Cthulhu Eternal: The White Sea
Campaign Overview
This is the campaign Wiki for the revamped early 1930s version of Shadows of Atlantis run on the Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age SRD.
Here is the outline of the campaign goals, and what's accomplished so far. The search is on for the Palladion, the mighty machine in the heart of lost Atlantis, as described in the Black Stone of Sais deciphered by Dr Botho Ehrlichmann. The five parts of the Palladion were separated and taken across the world by the five groups of fugitive Atlanteans, and hidden in ancient treasure sites. If rediscovered and reunited, they would create a mechanism of enormous creative - and destructive - power.
The five parts are as follows, as well as their location (where known) and their actual form recovered so far:
Defence - Rome, Clypeus
Offence - Ellora, Agneya Weapon (inoperable)
Vision - Isfahan, Cup of Yima
Time - Peru?
Power - Cairo?
Ehrlichmann's notes give more or less cryptic clues to the probable locations of each piece. They also make it clear that the whole Palladion, once assembled, is far more than just the sum of its parts.
Helpful Resources
- In Character Thread
- Out of Character Thread
- Recruitment Thread
- Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age SRD
- Apocthulhu SRD
- Wiki template for Cthulhu Eternal Jazz Age characters
- Another great campaign Wiki, with resources - and spoilers!
Characters
The player-characters deputized by Moore to investigate the death of Dr. Botho Ehrlichmann and follow up on his discoveries.
| Player | Character | HP | WP | SAN | BP | Resources | Weapons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fred | Bruce Worthington | 10 | 15 | 75 | 60 | 18: 6/6/6, [][][] | .405 Winchester 1895 lever action |
| Random Task | Jimmy Chan | 12 | 12 | 60 | 48 | 9: 6/3/0, [][] | .30-06 rifle, blackjack, Colt 1911, Bowie knife |
| Daxian | Drusilla "Dru" Canfield | 10 | 10/9 | 50 | 40 | 9: 6/3/0, [][] | Medium pistol |
| Regular Guy | Sean Ramsey | 11 | 11 | 55 | 44 | 9: 6/3/0, [][] | .38 Revolver, |
Important Information and Materials
This is the general page for details of vehicles, equipment, information and resources relevant to the campaign.
Principal transportation for the campaign - the Douglas DC2, just released to the market in May 1934: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-2
Sears Roebuck catalog 1936 (guns p.821 onwards!): https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009227433&view=1up&seq=70
Contemporary street map of Vienna: https://www.discusmedia.com/maps/maps_of_vienna/6697/
Important People and Organizations
Dr. Botho Ehrlichmann (deceased) - Austrian archaeologist and scholar of antiquities, died in a supposed accident in the Austrian Alps near Vienna.
Gisela Waltrun - Ehrlichmann's bereaved fiancee, Viennese resident, suspicious about the circumstances of his death.
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft - the former German Imperial oriental exploration society, famous for its archaeological exploits before World War 1.
Wewelsburg Castle circle - the circle of Nazi archaeologists, race pseudo-scholars, and occultists gathered by Heinrich Himmler in the early 1930s.
Ernst Schäfer - noted German explorer and orientalist, very active in Tibet and Central Asia.
House Rules and Quirks
Spending Willpower to Make Rolls Succeed
You can spend your Willpower Points on a 1-to-5 basis to improve most skill rolls (but not SAN rolls or damage rolls, or POW tests, or to change normally successful rolls into crits etc.): 1 WP = up to 5%. This represents making that extra effort of will to achieve a success. But in doing so, you're running down your Willpower Points, which can be dangerous. Also, you have to take the full 1-to-5 conversion - no fractions. If your roll has failed by 6%, you have to spend 2 WP for the full 10%.
Remember that you can also spend Willpower to project SAN loss onto Bonds, or to repress insanity. This is different to the above use - and a reminder how important it is to hang on to your WP. Fumbles can cost you WP; resisting interrogation definitely does. WP are needed to fuel hypergeometrical rituals and objects, and are sometimes targeted by offensive rituals. They're also very important for survival in hostile environments - like the Antarctic.
Remember that you suffer an emotional breakdown when your WP hit 2 or below, and total collapse when you hit 0 WP. You regain 1d6 WP after a full, proper night's sleep. Exhaustion and sleeplessness cut into that.
Parrying with Melee Weapons
The rules are a little unclear on this point, so to clarify: You can parry a Melee Weapons attack against you if you have the skill (e.g., not surprised), are able to use it, and have a weapon of your own. If your parry roll succeeds and beats your attacker's roll, you successfully parry the attack and take no weapon damage. If your parry roll succeeds but is below your attacker's roll, your weapon takes 1 point of damage. (Light weapons have 5 points, medium weapons 10 points, heavy weapons 20 points.)
If you're attacked by multiple assailants, you can opt to split your Melee Weapons skill between them and roll each parry separately, but your percentage chance per parry is divided by the total number of attackers. If you're splitting your skill, you have to declare this before the first attack, and you can't change the chances if one attacker fails and your parry succeeds.
You can't parry Huge attackers, only Dodge them. You can't nimbly parry a charging rhino's horn with your little switchblade...