Whispers of the Dead (Masterpost)

The Premise

The Whispers of the Dead ritual can be used to contact an unnatural creature, but also a Great Old One or similar. However, there’s not much reason to do so. It’s a serviceable ‘contact spell,’ but the text tells the Handler outright that using it to commune with a god is basically useless. Additionally, the spell costs a point of permanent POW when used that way. Ordinarily, I'd rule the spell is more useful than the Handler's Guide suggests, like I do for a lot of other lackluster rituals. But it doesn’t feel right here. Gods should still maintain that air of mystery. 

My Proposal

Successfully activating a Whispers of the Dead (Great Old One) ritual leaves the operator with a vague sense of the Old One’s will and desires, but also marks them with a supernatural ability or characteristic as a fraction of the god’s power, a Boon. 

Critical Successes and Failures

If using Crits and Fumbles for Rituals, and a critical success is rolled, the operator loses 8 SAN and makes a deeper connection with the Old One. They are awarded with a Blessing. The reduced cost for failing to activate the ritual is 5 WP and 1D4 SAN. Failing to contact a ‘lesser’ Great Old One may only cost 1 SAN. What constitutes a Lesser Old One is up to the Handler. Maybe they occupy a lower place in the Handler’s cosmological hierarchy, or maybe it has to do with their SAN loss, eg: 1D6/1D20 SAN instead of 1D10/1D100 SAN. On a fumble, the caster is subject to a Curse (Handler’s discretion as to whether this can be forced into a critical success by spending POW). Sometimes reattempting and successfully activating the ritual lifts the curse, other times, it bars the operator from ever communing with the Old One again. A Closing of the Breach ritual can also un-curse the operator and maybe open the lines of ‘communication’ again.

Other Options

If you don’t want to introduce critical Ritual Activation rolls into your game but still find the Blessings compelling, you have a few options. Activating these rituals in the calm of a Home scene can ‘upgrade’ regular successes into crits and regular failures into success. Alternatively, Blessings can be the result (or reward) for ‘whispering to the dead’ twice.

Making This Matter

Agents who use this ritual are marked. It’s a Handler’s job to play that up. Everyone ‘in the know’ recognizes that the Agent is important. Maybe it’s a mark of respect among cultists that revere the same Great Old One. Perhaps enough to turn a violent confrontation into one that’s merely tense. Agents should start thinking and acting like the god they’ve ‘pledged’ themselves to and its worshippers. It should change how they see the world and how it reacts to them. These effects don’t have to be big or represented with mechanics. You just want your players to pause, if only for a moment, and ask “did I make the right choice?”

Boldly declaring your allegiance to a higher power has other, less pleasant consequences. Boons and Blessings can attract unwanted attention and provoke things best left alone. The cults of Glaaki and Y’golonac have an infamous rivalry, but there’s also the classic conflict between Nyarlathotep and Nodens. As an Agent’s SAN drops or they move from Boon to Blessing, their mark grows stronger and harder to hide. Agents might use this ritual to understand an incursion, but when it comes time for a direct confrontation, things will be messy. Great Old Ones will not try to stop Agents. Humans are too insignificant for that, but there will be complications. 

Miscellaneous Questions

Q: Can Agents have a Boon and/or Blessing from multiple Great Old Ones at once?

A: Yes. Lovecraft's stories are full of unnatural creatures and societies that pay homage to multiple alien gods. Humans may be the most likely to misunderstand the true nature of the situation and become monotheistic zealots, but that doesn't mean they have to. 

Q: Can I use these abilities for NPCs?

A: Yes. A lot of the original inspiration came from drafting up NPCs that manifested some part of a specific Great Old One's power. The abilities were just 'balanced' by giving them appropriate costs for use by Agents. If your players are the kind to be tempted, you can show off the 'powers' via an NPC and give the Agents an opportunity to claim it for themselves.

Q: What about the Elder Sign?

A: That's a good question. I like the more concrete and defined powers the Elder Sign was given in the Handler's Guide, but I'm not overly fond of its crucifix-like nature. I'm also nostalgic for its more mysterious and subtle utility in CoC. The HG suggests splitting the difference by having it only work on some entities. Sometimes this works (think Dracula walking in the daylight with only a sunhat, as opposed to his brides who turn to ash), but only once, and it still feels cheap. I think the Elder Sign should always do something. It just won't be the same thing every time and while it will probably help, it can't solve the problem on its own and may present new ones.

Q: Okay, but what does that mean for branded Agents?

A: The Elder Sign should be unpleasant for them. Maybe initial exposure costs 1/1D6 SAN from unnatural and subsequent ones cost 0/1 from helplessness as it strikes a primal chord of fear. Maybe they can't bring themselves to touch it. The hand gesture might impose a brief -20% penalty to their next roll while the sigil might drain 1 WP with every hour they spend in its shadow. Maybe the symbol glows and wriggles in their peripheral vision or burns their eyes to look at. In extreme cases, it suppresses their unnatural abilities like a bar being placed over a door. The consequences should get worse as the Agents 'progress' from Boon to Blessing, or accumulate the favor of multiple gods.

With that out of the way, here are the whispers of the dead.

Azathoth, the Nuclear Chaos

Cthulhu, High Priest of the Old Ones

Father Dagon and Mother Hydra

Glaaki, Inhabitant of the Lake 

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos

Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young

Tsathoggua, the Sleeper

Y'golonac, the Defiler

Yig, The Scaled Redeemer