From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of ialdaloboth *genzundheit!* [ialdaloboth@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 3:37 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Vampire LARPers > > >Right, I think Gencon UK 2001 for me. I dunno, man. Sex with LARPers can be a real touchy kind of deal. I went home with one of them, and we spent all night playing paper scissors rock. I didn't even get a hand job... Or was that the point? J. Edward _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of The Lizard King [lizardrex@charter.net] Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 8:36 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Vampire LARPers ----- Original Message ----- From: "ialdaloboth *genzundheit!*" > I dunno, man. Sex with LARPers can be a real touchy kind of deal. > > I went home with one of them, and we spent all night playing paper scissors > rock. I didn't even get a hand job... > > Or was that the point? Damn right you didn't get a hand job you thoughtless poltroon. You stopped before the foreplay was over. http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/2000/12/12162000/lizards_40715.asp?P=2 Or, you were missing 2/5s of the game. http://www.vtiscan.com/~samkass/theories/RPSSL.html Mark McFadden _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Jussi Marttila [velcrokf@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 10:39 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] Submarines in the Baltic Weird things happenin' here in the north again. For the past month, the Finnish navy has thrice gone out in force (two days ago, the hunt used three missile boats and a helicopter) to hunt for foreign submarines that have been reported in Finnish waters. No submarines have been found. Maybe someone in the Finnish navy has found out about a Deep One colony in the Baltic? And remember the Swedish navy subhunt in the 80-ties. No subs were found then either. Must be something fishy going on... Jussi _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Don Fougere [bolide@mars.ark.com] Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 10:50 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] New York City Subway Historical Maps Hi Folks, While searching about for resource material to add to my run of Victim of the Art I came across this site. Thought this might be a useful reference site for anyone with a scenario or campaign in New York City, especially if it revolves around goules. http://www.nycsubway.org/maps/historical/#1880 Cheers, Don Fougere Image Sleuth - Analytical Imaging Solutions Lazo, B.C. bolide@mars.ark.com From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Shane Ivey [shaneivey@earthlink.net] Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 4:16 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: RE: [DG] New York City Subway Historical Maps << http://www.nycsubway.org/maps/historical/#1880>> Sweet! Perfect for Jazz-era games, too, for you folks running Masks or some early Fate-related material. The map files are pretty hefty, though, so allow for the download. - Shane Ivey R E V O L U T I O N s f the revolution in sci-fi http://revolutionsf.com/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Khorne [khorne@cyberlink.bc.ca] Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 1:33 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] New York City Subway Historical Maps This may be stating the obvious, but there's some excellent source materials for a Keepers of the Faith adventure to be found in "Reliquary", by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Reliquary being the sequel to "The Relic". Nothing better to set the mood. ">Sweet! Perfect for Jazz-era games, too, for you folks running Masks or some >early Fate-related material. The map files are pretty hefty, though, so >allow for the download." _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Joseph Camp [alphonse@delta-green.com] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 4:16 AM To: dgrpg Subject: [DG] About the Server Change... Since a few days have gone by and hopefully everyone is ashore who's going ashore, I wanted to explain what happened. A few days before GenCon, the majordomo email list server we use for the DGML stopped working spontaneously. From that point forward, every email sent to the list only generated an error message in my admin inbox; the error messages were all identical and showed no trace of the email that had triggered them. CO Christopher quickly agreed to set up the list anew via a server he operates at revolutionsf.com. I sent him the subscription list, which I recovered from our server, so that he could just sign up everyone who had been on DGML a couple days prior. This first attempt ended in catastrophe and bounced junk to everyone. Christopher shut down that first attempt and started over. This time we simply asked everyone to resubscribe manually, notifying them by sending out a form letter to all the listed subscribers. This process was interrupted by GenCon, which prevented us from being able to send out the resubscription message for several days. I wish it was possible to have warned everyone in advance, but this was a disaster that caught us by surprise and killed the list instantly. I have no idea why our majordomo server died, but at present I don't have the time to figure out how to make it work again. For the time being, the discussion here continues by virtue of CO Christopher's gracious nature. FYI... be seeing you, Alphonse _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Tomi.Orre@minedu.fi Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 1:59 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: VS: [DG] Submarines in the Baltic > Must be something fishy going on... yep. maybe all those kids at Vesikansa (waterfolk in english) childrens home are not entirely human. my father usede to work there in the 70's and has told some pretty spooky stories about ugly 15-year old guys with mothers who ended up in mental hospitals. gosh. _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord [wardjr@aston.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 9:15 AM To: Delta Green Mailing List Subject: [DG] Pink Floyd Is there anybody ... out there? Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to him. Again. -- Jonathan Ward || School of Engineering || Aston University || j.r.ward@aston.ac.uk || _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Rayburn, Russell E. [RERayburn@cmhmetro.net] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 9:21 AM To: 'deltagreen@revolutionsf.com' Cc: 'wardjr@aston.ac.uk' Subject: RE: [DG] Pink Floyd Still here. Thanks to Alphonse, BTW, for the info on what all went on. Feel for ya bubba... DBA here, so I know how it feels when Thing Go Wrong. -----Original Message----- From: Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord [mailto:wardjr@aston.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 10:15 AM To: Delta Green Mailing List Subject: [DG] Pink Floyd Is there anybody ... out there? Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to him. Again. -- Jonathan Ward || School of Engineering || Aston University || j.r.ward@aston.ac.uk || _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Stango [jstanley@echoman.com] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 9:24 AM To: 'deltagreen@revolutionsf.com' Subject: RE: [DG] Pink Floyd I am here, lurking as always....afraid to venture forth with a post of my own..... -----Original Message----- From: Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord [mailto:wardjr@aston.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 10:15 AM To: Delta Green Mailing List Subject: [DG] Pink Floyd Is there anybody ... out there? Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to him. Again. -- Jonathan Ward || School of Engineering || Aston University || j.r.ward@aston.ac.uk || _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of The Nuge [jessthecatasc@oceanfree.net] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 9:17 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com; Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord Subject: Re: [DG] Pink Floyd Are you near London? Cause, as is Irish Tradition, I will have to have a serious booze-up with a the DGMLers in the City of London, and all other nearby zones when I'm over for GenCon UK. Y'Up? >Is there anybody ... out there? > >Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to him. Again. Visit http://www.oceanfree.net to get your free e-mail account and use our unique Irish Internet directory _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Dirk R. Festus Festerling [festusdirk@yahoo.de] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 1:20 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Pink Floyd > Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to > him. Again. we´re getting nervous, aren´t we? real nervous..... that´s the right style. fnord! festus __________________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - http://mail.yahoo.de _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of ialdaloboth *genzundheit!* [ialdaloboth@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 2:19 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: RE: [DG] Pink Floyd Yeam, I'm here too... just stinging at being called a poltroon because I never got a hand-job from a lizard ; ) J. Edward -- CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CTHULHU -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates /-----------/---\-----------\ ------------|O O|------------ ------------\VAV/------------ -------------I I------------- "and who knows what depths lay in limitless sand; or what horrors are leashed by a great ebon hand?" - Ialdaloboth _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of g m [sneezythesquid@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 7:16 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] About the Server Change... --- Joseph Camp wrote: > Since a few days have gone by and hopefully everyone > is ashore who's going > ashore, I wanted to explain what happened. Damn NRO DELTA. And a big "Hi-ya!" to everyone, as I return to the list. Had to purge the protomater, but I'm feeling much better now... SneezytheSquid __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of g m [sneezythesquid@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 7:21 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: RE: [DG] Pink Floyd > Is there anybody ... out there? > > Jon, fearing the black hole event has happened to > him. Again. I am back, so perhaps I was lucky and was not hit with the brain-wipe that was broadcast out to the list. As for our fellow agents... So, who's headed to Dragon*Con at the end of the month? SneezytheSquid __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of david wienecke [dwienecke@usa.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 12:52 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] TEST (I know...I know Another Test) I have not seen a post for 18 or so hours. Color me paranoid but given the recent state of DGML affairs I had the compulsion to test the mail server. There now I have used my 1 allowable test message for the year. Dave W. _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Dirk R. Festus Festerling [festusdirk@yahoo.de] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 1:26 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] TEST (I know...I know Another Test) --- david wienecke schrieb: > I have not seen a post for 18 or so hours. i´ve seen your´s. that´s a beginning. festus __________________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - http://mail.yahoo.de _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Rayburn, Russell E. [RERayburn@cmhmetro.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 1:30 PM To: 'deltagreen@revolutionsf.com' Subject: RE: [DG] TEST (I know...I know Another Test) Still alive here. -----Original Message----- From: david wienecke [mailto:dwienecke@usa.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 1:52 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] TEST (I know...I know Another Test) I have not seen a post for 18 or so hours. Color me paranoid but given the recent state of DGML affairs I had the compulsion to test the mail server. There now I have used my 1 allowable test message for the year. Dave W. _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Gil Trevizo [furrylogic@mindspring.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 1:33 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] Too many test posts No offense, but the test posts on DGML seem to be getting close to outnumbering the posts of content here. While I understand and share the fear that the list has gone kaput again, I think the real reason behind the silence is that no one has put forth anything to talk about. To solve both problems, why don't we replace the test posts by making a content post to the list. It'll work the same as a test post to see if the list is still active, and might actually get some conversation rolling. There must be some question or remark or whatever you want to make about Delta Green. Or in the years since this list was created, have we exhausted all there is to say about DG? Gil _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Rayburn, Russell E. [RERayburn@cmhmetro.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 2:54 PM To: Dgrpg (E-mail) Subject: [DG] Karotechnia (sp?) NOTE: I don't have my reference materials with me now. All spelling errors are for your amusement. In keeping with our goal of getting a higher content to test post ratio: Something that's been running around my head since we had a local (Columbus, Ohio) Aryan Nations leader arrested was involving the Karotechnia in a James Elroy-esq. conspiracy scenario. Has anyone written something like this? I'm not looking to rip anyone off (unless they have good ideas ;-) ) but would like to work in a few plot lines: Kartoechnia machinations with local hate/militia groups corporate evil (natch) drug running etc. Thoughts? _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Graeme Price [graemep@immagene.MCG.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 4:00 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Karotechnia (sp?) on 8/14/01 3:54 PM, Rayburn, Russell E. at RERayburn@cmhmetro.net wrote: > Something that's been running around my head since we had a local (Columbus, > Ohio) Aryan Nations leader arrested was involving the Karotechnia in a James > Elroy-esq. conspiracy scenario. > > Has anyone written something like this? I'm not looking to rip anyone off > (unless they have good ideas ;-) ) but would like to work in a few plot > lines: > Kartoechnia machinations with local hate/militia groups > corporate evil (natch) > drug running > etc. There's a rather nice little scenario-ette along these lines in the last issue of The Unspeakable Oath... I won't put in any spoilers here, but it's well worth getting hold of (if only to support our esteemed sponsors). Of course, you _could_ always go down the lines of writing an evil-drug-money-laundering-off-shore-investment-banker-with-links-in-South-A merica type scenario (sorry, forgot the "TM")... that sort of thing is always a good one for generating ad hoc interagency task forces to break new players in gently. Later Graeme -- graemep@immag.mcg.edu _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Don Fougere [bolide@mars.ark.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:00 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] VMAD http://www.slugwire.org/weekly/archives/01Mar8/marines.html Also shows up in one of the latest issues of Defense News Weekly. Thought you guys (and gals) would appreciate a little light reading on the Marine Corps newest (trialed and tested in the Gulf no doubt?) crowd control device. Smacks of Grey/MJ-12 technology, especially considering those tingling sensations you get in your body, then the lost time issue. I'm sure the MC version is tuned differently than the deluxe model. I could picture an extremely modified military or civil pattern Sikorsky with a pile of Blue Fly baddies equipped with one of these, stealth mode and all kinds of auxiliary lighting.... weeeoooooww-woooo! Cheers, Don Fougere Image Sleuth - Analytical Imaging Solutions Lazo, B.C. bolide@mars.ark.com From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Khorne [khorne@cyberlink.bc.ca] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:12 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] Tzitzimine It occurred to me that a particularly evocative alternative name for a Star Vampire might be "tzitzimine", which means, in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, "demons of twilight". The tzitzimine were said to be essentially invisible, or to be clouds of red mist (blood anyone?). _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Khorne [khorne@cyberlink.bc.ca] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:10 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] Mythos vampires Some weeks ago, there were discussions about how to involve vampires in games in a new, interesting way. I sent the following materials out to some of the posters off-list, but, as I think about it, the entire list might enjoy this material, and take some small inspiration from it. Therfore, submitted for your approval... Ages ago, long before any kind of life that mankind has yet identified had arisen, the Earth was not a paradise. With the crust barely cooled and an atmosphere barely breathable by human life, composed mostly of toxic gases, it was a Hell as sure as any mankind has ever imagined. Before any orthodox type of life arose on Earth, a rough panoply of beings arose to inhabit this cauldron. Like the Great Old Ones and their attendant satellite races, they date from a time long before man, before anything even remotely identifiable by mankind as life had ever arisen. Yet there was life on Earth, in those scalding, earliest of days, the life of Hell. This pre-human life arose in possibly the most inhospitable conditions conceivable. The Earth was barely solid and had an atmosphere that was essentially a corona of fire around the planet. In fact, the Earth was the Earth in name only. Under these hyperbolic conditions, when life should not have arisen, it did. An awful type of life, and it achieved a sentience, a self awareness and level of mental acuity, beyond that of mankind's, and it did it quickly, completing the evolutionary path from single celled proto-life to full self-awareness in a scant 10 million years. This life was savage beyond comprehension, for the conditions of the time were such that absolutely no margin for error could be allowed. The price of failure at anything was death. This life was also tough, as the conditions demanded. Every type of life was carnivorous, preying on the weak and the slow and those just a little deficient in some minor way. At the top of it all was a race of supremely adaptable, unbelievably vicious super-predators who were the first type of intelligent life to evolve on Earth. A history of sorts was compiled of the Earth in those days, not by any man, but by the Great Old Ones who crossed the cosmos and pacified these beings so that they could settle the Earth. That the Great Old Ones nearly failed, and that they would record a testament of their near-failure bespeaks of the utter savagery they confronted in those days when the Earth was not the Earth. This history, the Booke of Eibon, or the Booke of Aeibon, was then translated into the lost human tongue of Naacal, and from thence into first Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Italian, and finally English. >From the Booke of Aeibon, we learn that the various Great Old Ones came to the Earth from far and wide across the cosmos. Cthugha came from Formalhaut, Hastur the Unspeakable from Aldebaran, and Great Cthulhu came, with his race and his children, from the lost, black world of Xoth. They were all as close to gods as corporeal life could be, with minds and bodies mighty beyond human conception. Yet the savage inhabitants of the Earth in those primaeval times nearly bested them. Maddened by the harm inflicted and the audacity of these primordial savages, the Great Old Ones lashed out, and destroyed these savage beings. Savage they must have been, to nearly overcome the likes of Great Cthulhu himself, who so delights in conflict. A great many of these beings were killed outright, 99% of those that lived. Many more had their physical forms shattered by the fury of the assault of whichever Great Old One put paid to them. These freed minds were no less dangerous than the incarnated beings, for, under such hostile, competitive conditions, death of the body could not be allowed to be the death of the entire being, as the Great Old Ones soon learned. It is told in the Booke of Aeibon that Hastur and Great Cthulhu were half-brothers, and were the same in many ways, despite the opposition of their characters. The shades of these slain primaeval beings whispered in Hastur's ear, fanning feelings of jealousy of his indomitable half-brother. The Booke of Aeibon even suggests that they might have usurped control of Hastur's body from him, casting his mind loose on the aether, where it became a kind of virus, an infective madness that can be easily passed through speech, image, sound, even the written word. It is an entropic madness that literally breaks down the perception and the fact of reality alike, wherever alienation and the surreal have come to rule. Buildings shift, paintings change, lights flicker, statues mutate under the touch of the living madness, the virus thought that Hastur became when he was cast from his own body. Around those infected with this force of entropy, order is the jester and chaos is the king. Just as Hastur's body was lost to the undying animus of the unconquerable first inhabitants of Earth, so too did they assume command of the forms of members of Hastur's race, like yet unlike that of Great Cthulhu, and lead them against Great Cthulhu in an apocalyptic battle that literally shook the universe. The city-continent of Great Cthulhu, R'Lyeh, was sunken beneath the waves of the Pacific ocean. The moon was blasted out of the Earth. Untold billions of members of both Cthulhu and Hastur's races were killed, including Hastur's possessed form. Great Cthulhu himself was so grievously wounded that he lies trapped between life and death, along with family and servant race, in sunken R'Lyeh. The deathless animi of the savage primordial inhabitants of the Earth were no less harmed, and many, many of them died. Yet a few of their number persisted in their original forms, and slightly more existed in that strange, undead state that the assault of the Great Old Ones has banished them into, not dead, but not alive as they had once been, or as the parade of sapient races to follow them as rulers of the Earth would be. They found that they could usurp these forms as they had stolen Hastur's and those of his race, although, weakened as they were, it was far easier to breathe a semblance of life into the recently deceased, the fresher the corpse the better. Thus were born the vampires. The creatures humanity knows as the vampires are the impossibly savage original inhabitants of Earth, who evolved into unconquerable beings when the Earth and Hell were the same, and who could not be stopped even by physical death. Type 1 vampire: A person whose body has been possessed by an "ethereal vampire", one who exists in that strange, undead state that the assault of the Great Old Ones has banished them into, not dead, but not alive either. Type 2 vampire: A dead body reanimated by an "ethereal vampire", one who exists in that strange, undead state that the assault of the Great Old Ones has banished them into, not dead, but not alive either, and maintained by the psychic abilities of the primordial super-predator. Tzitzimine: or "demons of twilight" are members of the race of primordial super-predators who still live in their original forms. These billions year old vampires are the most powerful of their kind. By sheer fluke, the majority of these beings dwell in Meso-America and the Caribbean. Type 3 vampire: 99% of the vampires in the world today are neither Type 1 or 2 vampires nor tzitzimine. Rather, they are the spawn of older vampires. The bulk of these life forms exist as disembodied intelligences, beings composed entirely of mental energy. They require additional psychic energy to maintain the cohesion of their forms, for a vampire cannot long survive disembodied. A non-corporeal vampire seeks a specific type of person to leach psychic energy from. The ideal victim feels emotions strongly, and experiences a considerable range of emotion. Poets, artists, writers, and similar sorts who live by their emotions are the best victims. Further, a physically sickly person makes a better victim, since their psychic/ life energy is not strongly bound to their body, and may be more easily fed upon. The analogy is of a garden hose with hole in it and a thirsty man. Can a thirsty person drink more easily from an intact hose, whose ends he cannot remove, or from the same hose which has been poked full of holes. For this reason, Earth's vampires battened well in centers of disease, be it the Plague, tuberculosis, or AIDS. San Francisco is infested with vampires feeding on those dying of AIDS. However, such psychic feeding is slow, and only yields small amounts of psychic energy. A vampire, in keeping with the original life forms' nature as the most virulent and aggressive of predators, vastly prefers to feed upon the flesh of live victims. However, their own nature and the nature of the bodies they must inhabit to physically feed governs how they may physically feed. A vampire may only physically feed by being a physical being themselves. The only way they can do so is to assume control of the body of another, either by driving out its resident consciousness, or, more easily, by reanimating a dead body. Vampires consider themselves the dominant form of life on Earth, and so would not sully themselves by inhabiting the bodies of animals. Further, they are insanely jealous of humanity, who they feel has usurped their role as masters of the Earth. They feel that it is poetic justice to steal the body of a human. An ethereal vampire can drive the true consciousness from the body of a life form, but this requires them to commit considerable resources to an especially violent struggle. They must over come the hold the true consciousness has on it's body, a struggle they are very likely to lose since the reserves of psychic energy a non-corporeal vampire has are quite minimal. It is much easier for a vampire to reanimate a dead body. How, then, did these primaeval predators assume control of Hastur and his race? After all, Hastur's mind was so psychically powerful that it has become a virus thought which infects back and forth across the cosmos. The answer lies in the sheer number of these savage primal beings that invaded Hastur's form. When the Great Old Ones made war on the primordial inhabitants of Earth, they killed them in huge numbers. However, these primaeval beings, the future vampires, had so perfectly evolved into survivors that the death of their bodies did not mean the death of the being itself. The savage assaults of the Great Old Ones drove them from their bodies, and liberated their minds. Countless millions of these disembodied consciousnesses then invaded Hastur and stole his body from him. No single primal being possessed a Great Old One or a member of their races. A vampire can force the consciousness of the proper owner of a body from it, usurping control, but to do so is difficult for them, at least one on one. Human minds are strongly bound to their bodies, and are difficult to force from them. Often, several vampires will co-operate to drive a human mind from it's body, producing the classic cases of possession by demons. Once the vampires have control, then they fight amongst themselves to see which one will be dominant. To increase their chances of successfully driving a consciousness out, a vampire will choose a younger, less vital person, or one suffering from a disease that weakens them. The elderly are reasonably safe from such vampiric possession since no one wants a house that's going to collapse, do they? Naturally, they want a body worth having, so they search for the body of someone recently deceased, ideally someone they have chosen and killed themselves, through psychic parasitism. After waiting a suitable time to ensure that the cadaver will be interred and left alone, they invest their psychic selves in it, employing psychic energy to "fix up the old place and make a few renovations", and employ their new home to feed on flesh and blood to their black heart's content. These vampires usually take on the thought patterns and behaviours of the dead person whose body they have assumed control of, since they're using that person's brain, which causes the vampire's mental energies to move in ways similar to those of the dear departed. Anyone who encounters the newly incorporated vampire who knew the original person will assume that this person had risen from the dead, instead of become the vessel for an undying super-predator from before time began. Of course, a leopard cannot completely change it's sport, so this personality is a more savage, animalistic version of the reanimated corpse's original one. A vampire can repair a lot of damage to the corpses they inhabit, but not all of it. A corpse inhabited by even the most powerful vampire will still have a certain "corpseishness" to it. Pale, slight, bad smelling, cool to the touch. A vampire has more important things to do than make the body it inhabits continue breathing, or maintain a human body temperature, or any of the other traits that usually identify one as being alive, which can be used to search out a vampire. The vampire has no need for air, or sleep, and as essentially a psychic life form, temperature is quite meaningless. That said, some very powerful vampires will go to the trouble of making their host body breathe, and will maintain a human body temperature, and be inactive for roughly half the day in simulation of sleep, so as to more perfectly hide. However, the bodies vampires use inevitably waste to some extent. They become thinner, and more cadaverous. They become paler, since a vampire does not respire, and the oxygen exchange process that uses the red-pigmented iron compound haem no longer takes place. Most telling, portions of the lower digestive tract decay, preventing the vampire's body from digesting complex foods. They can digest meat and simple sugars alone. Thus, vampires consume flesh and blood, not only because doing so is in keeping with their predatory natures, but because it's all they can eat. On the plus side, a vampire is a predator, and thinks like one. It's body must be able to hunt and overcome prey. That means it must be fast and strong and tough. A dead body is tough anyway, but a vampire will toughen it up with psychic energy such that gunshots are meaningless to the theoretical "typical" vampire. This hypothetical being is also strong enough to lift a car, and almost too fast to see. These are all traits that make them better predators. This is the origin of the way one is supposed to kill a vampire, which arises from the opposite of the truth. As predators, vampires recognize that the heart is particularly vulnerable. One of the first things they do upon assuming a new body, be it possessed living or reanimated dead one, is fortify the heart and surrounding tissues psychically. Thus, if a person were to kill a vampire by stabbing it through the heart with a single blow, they were really something. All vampires are powerfully psychic beings, the mechanism by which their consciousness survives corporeal death. They are also very passionate beings, almost pure id (as humans understand the term) interested only in the display and gratification of base emotions: carnal pleasure, dominance, excitement, that sort of thing. Because of this trait, they may sort of lose control of themselves when indulging in such an emotion. Their psychic powers then alter their forms, making the vampire look like a bestial humanoid or even a predatory animal in keeping with whatever emotion they are indulging in: while fighting, the may appear to be savage, brutish lupine beings, while pursuing prey, they may seem to be chase hunting creatures, (like wolves) or even winged ones. A vampire can psychically dull the senses of a person or even several people, "clouding their minds". This simulates invisibility. People will literally not believe their eyes. A vampire can easily impose its will psychically on another in a manner akin to mesmerism. A combination of these two traits explains the seductive handsomeness of vampires: the person seeing the vampire has had their perceptions clouded already, and the vampire is feeding suggestions to them hypnotically, controlling what they believe they see. Conversely, as pretemporal super-predators, vampires have senses hundreds of times more acute than a human's, as well as well-honed hunting instincts. In particular, their eyesight is well adapted to the dark, and they can smell the stink of blood with ease. They are relentless, patient stalkers who will strike at the time when their prey is at the greatest disadvantage. A vampire hardly every faces an enemy in a direct fight Some vampires, especially older ones, possess more overt psychic abilities. They can levitate and impose their will on animals. Many of the oldest vampires can create patches of fog or darkness psychically. They can even create fires or inclement weather if they are powerful enough. This "losing control in the throes of passion" of their psychic abilities also explains why vampires are reduced to ash or even burst into flames when they die. Their psychic energy reserves course through their bodies uncontrolled, like an electrical charge, literally incinerating the vampire's body. What about sunlight? Isn't it supposed to incinerate a vampire? Actually, sunlight has little real effect on a vampire, but they all share a race-wide phobia about bright light (not just sunlight). The original Earth they evolved on was a dark place, with the sun obscured by clouds of volcanic ash. They aren't used to sunlight, and fear it as humans fear the dark. New vampires, as they are educated by their peers, pick up this fear. Water? Another fear of the unfamiliar. Not only was the original Earth dark, but it was also hot and dry. Water scares vampires along the lines of a phobia, but it holds no actual dangers for them beyond their racial ignorance of it. They might misjudge water, and drown because of unfamiliarity, although Type 2 vampires are a special case in this regard. No vampire actually needs to breathe. The tzitzimine evolved to survive, and surviving meant being able to last without oxygen. Thus, they can subsist anaerobically, on psychic energy, rather than oxygen. Likewise, Type 1 and 2 vampires can sustain themselves on psychic energy alone if necessary, so oxygen is not required. However, because they take on so many habits of the human bodies they use, many Type 1 and 3 vampires think that they do have to breathe, and actually take water into their lungs. Then they convince themselves that they are drowning, even though it is biologically impossible for them to do so, and actually will themselves to die. A Type 2 vampire, though, knows that its body is dead, and cannot drown (its dead already, right?). That said, vampires only breathe when they want to, anyway. Holy relics? This varies from vampire to vampire according to the beliefs held by their host bodies. If they inhabit the body of someone afraid or respectful of holy relics, then they will be too. Tzitzimine have no such vulnerability. That said, certain people strong of faith and possessing psychic powers can use a holy relic to channel their mental energies, making such items into a weapon against the vampire, which can hurt them because they are "tuned in" to psychic energy. Silver and other electrically conductive heavy metals do harm vampires out of proportion to the size or severity of the wounds they cause. What these metals do is cause their reserves of psychic energy to "ground out", in a sort of destructive psychic short circuit that burns out the nervous system and cerebellum of the vampire. Tzitzimine are the least vulnerable, but their vulnerability is compounded by an allergy that the primordial super-predators had to such metals. Basically, if the short-circuit doesn't kill them, the allergy will. Physically, this short-circuit makes the wound the metals cause look bigger and worse than it should. Tzitzimine, because they still have their original bodies, can reproduce in a normal manner. An ability that the primaeval super-predators possessed to ensure survival under the most hostile conditions was the ability to reproduce in a manner that is very analogous to a viral infection. The vampire's genetic coding "invades" the host's DNA and alters gene expression and activation. New genes are created that force the cells to function and exist in a manner that is more suitable to a developing vampiric spawn. The means by which the vampire is able to invade a host's DNA in a viral manner and induce the reproduction of another vampire is done via the introduction and utilization of a DNA polymerase, or DNA polymerase-like enzyme, which, in the tzitzimine's case, is physically injected into the host body, using a vicious ovipositor that resembles a huge spiny penis. However, there are fewer than 500 tzitzimine existent in the world, with most of those hiding out in the less habitable regions of Meso-America, and no tzitzimine has reproduced in 50 years. The bulk of the modern vampire population are the "children" of Type 1 and 2 vampires. Type 1 vampires possess the functional reproductive organs of the body of the person they have possessed, and can use these to introduce the DNA polymerase. In the case of Type 1 vampires occupying female bodies, the DNA polymerase is substituted for the host body's reproductive cells, and a vampiric child is birthed. These children, also Type 1 vampires, mature very slowly. Type 2 vampires, the most common type, have it tougher, because their physical body is dead, without functional reproductive organs. They can still reproduce, though, by using their psychic abilities to create DNA polymerase out of the biomass of their dead body. The folklore of vampires transforming their victims into vampires stems from this process of reproduction by Type 2 vampires. Once a small amount of DNA polymerase has been created, the Type 2 vampire seeks out a host. A special host must be found, a person who already has or could potentially develop psychic abilities. These people will act as a psychic antenna when the growing vampire within them energizes those parts of their nervous system that collect psychic energy. In lieu of physical nourishment, the developing vampire will use psychic energy to drive its growth. Once a Type 2 vampire has found a viable host for its seed, the vampire will begin feeding on this person's blood, so the host is physically weakened, and its immune system will not kill the vampire growing within. Because the vampiric parent actively cultivates this vampiric child, they will develop faster than the spawn of tzitzimine or Type 1 vampires, often in two or three months. The resulting Type 3 vampire is extremely similar in appearance, behaviour, and memory content to the individual "infected", and it was misunderstanding of this similarity that began the folk story that a vampire could make a victim into another vampire. This does not occur, but instead, a vampiric hybrid of the reproducing vampire and the victimized host is born. In its common state a DNA polymerase is an enzyme that catalyses the replication and repair of existing DNA in an organism by using a single stranded DNA as a template. Of course the simple act of introducing such an enzyme into a host organism wouldn't result in the eventual restructuring of the DNA in a manner that would enable a vampire embryo to survive and develop. In order for such a DNA polymerase to create the type of genetic restructuring that results in the creation of a Type 3 vampire, the enzyme contains both vampire and host coding - with some kind of genetic splicing occurring. The enzyme responsible for the alteration of host DNA it works on an "open ended/incomplete" principle: a DNA polymerase-like enzyme that contains a single strand of the DNA of the primaeval super-predators, and also includes various gaps in chromosomal structure, and incomplete proteins that are restructured and modified upon contact with existing host DNA and existing host DNA polymerase. The vampire DNA, once combined with the host DNA, changes the gene, or even the base sequence in such a way that it alters what the host genes code for. Subsequently, a portion of the DNA that mixes with the host's genetic material and codes specifically for the production of a vampire embryo. The host DNA is changed to code for the creation of a Type 3 vampire just as it would code for the creation of lungs, kidneys, heart, or brain. Essentially, vampires are the perfect breeding organism, not only taking over aspects of the host body cells, but leaving the host and host cells alive until the eventual birth and escape from the host organism of the new-born Type 3 vampire. The first meal for the vampiric child (the Type 3 vampire) is provided in a number of ways. The children of tzitzimine burst from the host's body, killing the host and feeding off it. Type 1 vampire parents provide a victim for the child to kill (its first) and feed off. Type 2 vampire parents kill the host that the vampire child has been growing in, so that the child can feast on its body while birthing itself. The child that emerges from the results of a tzitzimine or Type 2 vampire reproduction are almost identical to their now-dead host, in appearance, memories, and behaviour. They rapidly assume adult size, and, having taken on the skills, physical abilities, and memories of their host, essentially are those people. This resemblance, combined with how Type 1 and 2 vampires get their bodies, accounts for the assumption that vampires are the risen dead, thirsty for the vitality of the living. The vampire relies upon the body of the host for the creation and development of the embryo, and does not simply implant the embryo in the host body itself. The host's DNA is in fact altered to code for the development of an embryo. The host's immune system would destroy the embryo, were it able to devote its full resources to doing so. For this reason, Type 2 vampires keep at the hosts of their spawn, keeping them weak, and the immune system off balance. In the authoritive fiction on vampires, Bram Stoker's "Dracula", the character Lucy Westenra suffers such prolonged victimization while hosting the spawn of Count Dracula. The altered host DNA is responsible for the eventual creation of the embryo, and in this light, it is much easier to understand why a vampiric embryo acquires such a vast amount of the host's genetic material to aid in its further development once free of its host's body. The process of their development and birth involves adapting for a new environment. They acquire all this information to better adapt to that environment. Vampires can reproduce with just about any type of life form, although they do not usually sully themselves to reproduce with animals "lower down" than humanity, and only breed true with humans or, in the case of tzitzimine, each other. On the rare occasions that they do breed with a non-human host , an animalistic pseudo-tzitzimine called a hell hound is produced. Hell hounds are essentially beasts, and acquire such host-specific traits as a quadrupedal stance and locomotion. The animal's DNA is altered and left to create and develop the embryo, acquiring traits such as a specific stance. Hell hounds lack the powerful minds of all other types of vampires, including greater-than-human intelligence and psychic abilities. In fact, hell hounds are nearly mindless, and have been out-witted by children. They are ruthless and easily led by others, though, especially by forceful vampires. By leaving the host's body to create the embryo, much the same way it might develop an organ, the status of the vampire as the perfect breeding organism is assured. By relying on the host body to actively create and develop the embryo allows the reproducing vampire to overcome such problems as biological compatibility between host and embryo during development, and successfully allow the vampire to develop and spread through any environment and host species. This is a necessary trait of a supremely adaptable species, able to survive, even thrive, under nearly any conditions. Tzitzimine, Type 1, and Type 3 vampires, accounting for a minority of the world's vampires, feed like the predators they are, ripping and tearing away at their prey's body. Because they do not have to invest so much psychic energy in maintaining an otherwise dead body, they can sustain themselves for long periods of time on little other than psychic energy, waiting for better prey to appear or for pursuit to die down. Often, these types of vampires must only feed once every other month, sometimes considerably less. Some ascetic vampires will go years without feeding. The much more common Type 2 vampire has to use the majority of its psychic power to maintain the cadaver it uses as a body. Because of the high content of micro-organisms it contains, the digestive tract of a human body rots first, fastest, and most completely. No vampire has yet been able to regenerate one. Thus, Type 2 vampires can only digest liquid food. Their gut is too short to digest anything else. The ideal liquid food, from their point of view, is, of course, blood. _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Khorne [khorne@cyberlink.bc.ca] Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 6:48 PM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] Gurkhas, Gurkhas, Gurkhas [some spoilers, but not too many} Between the original Delta Green sourcebook and David Kish's excellent piece posted on the Delta Green website, we lay men have an extensive enough picture of the various American special forces units to use them plausibly in Delta Green games. Countdown further expands on this by providing us with character/ NPC templates to include such famous foreign forces as the SAS, Spetsnaz, and Australian SAS (although I would be interested in more game-specific materials on all three, as well as the French Foreign Legion). However, aside from a few paragraphs in "Countdown", we are given no information on the Gurkhas, and no game information at all. I think that this is something that should be remedied, since the Gurkhas appear to be tailor made to serve as the point of the spear in armed actions opposing the preternatural threat. First, the Gurkhas have an excellent reputation. Their press makes them out to be resourceful, skilled, and ruthless fellows. That they are spoken of in such glowing terms by ex-members of the SAS, who should know what they're talking about, is further evidence of the capability of the Nepalese soldier. If the SAS and Green Berets and Navy SEALs are being used against the preternatural threat, why aren't the similarly capable Gurkhas? It would seem that PISCES, at least, is, as Countdown shows. However, the reasons for the use of the Gurkhas given in Countdown are just as applicable for a more general mobilization of Nepalese troops against the preternatural threat than the simple pacification of the Severn Valley. Of special note is the Himalayan spiritualism and good humor of the Gurkhas, which would seem to inure the Gurkhas to some small degree against the Sanity-blasting horrors encountered in battling the preternatural threat. Their relgion explains things that western rationalism doesn't (or doesn't explain well), and the good nature of the Gurkha soldier imbues their minds with a particular resiliency. So, I would be interested in the "official" Delta Green line on the Gurkhas. Some weeks back, there were posts on the DGML to the effect that the Gurkhas were, in fact, a sort of anti-Mythos crusade, an agency along the lines of a secret society like the Hashishin battling the preternatural threat. While I'm uncomfortable with the idea, preferring to think of the Gurkhas as a shaped charge to be fired against the Mythos with lethal effect, I thought about what their exposure to the Mythos might be to lead to such opposition. "The Call of Cthulhu", from which all this arises, says that the "secret masters" of the Cthulhu cult can be found in the mountains of China. Similarly, the intersection of the Plateau of Leng with the real world is said to exist on the Tibetan Plateau. Both are quite close to the Nepalese breeding ground of the Gurkhas, so perhaps they have been exposed to a very pure strain of Mythos adulation, and, having seen the face of the enemy, set off to "smack it down". The Gurkhas, or, indeed, anyone in Nepal, could also encounter the Mi-Go up in the Himal, so it may be that the Gurkhas/ characters of Nepalese origin have a very good idea of what the Fungi From Yuggoth are up to. The image of a hill boy from Jumla or Gorkha fingering Majestic 12 for exactly what it is has to be one of the more deliciously ironic ever to arise. The Gurkha deployments fllowing their alliance with the British, in Kashmir and the Irawaddy basin of Burma, might have introduced them to the worshipers of Chaugner Faugn, the Tcho-tcho people, and perhaps even Atlach-Nacha. A rivalry between the Gurkhas and Tch-tchos, both nasty, physically diminutive folks, seems a natural fit. In short, the Gurkhas seem a natural fit in a series of adventures bringing modern military might to bear against the Mythos. Thoughts anyone? _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Julian Breen [jules@bigjules.demon.co.uk] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 2:41 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Tzitzimine >It occurred to me that a particularly evocative alternative name for a Star >Vampire might be "tzitzimine", which means, in the Nahuatl language of the >Aztecs, "demons of twilight". The tzitzimine were said to be essentially >invisible, or to be clouds of red mist (blood anyone?). > >_______________________________________ Which fits the classic description of Star Vampires to a tee. Anyhow, off to see the Nuge now... (how much San loss does that entail?) After a week's vacation I'll jump back onto this thread. -- Julian Breen _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of X. Riley [xanderiley@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 2:44 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] D. G. Decided to celebrate rejoining the list by inflicti, er, _sharing_ this little ditty with you. Comments welcome. D. G. Delta Green--the Line against the Unknown (with apologies to R. Kipling) I wish my mother could see me now, with a LAW rocket under my arm, And a book of spells in my pack that I found on a Dunwich farm, Atop a twice-crashed Chrysler, doing things you wouldn’t want to see. I used to be with the government once, (FBI, CIA or NSA once), Paperwork, files and regulations, once! (ad lib) But now I am D. G. That is what we are--the name you do not know or call We investigate strange people, strange places and things, all. Details on the devils, on Things Man Was Not Meant To See Turn out the asylum inmates! Roll up the --- D.G! My hands are spotty with tentacle sores, my shirt’s ragged from the kill And the things I’ve used my swiss army knife for would make a sadist ill! And I don’t know whose damn cell I’m in, nor where we’re going nor why. I’ve trekked from New York to Orlando once-- From New York to Sacremento once-- (Or else it was the Plain of Leng once)-- For now I am D. G. That is what we are known as--we are the resistance you require >From safe houses all night freezing, covering paper trails all day just under the wire. Anything weird or unnatural? Anything slimey and free? Borrow a bunch of hardcases! Trot out the -- D. G.! Our cell leader’s a Marine, our contact’s a Army Corps engineer-- Our second’s “a few bricks short of a full load,” beneath her cold verneer; But you couldn’t spot us at half a klick from the civilians, you see, They used to talk about Force Delta once, Green Berets, SEALs, and Rangers once, Kevlar, pistols and grenades once, But now we are D. G.! That is what we are--we are the conspiracy that they blame For borrowing government equipment and making intended use of the same. Can’t even check their inventories but someone goes bellowing “Aiiiieeee!” Grab a five finger discount! Make it last--D. G.! We’re trekkin’ our miles a day and investigating and such, But we don’t hold on too close to life no more, nor lose our sanity-- much; And we recon with a senior man in charge wherever the bad guys be. We used to think they were neutralized once, Didn’t take enough precautions once (Just once, man and only once!) But now we are D. G.! That is what we are known as--we are the lost souls that they got Three days to learn the business and six months hoping not to get caught! Firearms, and badges and secrets--and improvising, you and me-- We are the rollin’ hardcases! We are the ---D. G. The new cells come from constucted reality, imaginin’ Greys. (The same as your local conspiracy theorist, whose been watchin’ X-Files for days.) But our watchwords are “Discreet” and “Silent” and “Let the wounded be.” We used to rescue ‘em noble once,-- Givin’ the range as we raised ‘em once-- Gettin’ ‘em killed as we saved ‘em once-- But now we are D. G. That is what we are known as--we are the flashlights you view After a skirmish around the barrens, looking for people that we knew; Using GPS and infared to track them, fearing what we’ll see:-- A thing no longer man or beast howling, “Kill me --- D. G!” I wish my mother could see me now, drinking on my own, When I go with a team into the field, and come back alone Remarkably close to whatever’s around to let the shots go by. We used to fancy it risky once. (Called it a reccy once), Under orders of Alphonse once, For now we are D. G.! That is what we are known as--that is the opera you must play A shadow war with MJ-12 quietly, at once and every day; We are no two-bit assassins--we are the only ones, you’ll see... Ask for the quiet professionals! Ring up the --- D. G.! I wish I could talk to myself as I was before this began; I could tell him not to answer the phone, the front door, to get away while he can! When I think of what darkness I know now to what I was used to see. I used to belong to the world once (Gods! what a rundown little world once), Blue little, safe little world once! But now I am D. G.! That is what we are unknown as--we are those that have been Over the years at the business, dealt it and caught it and seen. We have got hold of the truth--you may be told in restraints or free; Wait until you’ve heard the new hardcases, spoke to the old D. G.! Mount up, inmates! It’s a night at the opera again! Mop the names off your deeds, ask not where or how, or when, The stars in the night move, closer to the end for humanity-- Secure the future, hardcases! Fight on--D. G.! -- "A most intense young man, A soulful-eyed young man, An ultra-poetical, super-aesthetical, Out-of-the-way young man!" "Paitence", Act I --W. Gilbert _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord [wardjr@aston.ac.uk] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 2:56 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] Too many test posts On a computer, far, far away, Gil Trevizo wrote: > To solve both problems, why don't we replace the test posts by making a > content post to the list. It'll work the same as a test post to see if the > list is still active, and might actually get some conversation > rolling. I did actually make _three_ content posts to the lists, but got nothing back, until I did my test post. Strangely, only the test post got through. Go fig. Anyway, my content was this story, which is old news now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1482000/1482337.stm Mary Celeste's wreck found. Most of what people think is the legend is in fact the ficitionalisation by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, all the paranoid fantasies, sorry, theories which surround the story make for good nuggets of plot device. Jon, who thought he'd wandered into the Mailing Celeste. -- Jonathan Ward || School of Engineering || Aston University || j.r.ward@aston.ac.uk || _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Nick Brownlow [stabernide@netscape.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 2:57 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [DG] List 'B' I was wondering... are there any plans to resubscribe the DGML to the Yahoo Groups based clone list? Those archives were pretty handy to have... __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/ _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord [wardjr@aston.ac.uk] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:14 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: Re: [DG] List 'B' On a computer, far, far away, Nick Brownlow wrote: > I was wondering... are there any plans to resubscribe the DGML to the > Yahoo Groups based clone list? Those archives were pretty handy to have... Personally, if DG moved to Yahoo, you would lose Agent Ward. Yahoo are nasty, evil people, who have comitted acts of cyberterrorism in the form of hijacking web rings etc. Jon -- Jonathan Ward || School of Engineering || Aston University || j.r.ward@aston.ac.uk || _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of David A. Farnell [1639556911@jcom.home.ne.jp] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:30 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: [KEO] TOME: House of Leaves (was Re: [DG] Too many test posts) Good idea, Gil. OK, I was planning to finish reading the novel before posting this, but maybe it'll get something going. KEEPER'S EYES ONLY--scurry back under your rocks, lowly players! A few months back, somebody posted the list about _House of Leaves_, by Mark Z. Danielewski, ISBN 0375703764. Sounded good, so I ordered it, flipped through, and decided I was too busy to give it the attention it would require. Well, it's summer, and I'm actually just as busy, but I'm halfway through now and loving it. It's not so hard to follow if you start from the beginning--the confusing structures build slowly. But that's not what I'm posting about. Reading it, I realized that it makes a good tome for CoC on several levels. So here goes. (Be warned, I haven't finished yet, though I think I'm far enough along that there'll be no errors in the folowing--OTOH, that means I won't be able to spoil the ending for anyone.) 1. Danielewski's _House of Leaves_: The real-world book could also appear in your game world, as a novel easily found in any major bookstore. Characters who treat it as a normal (if experimental) novel will gain no benefits and suffer no penalties, although their players will probably get a pretty good idea of how complicated a real grimoire can be, and why a detailed study of a grimoire can take weeks or months. Characters who go deeply into the book, spending weeks to study it intensely and trying to solve all its many riddles, hints, and innuendoes, may actually gain a point of Mythos knowledge and suffer 1d3 SAN loss. No spells. (Note: I think the SAN loss is justified--even in the real world. Since I started reading the book, everything else I read, even conversations I have, have gotten infected with its Vibe. In the back of my head, I'm footnoting everything, and footnoting the footnotes, and...well, I hope it goes away afer I finish the book. Weird.) 2. Johnny Truant's presentation of Zampano's _House of Leaves_: Truant is a young man at loose ends who comes into possession of the manuscript of _HoL_, written by a strange blind man, Zampano, who has recently died. He undertakes the massive work of putting it all together, adding an introduction and copious footnotes of his own, many of them digressions that often have no surface connection with Zampano's work, but deep down serve to bind the whole thing together. They also paint a good picture of descent into madness, as Truant becomes obsessed with the manuscript, which is a highly academic study of a movie that never existed, about a house straight out John Tynes' visions of Carcosa. At this level, there is no Danielewski, and Zampano's manuscripts are real. But Truant's book is like a "copy of a copy," like a dubbed video tape, and so SAN loss and Mythos gain are still miniscule: 1 Mythos and 1d4 SAN, and people who just read it for entertainment still get nothing. 3. Zampano's Manuscript: Characters who get hold of the black trunk in which Johnny keeps the manuscript can try to tackle the Real Thing--sort of. The manuscript is written in notebooks, on loose papers, on the backs of envelopes--it's a mess. Some of it has been ripped to shreds, or damaged in other ways. Mostly in English, there are (sometimes long) passages in several other languages, sometimes with translations written in the margins, sometimes not. Putting it in order and comprehending it all will take months, and probably more than one language roll, or at least the consultation of several linguists--and to stick with it and properly understand it all, the character will have to become obsessed by it. Only certain people are susceptible to this obsession, and they are pretty much doomed, just as readers of _The King in Yellow_ are. The non-obsessed will simply never get it, probably giving up, or focusing on a single aspect and publishing an academic paper on it, then forgetting about the whole thing. Those who go the distance will be forever changed. In game terms, +4 Mythos and 1d6+1 SAN, with an automatic insanity of "Obsession with the Story," which includes the usual things like forgetting to bathe, screaming in one's sleep, and so on, plus a fear of reality shifts a la Carcosa. At the Keeper's option, the character can also be haunted by "The Beast"--details of which (such as whether it's just part of Truant's active imagination) are not yet known to yours truly. (This is one of those "Toxic Tomes" mentioned in the new _Keeper's Companion_.) 4. _The Navidson Record_: Like _The King in Yellow_, _The Navidson Record_ doesn't exist, even in Johnny Truant's world. But it could exist in yours. This is the documentary film described in detail by _House of Leaves_, revealing the explorations of a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside, and the terrors experienced by the explorers. In Zampano's fictional world (which resides within Danielewski's fictional world), the film caused a sensation and apparently made the careers of dozens of academicians (most of whom were inspired to write the usual pointless crap that my fellow academicians churn out in astonishing quantities, often drowning the rare good pieces--this is, by the way, exactly what we would see if a real Mythos book were to surface in the real world). We can assume, then, that merely watching the film doesn't cause automatic severe SAN loss. But from the descriptions, I can't imagine many would get by totally unscathed, as it utterly overturns one's beliefs about the universe. Viewers make an INT roll--if succeeded, they believe the film is real and lose 1d3 SAN. If they fail, they rationalize the film as a trick (despite the overwhelming evidence backing up the film's authenticity) and refuse to believe, losing no SAN. Viewers who view the film again and again, obsessively digging into details and background, lose an additional 1d6 SAN, gain +4 Mythos, and suffer the same ill effects as in Option 3. I would recommend having your game start out with Option 1--it's just a book. Then, later, an agent learns that it's _not_ just a book--Johnny Truant is real (though I have no idea whether he survives the end of the story yet). Further checking reveals that Zampano was real, and his manuscripts exist. A character reads those and goes buggy...and then receives _The Navidson Record_ in the mail. Which means the House must exist too. And if that house isn't another way into Carcosa, I'll eat my St. Louis Cardinals hat. Dave, who is seriously planning to write an academic paper on the "nonexistent-but-toxic play/video/film" in _TKiY_, _Ring_, and _House of Leaves_. _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of David A. Farnell [1639556911@jcom.home.ne.jp] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:45 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Cc: shaneivey@earthlink.net Subject: Re: [DG] List 'B' From: "Jon Ward, Aardvark of Fnord" > Personally, if DG moved to Yahoo, you would lose Agent Ward. Yahoo are > nasty, evil people, who have comitted acts of cyberterrorism in the form > of hijacking web rings etc. The DGMLDISCUSSION list on Yahoo is nothing to fear. Scott (Saylor? "Popeyesays") started it a few months ago at the suggestion of Mark McFadden. It was supposed to allow people who hate HTML posts a chance to have their posts filtered and un-HTML-ized. Unfortunately, that aspect doesn't actually work unless you choose the Digest version, as far as I can tell. But there are other benefits. As mentioned, it allows one to get a Digest version of this list, or even have it be read-online-only. It also has a very nice Archive, that can be searched by thread, date, keyword, person, etc. Nobody who subscribes to it is supposed to post there--if they do, their posts only go there, and most of this list won't ever read the post. It seems it still hasn't been resubscribed since the meltdown. I emailed Scott but haven't heard anything back--he may be on vacation. A few days ago I tried to subscribe it myself, remotely, but never received the activation password. Shane, as the new Listowner, can you sign it up? As Nick points out, it was pretty useful. Also, Shane, are there any extras here at Revolution SF? I mean, are we going to be able to have a Digest version, stuff like that? If we had a more-readily searchable Archive, that DGMLDISCUSSION list could even become unnecessary. I've been itching to ask, but holding off because I know you're very busy getting it all set up. Dave _______________________________________ The Delta Green Mailing List http://www.delta-green.com/comint/dgml/ From: owner-deltagreen@revolutionsf.com on behalf of Nick Brownlow [stabernide@netscape.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:49 AM To: deltagreen@revolutionsf.com Subject: RE: Re: [DG] List 'B' <. This isn't what I'm talking about - before 'the big crash', we had the DGML subscribed to a Yahoo Group cammed 'DGMLDiscussion' - the purpose of which was solely to archive material for ease of browsing. I was merely wondering if this was going to be resumed at some point. __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. 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