A brief tl;dr for anyone who's not heard of our little project before.

Essentially, it's an nWoD/Call of Cthulhu crossover. The PCs are Outsiders, people touched in some way by some of the alien entities of the Cthulhu Mythos. They're now trapped somewhere between humanity and Something Else, and, since the Stars Are Not Right, reality itself begins to reject them.

Basically, Whately Brothers: The RPG.

COMPACT: MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: “The College”

QUOTE: “Knowledge is the only real weapon against our foe.”

Arkham, Massachusets, has always been a magnet for weirdness and magic. The campus only really became connected with the Mythos in the 1920's through the actions of Doctor Henry Armitage, the University's head librarian. His investigations into the Outsiders of the Whateley family in Dunwich led him to investigate further, often in collaboration with Professors Peaslee, Wilmarth and Dyer.

Today, Miskatonic University has gone far beyond its humble first stumblings into the Mythos. Even as Arkham has lost much of its significance, the University has maintained a fairly respectable position amongst American Universities. This place of learning has, over the years, however, become the centre of a fairly hardened anti-Mythos conspiracy.

>>15614132

Every year brings a new source of recruits for the conspiracy who are, throughout their time at university, subtly tested as to their suitability for a front-line role in the struggle against the Mythos. Those who are found to have the right qualities are quietly given the final test. Those who survive with their sanity intact are properly inducted into the Alumni. Those who die, or go insane, are carefully dumped. The higher than usual rate of drop-outs and disappearances from Miskatonic has, until now at least, mostly gone un-noticed or ignored.

The University acts as a hub for the conspiracy, which now controls much of Arkham itself. Substantial town regeneration projects have seen the town redesigned so that it acts as a protective seal, as well as a binding ritual to keep certain entities bound in the basements of the university. Beyond Arkham, Miskatonic's Alumni are everywhere. The university does its best to foster stronger than usual bonds between students, so that even those who do not get inducted fully will respond when called upon to help out some fellow former students.

The Inducted Alumni make for formidable anti-Outsider Hunters. The Restricted Collection in the University Library has continued to grow, first under the efforts of Armitage and then his successors. This would be a massively useful tool for any Hunter organization, since the University tends to buy up whatever books it can on the supernatural before ascertaining their usefulness. Although the Collection has barely been touched by digitalization (the worries of what would happen if certain books went online have stopped this), the University has set up a system by which trusted Alumni can contact certain staff from a distance in order to consult the books indirectly. The Alumni often utilise the magic in these books, though mostly only tried, tested and understood rituals.

>>15614140

Miskatonic University's Hunters do not exclusively focus on the Mythos, or on Outsiders, though they tend to leave more earthly supernatural threats to other Hunter groups. How important is a group of vampires running a city, occasionally draining a few people, when compared to the apocalyptic consequences of the Mythos?

>>15614154
HUNTERS: You’re an undergraduate who survived the trials needed to enter the University, and have been shown pictures and books you never want to see again. Sadly for you, you can’t leave until your four years are up. You have the worrying suspicion that you won’t be able to leave even then.

As an alumni, you brought the fight to the monsters, using your knowledge of occult lore to track down and eliminate their cults wherever they’re found. Before, you felt some trouble with ending a human life. As time wears on, you notice that you care less and less.

You just worked at the University as a campus cop the night you saw a monster with seven eyes on one head decided to try and grab a co-ed right in front of you. You emptied an entire clip into the thing, with no effect, as it seemed to devour the girl before your eyes, then set it’s sights on you. Collapsing, you watched as the monster exploded from the inside, the girl no worse for wear. Helping you up, she brought you to the dean. Now you’re always carrying a book of chants around next to your pistol.

You feel the whispers calling to you, but you ignore them. Some days are worse than others, but you always ignore them in order to destroy the monsters. Still, the whispering keeps getting worse, and you constantly force it back. You fear that if the others find out, they’ll take you away. So you keep fighting, praying you’ll eliminate the source one of these days.

>>15614161

STEREOTYPES
Ashwood Abbey: “Over the course of several hunts against the creatures of the Old Ones, our alumni have encountered this social club using the creatures we were hunting for their own amusement before eliminating them. Though realizing they are part of the same conflict we are, their methods leave much to be desired, as do their morals.”

Loyalists of Thule: “Gathered together of various academics and occult researchers, we have found that this group is devoted to researching and destroying creatures in a similar manner to our own. Several times we have exchanged information and tomes, and discovered there are most amicable. Despite this, there are some secrets even they must not know.”

Null Mysteriis: “While we still attempt to use updated scientific techniques to study the creatures we encounter, we have made few concrete gains. These individuals, however, continue to press forward with standard scientific methods to explain them. While their determination is admirable, and while we have hope they will one day unlock the mysteries of their existence, for now, we cannot count them as reliable.”

Task Force: VALKYRIE: “Since we discovered this Federal group to be responsible for many incidents, including the destruction of Innsmouth, we have warily observed them when encountered. Despite their devotion and ability to combat the enemy, they are also paranoid in regards to their secrecy, and must be approached only when it appears they may fail in their assignment.”

>>15614167

FACTIONS: Despite existing as a conspiracy in the Vigil for some time, the various factions of the conspiracy are simply known as ORGANIZATIONS.

The Armitage Library is the repository for the University’s knowledge on it’s enemies and their weaknesses, as well as any relics or tomes that may come into their possession. Charged with the distribution of needed equipment to hunters in the field, care is always taken to ensure the wrong tool is not sent to the wrong hunter, or worse, that it is not sent to an unwitting civilian.
Free Speciality: Academics (Research)

The Alumni Communications Network coordinates the movements of both alumni and students on the trail of the creatures spawned from the other realities that would tear theirs apart. Though somewhat lacking in terms of combat prowess, the Network makes up for it in it’s expertise in electronics and communication.
Free Speciality: Computer (Internet)

Finally, there is the Miskatonic Activities Council, doublespeak for the larger group of hunters in the conspiracy. Under the cover of legitimate college activities and outings (baseball games, field trips, etc.) the University is able to send it’s hunters where they’re needed most, without fearing suspicion as to why seventy people from the same area are converging on the same town.
Free Speciality: Athletics (Sport of your choice)

>>15614179

MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY MERITS

Miskatonic University Status (• to •••••)

In addition to acting as a measure of status and respect within the university, this also limits access to the Restricted Collection Access merit. Restricted Collection Access can never go above your Status (Miskatonic University) merit.

• You've only just been inducted into the conspiracy. You know who to contact at different universities in order to get access to other records or libraries. You gain a free dot of Allies (Academics).
••• As you've risen in status, you've been given lists of ex-Miskatonic Alumni who'll be able to help you in small ways, though rarely for anything too illegal. You gain Contacts (Politics, Law and Medicine).
••••• At this level of status, if you don't know the answer to a question, you know someone who does. You gain the Encyclopedic Knowledge Merit. If you already have this merit, you may reroll failed rolls on it once.

Restricted Collection Access (• to •••••)

For each dot in this merit, you gain a +1 bonus on Occult rolls, as long as you have some way of either consulting the library yourself, or contacting another person to do it for you. In addition, you acquire the knowledge of one Ritual which costs up to the number of dots you have in this merit. Other Rituals can be learned by succeeding an extended Intelligence + Occult roll with target number of successes equal to the dot-cost of the Ritual

The Miskatonic University is too powerful.

Add some mysterious possible plothooks where the players can cause some damage.

Like for example a number of vampires infiltrating the Miskatonic University, led by a mysterious figure that may or may not be a vampire...

Stuff like that.

The vibe I got from Lovecraft's books about the Miskatonic University is that it's just as much about fighting the Mythos as it is about serving the Mythos.

>>15614258

Right, we wont be happy with anything until you make sure the sparklepires are centre stage of everything!

>>15614258
Hmm, something infiltrating the MU is an idea, tho looking at the blurb for Arkham it seems more like a fortress under siege from all sides.

The vibe I got from the stories is: "Something strange is happening. Must investigate for SCIENCE!...Oh shit, I've seen this stuff in the Necronomicon! KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!"

>>15614280
>implying I care about vampires

I just want to see some plothooks that allow STs to weaken the grip of the Miskatonic University.

Vampires make excellent infiltrators due to their powers.

Just all a matter of logic.

And personally, I don't see Nyarlapotep below manipulating vampires by masquerading (hahahaha, did you get the joke, hahahaha?) as a vampire.

>>15614258

>The Miskatonic University is too powerful.

Is that in terms of the Merits or just in terms of the fluff? While they're certainly powerful in Arkham, their influence outside of it is mostly linked to their Alumni, who are mostly used as a network of contacts rather than a serious conspiracy.

As to infiltration, it's definitely an option, and we probably should add a "plothooks" section, thanks for that. I'd maybe avoid vampires, since a Supernatural-hunting group might cotton onto the fact that certain of its members are never seen in the daylight, but there's almost definitely some Mages there, probably a couple of Changelings, the more subtle sort of monsters.

>>15614316

The idea was that while that was certainly the vibe back in the 20's and 30's when isolated professors and students were first stumbling onto the Mythos, it'd make sense that, over time, notes would be shared, the books would be consulted and the compact would be formed.

Another potential plothook for Miskatonic University would be the very real potential for corruption. When you've got Something chained up in the basement and stacks upon stacks of Forbidden, Eldritch, Arcane Lore, someone, at some point, regardless of whatever safeguards they put in place, will try to utilise the knowledge contained therein. An archivist going off the rails and trying to let It out, whatever It is.

And that's not even considering the fate of the poor bastards who drop out after being exposed to the Thing in the Basement. Not everyone's mentally strong enough to make it as a Mythos-Hunter and people who leave Miskatonic University tend to do so either dumped in the sea or locked away in an institution. Disturbed relatives might be desperate to find out what happened to their disappeared students.

So in the IRC we're just discussing what sort of Artifacts we could include in the game, focusing on each one being a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they help people fight the Mythos, and on the other, they help the forces of the Mythos.

So, for example, the Necronomicon could give straight bonuses to occult, so Hunters could use it to fight Outsiders and Outsiders could use it to summon their masters from beyond. Erich Zann's violin can be used in the way he did, keeping whatever was outside his window asleep or somehow appeased, or to wake it up fully.

Other artifacts coming from Lovecraft could include: Randolph Carter's Silver Key, the Shining Trapezohedron from the Haunter of the Dark , the Tillinghast Resonator from From Beyond or the Amulet from the Hound.

Any other ideas?

>>15615180
You know there was nothing special about Zann's violin, right? It was the notes he was playing that overlapped the two worlds like the rhythmic words of a spell.

>>15615264
His musical score then.

>>15615264

Not necessarily. It's not as if Lovecraft said otherwise, but I'd say it wouldn't be implausible to say that it was a special violin, specifically designed to be able to play that sort of music.

>>15615180
>the Tillinghast Resonator
Hmm, potentially the origin of the TF:V Etheric Goggles and Etheric Tracker.

Holy shit, I saw some of the archived threads and I had no idea that you all were still working on it.

>>15615836
After having invested so much time into this, I want t o at least see it in a playable stage.

>>15614388
What about a secret society from a rival university trying to access the hidden files of the Miskatonic University?

>>15615887
Heh, this would be fun.
>Enter rival university to find dirt on them.
>Find the Thing in the Basement.
>4 of the people on your team go mad
>the remaining 2 resign and start working at Miskatonic
>meanwhile you have turned in to a horror from beyond the stars

>>15615180
Maybe a little bit of scifi?

An advanced energy weapon found on the frozen remains on a frozen US Navy Seals unit on Antartica.

Autopsy revealed that most US Navy Seals died of fear before freezing.

The others were... eaten completely, leaving only the bones behind. No traces of what ate them can be found, not even an atomic trace.

While advanced alien laser weapons don't really fit in the whole WoD feel, they do present an excellent example of the diversity of the Cthulhu mythos, the place where the supernatural, the (alternative) historical, horror, fantasy, mythology and science fiction merge into one.

>>15615962
And one note on the dead US Navy Seals team, they fired a total of 569 rifle rounds and 5 SMAW rockets. The bullets and rockets fired were never found, not even a trace.

>>15615962
The secret origin of the Mjolnir Cannon?

>>15615816
>>15615962
>>15616033
This could be an idea.
Look at TFV Advanced Armory and come up with what could have been the prototypes for those things.

>>15615962
I like that image because it appears to be Hebrew and the jews have this thing about lost tribes of israel and i like the idea of tibetan-like tribe of jews.
Maybe they interbred with the locals soo much that no one knew... untill you descover some of their oldest ruins have hebrew on them... or something...

A bit of info on the world:

Baltimore
"This is Baltimore gentlemen, the Gods will not save you"
The horrors of the old world always tended to follow the great human migrations. Finding a foothold with the simple and disenfranchised folk they came to the new world. While many of the great cities of the east coast have managed to shake off much of the influence Outsiders had in them, either because they moved on or have been ousted by other supernaturals, Baltimore, especially the docks, is still in their hands.

Honolulu
One of the few greater Outsider strongholds it's the best known and safest way to access the lost continent of Mu. It is ruled by a council of eight Outsiders, and anyone wishing to visit Mu must petition them for permission. Shipping lanes are controlled by cults of Deep Ones while airports are the province of more mundane servants.

Arkham
Once mired in the dark legacy of Outsiders an their cults, modern Arkham is largely free of them due to the efforts of Miskatonic University. But still there are nights when strange sounds are heard and inhuman shapes seen in the streets. For the vast store of esoteric knowledge contained in the vaults of the University act as an irresistible lure for some, and not just Outsiders.

Kingsport
Sister city to Arkham, Outsiders tend to avoid it due to historically frequent presence of the Elder Gods, Nodens in particular. High population of Changelings and thus Fetches.

>>15618907

Rue d’Auseil.
Quiescence 1 Area
Nobody really knows where it is, other that it is somewhere in France.
The street is almost a cliff, and so steep in some places that several spots consist of stairs. It's paving is irregular, sometimes stone slabs and sometimes bare earth. A few overhead bridges cross the street from house to house. It lays across a dark and shadowy river so odorous it steamed with evil stenches. It ends in a wall, but nearby there is a house from whose garret room window one might see over it. If one is to look out of it one sees the Outside, causing insanity in any mortal viewer.
Once the street is quiet for the night the room is filled with haunting melodies. It is unknown if they originate from the mindless piping of the court of Azathoth or from some lost memory of the last moments of Carcosa.

New Orleans
Vampires may control the city, but the bayous belong to the cults. The exact relationship changes from cult to cult, but to the leaches they all represent an element of chaos that they would rather see gone.

Boston
Mages control Boston, but it's also the place of origin for many of the eldest Outsiders in New England not in small part due to the propensity of Mages to meddle with the borders of reality. Those who survived reprisals from the cites magical masters went on to spread their influence in the region.

New York
Outsiders still can find refuge in the old district of Red Hook and their influence and corruption can be felt on every corner. Especially when one realizes the area has lost up to a third of it's size due to certain places disappearing from reality and others well on their way to doing the same. Old smuggling tunnels intersect with modern sewers giving easy and unseen access to the whole area.

>>15618927

Philadelphia
The city is run by Hunters, and mortals do everything they can to root out the influence of the Outsiders, friendly or otherwise. That said, the Pine Barrens and coast of New Jersey play home to many servants of the gods.


Also if anyone familiar with Promethean could write a few lines on Detroit and how they would interact with Outsiders it would be appreciated.

What's the WoD Middle-East like?

I assume there's lots of Outsider activity in the Middile-East, and probably a lot in the US military too, as well as the black market Arabian antiquities market.

>>15618992
Yeah the mythos has quite the presence there.
The Nameless City for one thing.
Tho I too would be curious to know how nWoD handles the Middle-East.

>>15619098
And let's not forget Outsider activity among archeologists, astronomers, NASA personnel, geologists, paleontologists, ship personnel and oil drill personnel...

An other thing we were discussing on IRC were ideas for one more Hunter Compact and a Hunter Conspiracy (since 3 compacts 1 conspiracy seems to be the norm for Hunter suplements), but we are running into the problem that most of the pulp concepts that would fit the mythos are already taken.
Suggestions?

OH hey, this is still around?

I'm the guy who wrote the 'Reject Reality: Obtain Cookies' rant. Been meaning to rewrite it eventually for y'all, but not sure what precisely you want changed (other than the specifics about the categories of rejectiosn of course), since the sidenote next to it said it needed a different writing style. Did you want a more scholarly sort of thing, or what? Give me something to work with, and I'll see what I can throw up for it.

>>15620981
>other than the specifics about the categories of rejections of course
Nothing other than that really, don't know who added the 'style' comment really.

>>15621061

Alright, I'll get to work on that now. THe first half of it (explaining the basics of Rejections--IE, how they can't follow the laws of physics and et cetera) is fine, yeah? Just the last half with the specifics needs editting.

>>15621107
Yep, that is fine.

Do they have a presence in DC, by any chance?

>>15621154

Allright, done, more or less. Maybe some spelling errors or cleaning up need to be done, but I've got it. can anonymous users save to the google docs, or do you just want me to paste the changes into a couple of posts here?

>>15621216
Wasn't really discussed.
Tho I'd say no more than any other entity. One thing to remember is that while there might be a bunch of mythos creatures in the world Outsiders themselves are even more rare than other splats.
Hell, if we wanted to be 100% true to canon, there were 12 Shepards of the Silver Key in the whole of human history up to the 1930s.

>>15621271
Post them here (thread can always use a bump :P).

>>15621288

JA! Will do the whole thing, because why not? Give people who dunno what's going on a bit of setting fluff to read.

"Reject Reality. Obtain Cookies."

Rejections can do many things. In fact, there's very little they can't do. You can know a rejection that will turn you into a giant, squamous behemoth able to readily devour your foes, or a rejection able to rip out a man's sanity and replace with the cacophonous wails of the damned. That's a good conversation starter at parties, I hear, but I don't go to those sorts of parties because no one invites me.

So let's go over what a Rejection can't do, hmm?

They can't follow the laws of reality. No melting ice, boiling water, or turning one thing into another of the same mass. They have to break some law. They have to REJECT reality. Hence the name.

Sure, you can turn a stone into a loaf of bread of the same size, o Moses of the Pharaoh. But the trick's in the mass--you study Einstein at all? Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. But that's something we can Reject, eh? We turn the stone to bread, and it's done--bread's lighter than stone, has less mass, it's fine.

But say you want to turn a hunk of lead into... I dunno, a piece of gold with the same mass. No can do.

Now, if you wanted to turn that hunk of lead into a piece of gold infused with the power of the Dreamlands, or one that would bring about mutagenic wrath that would make Shub-Niggurath blush, that's fine, because you're imbuing it with powers that reject reality.

Now that the rant's out the way, how's about we try some out, youngster? Hold onto your butt, 'cause things are about to get Real.

See what I did there? Always had a soft spot for puns.

>>15621293

Oh, you want more information first? Eh, your type always does. Okay, there's a few different categories, at least that we can tell, of Rejections. I'll just go down this nice little list that once got written on my back. Long story. I'll tell it to you later.

First up's called Communion. We ain't alone, more or less ever, what with the whole 'connection to outsiders' thing we've got going on. It lets us do cool things with minds, mostly, and knowledge. You can learn things you've got no right knowing, you can talk to people with just your thoughts, stuff like that.

The power of Mindscape's what we use to fuck with people's minds directly. Make them see illusions, pull out memories, hypnotize them, even just drive them stark raving bonkers, that's what Mindscape's good at. It's also a great conversation starter at parties.

Dreamscape's a fun little fucker with play with. Power over people's Dreams, plus a little side in going through the Dreamlands when you want to? Possess sleeping bodies, stake out little corners of the Dreamlands for your own use? It's pretty damn fun.

Hypergeometry--my personal favoraite, by the way--is that category of Rejections that deals with the sort of things that would make Euclid go all pale and sweaty. Extradimensional spaces, teleporting, irregular angles, oh man, the stuff this thing can do... I like to write out problems that use it, then show it to college math professors. Gets them, every time.

>>15621297

Superposition's a strange one, at least to me--never could quite wrap my head fully around it--but it's pretty simple, or it's supposed to be in theory. Basically, there's a ton of realities out there, and with Superposition, you can tap into those other realities, the past, the future, whatever. It's messing with time and fate.

Next up we've got Polymorphism, which is really fucking fun at parties, by the way. It's the category of Rejections (ever think it's funny that we categorize these things? I mean, it just seems hypocritical to me. Eh, dosen't matter) that deals with your body. Yep, yours. Well, and others. It lets you twist, reshape, mutate, grant life, eat people, whatever. If it deals with matters of flesh, it's Polymorphism. Unless it ain't.

Corruption's a good one. See, reality ain't meant for us, right? We corrupt it just by existing. So we tap into that corruption, and bam, Corruption. It's remaking reality to be more like us. It's also one of the most versatile categories, with all sorts of crazyfun and funcrazy shit to do in it.

And last, but certainly not least, is Violation. You know those laws of physics I mentioned we don't care about earlier? This is, basically, breaking the piss out of them. Change how velocity and acceleration work, speed up or slow down time, twist and contort people by shifting what the definition of gravity is, change mass. Think of it as the physics to Polymorphism's biology.

And that's the sort of Rejections we can do. Cool, eh? THought so. Now, for the hands-on lessons. Hope you brought your brown pants!

>>15621293
>>15621297
>>15621317
Heh, I like it.
Also 'The Mentor' is going to get the shit stated out of him once we get to that part.
He sounds just too much fun not to.

>>15621345

Heh, feel free. I have no idea what he is, aside from the fact that he seems like to Hypergeometry, Mindscape, and Dreamscape the most, dosen't do much involving Superposition, and is probably one scary knowledgeable motherfucker.

He's probably a Master or a Dreamer, I think.

Not a clue what Sect, though.

>>15621372
>Not a clue what Sect
Sounds like a Courtier.

>>15621539

Fair enough. Anyway, I gotta crash out to bed, so I hope this thread's still alive and kicking.

I might drop by the irc later on, if I get a chance, 'cause really this does interest me, and I might as well put a bigger hand than a bit of writefaggotry and a character idea, eh?

>>15621683
Help is always wllcome.

Ok, let me ask you for input.
What could be an appropriate 4 dot power for this Rejection:

[Spring-Heeled Jack]
Cost: 1-2:none 3-4:1M 5:1M 1W

The laws of the universe are just guidelines for Outsiders. This includes Gravity.
Ranks:
(•) You decrease your own gravity for a moment allowing you to do incredibly long or high jumps. Add Mythos and Violation to your jump checks.
(••) You change the direction from which gravity affects you essentially allowing you to walk on walls and ceilings. This does not allow you to fly off into the sky.
(•••) Roll [Mythos+Violation+Intelligence] Target is subjected to 1G of additional gravity per success. For each additional G the target's movement rate halves. If the number of Gs ever exceeds the target's stamina he falls unconscious. Vampires and other creatures who don't require oxygen are immune to this last effect. (Possibly -1 to str and dex related checks per success.)
(••••)
(•••••) Cancel gravity in a radius of 5 yards around you per point of Mythos for the duration of a scene.

bump

>>15624910

Switching 4 dots around seems like it might work. So instead of increasing gravity on a person, you decrease it. Might have to make it so that you have to keep the person in sight though, so you can't just launch the person into space.

Well, unless you go with them.

>>15627237
Decreasing gravity, doesn't mean one will just fly off.

>>15627491

Well, then you launch them up or something. I dunno.

Hmm, a fan-made WoD addition? I like, especially since it's dealing with Lovecraftian nasties!
So, mind telling me what classic horror nasties have been absorbed into WoD? I know there's vampires, werewolves, fairies, frankenstein monsters, and now, lovecraftian nasties, and I heard of another fan-made project that deals with mad scientists.

What else can we make? What is the Hunters?

>>15630520
>Hunters
Normal people hunting monsters.

>>15624910
>>15627237
>>15628963
This does give me an idea.
The current (•••) becomes the (••••) since it does seem quite powerful from that level, while the missing spot is replaced by:

(•••) The Outsider sends out a gravitational pulse that knocks down everything in a radius of one yard per Mythos. [Mythos+Violation+Intelligence] vs [Strength+Athletics] to resist. Fragile objects shatter. The Outsider my choose to concentrate the pulse on a single target. Roll [Mythos+Violation+Intelligence] to deal Bashing damage within sensory range.

>>15630520

Mages (modern day wizards with incredible, godlike powers) are about the only other classic "monster" you've missed. There's also Sin-Eaters (people who died, but came back to life with the help of a weird ghost-spirit hybrid thing), but they're hardly classic.

>>15630520
Mad Scientists are covered by Mages with slight modifications in the Mage Chronicler's Guide.

Geist's cover the urban legends of people being changed after near death experiences, but that's not really a classic monster.

Bump with some Dreaming

New Compact

COMPACT: Arkham Mental Health Services: “The Asylum”

Mental health is a mixed blessing in today’s society. Treatments are both caring and cruel, the doctors humane and conniving. In the past hundreds of years, despite the advances in both mental health and pharmacology, the stigma of insanity is a difficult one to be rid of, and those who need the services of such professionals are often only in their care because their family and friends will not care for them otherwise. The professionals who do work with those considered distrubed by society at large have a daunting task ahead of them to cure their patients. The doctors at Arkam have it even harder.

>>15640430

When a young man was transferred in after claiming a disastrous visit to the now-nonexistent town of Innsmouth, the doctors noticed the patient had strange qualities aside from his mental state, from a head turning from average to misshapen to limbs that started to contort and shift with no discernible reason. Daring to bring him out of his padded cell, the doctors came to a frightening conclusion; not only was this man’s condition irreversible, it was also caused by his insanity. From electroshock therapy to the most modern drugs and treatments, the doctors were stunted at every turn, the man constantly shouting that “Father Hydra” would best them all. The lead doctors and administrators, deciding there was no turning back and no way to cure the man, decided to revert to more arcane forms of treatment, in the vain hope that he could be brought back. Fashioning more arcane devices from scratch, the doctors set to the man’s treatment, from submerging him into freezing water (which apparently had no effect), to forcing him to stay for days at a time in the dark freezing basement without food, telling him that he would only be fed when he accepted reality. To the doctor’s amazement, the day he died, the came back long enough to whisper, “I am wrong...” before dying, the doctors taking it as a sign their harsh methods had worked.

>>15640440

That would have been the end of it all, had it not been for an article from a local newspaper about a team of professors who destroyed a creature featuring amazingly similar symptoms to their patient. Realizing the threat was greater than previously thought, the doctors organized, bringing in as much information on the threat as they could, including finding ways to transfer to their care the survivors of a police raid in the Louisiana swamps who claimed to worship a being known as “Cthulhu”, and one of the few survivors of a doomed Antarctic expedition. Using their testimony to build a picture of the threat arrayed against the world’s sanity (coupled with intense regimens of their now effective “treatments”), the doctors and staff of Arkam agreed that they had to root out this insanity wherever it was found, “cure” those affected in any way possible, and destroy the causes of the insanity, rationalizing that the crude treatments were more effective to the changed neurological state in the patients than more humane treatments.

The hunters who align themselves with the Asylum straddle the line that would divide Null Mysteriis’ Rationalists from it’s Open-Minds and Cataclysmists. When a modern treatment is proven effective, they will use it. Should such methods fail, they will revert in treatment methods, going as far as the simplest of trapanations; opening the skull with a sharp object until they reach the brain.
As far as the local population is concerned, however, the screams from the asylum as only the screams of raving madmen, whose tales of mad doctors torturing the inmates are just the products of an addled mind.

>>15640445
HUNTERS: Your doctorate was controversial, to say the least, and your lab work with patients in the field left much to be desired in the way of results. You feared you were going to lose your doctorate and even your freedom, until a friend from your undergrad days contacted you about a job posting in New England. You accepted, and you saw just how “effective” your methods were. Even so, you have a steady career, and you’re now a praised doctor with a successful reputation throughout the region. Sacrificing your soul is probably a small prive to pay.

You saw your mother spiral downwards after your father left, and devoted yourself to understanding her pain and suffering. You started to study psychology on your own, but even with a college degree, you still found nothing medically or neurologically wrong with her. Then you found the altar she kept in the cellar, with the name of your dead father on the front. Sedating her, you called up the nearest asylum. Taking your mother away, the doctors saw what you had tried to do, and took you into to explain the situation. You use your skills for good now, and try to devote all your time to curing what took your late mother’s sanity, and life.

>>15640452

You heard the whispers too once, had the bad dreams. You did things, bad things. Things that no sane person does, and that’s what you are now. Sane, sane, sane.That’s why you use your old contacts to help the others who hear the whispers, to bring them into sanity, like the nice doctors did to you. Sure, sometimes you have to take the pills because you start shaking so bad you can barely move, and you still have large gaps in your memory from before, but you’re sane now. That’s what matters. Sane, sane, sane.

Your life as an orderly was never too fascinating, especially working for the state’s Department of Mental Health. You just looked after the lunatics and kept to the staff rooms, waiting for your shift to end so you could get back to drinking with your buddies. Then came the day you had to transfer to Arkham, and saw what looked like a man with tentacles in his throat and eyes try to eat another patient. As the other orderlies tied him back up in his straight jacket, they explained exactly what was wrong. Now you drink for an entirely different reason.

>>15640457
STEREOTYPES

Aegis Kair Doru: Several field studies of escaped patients revealed a group of individuals following the same patients, using what appeared to be antiquated weapons and articles of clothing. Deciding to let them take the lead, we observed they were able to manifest similar, if not greater effects of shared psychosis than the patient, who was lost in the struggle. How these individuals managed to create such effects remains to be seen.

Null Mysteriis: Several times we have traded information with this group, seeing them as like minded individuals in the struggle to keep mankind’s sanity intact against what appears to be an ever growing tide of advanced mental illness. Despite their willingness to share information, they are too trapped by restrictive dogma.

The Long Night: At times, a person’s belief can be just as dangerous as any psychosis, and this group seems to possess such mental issues in spades. Quite often they will charge headlong into those affected with mental conditions, not realizing they are simply sick people. When they are wrong, a man can die. When they are right, men will die.

VASCU: Several patients in the asylum were turned over from Federal custody to our hands, each one with no trace of more advanced psychoses, and all from this branch of the FBI. Through countless “favors” towards them, certain experts in parapsychology believe this group possesses actual psychics. Proof has yet to be seen of these claims.

>>15640463
FACTIONS: The divisions among the Arkham staff are simple; what is the best way to aid the patients driven to such insanity as Outsiders?

Innovators try to discern new cures from the ever expanding field of psychology and even parapsychology, trying to find a way to cure the patients under their care without resorting to the arcane methods they are forced to use. (FREE SPECIALTY: Experimental Psychcology)

Mainliners feel that a drug induced stupor coupled with treatment is the only way. The patients are a danger not only to themselves and others, but all of existence. By keeping them sedated and unable to move, and using Arkam’s signature treatments, they feel the patients will be able to sort themselves out. (FREE SPECIALTY: Pharmacology)

Regresionists are in favor of even more radical treatments than already used, daring to move into outright torture. Few of the staff are even willing to think about such actions, but those that do are true believers that their treatments will save the patients quickly and easily. For the staff, at least.

>>15640467
Arkam Mental Services Merit: Arkam Status (• to •••••)

STATUS: To rise in the Asylum, a member publishes treatise and theories on the workings of their patients illnesses, as well as treatments. Surprisingly, they are rather averse to killing, since each life taken is a life that could have been saved.

• - You’ve only just recently been told the truth about the patients in Arkam, and have been given a brief explanation on how the minds of your quarry will work. (+1 dot Empathy towards outsiders)

••• - At this level, you’re allowed access to the amassed files of the Asylum, including former patients, staff, and even locations where more advanced psychoses are found. (Free Specialty: Investigation: Mental Illness)

••••• - By now, you’ve grown used to the screams, pleadings, and pain, and you’re unaffected by it. Whatever these people may have, you will cure them, dead or alive. (+2 dots Willpower)