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| Nyarlathotep Triptych by Jens Heimdahl |
Contacting the Crawling Chaos is deceptively simple. You just need to distinguish yourself from the rest of the ants somehow. It's the purest expression of the principle behind Delta Green's Ritual Activation rules. You have to be willing to break away from the dull reality of the herd, and those with the lowest SAN and highest Unnatural scores are the best at that.
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.
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| Shub-Niggurath by Albert Che |
The operator must enter the wilderness and make a blood sacrifice on an altar. Stereotypically, this occurs in a dark, dense forest. However, those with skill in Anthropology or Archeology (or a high Occult rating) know that lush islands, bogs, and even grasslands are suitable. The only thing that matters is that the operator must not be able to see the sprawl of civilization. As such, more modern versions of this ritual suggest that the operator walk until they can't see whatever vehicle they traveled in anymore.
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| Original Weird Tales illustration by Hugh Rankin |
The ritual must be performed in an area suited to snakes and reptiles, such as a swamp, jungle, or desert. The operator drapes one or more snakes over their body and traces curves and spirals into the muck, dirt, or sand with a staff carved or painted to look like a snake. They hum or hiss along to an odd melody played on the flute and drums. Those with Anthropology know that a digital recording will be sufficient. It's the sounds and the effect they have on the operator's mind that is important rather than the instruments or act of playing them.
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| Tsathoggua (Artist Proof) by Liv Rainey-Smith |
The operator must first descend underground. In a subterranean chamber, they light candles, oil lamps, and bundles of incense until the air is thick with fumes. As the operator murmurs prayers to Saint Toad, they present their sacrifice and slit its throat. Then the gasses congeal into a hideous form. In a croaking voice, she introduces herself.
I am Tsathoggua, the god-bat of the Pnakotic Manuscripts and sleeping lord of black lightless N’kai. I brokered the secrets of the universe to wizard Eibon and have watched this world since before its veins of rock and fire were born.
My appetite is almost as boundless as my power, why have you awoken me from my slumber?
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| Gla'aki by Davide L Marescotti |
The operator must stand at the edge of a natural body of freshwater, chest bared to the elements, after the sun has gone down. The operator thrusts a dagger into their chest and kneels in prostration to their new god. The surface of the water ripples as if disturbed by something large underwater before becoming eerily still. When the waters return to normal, the operator rises and removes the dagger from their chest, revealing a small bloodless hole.
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| cthulhu C by Francois Launet |
It can be performed anywhere. The operator only needs a special drink, chalk, some of their own blood, and time. The drink must be prepared before the chalk is even touched. There is no one specific recipe, it just has to be thick, foul, and psychoactive; for example: a mixture of honey, vinegar, coffee, and nutmeg spiced rum. The operator then uses the chalk to draw a complicated diagram of squares, circles, and lines. Once they begin, they cannot step outside the allotted area. It usually takes up 5 or 10 square meters, though operators skilled in Art or Science (Mathematics) can make do with smaller diagrams. Those with high ratings in both skills can get it down to a single square meter.
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| pixel art by Brian "ink" T |
The exact nature of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra's existence is unclear. Some say they're a pair of alien gods, some say they're just extremely powerful Deep Ones. Others claim this distinction is meaningless. The two leading theories are that they're either the ancient progenitors of the Deep One 'species,' or an aspirational future goal, when the children of the ocean become just like the Old Ones.
Likewise, the ritual can be performed in two modes: communing with Dagon and Hydra as if they were Deep Ones of immense power or as if they were Great Old Ones in their own right. The only difference seems to be the operator's perspective on the matter and how willing they are to push through the boundaries of reality. If contacted as Deep Ones, the ritual costs 9 WP and 1D6 SAN. The operator gains an overarching sense of the Deep Ones' plans. Without a high or critical activation roll, the visions are mostly limited to wherever the operator performs the ritual, or the locale of whatever tradition they learned the ritual from. If they spend 1 POW, the operator contacts the pair as Great Old Ones and loses 1D8 SAN. They are overwhelmed with visions of the Deep Ones' past, present, and future.
It must be conducted under the sky on a starry night. Attempting it on a rooftop in a city clogged with light pollution imposes a -10% penalty to the activation roll. The operator plays an atonal melody on a wind instrument, though no Art skill is needed. It's like a musical form of automatic writing. Most versions of the ritual include sheet music or instructions for writing your own. Part of learning the ritual is understanding that while great skill is required manipulate Azathoth's dreams, it is also completely irrelevant, as everything is destroyed as it comes in contact with His maelstrom of creation.
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.
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.