Whispers of the Dead (Y'golonac)

 

The Ritual

You don't contact the Defiler like you do other Great Old Ones. There's no set of steps to follow. Instead, each transcription of the ritual is a different story of how an individual sank into depravity before eventually meeting the infamous Great Old One. When reading a tome, Occult and Unnatural indicate that this narrative is the ritual.

Once an Agent is aware of the ritual, every taboo they knowingly break¹ provokes a SAN test (the Handler can roll these in secret). If they fail, they lose 1D8 SAN from unnatural and learn the ritual Whispers of the Dead (Y'golonac). If the SAN test fumbles or the Agent succeeds on an INTx5 roll, they know that they can increase their chances of success (on the activation roll) by breaking a personal taboo, ie: acting against one of their Motivations. Breaking it should provoke a SAN test from helplessness (though violence isn't out of the question), even if they're adapted and automatically succeed. The bonus can range from +10% to +40%, depending whether the operator goes temporarily insane or crosses a Breaking Point or violates multiple Motivations at once.

To activate the ritual, the operator must commit some sort of transgressive act and shout the vile deity's name at the top of their lungs. Here are some examples:

• Painting the phrase "Y GOL NAK" in blood, feces, and semen.
• Filling a room with a blasphemous arrangement of crucifixes and pentagrams.
• Whipping yourself bloody in the freezing cold.
• Torturing a small animal and then eating it whole. 
  
• Pouring a bucket of your own vomit over your head.
• Gorging yourself on a feast and then polishing the floor with your tongue.
  

 A failed Ritual Activation roll represents a failure to pronounce the forbidden name correctly, like saying "kuh-thoo-loo" instead of "Cthulhu."

SAN Loss Flavor

1-2 points: For the next few minutes, you see a vast brick wall whenever you close your eyes. It flexes and breathes. You can hear a distant pounding from beyond it.

3-4 points: A dizzying rush of euphoria and guilt, your palms itch. The only way to relieve the sensation is to chew and gnaw at your flesh.

5+ points: The Defiler possesses the operator for 1D4 hours. It wants to get to know them better, and to 'help' them. Give them the confidence to pursue that which they should not. If their desires are too tame or easily satisfied, it may turn its gaze on their comrades.

Boon

At the cost of 4 WP or 1D4 SAN (you can only spend SAN if you have it), the operator can tap into the Defiler's perverse charm to influence people. This gives them a +20% bonus to their Persuade skill (or CHAx5) or allows a roll without the bonus in situations where the target wouldn't normally entertain the idea. Interactions using this ability often have sensual undertones, though not necessarily sexual. No matter whether the roll succeeds or fails, the operator also learns the target's deepest desire or some dark secret they'd rather not divulge. An unlikely success might involve the operator leveraging that knowledge to their advantage.

Blessing

The quaint horrors of the world cease to shock the operator. They adapt to violence and helplessness but do not lose any CHA or POW. If already adapted to violence, the Boon grants a +40% bonus to Persuade and CHAx5 instead of just +20%. If already adapted to helplessness, they gain 1D6 POW.

Curse

The operator is seized with a powerful ennui that alienates them from their "fellow man." Whenever they reduce a Bond's score (projection, spending their own money, personal pursuits, etc), they lose an additional point. If that's not enough, they also become an avatar of the Headless One if they die or reach 0 SAN. Merciful Handlers might let the operator spare their associates from this fate with a successful POWx5 roll.

Side Effects

• The operator's body enters survival mode, refusing to shed any weight gained. 
• If they cross a Breaking Point, an Addiction is an obvious choice for a Disorder. But devotees of 'gollysnack' are also prone to Depression, as the things that once brought them joy no longer satisfy them.
• The Voorish Sign reveals a shadowy headless figure lurking near the operator, impossibly watching from a corner or with its hands on their shoulders.
  
• They develop deep, reddish, sweaty creases on their palms.
• The operator becomes an avatar of 'Ikolonag' upon death or reaching 0 SAN.

When the operator transforms into an avatar, their body glows and bloats. Their shoulders engulf their neck and swallow up their head as wet toothy maws split open on their palms. Everyone present loses 1D6/1D20 SAN from unnatural. Success imposes a -20% penalty to all tests except SAN as the character's mind is overwhelmed with the cognitive dissonance of rejecting the Great Old One's existence. Merciful Handlers can allow Agents to resist this debilitation as if they were repressing an acute episode of a Disorder (Agent's Handbook, page 75). A character who fails the SAN test for encountering the avatar is driven temporarily insane for at least 1D6 rounds, even if they didn't lose 5 or more Sanity Points.

Avatars of 'yagotasnack?' can attack once per turn, inflicting 1D8+2 damage unless the target succeeds on a Dodge roll. Characters can grapple and shove it around, but they can't avoid its biting hands while doing so. A Lethality rating of 10% or higher destroys it. Inflicting 12 or more damage² may also prevent the avatar from acting for one round. This can buy the Agents a moment to flee, or stall the avatar while one of them readies a more permanent solution. Hypergeometric attacks allow the attacker to make an opposed POW test against the avatar's original human POW. If they succeed, the avatar is banished, leaving behind a human corpse.

It is said that wounds inflicted by the God of Depravity and Perversion never heal. Every time a character loses hit points from its biting hands, their maximum HP is reduced by one. They can increase their stats to make up for it, but they'll always have less HP than someone else with the same STR and CON. This can be cured with Closing of the Breach or an Exorcism ritual³, Healing Balm, or whatever other methods the Handler sees fit.

If you're confused as to what this is about, check out this post.

1 Does this mean that Agents with Anthropology and Archeology, and thus a greater understanding of the world's cultural taboos, have more chances to learn the ritual? Maybe! ^↩
2 Handler's discretion applies as to whether it needs to be from a single attack, the total inflicted in a single round, over the course of the fight (resetting with each 'stun'), and if 24 or 35 damage can incapacitate it for two or three rounds.^↩
3 Removing Y'golonac's influence costs 1D4 SAN and 10 WP, though an Exorcism can cost anywhere from 1 to 20 WP. The more frequently and recently the Defiler has attempted to exert his influence over the victim, the lower the exorcism's WP cost.^↩