TEXT: TURN TO STONE
  AN Add-ON to “THE PRIMAL STATE”
  1
  TURN TO STONE
  An ADVENTURE FOR CALL OF CTHULHU, Set in Classic-era 
  Iceland
  V 2.0 © 2007 Jeff Moeller.  No permission to copy or distribute this document is granted.  A hearty Viking
  thanks for suggestions to Logan Horsford, at http://heroiccthulhu.mypodcast.com, where a podcasted 
  playtesting session of the initial draft of this adventure can be found under “Iceland” August 2007 archives.
  et thee to a nunnery: why wouldst 
  thou be a breeder of sinners?  I am 
  myself indifferent honest; but yet I could 
  accuse me of such things that it were better 
  my mother had not borne me.  I am very 
  proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more 
  offences at my beck than I have thoughts to 
  put them in, imagination to give them shape, 
  or time to act them in.  What should such 
  fellows as I do crawling between earth and 
  heaven?  We are arrant knaves all; believe 
  none of us.
  Hamlet, scene i.
  1.  Introduction…1.
  2.  Keeper’s Overview…1.
  3.  Getting Started…4.
  4.  Getting to Iceland; Reykjavik…5.
  5.  Research…6.
  a.  Olaf Ulfsson & his Saga…6.
  b.  The “Magna Mater”…7.
  c.  The Church and Medieval Iceland…9.
  d.  Helgi Alfsdottir (after her name is 
  uncovered)…9.
  e.  Icelandic trolls and other “little 
  people”…10.
  f.  Kirkjubaejarklaustur (the Nunnery), 
  public history…11.
  g.  Mythos sources for the Nunnery…11.
  h. 
   
  Mythos 
  sources 
  for 
  Helgi 
  Alfsdottir…11.
  i.  Inexplicable Pregnancies…11.
  6.  Getting to the Nunnery; Lini 
  Sveinsdottir…12.
  7.  Exploring the Nunnery…12.
  8.  Threats to Exploration, and Under 
  What Circumstances…17.
  9.  The Crypt…20.
  10.  The Tomb of Helgi Alfsdottir…21.
  11.  The Big Picture…23.
  12.  By the Dawn’s Early Light…24.
  13.  What About Lini?…24
  14.  Linking to Home, Sweet Home…25
  15.  Research Tree/Outline…26.
  1.  Introduction.
  Turn to Stone is a Classic-era scenario for 
  Call of Cthulhu, set in late 1920s rural 
  Iceland.  It is appended to the events of 
  Home, Sweet Home, published in the 
  Chaosium monograph The Primal State, but 
  can be played alone.  The necessary 
  background and concepts from Home, Sweet 
  Home are repeated and expanded upon here.
  2.  Keeper’s Overview.
  The players will be investigating a rumored 
  virgin birth about to occur 
  near 
  a
  mysterious, ruined medieval Nunnery in 
  rural Southeast Iceland.  An Icelandic 
  speaking guide will be provided upon their 
  arrival in Reykjavik.  The Nunnery is the 
  childhood home of the infamous Olaf 
  Ulfsson, an 11th Century Icelandic sorcerer 
  and saga antihero.  The Nunnery has been an 
  ongoing but subtle threat to the peace and 
  stability of Iceland, but recent and ill-
  advised exploration of the ruins has
  exacerbated a bad situation.  Turn to Stone 
  owes a debt to such near-dimension 
  intrusion stories as The Great God Pan by 
  Arthur Machen.
  G
  
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  2
  The investigators will be contacted either by 
  one of their acquaintances at the University 
  of Vermont, or by an acquaintance they may 
  have made in Reykjavik during the course of 
  Home, Sweet Home, to investigate a baffling 
  pregnancy in a remote farm in Iceland.  
  A young farm girl, Lini (“LEE-nee”) 
  Sveinsdottir, was found catatonic in a field 
  near Kirkjubaejarklaustur (“KEERK-ya” for 
  short), a town in Southeast Iceland, and 
  about 20 miles from the sites of both a 
  known 
  medieval 
  nunnery 
  and 
  an 
  accompanying monastery.  The girl cannot 
  be roused from her catatonic state, but is 
  able to eat and drink and sometimes respond 
  to simple questions.  Strangely, over the past 
  year, Lini has become obviously pregnant, 
  despite her virginity being intact to medical 
  inspection.
  Not coincidentally, Lini was found near a 
  third set of ruins, lying midway between the
  known nunnery and the monastery.  This set 
  of ruins had been preliminarily explored by 
  Arne Sigurdsson, a curator at the Icelandic 
  National Archives in Reykjavik, roughly one 
  year before the scenario begins.  Lini was
  found catatonic at the edge of the ruins not 
  long after Arne had finished his initial 
  survey.
  Arne believes that he has discovered a 
  second nunnery, apparently dedicated to the 
  Virgin Mary.  The site of this nunnery 
  corresponds to the reputed birthplace of one 
  Olaf (“OH-loff”) Ulfsson, an obscure, semi-
  mythic saga antihero of medieval Iceland.  
  (Unknown to most, Olaf was also a dark 
  sorcerer and devotee of the Mythos, 
  particularly the Byzantine cult of Shub-
  Niggurath worshiped as Cybele, the Magna 
  Mater).
  The Nunnery (as it will be referred to here) 
  actually predates Olaf, and is involved in his 
  origin.  Originally founded circa 930 A.D., it 
  started as a small community of refugee, 
  Byzantine Magna Mater worshippers.  They
  recruited new members from the willing
  ranks of unwed mothers and orphans.  One 
  such recruit was Helgi Alfsdottir, an odd 
  young woman from the southeastern farms 
  who appeared, confused and distant, at the 
  doorstep of the Nunnery circa 950 A.D.  
  (Alfsdottir, or elf’s daughter, was an 
  appellation in her case rather than a known 
  patronymic.  However, as it turns out, it was 
  also a fair patronymic).
  Helgi was an odd sort, given to daydreaming
  and talking to unseen friends.  Upon arriving 
  at the Nunnery, she was found to be 
  pregnant, 
  despite 
  being 
  (to 
  all 
  knowledgeable 
  examination) 
  a 
  virgin.  
  When asked how this had occurred, Helgi 
  blushed and said that the child belonged to 
  her friend, Ulf.  When asked where this 
  “Ulf” was, Helgi pointed into the corner and 
  said “why, he’s right there.”  No one was in 
  the corner, at least, no one that anyone else 
  could see easily.
  The Nunnery lies at a nexus point, a place 
  where the barriers between this one and the 
  next are very thin.  Things lurking in a 
  nearby dimension, and sensitive people in 
  ours, can meet in the middle.  Folklore has 
  woven stories around these occasional 
  intrusions, of which both Lini and Helgi are 
  victims.  Both were sensitive, and when 
  each ventured to especially weak places near 
  the Nunnery, they were semi-corporeally 
  violated by their invisible “imaginary 
  friends.”  This left them pregnant but 
  nonetheless physically intact.
  Icelandic lore calls them trolls; other 
  cultures have called them elves, dwarves, 
  faeries, or worse.  For purposes of this 
  scenario, they will be called trolls, but this is 
  only a convenient label.  They are extra-
  dimensional Mythos horrors able to affect 
  the world, under normal circumstances, only 
  in slight ways.  They are normally invisible, 
  but can be seen and felt by daydreamers, 
  madmen, those whose blood is tainted
  already, or by people who have sustained a 
  brain injury.  Lini falls into the last category.  
  They are shapeshifters, and can sometimes 
  
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  (especially at night) make themselves 
  physical enough to interact with our world 
  in limited ways.  They can affect people 
  who can see them in much more profound 
  ways. 
   
  They 
  are 
  mischievous 
  and 
  unpredictable, and very fond of hybridizing 
  with humans.
  If caught in the sunlight, trolls are trapped
  between dimensions, and seem to turn to 
  stone.  Popular folklore attributes the many 
  basalt volcanic columns in the area to trolls 
  who stayed in our world past dawn.  
  Disturbingly, for purposes of this scenario, 
  this is not just a story.
  Helgi’s first son, born circa 951 A.D., was 
  Olaf Ulfsson.  He grew up at the Nunnery, 
  able to hear and commune with the nearby 
  world.  He learned things from his father’s 
  family, and when he came of age, set off (at 
  the guidance of his father) to learn more, 
  starting in Constantinople and the larger cult 
  of Cybele, the Magna Mater.
  When he returned to Iceland a few years 
  later, Olaf brought a number of more 
  advanced adherents of the Magna Mater 
  with him.  Many of these were ancient, life-
  extended, 
  intergendered 
  or 
  genderless 
  devotees who had been transformed by their 
  goddess into the “Gof’nn Hupadgh Shub-
  Niggurath”.  These cultists joined the 
  existing, undercover Shub-Niggurath cultists 
  residing at the Nunnery, adding more 
  sorcerous power and
  further Byzantine 
  flavor to the mix.  As a joke, but also as a 
  distraction, the Nunnery encouraged the 
  formation of a Catholic monastery and 
  convent 20 miles on either side of it (making 
  them a house of worship populated largely 
  by eunuchs and situated “between” a 
  nunnery and a monastery). The Nunnery 
  grew into a major place of worship for the 
  Magna Mater, but one very cautiously
  operated.
  Helgi herself was more than a little different, 
  as well.  Olaf was actually a second-
  generation monstrosity; Helgi herself was a
  spawn of the trolls.  
  Over the years, the Nunnery continued to 
  allow Helgi (essentially immortal as the 
  spawn of a troll) and Ulf the troll to give 
  birth 
  to 
  regular 
  litters 
  of 
  half-troll 
  monstrosities, who were then raised to serve 
  the Magna Mater.  To diversify the breeding 
  stock, some human female followers of the 
  Magna Mater were subjected to certain brain 
  alterations that attuned them to Ulf and 
  made them susceptible to his attentions.
  Eventually, the Nunnery was apparently 
  abandoned, a few hundred years before the 
  volcanic activity that devastated the area in 
  1783.
  
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    The Nunnery was found in a ruined 
  condition 
  by 
  Arne 
  Sigurdsson, 
  who 
  managed to retrieve an original manuscript 
  of Olaf’s Saga from the ruins.  Arne did not 
  tarry long, and did not venture below ground 
  (although there seemed to be more beneath 
  the surface).
  Unfortunately, Arne’s poking about these 
  ruins has disturbed a slumbering status quo.  
  When Helgi’s human form grew too old, her 
  part troll nature took over and continued to 
  live, trapped in the Nunnery.  Now others 
  have begun poking about the ruins, and one 
  of them, Lini, is regretting it.  She has been 
  impregnated by Ulf, the same troll that 
  impregnated Helgi, and dark forces may be
  set to be unleashed again upon the Earth
  3.  Getting Started.
  One or more of the players who have 
  reputations as skilled investigators of the 
  unusual 
  will 
  be 
  contacted 
  by 
  Arne 
  Sigurdsson, the head of the National 
  Archives in Reykjavik, Iceland.  Arne will 
  be interested in survivors of Home, Sweet 
  Home in preference.  If you have not run 
  that scenario, but the investigators are 
  acquainted with the archaeology staff at the 
  University of Vermont, they may refer the 
  investigators to Arne.  Alternatively, anyone 
  with a reputation as an investigating 
  archaeologist or expert on the paranormal 
  will do.
  Once they make contact with Arne (whose 
  English is not the best), he or a translator, 
  Tor Halvorsson, can advise the investigators 
  that, about a year ago, Arne quickly 
  explored some ruins in remote southeastern 
  Iceland, about 20 miles southwest of 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur (Kirkja, pronounced 
  “KEERK-ya”, for short).  Arne did not 
  perform a complete or thorough site 
  investigation, but it appeared to him to be a 
  ruined, previously unexplored, long disused 
  medieval nunnery.
  Arne found this discovery extremely odd.  
  Iceland did not support a large population in 
  medieval times.  While there were (and are) 
  farms in the area, the area had already been 
  home 
  to 
  two 
  well-known 
  cloistered 
  communities:  a Benedictine nunnery in 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur itself, and a monastery 
  40 
  miles 
  to 
  the 
  southwest 
  of 
  the 
  Benedictines.  The idea that there would be 
  two nunneries so close to each other in 
  Iceland is highly improbable from the 
  standpoint of support.  In addition, the 
  Benedictine nunnery known to be in the area 
  was founded in 1186, and this one seems to 
  have predated that by at least two hundred 
  years, a time when only a few Christian 
  missionaries and Irish monks lived in the 
  area.  Arne has been planning to send a full-
  scale archaeological expedition to the area if 
  and when the Althing (Icelandic legislature) 
  appropriates funds for the purpose.
  A Quick and Dirty Investigators’ 
  Survival Guide to Iceland in the 1920s.
  -Prices for locally made goods (local food, 
  woolens, fish) are comparable to guidebook 
  prices.  The krona is the local currency.
  -Anything imported (foodstuffs, luxury 
  items, tobacco, alcohol, coffee) will cost 
  about double guidebook prices.
  -People do not habitually carry guns.  
  Foreigners are admitted in the discretion of 
  customs officials and removed or barred 
  entry in the discretion of customs officials.  
  Importing handguns, automatic weapons, 
  explosives or other very odd things will not 
  be permitted.  Smuggling is always an 
  option, but smugglers will be heavily fined 
  and deported without their smuggled goods.  
  A longarm for hunting will not draw undue 
  attention.  Pointing any kind of weapon (let 
  alone using one) on a human being will result 
  in arrest, prison, and/or deportation.
  -It’s cold and damp.  Figure a summer high 
  of 60 F.
  -The police presence is very limited.  There 
  are only 15 officers in Reykjavik in 1930 (for 
  a population of 30,000!), one or two at most 
  in other large towns, and no national police.  
  The Coast Guard (limited) and Danish 
  garrison (limited) in Reykjavik would have 
  to stop any serious violence.  This did not 
  change until after a labor riot in 1932.
  
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  While surveying the ruined nunnery site, 
  Arne uncovered a cache of Viking silver 
  (sadly, appropriated by the Althing, or 
  Icelandic legislature) as well as a vellum 
  manuscript.  The manuscript contained the 
  Saga of Olaf Ulfsson, an Icelandic antihero 
  of circa 1000 A.D.  Although Olaf’s name 
  had been slightly known to Icelandic 
  folklorists as a particularly cruel man 
  rumored 
  to 
  dabble 
  in 
  sorcery, 
  no 
  contemporaneous writing devoted to him 
  had ever been found.
  Arne has had the distinct displeasure of 
  reading Olaf’s Saga, which he can describe 
  as disturbing and heavily laden with kenning 
  and metaphor.  He has tentatively concluded 
  that 
  Olaf 
  was 
  fond 
  of 
  conducting 
  questionable alchemical experiments, and
  the author of the Saga claims that he was a 
  sorcerer of no small repute.  The Saga
  claims that Olaf was born to a sister at a 
  nunnery that was located between the 
  eventual 
  Benedictine 
  nunnery 
  at 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur and the monastery to 
  the southwest.  Olaf eventually retired back 
  to that area after many adventures.  This 
  would correspond to the ruins where Arne 
  found the Saga.
  Arne volunteers that he found that certain
  aspects of the Saga particularly weird.  
  Usually, Icelandic sagas drone on at length 
  about the central characters’ lines of 
  descent.  Olaf’s Saga does not.  His mother 
  is unnamed, and nothing at all is said about 
  his father, other than by inference from 
  Olaf’s patronymic that the father’s name 
  was Ulf.  (If his father was unknown, he 
  would have been named after his mother).
  Recently, Svein Torsson, a farmer in the 
  area 
  with whom 
  Arne 
  stayed 
  while 
  surveying the ruins, contacted him with a 
  worrisome story.  Svein’s daughter Lini, age 
  16, had briefly gone missing.  He found her 
  at the edge of the ruins, unconscious and 
  with a head injury.  She regained 
  consciousness, of a sort, but is now mostly 
  catatonic and can only answer simple 
  questions.  Lini is obviously pregnant, 
  although the local doctor swears that her 
  virginity is intact.  When asked who the 
  father was, Lini said that is was “her friend 
  Ulf.”  No one named Ulf lives in the area.  
  Arne can offer the investigators passage to 
  the area and board with Svein Torsson if 
  they can look into the situation.  If they 
  would like, he can authorize them to 
  perform 
  a 
  thorough 
  archaeological 
  exploration of the ruins as well.
  Arne concludes by noting the similarity of 
  the name of Olaf’s father, Ulf, and the “Ulf” 
  allegedly involved in Lini’s pregnancy.  He 
  wonders if it is a coincidence.  (It is not, it is 
  the same troll).
  A note on Icelandic naming conventions:  
  Icelanders do not typically use running 
  family names.  Instead, they have a given 
  name and a patronymic (a compound of 
  their father’s given name and either “son” or 
  “dottir” depending on their gender).  Hence, 
  Arne Sigurdsson is literally Arne, son of 
  Sigurd, while Lini Sveinsdottir is Lini, 
  daughter of Svein.  The occasional Icelander 
  will 
  have 
  also 
  have 
  an 
  appellation
  (nickname) 
  used 
  frequently, 
  even 
  in 
  comparatively official settings.  Even in 
  formal settings, given names are used as the 
  proper form of address.  (Hence, even 
  though he is a respected government 
  official, Arne is properly addressed as 
  “Arne”.  “Mr. Sigurdsson” is wrong).  All 
  Icelandic characters in this scenario are 
  therefore referred to by their first names,
  unless further distinction is needed.
  4.  Getting to Iceland; Reykjavik.
  Likely, the investigators will first want to go 
  to Reykjavik, meet with Arne and conduct 
  some preliminary research, and then travel 
  on to Kirkjubaejarklaustur.  This will, 
  coincidentally, be by far the easiest way to 
  get to Iceland either from Europe or North 
  America. 
   
  In 
  the 
  Classic 
  era, 
  the 
  investigators will be traveling by sea via
  charter ship to Reykjavik.  Most voyagers to 
  Iceland either embarked from Copenhagen,
  or picked up a Danish vessel en route in 
  Leith (the port of Edinburgh). 
  It will take one to two weeks to travel from 
  
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  North America to Reykjavik.
  Iceland and its capital city, Reykjavik, are 
  undergoing rapid change and modernization 
  in the 1920s.  In the preceding 20 years, 
  Reykjavik has gone from a Danish-governed 
  (and rather neglected) agricultural town to a 
  small, largely modern city of about 15,000 
  (1920), growing to 30,000 (1930).  The 
  economy 
  has 
  become 
  dominated 
  by 
  commercial cod fishing and fish processing.  
  A large, modern fishing fleet has recently 
  emerged, industry is on the rise, and a lot of 
  construction is ongoing.  The rest of Iceland 
  is still very rural.
  Throughout the 1920s, Iceland is a newly 
  independent republic, though technically 
  still in a political union with Denmark (and 
  hence known as the “Kingdom of Iceland” 
  although this is a bit of a misnomer).
  Icelandic nationalism is on the rise, trade 
  unions are forming, and industrialization is 
  rapidly ongoing.  This is the era in which 
  modern universities, museums, and the like 
  were opened in Reykjavik.
  Icelandic (almost indistinguishable from 
  medieval Old Norse) is spoken, but unlike 
  today, finding someone who also speaks 
  English is more of a challenge.  A few 
  dockworkers, international fish traders, and 
  academics might speak some English, but 
  are not going to be of any real use to the 
  investigators.  Danish is widely spoken as a 
  second language during this time period.  
  There are very few foreigners in residence 
  of any stripe.
  Arne speaks only broken English, and is an 
  old man who will not be accompanying the 
  investigators.  However, he does offer them 
  the services of his assistant, Tor Halvorsson, 
  a multilingual, classically educated young 
  archivist who is familiar with the area
  around the Nunnery.  Tor has also read 
  Olaf’s Saga, and can relate the pertinent 
  research 
  in 
  the 
  Saga 
  itself 
  to 
  the 
  investigators.
  5.  Research.
  Much of the research that needs to be 
  accomplished can be accomplished in a few 
  days in Reykjavik, prior to embarking to 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur.  The one exception is 
  research 
  bearing 
  on 
  Helgi 
  Alfsdottir.  
  Although this research can be done in 
  Reykjavik (assuming access to pertinent 
  Mythos tomes and other sources), the 
  investigators will not be exposed to her 
  name until after they explore the Nunnery’s 
  crypt.  Olaf’s mother is not named in his 
  Saga.  They will also probably have little 
  reason to wonder about Icelandic trolls in 
  any depth until after exploring the ruins.
  a.  Olaf Ulfsson & his Saga.
  Olaf Ulfsson (Critical Occult roll or asking 
  an expert like Arne or Tor) is a poorly 
  known Norse saga antihero.  Stories about 
  him, until recently, consisted of throwaway 
  mentions in other sagas and the occasional 
  
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  medieval or post-medieval Mythos tome, 
  usually in hushed tones and offering no 
  detail beyond his reputation as a sorcerer.  
  The only place in which much discussion of 
  Olaf is had is in Olaf’s own, recently 
  unearthed Saga.  Only one manuscript has 
  been found, and it is in the possession of 
  Arne at the Icelandic National Archives.  It 
  is in Old Norse and not readily susceptible 
  of translation into English.  Both Arne and 
  Tor have read it, however, and can answer 
  general investigator questions about its 
  contents.  Although it is short, the Saga is 
  written in a complex kenning and requires 
  1d3+2 weeks and a successful Read Old 
  Norse roll to understand.  (Kenning is a
  poetic form that makes heavy use of 
  metaphor and allusion).  Because it is 
  written in kenning, a precise translation into 
  English really is not possible with losing 
  much of the innuendo.  If the investigators 
  want to make a longhand copy, this should 
  take about 3 weeks.
  The Reykjavik version of the Saga is a short 
  Mythos tome, granting +2% to Cthulhu 
  Mythos, and costing -1d6 SAN to read, with 
  an optional spell multiplier of x5, and one 
  spell available:  Heal.  (The Heal spell will 
  allow afturganga zombies resulting from the 
  Home, Sweet Home scenario to regain hit 
  points at the rate specified in the spell 
  description, even though they normally 
  would not heal at all. (The spell allows a 
  person to heal at 3 points per week, 6 with 
  First Aid and 9 with Medicine.  It costs 3 
  magic points, 0 SAN and takes 25 rounds to 
  cast).
  If the investigators do not pick up on the 
  extreme logical incongruity of a male, 
  Mythos oriented sorcerer happily retiring to 
  a (presumably) Catholic cloistered nunnery, 
  call for an Idea roll.
  b.  The “Magna Mater”.
  Information about the “Magna Mater” can 
  be obtained either from commonplace 
  historical or occult sources (History, Occult, 
  or Library Use rolls) or from less 
  conventional sources (Cthulhu Mythos roll 
  or research in an appropriate Mythos tome).
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout #1, 
  An Odd Saga Indeed.
  The Saga is a general recounting of the legend 
  of Olaf Ulfsson, a Norse wizard in the mold of 
  Egil Skallagrimsson.  Olaf is brave, strong, a 
  crafty liar, and a tricky merchant, with a black 
  sense of humor and a quick temper.  These 
  traits stand in odd juxtaposition to a sense of 
  fair play, a fondness for children, and a respect 
  for clever opponents.
  The Saga claims that Olaf was also a sorcerer 
  of no small repute, sacrificing not to the Norse 
  gods (and certainly placing no truck in 
  Christianity).  Instead, disturbing references are 
  made to a youth spent in the Varangian Guard 
  in Constantinople and tutelage there in the cult 
  of the “Magna Mater”.  A Cthulhu Mythos roll 
  equates the cult of the Magna Mater to Shub-
  Niggurath worship in the Roman/Byzantine 
  world.
  Mention of Olaf’s general penchant for 
  elaborate curses is made, as well as his 
  penchant 
  for creating ingenious magical 
  devices.
  Although the Saga follows many of the saga 
  conventions (essentially covering the entirety 
  of Olaf’s known life, up until his retirement in 
  1010 A.D.), it is odd in several respects in 
  terms of what is not discussed.  Most Icelandic 
  sagas discuss in great detail the family 
  connections of the various principal characters: 
  who they are descended from, who their 
  kinsfolk are, what families are associated with 
  them, etc.  Although that kind of information is 
  presented for many of those whom Olaf 
  Ulfsson interacts with, that information is 
  distinctly absent for Olaf himself.  Indeed, all 
  that we know about Olaf is that his father’s 
  name is Ulf (and that only by inference from 
  his patronymic), that he was born to a sister at a 
  nunnery southwest of Kirkjubaejarklaustur, and 
  that there is a rumor repeated in the Saga that 
  Olaf was a virgin birth.  
  Olaf’s mother is not identified by name, 
  although he apparently retired to her nunnery at 
  the end of his life to conduct his sorcerous 
  experiments.  Olaf kills several men without 
  blinking for simply asking about his heritage.
  
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  Investigator Handout #2 provides commonly 
  available information about the “Magna 
  Mater.”
  Appropriate Mythos sources provide more 
  disturbing information.  These sources are 
  summarized in Investigator Handout #3.
  Tor Halvorsson, Your Guide.
  Nationality:  Icelandic.
  STR 13 DEX 13 INT 14 CON 13    APP 13 
  POW 14SIZ 13
  EDU 18 SAN  68  Luck 70 
  Hits: 13  Age:  25.
  Damage Bonus: +1d4.
  Education:  B.A., Literature, University of 
  Reykjavik.
  Skills:  Accounting 25%, Anthropology 
  25%, Archaeology 25%, Astronomy 25%, 
  Bargain 40%, Credit Rating 35%, Cthulhu 
  Mythos 2%, Drive Auto 25%, History 60%, 
  Library Use 90%, Listen 35%, Natural 
  History 50%, Navigate 30%, Persuade 50%, 
  Psychology 35%, Spot Hidden 40%.
  Languages:  English 60%; Latin 25%; Greek 
  25%; Icelandic 90%; Danish 70%.
  Attacks:   None over base.
  Notes:  A multilingual, well-educated, 
  somewhat shy young man who works at the 
  National Archives in Reykjavik and will be 
  assigned to guide and translate for the 
  investigators.  He speaks both English and 
  Icelandic, has archaeology training, has been 
  to the site before, and is versed in the 
  classics.  He is literally the best man in the 
  world for the job.
  Statue of Cybele, Plaza de Cibeles, 
  Madrid.
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout 
  #2—The Magna Mater.
  The “Magna Mater”, historically, was a very 
  popular pagan cult in the several centuries 
  pre- and post-Christ in the Mediterranean and 
  Middle 
  East. 
   
  “Magna 
  Mater” 
  was 
  traditionally a reference to the goddess 
  Cybele (“KY-bell-lee”), the “Great Mother.”
  Cybele 
  is 
  a 
  chthonic 
  earth 
  goddess, 
  worshipped since pre-recorded history.  She 
  is associated with the fertile earth, nature and 
  wild animals (particularly lions).  Hers is a 
  mystery religion purporting to teach the cycle 
  of life, death and rebirth through allegory and 
  ritual.  Etymologically, the name Cybele is 
  believed 
  to 
  originate 
  from 
  Phrygian 
  inscriptions 
  reading 
  “matar 
  kubileya”, 
  meaning Mother of the Mountain.
  “Priestesses” of Cybele were either women, 
  or men who ritually castrated themselves and 
  adopted 
  feminine 
  guises 
  in 
  symbolic 
  reenactment of the central myth of the
  “Magna Mater.”  Her son and lover, Attis, 
  was castrated and then resurrected by his 
  sacrifice as her immortal servant.  These 
  eunuch priests were referred to in the 
  feminine 
  as 
  “gallai.” 
  (“GOLL-ay.”)  
  Cybele’s gallai led loud orgies of wine, song 
  and 
  licentiousness 
  in 
  her 
  honor, 
  all 
  conducted at night.
  With the rise of the Eastern Roman Empire 
  in the early centuries A.D., the cult was 
  fervently 
  stamped 
  out 
  and 
  driven 
  underground, although it is known to have 
  persisted openly in isolated areas as late as 
  the sixth century A.D.  It was one of the 
  leading religions of Rome starting in the 
  second century B.C.
  The Byzantine Church in particular despised 
  the religion, both as a threat to the social 
  order but also because it advocated a direct 
  relationship with its goddess, unmediated by 
  priests or priestesses (who were more akin to 
  particularly devoted worshippers.
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  9
  c.  The Church & Medieval Iceland.
  Appropriate research (Critical History or 
  Library 
  Use 
  rolls), 
  or 
  asking 
  an 
  appropriately knowledgeable authority on 
  Icelandic 
  history, can 
  lead 
  to 
  some 
  interesting background information on the 
  nature of medieval Icelandic society and the 
  church’s role in it, 
  Circa 1000 A.D., Iceland was a well-settled 
  but almost exclusively agrarian country.  
  There were no towns or cities to speak of; 
  rather, there were clusters of farms of 
  varying sizes spread across the island.  
  Governmentally speaking, Iceland was a 
  functional anarchy.  There was no local top-
  down government.  Rather, the farmers and 
  landholders largely governed themselves.  
  Disputes were settled either by feuds or by 
  the Althing, an annual gathering of freemen 
  that passed laws and heard legal disputes.  
  The amount of political stroke that one had 
  depended upon the size and strength of 
  one’s family and friends, and one’s ability to 
  wheel and deal.
  The Catholic Church was appended to this 
  system, rather than running it.  Although 
  bishops would be sent to “run the Church”, 
  the extent to which they actually did so was 
  limited for centuries.  Rather, having a priest 
  and chapel was more of a status symbol and 
  tool for influential factions to mobilize 
  support for a wealthy local chief, rather than 
  a source of freestanding, top down authority.
  The clerical population was also extremely 
  limited.  Iceland only had one known 
  convent at Kirkjubaejarklaustur, and about a 
  half dozen monasteries, including one about 
  40 miles to the southwest of the convent.  
  The point is that medieval Iceland had the 
  potential to be a “live and let live” kind of 
  place for an odd religion.  If a cult played its 
  cards right, was a good neighbor, was strong 
  enough to deter attack, and maintained a 
  plausible veneer of Christianity, the kind of 
  community consensus needed to bring it 
  down might be hard to achieve.  This is 
  particularly the case if, as in the case of 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur, the area was isolated 
  even by Icelandic standards.
  Another important point, however, is that 
  Iceland did not convert to Christianity until 
  circa 1000 A.D.  It was pagan Norse prior to 
  that, and fitfully Catholic for some time after 
  that.  Prior to 1000 A.D., there were 
  missionaries and Catholic settlers in Iceland, 
  mostly located in the Kirkjubaejarklaustur 
  area.  Thus, while it might be fair to say that 
  there were Catholic religious enclaves in 
  that area prior to 1000 A.D., they were 
  hardly powerful or highly organized.  In 
  particular, conventional historical sources 
  make clear that there was no female 
  religious institution sufficiently squared 
  away to be called a “nunnery” prior to 1186 
  A.D.  There is, thus, a seeming conflict 
  between the conventional records and the 
  records they will find in the Nunnery’s 
  ruins.
  Astute investigators will quickly pick up on 
  the fact that the dates are wrong.  If there 
  was no organized Catholic nunnery in the 
  area until 1186 A.D., then how could Olaf 
  have been born at a nunnery catering to 
  wayward women circa 951 A.D., in the early 
  days of Icelandic settlement?  Of course, 
  Olaf’s Saga says nothing about it being a 
  Catholic nunnery at which he was born….In 
  fact, it says nothing about the devotions of 
  the sisters at the Nunnery.
  Investigator 
  Handout #3, 
  Mythos 
  Sources on the “Magna Mater.”
  The “Magna Mater” is rumored to be either a 
  representation, or perhaps even an avatar, of 
  Shub-Niggurath.  These sources claim that at 
  least some of the gallai went one step further 
  in their devotion to their goddess:  flinging 
  not only their manhood, but themselves, into 
  the goddess to be “reborn” immortal, as was 
  Attis.  Referred to as “gallai sanctum”, they 
  are said to be genderless, part human, part 
  lion and extremely long-lived.  Some Mythos 
  sources speculate on connections between 
  the “gallai sanctum” and certain other 
  fertility and resurrection cults, such as the 
  Russian 
  Skoptsi 
  cult, 
  certain 
  rumored 
  practices in England’s Severn Valley, and 
  certain rumored southern French heretics 
  living around 1000 A.D.
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  10
  d.  Helgi Alfsdottir (after her name is 
  uncovered).
  References 
  to 
  Olaf’s 
  mother, 
  Helgi 
  Alfsdottir, can be found in and around the 
  ruins of the Nunnery.  The records available 
  there make clear that she was Olaf’s mother, 
  and that his father was a normally invisible
  being she called “Ulf”.
  Outside research in conventional sources 
  (Library Use roll, perhaps modified if the 
  investigators are pursuing a logical path of 
  inquiry, such as local sagas or church 
  records) reveals that a foundling was 
  discovered 
  in 
  the 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur 
  region, circa 935 A.D., literally on a 
  farmer’s doorstep.  A mention of this fact 
  might be found in a minor saga of the 
  period.  She was taken in by the family and 
  named Helgi.  She was an odd girl, given to 
  daydreaming and talking to the “little 
  people” as though she could see them.  She 
  was expelled from her adoptive family as a 
  madwoman at the age of 14, when she 
  turned up mysteriously pregnant and insisted
  that the father was one of the “little people” 
  that only she could see.  The poet comments 
  that she was likely the changeling of an elf 
  herself.
  e.  Icelandic trolls and other “little
  people.”
  Calling Icelandic near-dimensional creatures 
  “little people” is again a bit of a misnomer.  
  They come in all sizes, including small 
  (dwarves), medium (elves) and gigantic 
  (trolls).  “Hidden people” is perhaps more 
  apt.  A summary of troll lore follows as 
  Investigator Handout #4.
  f.  Kirkjubaejarklaustur (the Nunnery), 
  public history.
  The amount of history publicly available on 
  the nunnery at Kirkjubaejarklaustur depends 
  on which nunnery one is inquiring about; the 
  one at it or the one 20 miles from it.  Public 
  histories only discuss the existence of one 
  monastery and one convent in the area, but 
  attribute a dark reputation to both.  Easily 
  available information about the Benedictine 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur convent is contained in 
  Investigator Handout #6, below.
  g.  Mythos sources for the Nunnery.
  Appropriate Mythos sources may also 
  contain some very disturbing references to 
  the Nunnery that the investigators are more 
  interested in (apart from those Mythos 
  sources to be found at the Nunnery itself).  
  These are summarized in Investigator 
  Handout #5, below.
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout 
  #4—The “Hidden People” of Iceland.
  They come in all sizes, including small 
  (dwarves), medium (elves) and gigantic 
  (trolls).  All share similar characteristics:  
  quixotic natures, being strictly nocturnal or 
  confined to darkness, sometimes helpful and 
  sometimes malicious, and being invisible 
  except to those prone to daydreaming, who 
  are mad, who have suffered head injuries, or 
  who share their blood.  They are also very 
  fond of mating with humans, both male and 
  female.
  Trolls in particular are said to frequent 
  southeast 
  Iceland, 
  including 
  the 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur area.  They are gigantic 
  but (legend has it) able to change their size 
  and shape.  When caught in the sunlight, they 
  turn to stone; as a result, they tend to avoid 
  the chance of getting caught in it.  The 
  volcanic basalt pillars in the area of 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur are said to be trolls who 
  got caught in the morning light.
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  11
  h.  Mythos sources for Helgi Alfsdottir.
  Apart from the unpleasant records to be 
  found at the Nunnery, some records from 
  medieval sources concerned with Shub-
  Niggurath worship might have very limited 
  information on Helgi.  Often these sources 
  mention her as “both simple but profound in 
  her connection to the Great Mother.”  With 
  careful enough research in a variety of 
  sources, the researcher might get the idea 
  that she was reputedly still alive as late as 
  1240 A.D., some 300 years after her birth.
  i.  Inexplicable Pregnancies.
  The inexplicable pregnancy attaching to the 
  mother of the culture hero is archetypal.  For 
  purposes of this scenario, however, there are 
  two parallel myths that bear mention, and 
  one curious, Mythos related story.
  First, in Icelandic tales, many babies whose 
  paternal origins are difficult to explain are 
  conventionally attributed to mysterious 
  visitations by the “little people”, be they 
  elves, dwarves or trolls (Occult roll or just 
  asking any Icelander).
  Second, one of the earliest attributions of an 
  inexplicable pregnancy, often believed to 
  have started the ball rolling on the parallel 
  myth, is that of Cybele and Attis.  (Occult 
  roll or Library Use)  Attis was not only the 
  lover of Cybele, but her son.  Cybele 
  (initially both male and female in her 
  primordial state) was castrated, and the 
  severed organ grew into an almond tree.  
  When a maiden held a fruit from the tree 
  against herself, she miraculously became 
  pregnant with Attis.  If the investigators are 
  already on the “Magna Mater” line of 
  inquiry, this should give them an intended 
  sense of everything fitting together.
  Third, Mythos sources dealing with Shub-
  Niggurath 
  contain frequent stories 
  of 
  inexplicable 
  pregnancies. 
   
  If 
  the 
  investigators have been through The Sap 
  Keeps Running, they will be familiar with 
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout 
  #6—History of the Benedictine Nunnery 
  at Kirkjubaejarklaustur.
  -The area was originally settled by Irish monks, 
  who lived in isolation in the area for many 
  centuries.  A religious community, segregated 
  by gender, was soon formed.  The name means 
  “church farm cloister.”
  -The history of the community is murky until 
  1186, when a Benedictine nunnery was 
  founded.
  -The Benedictine establishment was closed in 
  the 16th Century, during the Reformation.
  -The nuns of Kirkjubaejarklaustur had a 
  checkered reputation.  Two were burned at the 
  stake (one for sleeping with the Devil), and 
  stories surrounding regular sleepovers between 
  the sisters and the brothers at the monastery to 
  the southwest are frequently encountered.
  -The stories are vague as to when this 
  debauchery and devil worship occurred.
  -There is no mention of a second nunnery lying 
  between the Benedictine cloisters; the absence 
  of any mention of a third, nearby religious 
  institution is, to say the least, odd.
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout 
  #5—Mythos Sources on Cults in the 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur Area.
  Sometimes known as the “Third Cloister”, 
  because many of the “sisters” were actually 
  of the “third sex”, numerous medieval texts 
  associated with Shub-Niggurath cults will 
  make mention of the place.  It was known (to 
  those in the know) as a covert temple to the 
  Magna Mater, where shattered cult remnants 
  and other refugees could flee and find 
  sanctuary, due to the anarchic political 
  climate, lack of a pervasive Church, and 
  network of well-mollified locals.  The 
  “sisters” worshipped the Magna Mater in her 
  traditional Asiatic form as Cybele.  Any 
  Shub-Niggurath cult documents dating from 
  circa 950 to circa 1550 may well include 
  correspondence to and from the “Mother 
  Superior” at the Third Cloister and cult 
  functionaries throughout Europe and the 
  Mediterranean, negotiating the terms of 
  and/or 
  compensation 
  for 
  information 
  exchanges and/or asylum in Iceland for 
  wanted fugitives.
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  12
  the Lilith avatar’s penchant for unexplained, 
  demonic births.
  6.  Getting to the Nunnery & Lini 
  Sveinsdottir.
  In order to get to Kirkjubaejarklaustur from 
  Reykjavik, the investigators are best off 
  traveling by sea to the fishing town of Vik, 
  about a day’s voyage east, and then heading 
  inland on an (unpaved) road network about 
  30 miles east and inland to a glacial valley 
  nestled into a volcanic desert.  There are a 
  fair number of farms in the area, but only 
  small farming villages with (in the Classic 
  era) few services.  (Today it is a tourist 
  resort).  The investigators can probably hire, 
  or hitch a ride, on a farm truck in Vik to take 
  them to Svein Torsson’s farm and the 
  Nunnery ruins.
  Seekers of inns and creature comforts will 
  be sorely disappointed.  The ruins and 
  Svein’s farm are 20 miles southwest from 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur.  Even there, the 
  investigators are talking about rental rooms 
  that are worse than the accommodations 
  available at Svein Torsson’s farm.
  Svein Torsson has a large but isolated sheep 
  and barley farm in the middle of this valley, 
  about 
  20 
  miles 
  southwest 
  of 
  Kirkjubaejarklaustur.  Svein is a burly, 
  Viking-looking sort who speaks not a word
  of English.  Nor do any of the members of 
  the rest of his family, consisting of his wife, 
  one other younger daughter, three sons, and 
  Lini.  The investigators, as representatives of 
  Arne Sigurdsson, will be expected and 
  welcome to the farm’s gaslight and farm 
  cooking hospitality.
  The Torsson family can offer little insight 
  into Lini’s situation, which distresses them 
  greatly.  She was a vibrant if somewhat 
  scatterbrained girl.  Lini is bedridden on the 
  top floor of their farmhouse.  She is 
  catatonic, though responsive to stimuli and 
  able to drink liquids.  Occasionally she 
  babbles to herself in sing-song, meaningless 
  nonsense.  She is about nine months 
  pregnant when the investigators arrive and 
  will give birth in about two weeks.  
  If a physician, midwife or some other 
  plausible volunteer is able to convince her 
  parents to allow a physical inspection, she 
  does indeed appear to still be a virgin.  
  Successful Psychoanalysis can get her to 
  reveal that she is having a baby with her 
  friend Ulf, who nobody else can see.  He’s 
  large and scary sometimes, but nice to her.  
  She doesn’t know how she hit her head, but 
  can point to a small scar over her right eye.  
  Mostly she just babbles and stares, however.
  Svein (through an interpreter) can discuss 
  what he knows of the history of the farm and 
  the area.  A summary of his testimony can 
  be found below as Investigator Handout #7.
  7.  Exploring the Nunnery.
  A map of the Nunnery/Temple of the 
  “Magna Mater” can be found at the end of 
  the scenario.  It is visible from Svein’s 
  house and about 100 yards away.
  The Nunnery seems rather unremarkable to 
  the casual observer.  There are crumbling 
  ruins, quite old, built mostly of local grey 
  stone.  Sections of wall (10’ high) still stand 
  where indicated on the map.  Svein has 
  planted his hay crop right up to the edge of 
  the rubble field.  The scene is quiet, and 
  most casual observers will see nothing out 
  of the ordinary except some partially 
  standing stone ruins, occasional overgrown 
  stone flooring, and debris of no value.  
  There are no free-range, active monsters that 
  most people will be able to perceive.
  There are occasional carvings, bas reliefs, 
  and the like adorning the stones on the 
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  13
  surface level that are still standing, but they 
  are, for the most part, unremarkable.  They 
  appear 
  to 
  all 
  be 
  ordinary 
  Catholic 
  representations appropriate to the era in 
  which the Nunnery stood.  Birds use the 
  ruins as nesting grounds, as do field mice.  
  Foxes are not an uncommon sight.  It all 
  seems to be a quiet, bucolic setting.
  That is not to say that some people will not 
  see things differently, or that there is nothing 
  unusual.  This is both a Temple to the 
  “Magna Mater” (albeit one that has fallen 
  into disuse and designed to look like a 
  Catholic convent), as well as a nexus point 
  with a nearby world.  And there is a monster 
  or four inhabiting the area.
  People who are either insane (temporarily or 
  otherwise) or who (at the Keeper’s option) 
  have sustained brain trauma of some sort 
  will see the ruin site a little differently at 
  times.  So will anyone whose blood has been 
  tainted by some non-human or Mythos 
  creature, or anyone who is just plain dotty 
  enough.
  At night, these people may see fleeting 
  glimpses of something moving in the 
  shadows.  SAN loss for a fleeting glimpse of 
  something large and obviously not entirely 
  human is 0/1.
  This thing will be Ulf, an immortal, extra-
  dimensional being that will be referred to
  here as a troll.  This is the same Ulf who 
  fathered Olaf Ulfsson, Lini’s baby, and 
  many, many others.  It will be difficult for 
  even these people to see Ulf; he will best be 
  seen by not looking directly at him (Spot 
  Hidden for sensitive people to notice).  He 
  appears to be a large (10’ tall), muscular, 
  naked semi-man, with a variety of animal 
  attributes (horns, hooves, wings, stripes, tail, 
  claws) that constantly shift and change.  
  (This is only one of his many forms).  He is 
  intangible and silent as well, at least when 
  he wants to be.  Ulf is friendly and charming 
  to women; he will be shocked and unhappy 
  that a man can see him and retreat while he 
  plans how to brutally kill the offender.
  Ulf will not consciously or purposefully 
  venture out of the shadows, but if any 
  females can see him, he will do his best to 
  seduce them over a course of time, 
  preferably beginning by luring them away 
  from the rest of the group to a dark, secluded 
  spot.
  Unconscious women who might be able to 
  perceive Ulf are in grave danger of being 
  assaulted in a semi-corporeal way, as was 
  Lini.
  As discussed in a following section, just 
  because Ulf is mostly invisible and in a 
  nearby dimension does not mean that he 
  cannot affect the real world in a limited way 
  if he wants to.  Fortunately, Ulf is the only 
  troll regularly frequenting the Nunnery.
  The following numbered paragraphs key to 
  the map of the area.
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout 
  #7, Interview—Svein Torsson.
  -His family resettled the farm after the Laki 
  volcanic eruption in 1783.  The site of the 
  farm had been fertile before, but it took a few 
  years to recover after the ash fallout from the 
  eruption.
  -There are superstitious legends in that the 
  many basalt lava pillars in the area are trolls 
  that stayed out too long after dawn, but he 
  thinks that these are silly stories.  Trolls turn 
  to stone if caught in the sunlight, you know.
  -There is a set of crumbling ruins that have 
  been there long before his family.  They have 
  never been of any concern to him, although 
  his family has always kept the children away 
  because they are crumbling.
  -Lini was out weeding in the hayfield near 
  the ruins, when she did not come back for 
  lunch.  He found her.  She appeared to have 
  wandered over to the ruins and been hit in 
  the head by a falling rock from the crumbling 
  tower.  She had a visible gash and knot on 
  her head, and the doctor thought she had a 
  concussion.  However, she never recovered.
  -Svein has no explanation for her pregnancy.  
  If he were a superstitious man, he might say 
  that maybe she met a troll or an elf in the 
  field.  The doctor insists that her virginity is 
  intact.
  
  TURN TO STONE
  AN ADD-ON TO THE PRIMAL STATE
  14
  1.  Stairs:  Probably the first thing that will 
  get the investigators’ attention is the dark, 
  ruined flight of stairs heading down into 
  unknown depths.  Unfortunately for the 
  investigators, the stairs only go down about 
  4 feet before ending in soil and rubble, a 
  completely filled in collapse.
  Several 
  things 
  about 
  the 
  stairs 
  are 
  noteworthy.  First is the mere fact that there 
  are stairs.  The investigators might rightly 
  wonder what lies beneath the surface, and 
  whether there is not some other way of 
  getting there.
  Second, the inscriptions and carvings are 
  somewhat less vanilla on the sides of the 
  stairwell.  The side walls are covered with a 
  partially intact fresco (wall painting on a 
  plaster surface).  The visible portion depicts 
  seemingly female figures in long robes and 
  Phrygian caps, dancing with a variety of 
  musical instruments.  One such figure, 
  blowing a coronet and larger than the others, 
  is labeled “Freyja Gallai Sanctum” in Greek 
  letters.  (Note:  Tor can easily read a simple 
  Greek inscription with his 25% skill, even if 
  no one else can.  Freyja is a common Norse 
  woman’s name)  As noted above, Mythos 
  sourced research into the “gallai sanctum” 
  reference leads to the Magna Mater as well 
  as to Byzantine Shub-Niggurath worship 
  depending on the source consulted.
  Third, halfway down the stairs and on the 
  left, in an area devoid of fresco, is a burial 
  vault set into the wall, with an image of one 
  of the seemingly female dancers recumbent 
  with crossed arms carved into the stone.  An 
  inscription in Greek (which should pique the 
  investigators’ suspicions) translates to “Here 
  Lies Maria Gallai Sanctum, Awaiting the 
  New Spring.”  (Tor’s 25% in Greek is again 
  more than adequate to read the names off of 
  the various inscriptions at the site).  Should 
  the investigators open the burial vault, they 
  find a 3’ x 3’ x 3’ sconce containing a 
  mummified body, dressed in mostly decayed
  black robes with a tarnished silver chain 
  belt, decorated with lions.
  Examination of the mummy is best done by 
  a professional of some sort.  A successful 
  Medicine or Anthropology roll identifies the 
  mummy as indisputably male by reference 
  to bone structure, despite the feminine dress 
  and name.  The complete absence of 
  genitalia (not just removed, completely 
  absent) and elaborate lion tattoos where 
  something ought to have been is both 
  informative and good for a 0/1d3 SAN loss.
  Fourth, they may well decide to try and 
  excavate the stairwell.  It has collapsed and 
  is not structurally sound.  However, they can 
  clear away the rubble and dirt to some 
  degree.  The best they will be able to 
  manage is about a 3’ by 3’ tunnel slanting 
  down with occasionally intact sections of 
  fresco and wall.  This assumes that they dig 
  carefully.  Digging carefully assumes 10 
  man-days of skilled archaeological work and 
  at least one trained archaeologist (at least 
  25%) on site full-time.  A man-day is eight 
  hours of work by one person.  (Tor qualifies, 
  but he will likely be busy translating the 
  Dagbok 
  Cybele 
  once 
  it 
  is 
  found).  
  Unprofessional digging labor can contribute 
  at ½ rate.  (Thus, one professional 
  archaeologist and two digging assistants can 
  carefully excavate the stairs in a five days).
  The stairs continue down a few more feet.  
  Two things of interest can be uncovered.
  First, there is a small, intact section of fresco 
  near the bottom of the stairs.  This frescoe 
  depicts a man (the only depiction of a man 
  anywhere at the site, dressed in black, with 
  bushy black hair and a beard and a golden 
  circle about his head (a Byzantine depiction 
  of sainthood)  This figure is labeled (in 
  Greek) as “Olaf Ulfsson.”  He is standing 
  with his hand on a chair with head, arm and 
  leg restraints, while a woman is secured in 
  the chair.  An adjoining image shows the 
  same woman with a small wound above her 
  right eye, with her arms flung wide in joy
  and surrounded by the Magna Mater, Attis, 
  lions, and angels.  The female figure now 
  likewise has a golden circle about her head.  
  (This foreshadows the lobotomy chair in the 
  crypt level).
  Second, the stairs open into and connect 
  with the west end of the crypt sub-level, 
  
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  potentially avoiding having to go down the 
  offal pit to access the crypt.
  Finally, it should be mentioned that
  disturbing Maria Gallai Sanctum’s mummy 
  is a bad idea, since disrupting her path to 
  reincarnation is one of the ways to activate
  the “Lions of the Mother” at Map Area 4.
  2.  Archaeological site/blue stones:  There 
  are two things of note in this corner of the 
  rubble field.  First, archaeologists have been 
  obviously been working in the area.  Site 
  stakes and flags have been left in place and a 
  tarp covers a small, shallow excavation.  
  This is where the chest containing a silver 
  horde and a copy of Olaf’s Saga were 
  recovered a year earlier by Arne Sigurdsson.
  In addition, the excavation is at the foot of a 
  ring of Neolithic standing stones, similar to 
  those at Salisbury Plain.  There are seven 
  pillars, each about seven feet high, arranged 
  in a circle about seven feet across.  They are 
  devoid of inscriptions, but the stones 
  (successful Geology check) are not native to 
  the area.  With sufficient research, the 
  investigators might be able to narrow their 
  point of origin to somewhere in Asia Minor 
  (the origin of Magna Mater worship).  These 
  stones, however, have been here for 
  thousands of years (Archaeology check).  
  They are marker stones for the place at 
  which the veil between this world and that 
  of the trolls is thinnest; they have no 
  independent power of their own.
  Anyone who is psychically sensitive may 
  feel odd or see glimpses of something in 
  amongst the stones.  Opening a Gate or 
  other transdimensional spell at this area is a 
  bad idea with consequences left to the 
  Keeper’s imagination, other than to say that 
  it will involve trolls.  Lots and lots of trolls.
  3.  Sinkhole?:  At first glance, this appears 
  to be a simple hole in the ground, round and 
  roughly four feet in diameter, dropping out 
  of sight.  Closer inspection, however, 
  reveals that it is artificial.  A few stones still 
  line the lip of the hole, and the hole itself is 
  sporadically lined with paving stones, as 
  close inspection with a bright light can 
  reveal.  In addition, the ground slopes 
  slightly inwards all around the hole.
  This area has not withstood the test of time 
  very well, but it was once the grand 
  celebratory chamber of the temple.  This is 
  where the mystery ceremonies would occur, 
  where Shub-Niggurath would be summoned, 
  and where new adherents would castrate 
  themselves, flinging the removed parts into 
  the hole.  More clues as to its function 
  appear in the mosaic at Map Area 5
  (Tower).  If the players have seen the 
  mosaic at Map Area 5, call for an Idea roll, 
  since this looks much the same as the hole in 
  the mosaic.
  This area is noteworthy in that it is the only 
  practical access to the buried sublevel of the 
  Temple, until the stairs are excavated.  Also, 
  it is where the “Lions of the Mother” will 
  dispose of any investigators prior to 
  returning to a torpid state.
  4.  Sanctum ruins and collapsed statue:  
  This area contains the most intact part of the 
  ruins.  This includes an extensive, partly 
  overgrown stone floor, several sections of 
  more or less intact stone walls and empty 
  window placements, and a large, crumbled 
  statue.  The statue is made of marble, and 
  was once a chariot, drawn by two lions, with 
  two riders, a young man wearing a pointed 
  cap and a woman in a crown.  The statue of 
  the woman has no face; it is life-sized in 
  every detail.
  A couple of rolls would be appropriate here. 
  An Occult or Critical History roll can 
  identify the statue as depicting Cybele, the 
  Magna Mater, and her consort/son Attis, in a 
  very traditional representation.  (Refer to the 
  statue on page 8).  However, a Cthulhu 
  Mythos roll is also appropriate here.  On a 
  success, the investigator realizes that the 
  faceless statue is not quite right.  Traditional 
  representations 
  of 
  Cybele 
  sometimes 
  depicted her as having a black face, or 
  wearing a veil, but not as having no face at 
  all.  Careful inspection of the statue reveals 
  that this facelessness is not the result of 
  decay.  Rather, this depiction of the Magna 
  Mater is said to have been the symbol of a 
  
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  corrupt, 
  pseudo-Cybelian 
  cult 
  actually 
  devoted to the worship of Shub-Niggurath.
  Note that under the right circumstances 
  (discussed below), the “Lions of the
  Mother”(the two statuary lions drawing the 
  chariot) statue may not be as inert as they 
  normally are.
  5.  Crumbling tower:  This is what is left of 
  a crumbling stone tower, made of native 
  stone, about 20’ across and originally of 
  indeterminate height.  It has now largely 
  collapsed, such that only the first story (10’ 
  high) and parts of the second story are 
  standing.  It does not look particularly 
  stable; there are many fallen stones all 
  around its base, and numerous holes in the 
  walls.  The second story appears, from 
  ground level at least, to be open to the air.
  The first floor is noteworthy for two main 
  reasons.  First, despite its poor condition, 
  there is a Byzantine style mosaic partially 
  remaining, decorating the interior of the first 
  floor walls.  Although large sections have 
  crumbled away, a few sections remain intact 
  enough to be intelligible.  One such section 
  depicts a group of black robed sisters, 
  wearing pointed Phrygian caps and silver 
  belts, standing in a ring around a stone floor.  
  A naked, bleeding man is hurling what 
  appear to be his own missing genitals into a 
  circular pit.  (This should give the 
  investigators an idea as to the purpose of the 
  offal pit at Map Area 3).  SAN loss 0/1.
  Another section depicts a pair of lions 
  devouring what appears to be a male knight 
  in armor, tearing in particular at his lower 
  abdomen.  An inscription in Greek reads 
  “The Lions of the Mother.”
  A third section depicts a blond haired, blue 
  eyed woman clothed like the other figures, 
  but without the cap.  Instead, she has a 
  golden circle about her head (a Byzantine 
  mosaic representation of sainthood).  She is 
  surrounded by dozens of representations of 
  lion cubs, and an inscription in Greek reads 
  “Helgi Alfsdottir, mother of Olaf Ulfsson.”  
  This gives the investigators the research 
  prompt they need to investigate Helgi.
  At one time, there was a staircase attached 
  to one wall of the tower, leading up through 
  a hole in the ceiling, but the staircase lies in 
  ruins.  The first floor is covered to the sky.
  It will take some Climb checks and/or some 
  ingenuity to safely access the second floor 
  of the tower.  Once there, they can see that 
  only about a quarter of the second story 
  exists, but for its floor.  Only about 90 
  degrees of the round wall still stands, with 
  its roof still on.  Although this would not 
  bode well for the survival of much of 
  anything 
  from 
  the 
  elements, 
  if 
  the 
  investigators poke around long enough (Spot 
  Hidden, one check per hour of investigation) 
  they will discover a hidden floor cache 
  underneath a paving stone in the still 
  standing part of the tower.  This is the 
  proverbial jackpot:  a fairly well preserved
  vellum document in Old Norse.
  It is a “family bible” of sorts for the 
  Nunnery, detailing important events, lines of 
  descent, cult activities, correspondence, 
  philosophy, schemes, and the like.  Nowhere 
  in it will the name “Shub-Niggurath” be 
  found; the goddess is always referred to as 
  the Magna Mater or Cybele.  It covers 
  important events from circa 930 A.D. when 
  the Nunnery was founded by Byzantine 
  refugees, through about 1550 when they 
  apparently packed up house for the “Indies” 
  under pressure from increasingly organized 
  Icelandic religious authorities.
  The Dagbok Cybele (Cybele Diary) requires 
  an average of 8 weeks to read, 50 hours to 
  skim, +8% to Cthulhu Mythos, -1d6/2d6 
  SAN, a successful Read Old Norse roll to 
  comprehend, and the following spells 
  potentially available, at a spell multiplier of 
  x3: 
   
  Call/Dismiss 
  Shub-Niggurath; 
  Summon/Bind 
  Dark Young of 
  Shub-
  Niggurath; Augur; Blight/Bless Crop; Cloud 
  Memory; Enchant Knife; Evil Eye; Levitate;
  Powder of Ibn-Ghazi.  A summary of the 
  information available in the Dagbok Cybele, 
  as it pertains to this scenario, can be found
  in Investigator Handout #8.
  6.  Floor crypts:  Over in this end of the 
  main standing structure are a number of 
  
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  floor crypts.  (If the investigators were to dig 
  up several inches of overburden beyond the 
  edges of the intact floor, they would find 
  additional stone flooring and additional floor 
  crypts).
  Each floor crypt is a 2’ deep, coffin-sized 
  recess in the stone floor, covered with a one-
  piece slate stone bearing a depiction of the 
  person lying within and their name, both in 
  runic Old Norse as well as Greek and the 
  date of their deaths (using the Julian 
  calendar).  There are dozens and dozens of 
  them, arrayed in a tightly-packed grid.  
  There are a number of disturbing things to 
  be noted simply from a cursory examination 
  of the floor crypts:
  1.
  On an Anthropology roll, the 
  investigators can determine that the 
  names and physical depictions of 
  the interred correspond to a wide 
  variety of ethnicities, indeed, their 
  names are written in a variety of 
  different languages.  Many are 
  Norse or Byzantine Greek, and quite 
  a few are Turkish.  However, others 
  are quite diverse:  sub-Saharan 
  Africa, China, and even one name 
  seeming to be Native American.
  2.
  Many crypts (dozens of them) have 
  someone 
  named 
  Ulfsson 
  or 
  Ulfsdottir in them, with dates of 
  interment stretching over a course of 
  hundreds of years.  None of these 
  are named Olaf, however.  (Again, 
  on an Idea roll if the players are not 
  picking it up on their own, this 
  means that either their father had the 
  same uncommon given name or that 
  their father is the same entity).
  3.
  Opening the crypts reveals that 
  about half of the truly female, 
  human occupants have a matching, 
  healed over puncture fracture about 
  an inch over their right eye.  This is 
  only found on genetically female 
  skeletons, 
  not 
  on 
  gallai. 
   
  It 
  corresponds to the injury site 
  inflicted by the lobotomy machine 
  in the crypt level and depicted on 
  Should any of the “gallai sanctums’” tombs 
  be opened, they will be mummified in a 
  manner similar to the mummy at the stairs in 
  area 1, including similar tattoos and 
  disturbing anatomical anomalies.
  Opening up the other floor crypts reveals 
  some additional disturbing facts.  First, the 
  bodies in many of the floor crypts 
  (particularly the ones with Greek or Turkish 
  names) are semi-human, revealing bestial 
  aspects to the skeletons.  (These are 
  Byzantine “transformed” Shub-Niggurath 
  followers.  (SAN loss 0/1d3).  Second, all of 
  the Ulfssons and Ulfsdottirs are much the 
  same: semi-human.  (SAN loss 0/1d3).  
  Further, all of the semi-human skeletons 
  show signs of having died extremely violent 
  deaths (hacked to bits).  (SAN loss 0/1).
  (The explanation is that the semi-humans 
  did not need any brain surgery to fully 
  perceive what the Nunnery had to offer.  
  The ordinary gallai would not benefit from 
  it.  The gallai sanctum would not either. 
  Some truly female followers were subjected 
  to certain brain alterations so they could 
  perceive Ulf and thereby further the cult’s 
  breeding experiments, discussed in more 
  detail below.  And since the semi-humans 
  were effectively immortal, when it was
  deemed time for them to return to their 
  goddess, they needed considerable extra 
  assistance).
  8.  Threats to Exploration, and Under 
  What Circumstances.
  The surface level of the ruins is generally 
  safe, for most people.  There are two 
  exceptions.
  The first exception has to do with anyone 
  defiling the temple.  “Defiling the temple” 
  would include any of the following acts:  
  beginning the casting of any anti-Mythos 
  spells; bringing an Elder Sign onto the 
  premises; opening any tomb belonging to a 
  gallai sanctum (as distinct from the rank and 
  file); attempting to consecrate the ground in 
  the name of some other religion; or any 
  (intact) male attempting to climb down the 
  sacrificial offal pit at Map Area 3.  The first 
  and most likely temple defilement event will 
  
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  18
  Turn to Stone, Investigator Handout No. 8—Skimming the Dagbok Cybele.
  This is a bad and scary book, if even a fraction of what it is in it is true.  But it tells quite a story.
  --The Dagbok purports to be authored by one man/woman, Freyja Gallai Sanctum.  Freyja starts 
  off as a Norseman named Frey circa 930; converts to the worship of the Magna Mater by castrating 
  himself and pledging service as a gallai; and later, for exemplary service, is “reborn” by the Magna 
  Mater as a gallai sanctum—near immortality for near sexlessness.  Freyja continues the Dagbok, 
  more a diary than a traditional grimoire, until 1550(!).  At this time, the Cloister, under pressure 
  from increasingly effective Church authority in Iceland, decides to relocate to the New World.
  --Some “treasures” and “relics” were hidden and buried nearby when they uprooted in 1550.  
  They could not take them all with as they would be, in some cases, “indiscrete” to transport.
  --The outpost in Iceland is known to the faithful as the “Third Cloister.”  It was founded by 
  refugees from Byzantium circa 930.  Given the level of persecution that they suffered in 
  Constantinople, their prime directive was “avoid conflict with the locals.”  The plan was to 
  establish a sort of safe house where the faithful could go under duress.
  --This plan required that the gallai (eunuch servants) be selected from people who were able to be 
  discrete and understand that angering the populace would endanger the entire community.  Some of 
  the original cultists had to be sacrificed to the “Lions of the Mother” for the greater good of the 
  community when they could not reign their behavior in.
  --Locals were not harassed.  Discipline was paramount.  Sacrifices to the Magna Mater were 
  garnered from the willing, or from lost souls or outlaws whom no one would miss.  Caution and 
  diplomacy were the watchwords.  Recruits were generally drawn from outside of Iceland, often 
  from other refugees desperate enough to behave themselves according to the rule of the Cloister.  
  The Dagbok is full of correspondence with other worshippers of the Magna Mater, negotiating 
  personnel exchanges and grants of temporary asylum in exchange for certain considerations.
  --Anyone who would stay at the Cloister had to either “sacrifice to the Mother and join the gallai,” 
  be a woman, or “be taken by the Lions.”
  --The “safe house” mission of the Cloister restricted what activities the cult could undertake in 
  service to the Magna Mater.  The Cloister, apart from limited recruitment in its cloistered setting, 
  focused its attention on one of the central mysteries of the Magna Mater:  the possibility of giving 
  birth despite the sacrifice of one’s procreative capability.
  --The gallai were aware that the Cloister site was a nexus to a “nearby field”, which was inhabited 
  by what the locals called the “little people.”  Although Maria had initially seen hints of them 
  around the Cloister, they appeared to have little interest in the gallai.
  --Circa 950, what was widely perceived to be a miracle occurred.  The Cloister took in a seemingly 
  daft, newly pregnant woman named Helgi Alfsdottir as a potential recruit.  Helgi immediately 
  mentioned seeing the “little people” that only the most sorcerously capable gallai were even 
  slightly aware of.  She even claimed that she had befriended one, named Ulf, and that he was the 
  father.
  --Helgi’s son was Olaf Ulfsson, who displayed a frightening aptitude for both sorcery and service 
  to the Magna Mater.  This seemingly divinely blessed, seemingly parthenogenic birth, in the view 
  of the gallai, marked Helgi as a saint and Olaf as an incarnation of Attis, son of the Magna Mater.
  --Olaf left to dwell in Constantinople, bringing back additional Byzantine refugees from time to 
  time.  Ultimately, around 1010, he retired back to the Third Cloister.  His fate is unmentioned.
  --Helgi, however, continued to regularly birth mysteriously fathered children, until she “passed” 
  circa 1240.  This would have made her about 300 years old.  Even then, the word “died” is not 
  used, and what “passed” means is not defined.  In fact, Helgi is mentioned in the present tense all 
  the way to the end of the Dagbok and the Cloister’s abandonment.
  --After 1240, mention of Helgi only comes up in one context.  Helgi became “indiscrete” and 
  unable to coexist with the rest of the Cloister.  She had to be “shut away.”  Gallai or the 
  occasional gallai sanctum who had grown tired of living often chose to meet their end by 
  what is called “intimate communion with Helgi.”  What this entailed is undescribed.
  --The gallai were behind setting up an indiscrete convent full of nuns of questionable virtue nearby, 
  as a distraction from their work and as a stalking horse for any punitive Church measures.
  
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  be some intact male climbing down the offal 
  pit.
  Defiling the temple activates the two 
  statuary lions (the “Lions of the Mother”) in 
  Map Area 4 (statistics below).  Although 
  they will generally charge forth in righteous 
  indignation, they are capable of biding their 
  time until the moment is right to strike, 
  however.
  The second potential threat to exploration is 
  Ulf, 
  but 
  again, 
  only 
  under 
  certain 
  circumstances.  It is necessary to distinguish 
  between people who are attuned to Ulf, and 
  those who are not, since his capacity to 
  interact with our dimension depends on this 
  variable.
  People who are attuned to Ulf would include 
  anyone who is currently insane; anyone 
  whose bloodline is tainted by the Mythos; 
  anyone who is psychically sensitive; people 
  who have sustained significant head trauma; 
  or people particularly given to daydreaming.  
  These people will be able to hear Ulf 
  (although he tries to be quiet) and to see him 
  (but only if they are not looking directly at 
  him; they will need to look at him in a 
  reflection or out of their peripheral vision).  
  They can definitely feel him by touch and 
  smell him (they may ask if anyone smells 
  burning sugar).  He can also be made visible 
  through appropriate magic, such as the 
  Powder of Ibn-Ghazi.
  If one or more investigators are attuned to 
  Ulf, they may be able to track him down.  
  Generally, he stays in the tower (Map Area 
  5), but always in areas completely out of the 
  sunlight.  He also sometimes hangs out in 
  the crypt level beneath the sacrificial offal 
  pit at Map Area 3.
  What Ulf will do depends on the gender of 
  the person able to sense him.  If the viewer 
  is female, he will play at being an 
  “imaginary friend” with a romantic spin.  He 
  will shyly introduce himself, be generally 
  polite, 
  answer 
  questions 
  within 
  his 
  knowledge that do not threaten him, and 
  flirt.  He appears, under these circumstances 
  as a large, elf-like, partly bestial man (about 
  10 feet tall), quite handsome and fit.  
  However, he is quick to assault an 
  incapacitated or injured woman if he thinks 
  that he can get away with it.  SAN loss for 
  someone perceiving a “friendly” Ulf is 
  1/1d3.
  Ulf will kill any men who seem to be able to 
  perceive him at his first safe opportunity.  
  Note that if under control of his faculties, he 
  Guardian Beasts of Cybele, Leonine 
  Man-eaters (x2) (“Lions of the 
  Mother”).
  STR 19 DEX 19 INT 10 CON 11  POW 13 
  SIZ 17
  Luck 65 Hits:  15.
  Damage Bonus: +2d6.
  Move:  10”.
  Armor: All non-enchanted physical attacks 
  do minimum possible damage.
  Skills:  Listen 50%, Spot Hidden 50%, Track 
  Unbeliever 50%.
  Attacks:  Bite 40%, 1d10.
  Claw 60% (in addition to Bite attack each 
  round), 1d6 +db.
  Neutering, 100%, if both claw and bite hit 
  the same target in the same round, the 
  Guardian Beast does 1d10 in the following 
  round, all via bite below the belt.
  SAN Loss:  0/1d6 for viewing each Guardian 
  Beast of Cybele.
  Notes:  The Guardian Beasts appear to be 
  gargoyle-like creatures, generally leonine in 
  appearance and manner, but when active 
  their 
  shape 
  constantly 
  shifts 
  between 
  varieties of large carnivorous predators.  
  They are magical constructs and hence 
  resistant to non-magical attack.  These are 
  programmed to attack non-eunuch males in 
  the temple area if they are activated.  They 
  can pursue offenders outside of the rubble 
  field, but will only attack women or eunuchs 
  if first attacked by them.  If they succeed in 
  killing or disabling a male, they will forcibly 
  remove his genitals (1d10 damage) and 
  throw the carcass and the genitals down the 
  sinkhole at Map Area 3.
  
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  20
  does not consciously risk exposure to 
  sunlight, so as long as the males in question 
  do not go into the sheltered areas or get too 
  close to any of the standing walls at the 
  rubble field, Ulf will not directly attack 
  them.
  He might drop rocks on them though.  Ulf is 
  capable of hurling or dropping a rock of 
  sufficient size to easily crush a man (4d6 
  damage).  An angry Ulf looks like a very 
  bestial, deformed, 10 feet tall giant, whose 
  form is unstable (shifting and swimming).  
  SAN loss for viewing an angry Ulf is 1/1d8.
  Obviously, part of the fun of the scenario is 
  to have someone be able to perceive Ulf.  If 
  none of the players would fit the bill for 
  whatever reason, then that lot falls to poor 
  Tor Halvorsson.  Ulf will stalk, taunt and 
  tease Halvorsson, wearing his sanity down 
  before ultimately ripping him limb from 
  limb if he strays out of the sun.  Preferably 
  Ulf will do that when the investigators are 
  not directly looking, but eventually he will 
  do it in front of them if left with no 
  alternative.  SAN loss for viewing an 
  invisible rending is 1/1d8.
  Those who cannot perceive Ulf really have 
  little to worry about, with some exceptions.  
  Ulf can directly affect the part of the world 
  that cannot perceive him, but only to a 
  limited extent.  He can pull harmless 
  poltergeist like pranks, but that is about it.  
  There are two caveats to this, however.
  First, there is no guarantee that unattuned 
  investigators will stay that way.  Any 
  significant enough head trauma to render the 
  unconscious or the changes to brain 
  chemistry accompanying the terror of 
  insanity, 
  will 
  temporarily 
  put 
  the 
  investigators in tune with Ulf’s dimension 
  for the duration of the trauma.
  The other thing that they have to contend 
  with is spillover.  Even though they cannot 
  see Ulf, one of their companions might be 
  able to.  If Ulf throws a rock at that 
  companion, the rock might miss and hit one 
  of them.  If he attacks, they will see the 
  fight, just not be able to do much to help.
  Ulf can also be affected by magic, even 
  when wielded by those who cannot see him.  
  Apply a -50% chance to hit if someone who 
  knows where Ulf is located is telling them 
  where to aim.  Ulf will recoil before and be 
  driven by the Elder Sign, regardless of who 
  is holding it, and is affected by the Powder 
  of Ibn-Ghazi.
  9.  The Crypt.
  Anything dropped down the sacrificial pit at 
  Map Area 3 quickly hits dry bottom and 
  echoes.  That, combined with the collapsed 
  stairway, should provoke someone into 
  climbing down on a rope.  Note that if an 
  intact male goes down, improperly attached 
  to his sacrifice, this is a “temple defilement 
  violation” and activates the “Lions of the 
  Mother” in Map Area 4.
  The pit is about 10’ in diameter and about 
  10’ deep.  It is walled off from the adjoining 
  corridor.  There is a small access hatch at the 
  bottom, stuck with hundreds of years of 
  Ulf, Near Dimensional “Troll”
  STR 23 DEX 13 INT 9
  CON 14  POW 13 
  SIZ 26
  Luck 65 Hits:  20.
  Damage Bonus: +2d6.
  Move:  10”.
  Armor: People who are attuned to Ulf must 
  deal 
  with 
  5 
  points 
  of 
  non-terrene 
  composition; magic weapons do full damage.  
  People who are not attuned to Ulf are at -
  50% to hit due to invisibility, and only magic 
  has any effect.
  Skills:  Listen 50%, Spot Hidden 50%, 
  Seduce Human 50%, Sneak 60%.
  Attacks:  Pummel and Rend 50%, 1d10 +db.
  Big Rock Throw, 55%, 4d6, range 30 yards.
  SAN Loss:  1/1d3 for viewing “happy face” 
  Ulf; 1/1d8 for true form.
  Notes:  Normally invisible and only able to 
  interact with our dimension to a limited 
  extent; certain people are more attuned to his 
  dimension and able to fully interact with him.  
  Vulnerable to sunlight.
  
  TURN TO STONE
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  21
  exposure.  (Crypt Map 1).  It is not a 
  doorway intended for regular use, more like 
  a crawl opening that can be used to clean out 
  the offal pit periodically.  However, it can be 
  crawled through without difficulty.
  The air is very stale and the investigators 
  would be well-advised to let it air out for a 
  couple of hours prior to proceeding.  This 
  hidden sub-level of the complex is very 
  different than the quasi-Catholic medieval 
  construction above.  Architecturally, this 
  level resembles a pagan Roman temple.  It is 
  lined in marble, with statues in niches 
  depicting a variety of scenes related to the 
  Magna Mater (including lions, Attis, gallai 
  frolicking, orgies in which hints of non-
  human participation can be gleaned on close 
  inspection, etc).  There are also wall vaults 
  similar to the one at Map Area 1, and 
  containing similar gallai sanctum contents.  
  (Opening these is likewise a temple 
  defilement).
  10.  The Tomb of Helgi Alfsdottir.
  At the end of the hallway from the offal pit 
  are two areas of note.  The rubble to the 
  west, if cleared, connect to the stairway at 
  Map Area 1.
  Crypt Map 2 is a 20’ x 20’ chamber, 
  separated from the hallway only by an open 
  archway.  The walls are decorated with 
  extremely 
  disturbing 
  and 
  unrestrained 
  mosaics.  These mosaics depict the miracles
  of love and childbirth in graphic and 
  occasionally gory detail.  Additionally, the 
  participants are not well matched, either 
  from 
  a 
  gender 
  perspective, 
  species 
  perspective, or even same dimensional
  perspective.  Graphic and disturbingly 
  accurate depictions of Mythos beasties are 
  made plain.  SAN loss 0/1d3.
  In the far right hand corner of this chamber 
  is something that looks like a torture device.  
  It is a (now rusty) wrought iron chair with 
  arm and leg clamps, a restraining neck 
  collar, and a basket frame to put around the 
  head.  These are all rusty, but attached to it 
  and made of some kind of strangely 
  untarnished, silvery metal is a pointy awl.  
  The awl is about the size and shape of a 
  large gauge hypodermic needle, and is 
  attached to a thin, flexible strip of the same 
  kind of metal, which in turn is attached to a 
  winding ratchet with a trigger.  It looks 
  exactly like the device pictured in the buried 
  section of the stairway at Map Area 1, from 
  which the investigators might infer that it 
  opens one to greater sensory perception.
  The investigators can “twang” it and easily 
  observe that is intended to spring the awl at
  high velocity into an area above the right 
  eye of anyone sitting in the chair and 
  secured with the various bindings and 
  frames.  The frame adjusts to head size and 
  positions the recipient just right.  This 
  corresponds exactly to the wounds in the 
  heads of many of the female skeletons in the 
  floor crypts at Map Area 6, from which the 
  investigators might deduce that there is a 
  high survivability rate associated from its 
  use.  (Many of the skeletons show signs 
  associated with old age, not death from an 
  awl to the head).
  In case the investigators are mystified, this is 
  a self-lobotomy chair.  The room was an 
  initiation chamber for the true females taken 
  in by the Nunnery.  The metal is not of 
  earthly origin, and despite the rustiness of 
  the entire apparatus, the device still works.  
  The 
  device 
  performs 
  an 
  acceptably 
  functional partial lobotomy, with the result 
  that the recipient becomes attuned to and 
  able to perceive Ulf and his ilk in their 
  nearby dimension, and to fully interact with 
  them.  (This is the explanation for the 
  plethora of semi-human Ulfssons and 
  Ulfsdottirs over the ages, who had to suffer 
  violent deaths to shuffle off the mortal coil).  
  Feel free to inflict -1d6 SAN, -1 APP and 
  1d4+2 points of damage on any volunteers.  
  Cruel Keepers might also inflict INT losses 
  on recipients, although the design of the 
  machine is so precise that it should not 
  ordinarily cause INT loss of more than a 
  point or so.
  It is entirely possible that clever and heroic 
  investigators, in an effort to confront and rid 
  the world of Ulf, will voluntarily expose 
  themselves to this experiment.  It happened 
  in playtesting.
  
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  22
  Crypt Map 3 poses one of those awkward 
  decisions that occult investigators have to 
  make from time to time.  There is an 
  obvious archway at this location, but it has 
  been bricked up with stone that does not 
  match.  And (on a successful Cthulhu 
  Mythos roll, or obvious to anyone who 
  knows the spell), there is a big, fat Elder 
  Sign adorning the brick work.  What to do, 
  what to do.  (This was created as part of the 
  mothballing process by the departing cultists 
  in the 16th century, to keep Helgi contained 
  until they could return for her).
  The story, as the investigators may have 
  been able to piece together, was this.  Helgi 
  was herself the spawn of a human woman 
  and the “hidden people.”  For this reason, 
  she was effectively immortal barring violent 
  death, and able to perceive Ulf without any 
  assistance.
  She lived and bred monstrosities to populate 
  the world for several centuries, but finally 
  her faculties deteriorated and her humanity 
  evaporated until she was no longer fit 
  company even for the cultists.  They then 
  shut her up in a crypt, but unlike the later 
  Ulfssons and Ulfsdottirs who were simply 
  euthanized when their humanity devolved 
  below the level of capacity for quiet 
  coexistence with the outside world, they 
  could not bring themselves to kill someone 
  they perceived as a sort of saint.  So instead, 
  they venerated her, and occasionally, people 
  they needed to get rid of were sent down to 
  keep her company.  The cult hoped to 
  someday, somehow, come back and move 
  her, but for reasons that may be explained in 
  a future project, the opportunity never 
  materialized.  So the investigators are 
  confronted with a poorly secured Mythos 
  site in rural Iceland, and a nasty thing 
  ensconced behind a wall, but one which 
  could be liberated without too much 
  difficulty.
  Burying the site under is probably a good 
  solution, although there is no guarantee that 
  some Nazi scientist or another will not come 
  along and excavate at some point.  Leaving 
  it alone is the same as burying it under, 
  except that it remains easy to access.
  Of course, the investigators could also just 
  screw up their courage and break in.  It will 
  take about one man-hour with appropriate 
  tools.  Inside is bad news.  The investigators 
  will be confronted with human skeletons 
  piled two feet high and a nauseating stench 
  both of decay and of animal spoor.  (SAN 
  loss 0/1d3).
  Map of the Crypt Sub-level.  1:  Sacrificial Pit and Access Hatch; 2:  Breeding Chamber; 3:  
  Tomb of Helgi Alfsdottir (Behind Bricked-up Arch).  1 square=5 feet.
  
  TURN TO STONE
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  23
  Rousing herself(?) from the pile is a vaguely 
  female 
  form, 
  shifting 
  in 
  appearance 
  constantly from one female animal form to 
  another (including human).  Her eyes are 
  glassy and she simply thirsts for human 
  blood.  (SAN loss 1/1d8).  She launches to 
  the attack as soon as she can see an 
  investigator, and since her form is malleable, 
  she can squeeze out into the hallway through 
  any decent sized hole.
  Note that Helgi is only minimally affected 
  by non-enchanted weapons.  She does, 
  however, recoil from, and is barred by an 
  intact Elder Sign.
  11.  The Big Picture.
  In all likelihood, the scenario will play out 
  something like this.
  The investigators will do a lot of research in 
  Reykjavik prior to embarking.  They will 
  putter around the ruins for a while, taking 
  notes, getting the idea that this was a temple 
  to the Magna Mater/Shub-Niggurath and 
  that creepy and unwholesome breeding 
  experiments involving trolls had been going 
  on.  They may or may not do something 
  (climb down the offal pit, open up one of the 
  gallai sanctum tombs) that activates the 
  “Lions of the Mother.”
  Desperate combat will ensue at the point
  that they do “defile the temple.”  Hopefully 
  the players thought to bring guns, and have 
  them with them.  Alternatively, they may 
  have the sense to run.
  Note that the lions are physically SIZ 17; 
  there are several places in the complex that 
  they cannot access.  They cannot go down 
  the offal pit itself, and certainly cannot get 
  through the access hatch into the crypt 
  hallway (maximum SIZ to go through the 
  cleanout hatch: 15).  Nor will they likely be 
  able to scamper down any excavated tunnel 
  at the stairway.  Nor will they be able to 
  climb up to the second floor of the 
  crumbling tower, from which they can be 
  shot at or have stones dropped on them.  In 
  other words, even as statted, they are 
  escapable and fightable, but not something 
  you want to get caught and torn apart by.  
  Show a little mercy to investigators who 
  have a thought about going to ground and 
  are just trying to get there with all due haste.
  Alternatively, if the Lions are going to kill 
  too many investigators, given the way your 
  players are, scale them down by changing 
  their armor structure.  Alternatives include 
  only having them take ½ damage from non-
  magical 
  sources 
  instead of 
  minimum 
  damage, or just having a stated amount of 
  armor that magical attacks ignore.  The 
  Lions also could always settle for neutering 
  and tossing victims down the pit; they do not 
  have to go out of there way to kill any 
  incapacitated investigators.
  Ulf is a wild card.  He may tear apart 
  someone loony who claims to see “the 
  hidden people”, but most people will have to 
  either go insane or lobotomize themselves to 
  even be potentially threatened by him.  The 
  main point with Ulf is that he is not very 
  smart; he is easy to trick into wandering into 
  the sunlight.  The Keeper might also decide 
  that Ulf just does not feel like killing anyone 
  on any given day, at least until the 
  investigators have a plan in hand to lure him 
  out into the sunlight and deliberately 
  provoke him into violence.
  Eventually, the intent of the scenario is that 
  the investigators will stabilize the site 
  against the threats of the Lions of the 
  Mother and perhaps Ulf.  They will have 
  thoroughly surveyed the site, and recovered 
  the Dagbok Cybele.  Tor will probably be 
  tasked with skimming the Dagbok, which 
  will overlap with the time needed to clear 
  the excavation at the stairway.
  The Dagbok sticks the last piece of the 
  puzzle together for the investigators:  Helgi 
  Alfsdottir survived until at least 1550; they 
  had to shut her away somewhere before that; 
  there were “indiscrete” things that they had 
  to leave behind, and Helgi herself, toward 
  the end, was “indiscrete.”  They had to “shut 
  her away”, and gallai who went to see her
  did not return.  And there is only one place
  
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  24
  for the investigators still to explore, in all 
  likelihood: behind the Elder Sign.
  The investigators may conclude that there is 
  little to be done about the ruins once the 
  Lions and Ulf are neutralized.  They are
  right in the sense that no major menace is 
  going to blot out the sun any time soon, but 
  inaction is not without its consequences.  
  Someone, perhaps Arne, perhaps Nazi 
  researchers, perhaps new cultists, will 
  eventually explore the ruins and discover the 
  secrets of the Nunnery.  They will find the 
  sealed off room imprisoning Helgi, and 
  some idiot will, eventually, open it up.  If 
  they are obsessed with eugenics (like, say, 
  the occult-obsessed Nazis who started 
  infiltrating Iceland around 1930), they might 
  even come with a view toward renewing the 
  Third Cloister’s experiments.  Someone less 
  cautious than the investigators might even 
  loose Helgi Alfsdottir on an unsuspecting 
  countryside, to pillage and slay.  Someone is 
  certainly going to get hurt in the future.
  Charge people who leave the horror 
  unchecked with a 1d6 SAN loss.
  12.  By the Dawn’s Early Light.
  Destroying both Guardian Beasts earns each 
  investigator 1d6 SAN.
  Ulf is likely unable to even affect many of 
  the investigators, although that is certainly 
  not a static situation.  If anyone is able to see 
  Ulf, they may notice that he only ventures 
  out at night, and sticks during the day to 
  fully shadowed or interior spaces.  Research 
  into 
  “trolls” 
  likewise 
  discloses 
  their 
  vulnerability to sunlight.  The reason is 
  simple:  if Ulf is caught in the sun, he turns 
  to stone, instantaneously.  He knows this, 
  but he is not too bright and has a quick 
  temper.  He might, in the throes of 
  bloodlust, forget what he is doing and be 
  tricked either into a sunny area, or 
  somewhere that the sun can suddenly be 
  exposed (a mirror, a tarp, collapsing a 
  section of wall at the right time).  If this 
  happens, 
  scratch 
  one 
  troll 
  and 
  the 
  investigators gain 1d6 SAN each.
  Permanently ridding the planet of Helgi 
  Alfsdottir is likewise worth 1d6 SAN per 
  investigator.  Helgi is slightly vulnerable to 
  sunlight, as well; it negates her resistance to 
  non-enchanted weapons as she solidifies 
  into what ever form she had immediately 
  prior.  Ultimately, however, she simply has 
  to be put down.  She should not be scaled 
  down as an undue threat, in the opinion of 
  the author; one does not seal up weak 
  monsters behind Elder Signs, and anyone 
  who bravely takes one down to confront 
  what lies behind it gets their own reward.
  This adventure leaves, and is intended to 
  leave, a number of uncomfortable loose 
  ends, which will be addressed in a future 
  project:
  1.
  What 
  ever 
  happened 
  to 
  Olaf 
  Ulfsson?  The investigators should 
  be able to deduce that he would not 
  have simply expired of old age, 
  especially given that he was ¾ near-
  dimensional being.  There are no 
  easy answers to this.  The Dagbok
  simply quits talking about him circa 
  1010.  And his tomb is not on the 
  premises.
  2.
  Where did the Third Cloister go?  
  What happened to them?  Why did 
  they never return for their relics?  
  Are they still alive somewhere?
  What’s Left of Helgi.
  STR 23 DEX 18 INT n/a CON 14  POW 13 
  SIZ 10
  Luck 65 Hits:  12
  Damage Bonus: +1d6.
  Move:  10”.
  Armor: 
   
  Non-enchanted 
  weapons 
  do 
  minimum possible damage.
  Skills:  No relevant skills.
  Attacks:  Rend 70%, 1d10 +db.
  SAN Loss:  1/1d8 for viewing Helgi.
  Notes:  Repelled by the Elder Sign, 
  somewhat vulnerable to sunlight.
  
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  25
  3.
  How many successful Third Cloister
  breeding experiments are running 
  around out there?
  13.  What about Lini (or, Nature vs. 
  Nurture)?
  Perhaps the biggest loose end is that of Lini 
  Sveinsdottir, pregnant, comatose and about 
  to give birth to something.  Again, there are 
  no easy answers, only possibilities.  How to 
  play this out depends on how you feel about 
  clean and/or happy endings.
  The investigators can do nothing and simply 
  let nature take its course.  In this case, a 
  seemingly normal infant is born in due 
  course, and Lini dies shortly thereafter.  The 
  baby is named Tor Linisson.  Whether the 
  baby is a normal human, or bears the taint of 
  the “hidden people”, is a question that 
  should be left unanswered.  There is no way 
  to “test” such a young changeling; they tend 
  to devolve over time into inhumanity.
  (The author suggests that the “canonical” 
  answer is that the baby is indeed the 
  immortal spawn of the trolls, and a 
  potentially great sorcerer, able to hear and 
  see into other nearby worlds.  If left alone, 
  he will probably be subtly or not-so-subtly 
  influenced by his father’s kin, and slowly 
  corrupted despite the best efforts of Lini’s 
  family).
  Or, the investigators can attempt to do 
  something to affect the course of events.  
  Placing Elder Signs around the room prior to 
  the birth, casting exorcisms, inscribing the 
  Eye of Light and Darkness, casting a 
  Banishment of the Bells keyed to Ulf the 
  Troll, or similarly atomic means of Mythos 
  swatting might, if the Keeper is feeling kind, 
  have the beneficial effect of rousing Lini 
  from her coma.  It will not, however, cause 
  little Tor Linisson to be something other 
  than what he is.
  The downside of this, of course, is that Lini 
  remembers what happened to her and is now 
  horrified that she is pregnant with a troll 
  spawn.  Nonetheless, none of these actions 
  prevent the birth, which proceeds as stated 
  above, except that this time Lini lives.  The 
  Keeper might award 1d4 SAN for saving 
  Lini’s life if the investigators’ approach to 
  troll-busting is logical and inventive enough.  
  Whether Tor Linisson ends up as good or 
  bad is something that the investigators can 
  lose sleep over.
  (The author would suggest that Lini’s 
  survival might tip the balance between Tor 
  growing up as a force for good, or a force 
  for evil).
  If your players must have a happy, fluffy 
  ending, then one might allow the killing of 
  Ulf to result in Lini’s miraculous recovery 
  and the cleansing of any taint from little Tor.  
  But such an outcome is hardly Lovecraftian
  style nihilism.
  Baby killers are not going to be tolerated by 
  the local authorities, period, no matter how 
  persuasive they might be.  (Although it 
  should be noted that arguing that a newborn 
  baby had to be killed because he was some 
  kind of troll-spawned monster will be placed 
  in the category of “lunacy”).  The good 
  news is that Iceland does not have the death 
  penalty in the Classic era.  The bad news is 
  that the prison where the investigators will 
  spend the rest of their lives, after a short but 
  fair 
  civil 
  law 
  trial, 
  is 
  unpleasant.  
  Hegningarhusid Prison, built in 1874, had no 
  sinks or toilets in cells as late as 2001, and 
  got 
  the 
  Icelandic 
  government 
  some 
  unpleasant human rights notices as late as 
  that.
  14.  Linking to Home, Sweet Home.
  This scenario was originally written to be a 
  follow-up 
  to 
  Home, 
  Sweet 
  Home.  
  Investigators who survived that scenario 
  would know the name Olaf Ulfsson, and be 
  alarmed that something was happening at his 
  “ruined and abandoned” homestead and 
  come running.  If one is running this first, 
  and want to follow up with Home, Sweet, 
  Home, however, then once they learn that 
  the University of Vermont team had 
  transcribed Olaf’s Saga, they will already 
  have a lead-in to the Icelandic research.  The 
  author would suggest leaving out any 
  explicit mention of the “Black House” in 
  
  TURN TO STONE
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  26
  this scenario, as it does not pertain to events 
  in Iceland and may set the investigators off 
  on a premature wild-goose chase.
  15.  Research Tree.
  The critical research path in this adventure 
  can be a bit difficult to follow, so a summary 
  of what leads to what follows.
  Ultimate Fact:  the Nunnery is the site of 
  Mythos worship of the Magna Mater, who is 
  noted for “transforming” humans into semi-
  human, immortal forms.
  a.
  Olaf 
  Ulfsson 
  worshipped 
  the 
  Magna Mater (Olaf’s Saga).
  b.
  The Magna Mater is the goddess of 
  a 
  mystery 
  religion 
  involving 
  sacrifice 
  for 
  rebirth 
  into 
  immortality (Occult research).
  c.
  The Magna Mater is an avatar of 
  Shub-Niggurath, 
  who 
  likewise 
  rebirths 
  the 
  faithful 
  (Mythos 
  research).
  d.
  Confirmed by statue of Magna 
  Mater at site, Dagbok Cybele, 
  mosaic in tower, tomb inscriptions, 
  and 
  other 
  evidence 
  showing 
  preoccupation with transformation.
  Ultimate Fact:  Helgi Alfsdottir, an 
  immortal, semi-human monster/spawn of the 
  trolls, is sealed behind a poorly secured 
  Elder Sign.
  a.
  Site exploration discovering poorly 
  secured sealed room.
  b.
  Tagbok Cybele discloses that Helgi 
  was immortal, had to be sealed up 
  before they left, and was left behind.
  c.
  Icon in tower depicting Helgi as a 
  saint 
  with 
  many 
  non-human 
  children.
  d.
  Tagbok 
  Cybele 
  discusses 
  importance of discretion and how 
  they had to leave indiscrete things 
  behind.
  e.
  Helgi was herself odd:  local sagas 
  once her name is uncovered.
  Ultimate Fact:  Lini Sveinsdottir was 
  attacked and impregnated by Ulf the troll.
  a.
  Interview with Lini. (Lini).
  b.
  Icelandic 
  legends 
  about 
  troll 
  impregnations. (Svein, Tor, any 
  knowledgeable person).
  c.
  Evidence 
  of 
  long-running 
  troll 
  incursions at the site previously, all 
  by “Ulf”.  (Tagbok Cybele, plethora 
  of immortal, inhuman Ulfssons and 
  Ulfsdottirs in floor crypts).
  Ultimate Fact:  Ulf can be killed by 
  exposure to sunlight.
  a.
  He avoids sunlight like the plague 
  (observation at site).
  b.
  Icelandic 
  legends 
  about 
  trolls
  (Svein, Tor, any knowledgeable 
  person).
  Ultimate Fact:  Ulf can be spotted only 
  under certain circumstances, including by 
  being subjected to the lobotomy machine.
  a.
  Icelandic 
  legends 
  about 
  trolls 
  (Svein, Tor, any knowledgeable 
  person).
  b.
  Lini could see him and had suffered 
  a head injury (Lini, Svein).
  c.
  Fresco depicting purpose of the 
  lobotomy machine as consciousness 
  expanding.
  d.
  Female 
  bodies 
  with 
  matching 
  lobotomy holes in floor crypts.
  Ultimate Fact:  An intact male climbing 
  down the offal pit is a sacrilege that triggers 
  an attack by the “Lions of the Mother.”
  a.
  Mosaic in tower depicting Lions 
  castrating invading knights.
  b.
  Mosaic in tower showing purpose 
  of pit for sacrifices.
  c.
  Background research on how only 
  women or gallai (eunuchs) served 
  the Magna Mater.
  
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  27
  
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  Scale:  1 square=10’ x 10’.  1:  stairs down; 2:  staked excavation; 3:  offal pit; 4:  main 
  ruin/statue; 5:  crumbling tower; 6:  floor crypts.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/Adventures/1920s/CoC - 1920s - Adv - Turn to Stone (.pdf