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The Doom from Below

A 1920s Call of Cthulhu® Adventure

W e like to think of the ground beneath our

feet as a known and reliable quantity—something we

count on as we move through the world. How can

we make even the slightest move if we cannot rely on

terra irma to hold up and literally support each step

we take?

The truth, however, is that the earth is anything

but solid, even in our mundane world. The ground

is riddled with caverns, chasms, underground

lakes, pockets of natural gas, and all manner

of subterranean excavation and construction

perpetrated by man. Nor are these formations

necessarily permanent. Earthquakes leave rifts,

erosion creates sinkholes, and man-made structures

eventually give way to decay and collapse. The

earth sometimes does open up and swallow things

whole.

In a world where the stars just happen to be

right, sometimes the earth will instead open up

and release unspeakable evil.

Design : Stan!

Editing & Typeseting : R. Hyrum Savage

Cover Art : Luis Guaragna

Interior Art : Luis Guaragna, Jacob Elijah Walker, and Stan!

Special Thanks : The Alliterates (alliterates.com), APOD

(apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html), Dale Donovan, David

Lemon, H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Montesa, Vicki Poter,

John D. Ratelif, Cindi Rice, Ed Stark, Owen K.C. Stephens,

The Game Mechanics (thegamemechanics.com), and the

members of the Yog-Sothoth.com forums.

Background

In The Doom from Below the investigators explore

a mysterious chasm that drops straight down into

the bowels of the earth. The chasm is located in a

remote section of forest in the White Mountains of

New England. It appears on no maps and, as far

as the investigators can tell, they may well be the

irst living souls ever to explore its depths.

Technically speaking, the chasm would be

described by geologists as a “collapse pit”—a

nearly vertical, almost perfectly circular hole.

Generally, these are found in volcanically active

regions when lava hardens around and over

columns of escaping gas. What seems to be a solid

part of the lava plain can, in fact, be merely a few

feet of rock covering a yawning circular ravine

hundreds of feet deep.

Despite the fact that the hills of New England

have not been home to any active volcanoes for

several million years, and as unlikely as a newly

opened collapse pit is, most would probably agree

upon that classiication. After all, what else could

make a cylindrical hole ifteen feet across and

hundreds of feet deep in the side of a mountain?

The names, descriptions, and depictions applied to this

supplement are derived from works copyrighted by and

include trademarks owned by Chaosium, Inc., and may

not be used or reused without its permission.

All characters, character names, and the distinctive

likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by

Super Genius Games.

This material is protected under the copyright laws

of the United States of America. Any reproduction or

unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained

herein is prohibited without the express written

permission of Super Genius Games.

This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to

actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely

coincidental.

150 Million Years Ago

As continental drift slowly began pulling Pangaea

apart and forming what are recognizably the

continents we know today, Earth saw the arrival

of three new species. Two of them—amphibians

and birds—were the ongoing result of growth

from the original, naturally occurring primordial

soup, but the third originated on a planet known

as Yuggoth.

Visit our website at

www.supergeniusgames.com

The Mi-Go came to Earth in order to pillage the

young planet for rare minerals and ores. The fungi set

up colonies throughout the mountains of the northern

hemisphere, including one in what would later be the

White Mountains of New Hampshire. They piloted

their spacecraft to the heart of the mountains then

drilled their way through the rock and earth, setling

at the botom of a smooth, vertical shaft hundreds of

feet below the surface.

Although the rock in this region was not especially

plentiful in substances valued by the Mi-Go,

with time and a complicated fungoid processing

technique, suicient quantities could be leached

from the atomic bonds of the local ore. This process

would take at least a million years before it would

show any results, but the Mi-Go were patient, and

they had nothing but time.

The Historical Record

As far as we know, there are no alien mining

colonies in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

However, certain other pieces of the background

are historically correct.

The timeline for human entry into the region

is reasonably accurate. Approximately 11,000

years ago Paleo-Indians arrived in the region but,

without leaving a clear explanation for why, they

disappeared approximately a thousand years later.

The modern Native American tribes setled in the

area approximately 5,000 years ago and developed

their culture in relative isolation until the arrival

of the Europeans in the early seventeenth century.

Unfortunately, the “Great Dying” is also a mater

of historical record as a series of pandemics

decimated the native population from 1616 to 1619.

The town of Bethlehem, NH, is a real place but,

as explained in the adventure Murder of Crows , it

is neither a lumber town nor has it ever been the

victim of a fungoid alien curse.

11,000 Years Ago

Over the millennia, ore processing proceeded

apace, occasionally having to stop as a glacier

crept over the land. A minor inconvenience, to

be sure, but one that stopped the mining entirely

as the Mi-Go entered artiicial hibernation for

thousands of years at time waiting for the ice to

recede.

When the fungi awoke from their last delay,

they found something very diferent about the

lands around their mining colony. A new species

had joined the ecosystem—humans, having

traveled from the lands to the north and west, now

had a small but thriving presence in these woods.

Never ones to overlook a potential resource, the

Mi-Go begin using these Paleo-Indians as slave

labor.

However, the process being as automated as it

was, there really was very litle physical labor for

the humans to do. With the machinery’s fungoid

eiciency, the Mi-Go found themselves with more

and more free time—free time that they used to

perform experiments on the human slaves, often

removing their brains and placing them in either

mechanical cylinders or the bodies of local fauna.

Not surprisingly, the Paleo-Indians took objection

to these practices and began ighting back. Normally,

the Mi-Go would have easily quashed this rebellion,

most likely exterminating the humans in the

process. However, one of their experiments—a brain

cylinder designated Xydroth, that contained a local

specimen—had been used as the central processing

hub for the colony’s automated machinery. The

Paleo-Indian side of Xydroth, although quite

insane, was torn by conlicting loyalties. Should it

assist the Mi-Go in slaughtering its former family

or should it join the primitive humans in ighting

their technologically superior foes?

In the end, Xydroth decided that the best way to quell

its own seething madness was to eliminate both sides.

Neither group ever knew how it happened, but in less

than a thousand years the Paleo-Indians were wiped out

by bio-engineered illness and the Mi-Go were back in their

hibernation chambers, having been duped into believing

that a new ice age was beginning.

The hills were once again illed with a peace and quiet

they had not known since the alien colony irst arrived in

primordial days.

5,000 Years Ago

A new wave of human migration brought the Abenaki tribe

of Native Americans into the White Mountains. They lived

in relatively peaceful co-existence with the other tribes and

made a place for themselves in what seemed like idyllic

woods. Then the tribe discovered the shaft leading to the

Mi-Go mining colony.

Although the colony was completely inactive, Xydroth

was still awake and fully functional. The thousands of

years it had spent without any interaction of any kind had

only served to drive it even more insane.

At irst, Xydroth was content to watch the Abenaki treat

the chasm with awe and respect. It was amused when

they developed folklore and a mythology around the site,

saying that this was the place where the gods blew life

into the earth. But as it became a sacred site—a place that

even members of other tribes made pilgrimages to visit—

Xydroth grew uneasy.

Having humans becoming more numerous and active

around the chasm made it feel as if the humans had

won that ancient batle. This bothered the part of the

brain cylinder that was still loyal to the Mi-Go. In order to

maintain the balance it knew that it would have to either

release the hibernating fungus creatures or drive the

humans away. It chose the later.

Using its ability (designed by the Mi-Go) to communicate

with and inluence humans nearby, Xydroth began

implanting horrible visions into the minds of anyone who

visited the site—terrible shapes and alien sounds of the sort

that haunted one’s dreams. Soon rather than sacred, the

land was considered cursed. Demons, it was said, lived in

the pit, and it was considered taboo for anyone to go within

a mile of the site.

To increase the dread of the area, Xydroth obliged the

superstitious by using the Mi-Go technology to create

artifacts that would ill the head of anyone who touched

them with nightmare images. The Abenaki called these

totems Spirit Stones, and inding one was considered

an omen so evil that the inder’s entire family was often

banished from their village. Before long, it was considered

bad luck to even talk about that region of the forest, let

alone visit it.

Soon the hills were quiet again.

400 Years Ago

In the early 1600s, European colonies began spreading

through the New England hills. The colonists met

the Abenaki tribe and found them to be friendly,

welcoming neighbors willing to live in peace and

harmony. The Native Americans shared their

knowledge of local plant and animal life, helped the

colonists adapt to their new home, and taught them

all the secrets of the New World. Among these lessons

were tales of the haunted woods surrounding the

Demon’s Mouth—a pit through which evil irst

entered the world. The legends said that the pit still

spewed forth a never-ending stream of poisonous

snakes and spiders. No one, the Abenaki told the

colonists, could visit the site and survive.

The colonists were skeptical, to say the least. But

since the land was so remote and the Abenaki took

the subject so seriously, they never bothered to see

for themselves. It was simply accepted that, for the

sake of neighborly relations, it was best to swear

never to visit those particular hills. That promise

made, connections between the Abenaki and the

colonists grew ever closer.

Unfortunately, that very closeness was a

contributing factor to what New England tribes

came to call the “Great Dying”—a simultaneous

pandemic of diseases such as measles, whooping

cough, and smallpox that ravaged the native

population. In just three years, as many as 95% of

the coastal and near-inland tribes died of or moved

away.

Along with the horriic loss of life, the tribes lost

much of their cultural memory. The true history

of the “Demon’s Mouth” became a vague folktale

about the hills being haunted. Since the site itself

remained so obscure that even trappers and hunters

rarely went that way, the legends themselves

eventually began to fade from memory.

Last Month

Even with growth of the colonies, the ight for

independence, and the explosive growth of a new

country that soon stretched from sea to shining

sea, the newcomers to this land never rediscovered

the Mi-Go mining colony. Individual hunters or

campers found the spot from time to time, but they

all left quickly—chased away by horriic visions

and inexplicable feelings of dread. None of them

reported their experiences to the local authorities or

cartographers.

The nearest setlement was Bethlehem, New

Hampshire. And though it was a lumber town, the

people of Bethlehem always brought their axes and

saws to other, more conveniently located hills. Still,

logging was not the only reason that the residents

entered the woods, and from time to time one of

Changing the Locale

The chasm and Mi-Go mining colony as described in

The Doom from Below are presumed to be located in the

mountains of H.P. Lovecraft’s beloved New England.

However, with only a few adjustments, a Keeper can set

this adventure in almost any part of the world in which

the investigators ind themselves. The following are

the issues that the Keeper will have to consider when

relocating the action.

•

—According to the Mythos,

Mi-Go tend to set up colonies in mountainous

regions. For the purpose of this adventure, it would

be best if the mountains were relatively near some

small human development yet still covered in a thick

forest. The chasm site is supposed to be accessible

on foot, but diicult or impossible to spot from

the air (or a higher mountaintop). In as much as

the Keeper changes these parameters, some of the

background details will have to be likewise modiied.

•

—The background as described

here is very much linked to the history (and pre-

history) of the northeast U.S. If the Keeper relocates

the action, it will also be necessary to change the

timing and details of the background to match the

anthropological and geographic history of the new

location. Any new background should be formed

around these key points: the Mi-Go arrive; they use

local humans as slaves; a rebellion neutralizes both

sides; a natural disaster causes a loss of detailed folk

knowledge regarding the site and incident.

Mountainous Woods

Natural History

them would inadvertently hike into the land near the

chasm. Like the Native Americans centuries before

them, these people found their minds plagued by evil

bodings and the unshakable sensation that the forest

itself meant them harm.

A few weeks ago, one such man came into the

woods and succumbed to the creeping fear. However,

in his panic to escape, he tripped and fell just at the

spot of a half-buried Abenaki Spirit Stone. He brought

it back to town with him and misfortune followed

close in his wake. (One possible version of these

events is described in the adventure Murder of Crows .

Keepers who do not wish to use that scenario should

invent a diferent tale of mythos-inspired woe that

has befallen Bethlehem, NH.)

The unfortunate man’s journal clearly spelled out

in what section of forest he found the Spirit Stone.

Anyone reading it should be able to determine

the general location of those supposedly haunted

woods. Once that is accomplished and news has

spread, those seeking other artifacts like the Spirit

Stone will likely be the irst to oicially “discover”

the Demon’s Mouth.

Synopsis

The adventure begins when the investigators

arrive at the chasm. Depending on how the Keeper

wants the action to low, the investigators may be

following in the footsteps of a previous expedition

and know roughly what they’re looking for or be

the irst modern people ever to stumble upon the

site. If the later is the case, it is unlikely that the

investigators will have the equipment they need

to immediately begin rappelling down the shaft

(and even more unlikely that they’ll want to). The

Keeper will have to prepare scenes that allow the

investigators to gather enough information and

equipment to feel comfortable with that course

of action. It is never a good idea to railroad your

players, but even less so when the action you’re

pushing them toward is jumping into a gaping pit in

the earth.

The Doom from Below is broken into three acts,

each of which describes a distinct portion of the

exploration. It is not necessary for the investigators

to inish one section before moving on to the next,

though it will be diicult for them to skip any section

of Act I, which unfolds as the investigators lower

themselves deeper and deeper into the chasm. Much

as the earth itself reveals diferent strata, the descent

is fraught with diferent perils at diferent depths.

The further the investigators get from the surface,

the stranger the challenges become. As might seem

iting, Act I ends when the group reaches the

chasm’s botom.

Act II follows the team as they explore the cave loor.

Some of the problems from Act I may still be around, but

they should seem much less threatening now that the

investigators have irm ground beneath their feet. A major

discovery and a vague threat mark the highlights of this

act. The discovery is a set of pictographs unlike any seen

before. The threat comes from more denizens of the pit and

a growing feeling that someone is watching the group. Act II

ends when the investigators discover that one of the stones in

the cave is hollow and can be pried open.

Act III takes place behind the hollow stone. There,

the investigators discover the control room from which

Xydroth managed both the Mi-Go mining operations and

the manipulation of the humans on the nearby surface. But

while the alien technology in the room may seem inert,

it is all fully functional and under the control of Xydroth.

The brain cylinder knows that the investigators have it at

something of a disadvantage since they are fully mobile

and may be armed. To make maters worse, Xydroth has

no comprehension of modern language or technology, so

it might not even recognize threatening items the humans

are carrying. However, it will make full use of the Mi-Go

equipment and its ability to inluence human minds. If it

can successfully capture one or more of the investigators, it

might try to use the Mi-Go technology to swap its brain with

one of the humans, allowing Xydroth to walk free in the

modern world. Alternatively, it might just take the humans

Call Of Cthulhu - The Doom From Below (1920).pdf

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