Mythos Monsters

This section details a few of the abominations of the Cthulhu Mythos—creatures of this world and from beyond. The monsters described here are, in the main, repugnant to humanity in their visage and aspect, being a threat to both an investigator’s mind and body.

Keepers are reminded that these embodiments of the Mythos are not uniform in their appearance, and distinctions can be made between creatures of the same race. When portraying a Mythos monster, the Keeper should avoid only illustrating the visual aspect to the players. Smell and sound are important signifiers, so too is the otherworldly atmosphere such creatures create. As the Necronomicon states, “…as a foulness shall ye shall know Them.”

Byakhee

Sometimes singularly, sometimes in packs they come, descending from the stars upon leathery wings. Upon four legs they go, but at times walk upon their hind quarters, the front legs ending in claw-like appendages, used to rent and tear. In size, akin to a common cow, yet as neither cow, bird, nor insect do they wholly present and are instead a menagerie of all crossed with the foulness of a human corpse. Know them by their stench, which arrives long before they appear.

—from the Necronomicon

This interstellar race often serves Hastur the Unnamable, and may be summoned to partake in rituals. Composed of conventional matter, they are vulnerable to ordinary weapons, such as pistols.

Dwelling in interstellar space, byakhee do not have bases on Earth, but may be summoned to perform deeds or to serve as steeds, carrying riders through interstellar space.

Special Powers

Fly: Byakhee can fly through space and carry a rider; though such riders need protection from the vacuum and cold by suitable spells or potions (e.g. Space-Mead).

Spells: Byakhee have a 40% chance of knowing 1D4 spells. Such spells may relate to Hastur and associated beings.

Byakhee, The star-steeds

HP: 14
Average Damage Bonus: 1D6
Average Build: 2
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 5/16 flying

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: The byakhee may strike with claws or crash into its victim, delivering grievous wounds.
Bite and hold (mnvr): If the bite strikes home the byakhee remains attached to the victim and begins to drain his or her blood. Each round the byakhee remains attached, including the first, the blood drain subtracts 3D10 points of STR from the victim, until death occurs (at STR 0). The byakhee characteristically remains attached with this attack until the victim is drained of blood, unless the victim can make a successful opposed STR roll. Escaping death, let the victim rest and regain blood (by transfusion as well), at up to 1D10+5 STR per day. A Byakhee may hold only one victim at a time.

Fighting 55% (27/11), damage 1D6 + damage bonus
Bite and hold (mnvr) 55% (27/11), damage 1D6 + 3D10 STR (blood) drain (single victim)
Dodge 35% (17/7)

Armor: 2 points of fur and tough hide.
Skills: Listen 50%, Spot Hidden 50%.
Sanity Loss: 1/1D6 Sanity points to see a byakhee.

Do byakhee possess the ability to fold space? Some conjecture that this power manifests via a certain internal organ, sometimes known as a "hune." There are some who would find great interest in the potential applications such an organ could have as a weapon or method of transport.

Perhaps a specimen of this organ resides in some forgotten museum or laboratory, just waiting for an unwitting scientist to activate its terrible secrets.

Cthulhu, Star-Spawn of

They all lay in stone houses in their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready… —H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

These gigantic octopoid beings resemble Cthulhu himself, yet are smaller in stature. Not all the inhabitants of R’lyeh were trapped in its watery angles when it sank. Some still live on in the deep trenches beneath the ocean, where they are tended by the deep ones. Related entities also dwell in the stars, such as the beings said to infest the Lake of Hali on a planet near the star Aldebaran, in Taurus.

Special Powers

Spells: Each knows 3D6 spells.

Star-Spawn of Cthulhu, Satraps of the sleeper

HP: 78
Average Damage Bonus: +10D6
Average Build: 11
Average Magic Points: 21
Move: 15 / 15 Swim

Attacks

Attacks per round: 4
Fighting attacks: A star-spawn may attack with tentacles or with claws to cause damage or to seize people.

Fighting 80% (40/16), damage equals damage bonus
Dodge 26% (13/5)

Armor: 10-point hide and blubber; regenerates 3 hit points per round.

Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D20 Sanity points to see a star-spawn.

Dark Young

An enormous writhing mass formed of ropy black, earth-wormlike tentacles. Something like twenty feet tall. Here and there, across the surface were great puckered mouths that dripped green goo. Beneath its central mass, two or three thicker tentacles terminated in enormous black hooves, on which it stamped forward. It carried the visage of some ancient gnarled tree when its shape was cast against the moon. The smell like the stench of open graves.

—from the Necronomicon

These beings are enormous writhing masses, formed out of ropy black tentacles. Here and there over the surfaces of the things are great puckered mouths that drip green goo. Beneath the creatures, tentacles end in black hooves, on which they stamp. The monsters roughly resemble trees in silhouette—the trunks being the short legs, and the tops of the trees represented by the ropy, branching bodies. The whole mass of these things smell like open graves. Dark young stand between 12 and 20 feet tall.

Such entities are the “young” referred to in Shub- Niggurath’s epithet, “Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.” They are closely connected to her, and are found only in areas where she is worshiped. Dark young act as proxies for Shub-Niggurath in accepting sacrifices, accepting worship from cultists, devouring non-cultists, and spreading their mother’s faith across the world. Luckily, they are rarely met with.

Special Powers

Spells: Each dark young knows a number of spells equal to a tenth of its INT.

Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath

HP: 30
Average Damage Bonus: 4D6
Average Build: 5
Average Magic Points: 18
Move: 8

Attacks

Attacks per round: 5. Dark young may only use a Trample attack once per round.
Fighting attacks: In its masses of tentacles, a typical dark young has four thicker sinuous tentacles with which it attacks. Each of these thicker tentacles can strike out to injure. It may also kick out with its hooves, simply crush, or strike with its massive bulk.
Grab (mnvr): The Dark young can use its tentacles to grab and capture up to four victims. If a victim is grabbed, he or she is held to one of the horrible sucking mouths and drained of 1D10+5 STR per round. This STR loss cannot be restored. While being drained, a victim is capable only of ineffectual writhing and screaming.
Trample: The dark young can also trample with its massive hooves, typically hooting and bellowing as it rears up and attempts to trample as many opponents as it can (up to 1D4 humans if they are situated close together).

Fighting 80% (40/16), damage bonus
Grab (mnvr) 80% (40/16), grabbed and held for 1D10 + 5 STR drain per round
Trample 40% (20/8), damage 2D6 + damage bonus
Dodge 40% (20/8)

Armor: Dark young are of non-Earthly material and make-up, so that any successful hit with a firearm attack does only 1 point of damage per bullet (2 points for an impale). Hand-to-hand weapons do normal damage. Attacks dependent on heat, blast, corrosion, electrical charge, or poisoning have no effect.
Skills: Stealth (bonus die in woods) 30%.
Sanity Loss: 1D3/1D10 Sanity points to see a dark young.

Recent research by field archaeologists in central England have uncovered curious clues about an ancient Pagan fertility cult. The findings reveal an unhealthy devotion to trees and darkly suggest hideous religious rites involving the sacrifice of virgins to something named only as the "Withering Tree."

Perhaps connected are the claims of cert Amazonian elders who speak of regions of the jungle that walk, and how gifts must be given to the "tall ones" to satiate their hunger. Indeed, a handful of travelers in these regions have returned with strange tales of being awoken at night by vines seemingly encroaching on their tents, with some going as far to claim that they awoke to find black vines encircling their legs or arms.

Deep One

Humanoid fish-frog people, they reside beneath the waves in ancient sunken cities, serving their high priest and priestess, Dagon and Hydra, in the worship of Great Cthulhu. Immortal beings, their scaled, sometimes rugose, skin is a grayish-green to blue, though variations appear, such as those presenting white or yellow bellies. Shiny and slippery, with fin-like ridges on their backs, and webbed feet and hands. Their heads vary is disposition, appearing fish- or frog-like, with prodigious bulging eyes and wide, thin-lipped mouths possessing shark-like teeth. On their necks may be seen palpitating gills, giving them supremacy in the sea, although these fish-demons may also go about on land seeming unencumbered by the lack of water.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth

The deep ones are an amphibious race that primarily serves Cthulhu and two beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. Locked in the timeless depths of the sea, their alien, arrogant lives are coldly beautiful, unbelievably cruel, and effectively immortal. They come together to mate or to worship Great Cthulhu, but do not crave touching or being touched as humans do. They are a marine race, unknown in freshwater environments, and globally have many cities, all submerged beneath the waves. One is off the coast of Massachusetts, near Innsmouth, while other sites are rumored to lie off the British Isles.

Deep ones may be worshiped by humans with whom they regularly interbreed, for deep ones are immortal unless slain, and so are any hybrid offspring.

Special Powers

Breathe underwater: Dwelling under the sea, deep ones require no exterior help to breathe underwater and are equally capable of breathing on land.

Spells: Deep ones have a 40% chance of knowing 1D4 spells.

Deep Ones, Gilled masters of the deep seas

HP: 13
Average Damage Bonus: 1D4
Average Build: 1
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 8/10 Swimming

Attacks

Attacks per round: 1
Fighting attacks: Deep ones can use weapons as humans do. They are skilled with their spears and tridents.

Fighting 45% (22/9), damage 1D6 + damage bonus or by weapon type (e.g. spear, damage 1D8 + damage bonus)
Dodge 25% (12/5)

Armor: 1-point skin and scales.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a deep one.

For centuries the deep ones have had to build their fabulous underwater cities, hidden in the deepest oceans for no man to see. Occasionally found in the diaries, memoirs, or tales of sailors, fishermen, and pearl divers are hints and claims of strange jewelry, huge worked stones (often encrusted with mother of pearl) and, of course, mermaids.

If collected together, such stories might lead one to conclude that certain regions are host to immortal deep one communities. Names such as Ahu-Y’hloa, Y’ha-nth-lei, and G’ll-oo have been recorded.

Deep One Hybrid

It was a thin, stoop-shouldered man not much under six feet tall… His age was perhaps thirty-five, but the odd, deep creases in the sides of his neck made him seem older when one did not study his dull, expressionless face. He had a narrow head, bulging, watery blue eyes that seemed never to wink, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin, and singularly underdeveloped ears. His long, thick lip and coarse pored, greyish cheeks seemed almost beardless except for some sparse yellow hairs that straggled and curled in irregular patches; and in places the surface seemed queerly irregular, as if peeling from some cutaneous disease.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth

Deep one hybrids are the progeny of deep one and human mating. Although the offspring of such unions are usually born as normal humans, changes in appearance and physiology tend to occur in late teens—commonly known as the "Innsmouth Look." By middle age, most hybrids display some form of gross deformity and such individuals retire to the privacy of their close-shuttered homes. Within a few years, the hybrid undergoes the final transformation into a deep one and embarks on a new life in the sea.

The physical changes are accompanied by an awakening of new senses, strange dreams of undersea cities, and a longing to visit seaside locales—particularly ancestral homes or the individual’s birth place.

Typically, hybrids inhabit remote coastal villages, however they can be found further afield (particularly in the early stages of their transformation). As the final transformations take place the hybrid either learns to embrace their monstrous heritage or goes mad in the process.

Deep ones will attempt to lure hybrids to their lairs or places of safety, where they can supervise the final metamorphosis and ensure the hybrid is appropriately schooled in their shared heritage. About 10% of hybrids do not complete the transformation and are doomed to spend the rest of their life as a half-human half-deep one, while a further 10% do not undergo the metamorphosis at all, with the deep one genes essentially missing a generation—only to manifest in a future descendent.

Special Powers

Breathe underwater: Hybrids are unable to breathe underwater until they have undergone the full change into a deep one; however, from early childhood onwards they can remain underwater for up to twice as long as the average human.

Spells: Older hybrids who have begun to embrace their watery heritage have a 10% chance of knowing 1D3 spells.

Deep One Hybrid, Innsmouth-tainted progeny

HP: 11
Average Damage Bonus: none.
Average Build: 0
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 8/8 Swimming

Attacks

Attacks per round: 1
Fighting attacks: Deep one hybrids can use weapons as humans do.

Fighting 45% (22/9), damage per weapon type + damage bonus, or unarmed (1D3) + damage bonus.
Dodge 30% (15/6)

Armor: None.
Skills: Jump 45%, Listen 50%, Stealth 46%, Swim 60%.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D4 Sanity points to see a deep one hybrid, although this may be increased (1/1D6+) for particularly monstrous specimens.

Flying Polyps

A horrible elder race of half polypous, utterly alien entities… They were only partly material and had the power of aerial motion, despite the absence of wings…Suggestions of a monstrous plasticity and of temporary lapses of visibility… singular whistling noises and colossal foot-prints made up of five circular toe marks seemed also to be associated with them.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

This unnamed species came to Earth from space as conquerors about seven hundred and fifty million years ago. They built basalt cities with high windowless towers and inhabited three other planets in the solar system as well. On Earth, they warred with the Great Race of Yith and were finally defeated and forced underground. At the close of the Cretaceous era (about 50 million years ago) they rose up from their subterranean haunts and extracted their revenge by exterminating the Great Race.

Polyps still remain in their deep caverns and seem content to remain there, annihilating the few beings who chance upon them. The entrances to their dwellings are mostly deep within ancient ruins where there are great wells sealed over with stone. Inside these wells dwell the polyps still, ferocious alien fighters with a bewildering variety of attacks. Ancient tales tell that they have the power to control great winds, able to cause devastation, as well as target individuals.

Special Powers

Invisibility: By spending 1 magic point per round, a polyp can turn totally invisible. It still can be roughly located by the constant, nauseating piping sound that always accompanies it. Anyone trying to hit an invisible polyp must make a successful Listen roll to tell where it is, and if located, any rolls to hit it are made with one penalty die.

Polyps naturally phase in and out of visibility, so a Luck roll must be made with each attack made upon it. If the Luck roll is failed the Polyp phases just at that moment and the attack is made with one penalty die. When a polyp is invisible, it does not attack with its tentacles, but may still use one of the wind attacks or cast spells.

Spells: Polyps have a 70% chance of knowing 1D10 spells.

Flying Polyps, Terrors from the blackness below

HP: 37
Average Damage Bonus: +5D6 (but use only for Wind Blast)
Average Build: 6
Average Magic Points: 16
Move: 8/12 flying

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2D6 (each round, roll 2D6 to determine how many tentacles form); may use only one wind-based attack per round.

Fighting Attacks: Polyps continually form and dissolve tentacles from their bodies. Tentacle damage is always 1D10. Because of the partially nonmaterial nature of these entities, the tentacle’s damage is done directly to the target’s hit points, ignoring any body armor. The wound takes the form of a windburn or desiccation of tissue. Note: Each of the polypoid wind abilities cost them 1 magic point per round to use. Wind Blast: The wind blast has a base range of 20 yards and a 10-yard-diameter cylinder of effect emanating from the polyp, doing damage equal to the polyp’s damage bonus. The cylindrical blast can extend further than 20 yards, but loses 1D6 damage for each multiple of the base distance— thus a target at 39 yards would take 4D6 (damage bonus minus 1D6), and a target at 41 yards would take 3D6 damage. Victims of the wind blast literally have their flesh stripped from their bones and their skin dehydrated and wind-burned, and are blown backwards for a number of yards equal to the hit points they have lost.

Fixing Attack: This is a mysterious method for capturing prey. In this mode, the wind attack has a range of 1,000 yards and can blow without diminishment around corners or up through winding corridors. Although the wind emanates from the polyp, it has a peculiar sucking effect on the target, slowing down him or her and forcing the target to make an opposed STR roll versus the polyp’s POW. Beyond 200 yards this becomes less effective and one bonus die is granted to the target. If the polyp wins, the victim cannot move away that round. If the target wins, he or she may move normally. The flying polyp can move at full speed while using this ability, so it may be both chasing interesting prey and slowing it.

This technique may be used on multiple targets within 30 yards of one another. Each other target gains one bonus die on the STR roll to oppose the polyp. The polyp may choose its targets.

Windstorm Attack: A polyp can generate a wind in conjunction with its fellows. The windstorm has a speed of half a mile per hour per point of POW of the participating polyp. This windstorm is local, losing 5 mph of force for every 200 yards it travels. A group of polyps can generate hurricane-force winds within an area of a few square miles. Targets take 1D4 damage for every 20 mph above 100 mph of wind speed; those that succeed in a Luck roll take half damage.

Fighting 85% (42/17), damage 1D10
Wind blast 70% (35/14), damage bonus (lowered by 1D6 per 20 yards distance)
Dodge 30% (15/6)

Armor: 4 points, plus invisibility. The extra-terrene polyp takes only minimum damage from physical weapons, which is reduced again by 4 points due to the monster’s skin armor. Enchanted weapons do full normal damage, as do forces such as heat or electricity.
Sanity Loss: 1D3/1D20 Sanity points to see a flying polyp.

Formless Spawn

When the men of K’n-Yan went down into N’Kai’s black abyss with their great atom-power searchlights, they found living things—living things that oozed along stone channels and worshipped onyx and basalt images of Tsathoggua. But they were not toads like Tsathoggua himself. Far worse—they were amorphous lumps of viscous black slime that took temporary shapes for various purposes. The explorers of K’N-Yan did not pause for detailed observations, and those that escaped alive sealed the passage.

—H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, The Mound

These black, protean beings change shapes in an instant, from toad-like lumps to elongated things with hundreds of rudimentary legs. They ooze through small cracks and enlarge their appendages at will. They are closely associated with Tsathoggua, often found in his temples or in sunless caverns.

Special Powers

Spells: Formless spawn have a 25% chance of knowing 1 spell. Of those, 2% know many spells

Formless Spawn, Shape-shifting horrors

HP: 17
Average Damage Bonus: +2D6
Average Build: 3
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 12

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2 (limited to 1 Bite per round)

Fighting attacks: Due to their extreme fluidity they are able to attack in a wide variety of ways, forming whips, tentacles, and other appendages with which to bludgeon and strike their opponents.

Bite: The victim is instantly swallowed. Each round thereafter the victim takes 1 point of damage from constriction—the damage done per round progressively increasing by 1 point (e.g., on the second round 2 points of damage are taken, and so forth). While swallowed, the victim may take no action whatsoever, though friends may attempt to slay the monster to free him or her. A formless spawn can make one Bite attack per round and can continue to swallow prey until having swallowed its own SIZ in prey. While digesting a victim, a spawn may continue to fight but may not shift location without disgorging what it has swallowed.

Grab (mnvr): Grabs an opponent using one of its whip like appendages; range is always one-fifth of the monster’s SIZ in yards.

Fighting 60% (30/12), damage 2D6 + damage bonus
Grab (mnvr) damage 1D6 + damage bonus
Bite 30% (15/6), damage swallowed
Dodge 47% (23/9)

Armor: Immune to all physical weapons, even enchanted ones—wounds simply snap closed after being opened. Spells may affect them, as may fire, chemicals, or other forces.

Sanity Loss: 1/1D10 Sanity points to see a formless spawn

Ghast

Repulsive beings which die in the light…and leap on long hind legs…a pair of yellowish red eyes…Ghasts have indeed an excellent sense of smell…something about the size of a small horse hopped out into the grey twilight, and Carter turned sick at the aspect of that scabrous and unwholesome beast, whose face is so curiously human despite the absence of a nose, a forehead, and other particulars…They spoke in coughing gutturals.

—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Ghasts are restricted to the underworld and vast caverns where sunlight never comes. Exposed to direct sunlight, they sicken and eventually die. Ghasts are cannibalistic and eat one another as well as other beings they catch.

The horrible, semi-human bipeds ridden by the highly-scientific but morally-degenerate humans inhabiting the cavern of K’n-Yan may be relatives of, or even be examples of, ghasts. If this is the case, then ghasts are likely the result of serpent people genetic experimentation. Ghasts are evidently tamable, though primitive and savage.

Ghasts, Unwholesome scabrous beasts

HP: 20
Average Damage Bonus: +2D6.
Average Build: 3
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 10

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: Ghasts have the usual range of unarmed attacks open to humanoids.

Fighting 45% (22/9), damage 1D6 + damage bonus
Dodge 35% (17/7)

Armor: None.
Skills: Stealth 70%.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D8 Sanity points to see a ghast.

Ghoul

These figures were seldom completely human, but often approached humanity in varying degree. Most of the bodies, while roughly bipedal, had a forward slumping, and a vaguely canine cast. The texture of the majority was a kind of unpleasant rubberiness.

—H.P. Lovecraft, Pickman’s Model

Ghouls are loathsome humanoids with rubbery skin, hooflike feet, canine features, and claws. They speak in what are described as gibberings and meepings. They are often encrusted with grave mold collected as they feed.

They dwell in tunnel systems beneath many cities, often centered on graveyards and ancient catacombs. They are known to have commerce with witches and those seeking unspeakable pleasures, although an unwitting human is more likely to be attacked when encountered.

Dark lore suggests that it is possible for a human to transform into a ghoul over a prolonged period.

Special Powers

Spells: ghouls have a 15% chance of knowing 1D10 spells.

Ghouls, Mocking charnel feeders

HP: 13
Average Damage Bonus: 1D4
Average Build: 1
Average Magic Points: 13
Move: 9

Attacks

Attacks per round: 3
Fighting attacks: Ghouls have the usual range of unarmed attacks open to humanoids. Also ghouls have claws that are razor-sharp and filthy; these bony protrusions slice through human flesh in an instant. Wounds caused may become diseased if not treated.
Bite and hold (mnvr): If the ghoul’s bite strikes home it hangs on instead of using claw attacks, and worries the victim with its fangs, continuing to do 1D4 damage automatically per round. An opposed STR roll is required to dislodge the ghoul, breaking the hold and ending the bite damage.

Fighting 40% (20/8), damage 1D6 + damage bonus
Bite and hold (mnvr) 40% (20/8), damage 1D4 per round
Dodge 40% (20/8)

Armor: Firearms and projectiles do half of rolled damage; round down any fraction.
Skills: Climb 85%, Stealth 70%, Jump 75%, Listen 70%, Spot Hidden 50%.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a ghoul.

Ghouls may be the truth that lies behind the myth of the changeling—the belief that faeries steal young babies, leaving "wild things" in their place. The wild things appear human initially, becoming stranger and weirder as they grow older until one day, normally around maturity, they disappear.

Hunting Horror

Enormous viper-like creatures, 120 hands in length, with twisting worm-like bodies upon distorted misshapen heads. On great leathery wings they fly like some monstrous bat, with fearsome claws to clutch and tear, and a mouth of needle fangs. Their form continually shifts and changes, twitching and writhing, and is blasphemous to behold.

—from the Necronomicon

Resembling enormous ropy black serpents or worms possessing bat-like or umbrella-like wings, the form of a hunting horror continually shifts and changes, twitching and writhing, so it is hard to look at them. They may have only a single large wing rather than two. They speak in great harsh voices. A hunting horror’s length averages forty feet. These beings are dispelled by daylight. A strong enough burst of light (from a nuclear reaction, perhaps) could sear one to dust. Hunting horrors move swiftly and are harriercreatures for some of the gods, particularly Nyarlathotep. They can be summoned in their own right and sent to seek out blood and lives.

Special Powers

Spells: Hunting horrors have a 25% chance of knowing 2D10 spells.

Hunting Horrors, Great viperine flyers

HP: 25
Average Damage Bonus: 3D6
Average Build: 4
Average Magic Points: 21
Move: 7 / 11 flying

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: A hunting horror may attack with its bite, its crushing bulk, and its tail tentacle attacks.
Grasp (mnvr): The tail can be used to wrap around the victim, preventing movement. The hunting horror may then fly off with its victim or keep fighting. The victim can only break loose as the result of a successful opposed STR roll. When a victim is caught in the tail, the hunting horror may only make a bite attack, nibbling at the dangling victim with a bonus die to hit since the victim’s arms are usually pinioned.

Fighting 65% (32/13), damage 1D6 + damage bonus
Grasp (mnvr) 65% (32/13), target immobile and must win an opposed STR roll to escape
Dodge 35% (17/7)

Armor: 9-point skin.
Sanity Points: 0/1D10 Sanity points to see a hunting horror.

Mi-Go, the Fungi from Yuggoth

They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulate limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antenna, where a head would ordinarily be. . . Sometimes they walked on all their legs and sometimes on the hind-most pair only.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness

The fungi from Yuggoth are an interstellar race, with a large colony or base on the planet Yuggoth (Pluto). There are mining colonies in the mountains of Earth, where the mi-go seek rare metallic ores. The mi-go are not animal in physiology, being more akin to a form of fungus. They communicate with each other by changing the colors of their brain-like heads; however, they can speak human tongues in buzzing, insect-like voices.

Unable to eat terrene food, the mi-go must import theirs from other worlds. They are able to fly through the interstellar aether on their great wings, though Earth’s atmosphere makes their flying maneuverability clumsy at best.

Some speculate that the mi-go are pan-dimensional beings, as their bodies seem to resonate at unusual frequencies; this becomes most apparent when trying to capture the creatures on film, as ordinary photographic plates will not take an image of these beings. Possibly, modern high-definition digital video or first-rate chemistry could devise an emulsion that might work, however no one having achieved such success has ever come forward. When injured, the beings seem able to either regrow or attach new limbs as needed. After death, a mi-go dissolves into a pool of translucent goo within a few hours. This goo quickly dries out, leaving only an oily stain.

The mi-go worship both Nyarlathotep and Shub- Niggurath, and possibly others. They hire or compel human agents to simplify and front their operations on Earth and, consequently, are sometimes connected to cults. Occasional sightings in remote places have become the source of the Abominable Snowman stories told in the Himalayas, as well as perhaps the truth behind supposed encounters with aliens or flying saucers.

Mi-go are inquisitive scientists, capable of astounding surgical feats, including the placing of living human brains in life-sustaining metal tubes. They can then attach speaking, listening, and seeing devices to the tubes, so that the brains can interact with those around them. Such contained brains may then be carried around and taken into the vacuum and cold of space, allowing their favored human servants the opportunity to visit distant stars and other mi-go outposts.

Special Powers

Hypnosis: By introducing ultra-high and ultra-low frequency tones into its buzzing, the mi-go can put one or many humans listening to it into a trance state. Those within forty-feet of a buzzing mi-go must succeed in an opposed POW roll or become incapable of action. Mi-go can speak telepathically to humans, which costs 1 magic point per 5 rounds. The human can resist the communication with an opposed POW roll.

Void Light: Creates a sink from which photons will not emerge. The mi-go must spend 1 magic point for every cubic yard of blackness desired. No light can escape the affected area, making a useful visual protection for these fragile aliens. The darkness may be like a sheet or a spherical volume.

Spells: Mi-go have a 25% chance of knowing 1D3 spells.

Mi-Go, Enigmatic scientists from Yuggoth

HP: 10
Average Damage Bonus: none
Average Build: 0
Average Magic Points: 13
Move: 7 / 13 flying

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: Fungi from Yuggoth may attack in hand-to-hand combat with its two crab-like claws.
Seize (mnvr): Alternatively, they may try to seize the victim (of their build or smaller) and then fly into the sky to drop the victim from a height or take the victim so high that his or her lungs burst.

Fighting 45% (22/9), 1D6 + damage bonus
Seize (mnvr) can carry away beings of equal Build or smaller (pincers, grab, fly)
Dodge 35% (17/7)
Armor: None, however their resonating extra-terrene body causes all piercing weapons (bullets included) to do the minimum damage.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a mi-go.

Rat-Thing

The bones of the tiny paws, it is rumoured, imply prehensile characteristics more typical of a diminutive monkey than of a rat; while the small skull with its savage yellow fangs is of the utmost anomalousness, appearing from certain angles like a miniature, monstrously degraded parody of a human skull.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch House

Resembling ordinary rats and easily mistaken for them at a distance. However close-up, the head of a rat-thing is an evil caricature of a human head, and their paws are like tiny human hands. All have extremely strong, sharp teeth. These unnatural creatures are possibly created by malign sorcery. Sometimes a faithful servant may be transformed into a rat-thing, and thus continue to serve their master. It is said such abominations are wise in the lore of the Mythos and may be gifted as familiars to witches and sorcerers beloved of the dark gods. Brown Jenkin, the familiar of Keziah Mason, the witch, was a rat-thing.

Special Powers

Spells: Rat-things have a 30% chance of knowing 1D3 spells; those who knew spells in life retain that knowledge as rat-things. If the rat-thing is a gift from an Outer God or somesuch entity, it is likely to know many more spells.

Rat-Things, malevolent mockers and scuttling spies

HP: 4Average Damage Bonus: -2
Average Build: –2
Average Magic Points: 7
Move: 9

Attacks

Attacks per round: 1
Fighting attacks: Rat-things attack by climbing the legs or clothes of human opponents, or dropping down from ceilings. Once an attack succeeds, the rat-thing clings and keeps on biting. Tearing away a rat-thing costs an additional 1D3 hit points to the unfortunate victim.

Fighting 35% (17/7), damage 1D4 + damage bonus
Dodge 45% (22/9)
Armor: None, but attacks to hit a running rat-thing are made with one penalty die.
Skills: Dodge 45%, Stealth 75%, Listen 50%.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a rat-thing; if the rat-thing was known to the observer in life, however, it costs 1/1D8 Sanity points to see it.

Serpent People

Old they are, rising and falling before the ascent of humanity. Now, they sleep, waiting until they can rise again to reclaim this world. Tall and slender they were, with scaled skin upon humanoid forms dressed in robes or tunics, with two legs and arms, a long neck, and a strong tail. Ophidian heads possessing two eyes, a lipless mouth containing a forked tongue, and simple holes for ears. Indeed, these majestic snakes did craft wondrous science and magic.

—from the Necronomicon

Serpent people resemble upright serpents with ophidian heads and scales, a tail, and two arms and legs. A refined and cultured race, often met dressed in robes. Yig is revered above all other gods of the serpent people, for he is the father of all snakes. In ancient times, some blasphemers chose instead to pray to Tsathoggua—they were destroyed by a vengeful god millions of years ago and it is doubtful whether any such outcasts remain to peddle their false litanies.

The serpent people’s first kingdom, Valusia, flourished before even dinosaurs walked the Earth, some two hundred and seventy-five million years ago. They built black basalt cities and fought wars, all in the Permian era or before. They were then great sorcerers devoting much energy to calling forth dreadful demons and brewing potent poisons. With the coming of the dinosaurs, two hundred and twenty-five million years ago, the first kingdom fell and serpent people retreated to strongholds far underground, the greatest of which was Yoth. In these times the serpent people became great scientists as well, able to manipulate life itself.

In human prehistory the serpent people raised their second kingdom at the center of the Thurian continent. It fell even more rapidly than the first Valusia, overthrown this time by humans, who later claimed the land as their own. Again and again the serpent people retreated before the human hordes until their last citadel of Yanyoga was destroyed in 10,000 B.C.

A few lurking remnants of the race survive, as do pockets of dwarfed degenerates. These diminutions are likely to include an occasional atavistic, fully capable serpent person who is still favored by Yig. Degenerate serpent people are likely to have characteristics lessened by as much as a third. In addition there are certain hibernating serpent people—the sleepers—who have rested for thousands of years or more. On occasion these serpent people wake, to humanity’s regret. This third class of serpent people is typically more intelligent and powerful than their lurking brothers, often retaining the knowledge and ability to cast great sorcery.

Spells: Full serpent folk know at least 2D6 appropriate spells. A common spell among them is an illusion that transforms the caster’s appearance into that of a normal human, allowing the serpent person to mingle in human society (see Consume Likeness). Note that degenerate forms are not likely to know magic.

Technology: Being great scientists, serpent people may have access to, or the ability to construct, useful technology— see Chapter 13: Artifacts and Alien Devices in the Keeper Rulebook.

Serpent People, Full atavism

HP: 10
Average Damage Bonus: none.
Average Build: 0
Average Magic Points: 13
Move: 8

Attacks

Attacks per round: 1
Fighting attacks: Serpent people have the usual range of unarmed attacks open to humanoids. They may use all weapons known to man, clutching them effectively in taloned hands.
Bite: The bite of a serpent person is highly poisonous. The victim must succeed in an Extreme CON roll—if failed take 1D8 damage.

Fighting 50% (25/10), damage 1D3 + damage bonus
Bite 35% (17/7), damage 1D8 + poison (see above)
Dodge 32% (16/6)
Armor: 1-point scales.
Skills: Intimidate 60%, Sciences: (Biology) 40%, (Chemistry) 40%, Spot Hidden 35%.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a serpent person.

Shoggoth

The nightmare, plastic column of fetid, black iridescence oozed tightly onward…A shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch mocking cry—”Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

—H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness

Shoggoths are among the most horrible and loathsome of Mythos monsters. Mighty sacks of protoplasm, roughly 15-feet in diameter, these amphibious creatures are able to form limbs, eyes, and other appendages at will, imitate other life forms, and perform great feats of strength. They communicate in whatever manner their master race wishes, forming special organs for the purpose.

Despite Abdul Alhazred's claims that there were none on Earth itself, save in the crazed nightmares of dreamers, shoggoths do exist in deep and dark places. Often found as servants of deep ones and other races, they are surly at best, ever becoming more intelligent, more rebellious, and more imitative. Their creators, the ancient elder things, found to their cost the true nature of their servants in a rebellion that virtually destroyed their civilization.

Special Powers

Spells: None—however, certain individuals of great age may possess the knowledge and ability to cast spells.

Shoggoths, Fetid iridescences

HP: 63
Average Damage Bonus: 8D6
Average Build: 9
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 10 rolling

Attacks

Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: In combat, a shoggoth covers an area 5 yards square and is able to produce tentacles, claws, or any manner of appendages at will with which to perform a crushing attack. Those unfortunate enough to be hit by a shoggoth attack may also be engulfed.
Engulf: Each person engulfed within the shoggoth is attacked separately and each must make a successful opposed STR roll or be sucked apart. If the shoggoth attacks more than one target, it must divide its STR among all targets. Those held within the shoggoth’s black bulk can strike back only on rounds in which they successfully roll STR or less on 1D100. Each round a victim is held within a shoggoth, they lose hit points equal to the shoggoth’s damage bonus; the damage describable as rupturing, crushing, and being sucked into pieces. A shoggoth can engulf any number of enemies; however they may not exceed a total SIZ greater than its own SIZ.

Fighting 70% (35/14), damage equals damage bonus or it can choose to engulf the target (see above)
Dodge: 8% (4/1)

Armor: None, but (1) fire and electrical attacks do only half damage; (2) physical weapons such as firearms and knives do only 1 point of damage per hit; (3) a shoggoth regenerates 2 hit points per round.
Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D20 Sanity points to see a shoggoth.

As the science of genetics grows from infancy to maturity, the day may come when experiments reveal a hitherto unknown code in the cells of all living things on Earth. The code, when activated, causes cells to modify, allowing a hybridized and rapid evolution never before seen in nature—with flesh instantaneously adapting to changing environments. Will mankind welcome or revolt in horror at the shoggoth within us all?

Yig, Children of

Know the children of Yig by the white crescent mark upon their heads.

Alternative names: none.

The children of Yig, or the sacred of Yig, are large snakes that bear Yig’s mark on their heads, that of a white crescent. Usually, such snakes are above-average sized venomous members of their species common to the locale. Thus, in North America, diamondback rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, and timber rattlesnakes might appear as Yig’s children.

These monster snakes are directed by Yig’s will or that of the god’s servants and may be found guarding sacred sites or artifacts. Otherwise, they may be directed to seek and strike at those who have displeased Yig—they are relentless hunters, who will trail their target until able to strike. Having bitten the target, the chosen of Yig does not remain to fight but disappears as suddenly as it arrived. Sometimes, a child of Yig is sent to deliver a less lethal message, with Yig using the snake to impart some form of message, perhaps a warning or a reminder that Yig sees all.

Child of Yig, monstrous snakes

Two example children of Yig are provided. For other snake types, take the maximum characteristics for a particular species and add +1D10 to every statistic.

Attacks

Attacks per round: 1 (bite)
Often these snakes appear so swiftly that folks are startled (Listen or Spot Hidden roll to avoid being ambushed), and automatically score a successful hit unless their target can react quickly with a successful Dodge roll.

Venom: strong (2D10 damage), causes agony and, usually, death; a successful Extreme CON roll halves the damage. Attempting to suck out the venom requires a successful First Aid, Natural World, or Survival skill roll, which reduces the damage by half (or half again if the Extreme CON was successful). Immediately cutting off the affected limb (usually a leg) using Medicine or First Aid may prevent death but at a great and permanent cost.

Bite 50% (25/10), damage 1D2 + venom
Dodge 45% (22/9)

Skills*
Stealth 70%
Armor: none
Spells: none

Sanity Loss: 0/1 to encounter a child of Yig.