reconcile the ypatians 4ithin a few hundred years, the church was somewhat

embarrassed by the memory of their persecution of ypatia and the other

philosophers, and the cult of the (fictional) 5t 6atherine of .le!andria was created to

try to obscure ypatias memory The 'aughters of ypatia changed their name to

the na%otic *rotherhood to hide their origins and infiltrated this sub;cult of the

6hurch The doctrine of transmigration of the soul of a muse became one of

possession by one of +ods angels, sent to ensure that humanity stayed true to the

learning delivered by +od owever, as the 'ar% .ges passed with only one recorded

visit by the +reat ace, to a 0lorentine who promptly went insane, the *rotherhood

dwindled into a largely purposeless mystery cult within the 6hurch, venerating old

%nowledge and scorning all new learning or change . -ithian visit to 6romwellian8ngland was completely missed until the recovered victim, Dames 4oodville,

published an account of his e!perience, which was promptly condemned as heresy

The Enlightenment

The *rotherhood was reorganised, galvanised and effectively refounded by another

great philosopher possessed by a member of the +reat ace at a young ageF +ottfried

4ilhelm Leibni9 .lthough his memory of the e!perience was not as clear as

ypatias, Leibni9 retained the memory of an ideal society organised around the

accumulation and ordering of %nowledge, in which psychic ability rather than

physical energy or violence was the dominant talent of the great This vision would

inform his idealist philosophy of monadology and the elementary nature of souls, aswell as his dedication to founding learned societies and organising libraries 0or their

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part, the surviving remnants of the na%otic *rotherhood, who were facing

dissolution and irrelevance in the face of the eformation, recognised Leibni9 as the

one prophesised in their hidden doctrines and pledged themselves to his service

(.ccording to some records, a brea%away faction refused to accept that Leibni9 had

been the vessel of the ewton resulted in Leibni9 influence being

confined to the margins of the 8nlightenment, and the *rotherhood remained a hidden

order rather than becoming the dominant order of learning as they had hoped The

crown passed to >ewtons oyal 5ociety and the International Order of Librarians

lur%ed in the shadows, administering the library of the ouse of *runswic% and

Leibni9 philosophical &ournalActa Eruditorium(now a strictly in;house publication)

To this day, the IOOLs influence is far stronger in continental 8urope than in the8nglish spea%ing world, e!cept for .ustralia

The Modern Era

The IOOL sat through 44 II without getting involved .lthough they had strong

+ermanic roots, they found the >a9is anti;intellectual attitude and destruction of

boo%s repulsive The looting of various museums, galleries and archives by greedy

high;ran%ing >a9is also ensured that few IOOL members would consider siding with

the .!is or collaborating with the :arotechia rofessor ans 2trecht of the Inner

Order was forcibly recruited by the latter due to his %nowledge of ancient mystical

writings, and spent his time attempting to sabotage the >a9i occult research effortfrom within e was e!ecuted for disloyalty in the closing months of the war e is

revered as a hero by the Inner Order, who have struc% a medal in his honour This is

awarded to members of the 'ar% *rotherhood who display e!ceptional heroism in the

struggle against astur It is rare for the award to be other than posthumous 5adly,

rofessor 2trechts heroism was counterbalanced by the actions of the young :laus

5chol9, who used his new connections to obtain some of the >a9is cultural loot for

himself in the aftermath of the war

In the twentieth century, the Order has severed its ties with the church and become a

largely secular organi9ation 5t 6atherine remains the patron saint of the order,

although the 'ar% *rotherhood campaigns to replace her with Indiana Dones or 'octor4ho The Order has been disturbed by the rise in visits from the +reat ace, the

increasing number of :ing in -ellow related incidents, and humanitys own

increasing obsession with occult %nowledge and conspiracy The order fears that the

end times are approaching, and if they act openly to prevent or delay this then they

may become the ob&ect of some tabloid &ournalism fren9y, a la the 'a Ginci code

Obli/ue hints about the order were in fact published recently in a prominent historical

novel

The 'ar% *rotherhood itself was almost e!posed recently when they assassinated a

potential >obel ri9e for Literature winner who had produced

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of publishing a humorous fictionalised account of the order, in the form of a comic

boo% called Rex *ibris 4hile many of the older Inner Order members thin% this a

rash step, they accept that they are part of an artistic and cultural organi9ation that

ultimately e!ists to preserve humanitys creativity, and appreciate the value of

protective camouflage

Friendlies and Enemies

The IOOL is largely unaware of the other agencies and powers of the Mythos This is

partly due to a narrowness of vision The IOOL tends to assume that they %now

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O4 by ? ('ar% *rotherhood members are trained to strengthen their wills against

outside influences)

'ar% *rotherhood Members have an IntB chance of having learnt ?dA spells from the

na%otic Manuscripts In addition, any member of the 'ar% *rotherhood who is

capable of using magic will be taught 'ismiss astur

ample ark rother in training/ 0ames 1aughton.

a%ishly charming, devilishly brave, irresistible to women, incredibly /uic% witted

and intelligent 3 these are &ust a few of the terms used to describe the heroes of the

sci;fi and fantasy novels Dames reads constantly 5till, he gets by

Dames is an anthropology student in 6anberra, .ustralia e first encountered the

forces of the Mythos when a group of Tcho Tcho dropped by for lunch at the village

in Laos he was studying, and brought their pet *ya%hee with them Luc%ily for him,

he owned the only motorcycle in the village

.fter several months gibbering in hospital in .ustralia, he recovered enough to start

trying to figure out 4T0 happened itting the archives searching for records of man;

eating space monsters attracted the attention of a particular librarian, who happened to

be a member of the Inner Order of the IOO0 The Order offered him a framewor% in

which to e!plain his e!perience, counselling and the opportunity to act instead of

being helpless

Dames has now learnt a certain number of basic sabotage tactics and two spellsF

ypatias .n%h and 'ismiss astur 5till, he worries that there isnt any mention of

Tcho Tcho or *ya%hees in the na%otic Manuscripts, and wonders if the IOOL really

%now whats going on

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Keeper level InformationThe following documents are classified TO 5868T '8LT. +88> :888

6L8..>68 If you have somehow obtained these documents, please return them

2>8.' to the member of your cell with :888 level clearance TO 8.'

T858 'O62M8>T5 4ITO2T 6L8..>68 I5 . 58IO25 O008>68

enalties including fines, prison, death, and having your brain scooped out by a giant

multicoloured bu99ing lobster may be applied

The Pnakotic Manuscripts

The core te!t of the IOOLs version of the na%otic Manuscripts, &nakotos,is written

in Ethcentury (ellenistic) +ree% .n 8nglish translation is available but does not

include the spells

5an loss ?dE1?dKH 6thulhu Mythos J?B$H Occult J#$H 5pell Multiplier BH 5tudy

Time #B wee%s

5pellsF

.ugurH *aneful 'ust of ermes TrismegistusH *ring aboob (5andstorm)H 6ontact

*ast (There is no 6all or 'ismiss *ast spell ave you ever tried to call or dismiss a

catN)H 6hant of ThothH 6on&ure +lass of Mortlan (re/uires 8nchant *ra9ier)H 6ontact

+reat ace of -ithH 6ontact 4inged Thing (6ontact 8lder ThingH believed to be of

historical interest only)H 6ontact 0lying olyp (best not)H 6ontact ound of

Thionadelos (Tindalos) (ditto)H 6ontact 5and;'weller (li%ewise)H 6reate Time +ate

(very dangerous, as it is li%ely to attract a ound)H 'ust of 5uleimanH 8nchant

*ra9ierH 0ind +ateH Identify 5piritH arting 5andsH 6reate adean (lutonian1Liao)

'rug (the use of which also ris%s ound attention)H owder of Ibn;+ha9i (useful

against olyps)H ypatias .n%h (rinns 6ru! .nsata)H 5eal of Isis (often cast onlibraries)H 5e%hmen%enhemps 4ordsH Goice of a

>ote that 6reate 8lder 5ign is notavailable The +reat ace do not desire that their

servants meddle with the 8lder Things technology

>ew 5pellF 6ontact +reat ace of -ithF This spell costs # magic points and ?dA 5.>

points It creates a psychic

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8gyptian mystical philosophy and .lchemy In general, the spells it contains are those

connected with Time, the +reat ace, and +reco;8gyptian neo;platonic and

alchemical mysticism

The Secret Order

The 5ecret Order is a covert cult within the Inner Order Less than ?C$ of themembers of the Inner Order are members owever, it includes a disproportionate

number of the formerly possessed This gives it influence beyond its numbers, as

society members tend to defer to the superior %nowledge these members are assumed

to possess It was founded by a disgruntled former victim of possession who

underwent hypnotic therapy to help recover his memories and discovered a previously

un%nown talent for 'reaming Members still serve the cause of preserving %nowledge

for the +reat ace 3 in fact, they are even more fanatical about it than Inner Order

members 3 but for a very different reason

Members of the 5ecret Order are all 'reamers of various degrees of s%ill They %now

that the 'reamlands are ultimately created and rooted in the collective

unconsciousness of humanity, and therefore, some time after humanity dies, the

'reamlands will die owever, they hope that if the +reat ace preserves in its

immortal minds and records a memory of the art and culture of the human race, then

some /uantum of the 'reamlands will also survive The 5ecret Order intend to be the

immortal lords of that /uantum In order to rapidly develop their capacities to dream

so as to survive beyond death, they have formed a cult dedicated to the Other +od

ypnos, Lord of 5leep This service to a powerful being of the Mythos, even a

relatively benign one such as ypnos, gradually erodes their sanity and may lead

members down even dar%er paths The 5ecret Order are aware of *asts continuing

influence through their 'reamland connections, but consider it benign 5ome of thesaner members of the 5ecret Order have even turned to *ast worship to

counterbalance the potentially corruptive influence of ypnos

Outwardly, 5ecret Order members are indistinguishable from Inner Order members,

save for a few behavioural /uir%s Members are reluctant to go on field trips to

na%otos (in .ustralia, outside the ma&or western metropolises, the 'reamlands are

supplanted by the .ustralian .boriginal 'reamtime which is still hostile to all non;

.borigines (see 'error Australis) Members of the 5ecret Order are particularly

supportive of the 'ar% *rotherhood, as they do not wish anyone or anything save

themselves to dominate humanitys collective unconsciousness .t a policy level, they

urge +reat ace members to investigate art and culture rather than factual records, oreven consider physically preserving human cultural artefacts (eg the Mona Lisa) in

their stasis cubes This has so far met with mi!ed success, as the +reat aces

aesthetic tastes do not tend to coincide with those of ypnos, or humanity as a whole

The 5ecret Order is cultivating ties with the underworld trade in stolen art and

artefacts against the day when they can persuade the +reat ace otherwise or obtain a

stasis cube themselves .s a result, they have in the past had some dealings with the

0ate Through this, :laus 5chol9 (see below) has become aware of the e!istence of

the 0ate and its self;proclaimed

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The 5ecret Order recruit from members of the Inner Order who have become

disillusioned with their service to the -ithians Many are former victims of possession

by the +reat ace .ll are capable of spell use and of entering the 'reamlands

aise 6thulhu Mythos to BC$ 5ubtract BC from 5.> and add B to O4 (wash, rinse

and repeat if a more sinister 5ecret Order member is re/uired) . typical 5ecret Ordermember has a 'reaming s%ill e/ual to his O4 J # and a 'ream Lore s%ill of BC$J

They are e!pert spea%ers of ellenistic +ree%, which is the language they use in

meetings

Members of the 5ecret Order will %now BdA spells from the na%otic Manuscript, and

?dE 'reamlands spells, plus *rew 'ream 'rug and .ssess 5ignificance They will

also %now 6ontact ypnos and 5ummon1*ind >ightgaunt O 6ontact *ast and

6harm 0eline They may have learned additional spells from ypnos, *ast or the

*oo% of 8ibon

Important Person: Professor Emerits Klas !chol"#err 'o%tor rofessor 8meritus :laus 5chol9 is a distinguished, elderly man,

apparently in his late @Cs (his actual age is almost ?CC) with white hair and a neatly

trimmed white beard e is still mobile but prefers to wal% with a cane e shows no

signs of senile decay, and in fact has a piercing, almost mesmerising ga9e e spea%s

8nglish with a strong +ermanic accent is hands are stained by chemical e!posure

during his career, and so he fre/uently wears gloves e wears an an%h on a chain

around his nec%, usually hidden under his shirt is clothes always have poc%etsH on

particularly hot days, he will wear a photographers vest (if as%ed, he says that at his

age, if he puts small things down, he can never remember where they are) e

currently resides in erth, 4estern .ustralia, claiming (if anyone as%s) that he choseto retire here from *erlin for

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the survival of human culture and the survival of the 'reamlands, and began see%ing

out other members of the Inner Order who might share his more self;interested

mindset

owever, his plans to dominate the 'reamlands have hit a seemingly impassable

snag :laus is simply not a great artist e is more creative than the average person,and is supernaturally strong;willed, but comparing his imaginative talent to that of a

true 'reamlands ruler li%e :ing :uranes is li%e comparing .ugust 'erleth to 8dgar

.llen oe .ware of his inferiority, :laus eventually came to the conclusion that

where talent and finesse was lac%ing, raw power might suffice, and began to see% an

entity that could provide him with that power e found ypnos

Now

Today the self;styled erald of ypnos is a s%illed alchemist and 'reamer, a

rofessor 8meritus of 6hemistry at the 2niversity of *erlin, the 6hancellor 8meritus

of the Inner Order and the head of the 5ecret Order .s the end of his natural lifeapproaches, bringing with it the time he must move to the 'reamlands on a permanent

basis, he has become increasingly obsessive, unscrupulous and desperate in his /uest

to ensure eternal immortality e has lost patience with persuasion, and is planning to

use his now considerable command of magic (including Imprison Mind, which would

prevent the -ithian from escaping) to %idnap and torture the ne!t visiting -ithian

until it agrees to retrieve and turn over a 5tasis 6ube, in which he and the 5ecret

Order can place their hoard of cultural treasures, ensuring their permanent survival

:laus 5.> is now /uite low as the result of adherence to the more;or;less random

demands of ypnos (.lthough ypnos is not actively malign in the manner of an

Outer +od or +reat Old One, he is lin%ed to the human unconsciousness and can thus

ma%e very strange demands of his worshippers 3 &ust as% 5igmund 0reud) e has

committed murder at least once as a human sacrifice to the +od, an event he used to

fashion his cane is actions at the end of 44 II, when he secured the foundations of

his art collection from >a9i troves, also ma%e him an accessory to war crimes and

crimes against humanity owever, his high O4 and air of age, dignity and learning

helps him maintain self;control and present an acceptable face to his colleagues

*ecause :laus managed to disentangle himself from the Thule society before the

outbrea% of war, he is unaware of the e!istence of the :arotechia 5hould he

somehow become aware of the new 0ourth eich, he would certainly consider allyinghimself with them (and given his memories as a resident of na%otos plus his

command of time magics, :laus could plausibly be aware of anything the :eeper

desires)

:laus +oals and lansF

6omplete his treatise on the ecology of time;travelling species

aise his O4 as high as possible before dying

Obtain more cultural treasures

Obtain a 5tasis 6ube

8nsure the 5ecret Order is in good hands after his death

:ill .nton Merriweather

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8!terminate the +reat ace (not really possible right now, but :laus figures hell

have all eternity to wor% on it)

*uy icecream for his favourite grand;nephews and nieces

:laus spellsF

.ll those in the na%otic Manuscripts (below), plus .ssess 5ignificance (see below),*less *lade, 6loud Memory, 6reate 'ream 'rug, 6ontact ypnos, 'ream Gision,

8nchant 6ane, 8nchant :nife, eal, Imprison Mind, >ightmare, erfection,

5ummon1*ind >ightgaunt, and Ganish, plus various 'reamlands spells .lthough he

%nows all the na%otic spells, there are many he has never seen the need to cast (eg

6ontact ound of Tindalos), so his castings should not automatically succeed

.ssess 5ignificance (new spell)F This spell costs ? M and ? 5.> If cast while

holding an ob&ect, it enables the caster to assess the significance of the ob&ect to the

collective unconsciousness of humanity, as represented by the 'reamlands The result

is a comple!, synaesthesia;li%e e!perience of the wor%, which varies in intensity

according to the ob&ects significance The spell re/uires a 'ream Lore roll and arelevant s%ill roll to interpret the spells result correctly (an .rt istory role if the

spell was used upon a wor% of art, etc)

Notes on Klaus

:laus owes his longevity to repeated uses of the eal and erfection spells, plus a

vegetarian diet and regular -oga aranoid investigators might realise that the only

circles in which yoga, vegetarianism and other indu concepts were popular in pre;

war +ermany were occult ones

:laus is never without his enchanted 6ane (which drains O4 from those it touches

and grants Magic oints to :laus on a one;to;one basis, as per the spell), a ypatian

.n%h, and a selection of alchemical powders (5uleiman, Ibn;+ha9i, etc) If he is

e!pecting any unusual social interaction (eg being interviewed by the 6s) he will

have cast Goice of a and 5e%hmen%enhemps 4ords on himself beforehand, which

ma%es him very difficult to outwit or disagree with Li%ewise if he is e!pecting any

Mythos;related or violent incident, he will bring his enchanted :nife (made of silver

and in the form of a switchblade (which are illegal to possess in .ustralia), it has both

*less *lade and 8nchant :nife cast upon it) as well as his 6ane .fter possession by

a -ithian and years of casting .ugur and 'ream Gision spells, :laus is very good at

e!pecting things 5till, he would prefer to avoid outright violence, and if physicallythreatened by the 6s would probably appear to give way, then later summon

>ightgaunts to carry them off, rather than retaliate physically If faced with

antagonists with law;enforcement capacity, he would summon >ightgaunts to

immobilise them, reduce their O4 and hence magic resistance with his cane, and

cast 6loud Memory to cause them to forget him Less significant threats will be sent

>ightmares until they desist

. pantry in :laus house has been converted into a refuge against ounds of

Tindalos It is sealed (but not airtight) and well stoc%ed with food and drin% e can

escape to this room at any time by using his Ganish spell

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Polyps and Hounds and ithians! Oh My"

.n essay on trans;temporal ecology by 8meritus rofessor :laus 5chol9 (translated

from the +ree% by Dames aughton)

I owe the inspiration for this ms to many long discussions with my dear friend, 'r>evil :ingston;*rown of the 2niversity of Melbourne I regret deeply that the

substance of much of these discussions is lost to me, and that the good 'octor will not

be born for some #CC years and is thus unavailable for further correspondence

4e must realise that the universe contains many dimensions, of which modern

science has only scratched the surface 8ach of these, each set and combination, is

inhabited by creatures for whom our three and a half dimensions would seem as

bi9arre and deadly as their home dimensions, of which the physicists tell us we see

only a subatomic string, would be to us if translated there -et all dimensions

influence each other, if only in subtle and subatomic ways, and the patterns of life,

those self;organising systems of which my former colleagues 'rs Gon >eumann and

5chrodinger wrote, are repeated in each combination of space, time and the other

immeasurable depths There are patterns that survive and1or reproduce, and each of

these patterns re/uires energy Many are capable of harvesting the ambient energy

surrounding them, as our plants harvest sunlight -et many others find it easier to

harvest the energy from these initial harvesters, and others will harvest from them,

and so on in a great web spanning all the dimensions of the universe umanity is

caught in a strand of that web, but in this paper, I mean to dissect a few of the spiders

2pon earth, we have organisms that harvest ambient energy directlyF plants 4e have

those which harvest the plantsF herbivores, and those which harvest the herbivoresFcarnivores This harvesting may ta%e many and varied formsH while some consume

the store of energy of the creature, as a man consumes the seeds of wheat or a tiger

the flesh of a goat, others simply siphon from the flow of energy, as we draw upon the

mil% of cows or a flea suc%s the blood Of this latter case, we recognise two typesF if

the organism supplying the energy also gains some reciprocal benefit, we call it a

symbiosisH if the organism gains no benefit but is simply leeched from, we refer to it

as parasitism

It is not unreasonable to imagine that these relationships will occur in any ecosystem,

no matter how fantastic its dimensional permutationsH and I mean to e!amine how

they occur within the dimension of time Time is the most mysterious of the humandimensionsF we can only move through it one way and at one speed, but we can only

loo% the other -et, as I %now from bitter e!perience, there are creatures which can

move and loo% both ways, and doubtless there are those not restricted to the one;

dimensional line we inhabit, but capable of moving sideways in time, above and

below time, as easily as we might move sideways in space Time, as the dimension in

which we are least at home, is the one we share with those things we find most alien,

though they find our everyday length, breadth and height most difficult to enter

I shall begin with those most well %nown to us, who force themselves upon usF the

-ithians Is there any doubt that no matter how intelligent and sympathetic to human

morality this species may be, its role in the time dimension is that of parasiteN-ithians freely move through time to steal the time and energy of others 4hile their

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raids upon the lives of homo sapiens are confined to a few isolated individuals such as

myself, the -ithians freely admit to having parasitically colonised entire species,

leaving the former minds of their hosts to perish in whatever struggle they were too

cowardly to face themselves -et they maintain the bodies of those hosts, and bring

up their young to share their parasitic habits in a sinister reversal of the cuc%oos egg

0urthermore, their society is regularly described as a %ind of

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the time stream to the ounds hunger The -ithians are shielded in some other way

from the hunting dogs of 6hronos, and I believe that I have fathomed the secret of

that shielding

Is the shielding a super;science mastered by the -ithians, but beyond the reach of we

primatesN I thin% not In this we must consider again the parasiticnature of the -ith>one of their artefacts obtained and e!amined by us show any signs of elements in

commonH the lightning gun, the temporal communicator, the fiendish mind;wiper and

the still guarded stasis cubes all have totally different aesthetics, design principles and

even seem to operate using completely different scientific principles It is as if they

were all designed by different civilisations .nd this is, in all probability, because

they were 4hy should a race that can draw upon and se/uester the %nowledge of

every other race in the universe within their inaccessible libraries bother to invent or

design anything for themselvesN 5omething in the archives would

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temporal ecology The -ithians may have initially thought that by cutting them off

from the sun, the great source of most ambient energy, the olyps would /uic%ly die

away owever, they had a further, much more useful feature .s space;time bending

polyps they would feed upon anything that triggered their grasping tendrils, which

must have e!tended into the time;space around their

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# $ight at the Opera% Operation &'R(E) TRE#S'RE

"oming soon+