TEXT: Gall Hmavja 
  Tag-teaminq tbe most pattanoid 
  games in 
  - R 
  onnake Dondo smoked a cigarette and looked 
  across the Plaza of Justice. A hanRing was 
  scheduled. Since Al Amarja had no laws 
  against cruel or unusual punishment, one of the pns- 
  oners (convicted of arson, she thought) was being 
  Riven the option of pleading for his life before the 
  nowd. He was bew'ng, talking about his mother and 
  his two daughters. . . 
  "Bark like a dog!" someone in the crowd shouted. 
  The arsonist faltered, but soon the cry was taken up by 
  all who had gathered to watch. "Bark! Bark! Bark!" 
  "Woof, " he said, hesitantly. The crowd applauded. 
  "Woof, woof!" the arsonist said, louder. The crowd 
  laughed hysterically. Though shrouded by a black 
  hood, even the executioner seemed amused. 
  "What say ye, citizens? Should we spare him, or 
  does he die?" 
  Ronnalee shook her head as the prisoner's face was 
  suffused with hope. He was unshaven and pale and 
  had afat b h k  eye, but at that moment he had a heart- 
  breaking beauty. She smiled sadly. She knew what was 
  coming. 
  "DIE!" screamed the nowd. 
  The arsonist looked sick with shock as the h a n p n  
  tightened the hemp rope aroud his neck. Then he 
  started scream in^. 
  "You bastards! I barked for you! I . .  ." 
  He dropped, twitched and stru~led, then was still. 
  O n  a balcony overlooking the plaza, three self- 
  appointed judges held up placards, expressing their 
  opinions on the quality of the execution. The numbers 
  were 6 ,  8 and 9. There was usually a fourth member, 
  an American businessman named David Van Osten. 
  Ronnake knew him well. 
  VOLUME V 
  NUMBER Vlll 
  Van Osten had come to the island in the sixties - 
  allegedly because he liked to watch executions. 
  Ronnalee knew betttr. 
  If David had gotten his hands on that punk, the 
  poor kid would have begged to be humiliated and 
  hanged, she thought. She'd seen photos of what David 
  had done to his rivals; k kept them on his man&. 
  For six years, Ronnalee had been David's lover. She 
  hud endured it in order to learn more about the sinis- 
  ter group to which he belonged - 
  an organization 
  called the Movers. He trusted her, and today he was 
  to be inducted into the highest level of control (he sus- 
  pected - 
  though with Movers, there was always the 
  chance of a higher, subtler kvel of control). 
  She waved down a cab (for Ronnake, as for every- 
  one highly placed in the Movers, there was always a 
  cab there when needed) and asked it to take her to his 
  apartment. 
  - 
  He should be done with it by now. 
  As soon as she had found out enough about the ini- 
  tiation and the highest levels from him, Ronnake 
  planned to flee back to her husband Merk and their 
  two daughters. The organization to which she and 
  Me& belonged could protect them from the Movers 
  - 
  she hoped. 
  She also planned to kill Van Osten. She owed it to 
  herself. Promising herself that she would kill him one 
  day had been the only thing that had gotten her through 
  six years with him. It was against the pnncipks of her 
  organization, but she knew they'd overlook it, forgive 
  it, to find out about the ultimate rulers of the Movers. 
  She kt herself into his penthouse with her key. 
  "David?" she asked. 
  "In the kitchen. You can help me." 
  
  Call Amarja of Cthulhu 
  Something about his voice made her furrow her 
  brow. She had heard him angry, and capricious, and 
  on only two occasions fnghtened; but this was the first 
  time he had ever sounded.. . disoriented? 
  And what was that strange rasping sound? 
  The kitchen was spattered with blood. David had a 
  miwm propped on the stove and was using a ].A. 
  Heckels serrated bread knife to saw at the skin of his 
  forehead. Blood streamed down his face as he turned 
  to her. 
  "Ah, darling.. . would you help me saw through my 
  skull, please? They have put thoughts in my head, and 
  1 must remove them. " 
  In his eyes she could see nothing sane. 
  Tone 
  Surreal, conspiracy-based adventure. Mind- 
  blasting horror from the great, chaotic beyond. 
  Two great tastes that taste great together, right? 
  Chaosium's Call of Chulhu is an Origins-win- 
  ning favorite. Atlas Games' Over the Edge was on 
  the cutting edge when it came out in 1992, and 
  most of the gaming industry still hasn't caught up. 
  Combining the two is easy, fun, and gives you so 
  many ways to mess with the minds of your char- 
  acters that a GM can get dizzy trying to choose. 
  However, a few guidelines are useful for integrat- 
  ing the two settings. 
  First, there's the question of tone. Both games 
  have horrific elements, but Over the Edge is not, 
  specifically, a horror game. Its tone is one of surre- 
  al uncertainty and investigation, but the charac- 
  ters are, in the long run, able to affect the outcome 
  of events. They can make a difference. 
  In Call of Cthulhu that's just not true. Sure, a 
  Mythos investigator may be able to forestall the 
  dread plans of a cult.. . for now. Rut there's always 
  the nagging knowledge that when the stars are 
  right, ain't nothin' gonna save humanity's collec- 
  tive bacon. Sorry, no. Elder chaos is on the way; 
  our delusions of order and sanity are just an anom- 
  alous blip in the cosmic fabric. Like a trick of per- 
  spective, circumstances on earth conspire to make 
  it appear that the universe is solid and stable and 
  sane; but when you know what's really going on, all 
  that order has the solidity of a soap bubble. 
  Because OTE focuses on character, the PCs 
  generally interact with greater forces - and 
  through strategy, guts or cleverness, they can 
  sometimes improve things for themselves and 
  their fellows. CoC concentrates much more on 
  setting, so characters are more like the Norse 
  deities; Ragnarok is on the way, nothing can save 
  you, and your best hope is to enjoy things now 
  before they get much worse. 
  
  - Myndeworp du Jour 
  That, at the bottom, is the difference between 
  OTE and CoC. In OTE, things appear pretty bad; 
  you get a little deeper, and they appear much 
  worse; but there's always the hope that evil can be 
  stopped and that things can get better. In CoC, 
  things seem fine on the surface; but the deeper you 
  go, the worse it becomes, culminating in the 
  knowledge that sooner or later, the Old Ones will 
  rise. - 
  A GM who is aware of these differences in tone 
  can play them to his or her own taste. Perhaps the 
  secretive conspiracies of Al Amarja could provide 
  humanity's best hope against mythos threats - 
  if 
  they were only aware of the cosmic evil that 
  threatens their own petty plots. On the other 
  hand, imagine the chagrin of a character who 
  thought he had it all figured out, only to learn that 
  there were maddening deeper levels of conspiracy. 
  "You mean I've spent the last two years of game 
  time, eight months of game sessions, tracking 
  down the mystery of the Pharaohs.. . and they're 
  only a smokescreen for something else?!" 
  In other words, there are two ways you can play 
  this; start the characters in "Call of Cthulhu" and 
  have them end up in Al Amarja, or start them in 
  the setting of "Over the Edge'' and only gradually 
  introduce Mythos threats. 
  Intersections 
  Listed below are a number of ways that elements 
  of one system can bleed into the other. The way 
  conversions work depends on which system (and 
  its resultant world-view) you adopt. 
  If you decide that OTE is primary, it means that 
  the creatures of the Mythos are vulnerable to the 
  tactics of Al Amarja's heavy hitters - 
  the ancient 
  technology of the Pharaohs and Glugs, the manip- 
  ulations of the Throckmorton Device, the reality 
  warping of the Cut Ups, and the multitude of tech- 
  niques available to the Movers. Not to say that it 
  would be easy for these groups to waste the Old 
  Ones and their minions; but if they all worked 
  together, they might be able to save Australia as a 
  "human" enclave when the End Times arrive. It 
  won't be easy, but humanity can (somewhat) 
  counter or withstand the onslaught of the Outer 
  Races. 
  If you decide CoC is primary, then Mythos tech- 
  nology always trumps human technology, Mythos 
  magic kicks astral ass, and the best we can hope for 
  is a renewal of our very temporary lease on this 
  planet. 
  OTE Primary 
  Sir Arthur Compton 
  Compton is a powerful sorcerer, and he's aware 
  of the Mythos. In fact, he could be considered a 
  cultist; he has made "bargains" with Deep Ones 
  and has even used the power of Great Cthulhu's 
  sleeping mind for his own ends. However, he is 
  not, in any sense, dedicated to Cthulhu or other 
  Mythoscreatures. He considers t h e m i  means to 
  an end, and that end is, as always, his own power 
  and pleasure. He does not anticipate the rise of 
  R'lyeh for hundreds of years, so it does not con- 
  cern him. If he believed the rise to be immanent, 
  he would have to think long and hard about 
  whether to fight for his current, comfortable exis- 
  tence, or to serve the Great Old Ones - 
  perma- 
  nently changing his perceptions and personality 
  in the process. (Compton understands better than 
  most what is required of the human servants of the 
  Mythos.) 
  The Throckmorton Device 
  For uncounted eons, the Great Race of Yith 
  have been "narrowcasting" their consciousness 
  into the minds of other beings in order to possess 
  them. The Throckmorton Device works different- 
  ly, "broadcasting" the personality of its user to all 
  similar minds within range - even stretching 
  backwards in time. 
  - 
  There is a reason for this similarity; the device 
  is based on Yithian technology that was scavenged 
  by the Pharaohs and given to Angela Reyes by a 
  device-dominated Quisling. 
  The device does not work on Mythos creatures, 
  but the Great Race knew enough to keep Mythos 
  magic and/or technology from interfering with 
  their devices; this means the Throckmorton 
  Device is similarly resistant. (If they chose to do 
  so, however, the Great Race could easily prevent 
  its full operation and could erase its effects from 
  the time stream.) 
  - 
  If exposed to proof of the Mythos, Clyde 
  Throckmorton might decide to put the persecu- 
  tion of homosexuals and poets on the back bum- 
  er, while his minions concentrate on preventing 
  the rise of R'lyeh or on eradicating Mythos crea- 
  tures and their human minions. On the other 
  hand, exposing Clyde to something that drives 
  him mad would be bad. Very bad indeed. 
  The Terminal 
  The coral entities dwelling in the ~ e r m h a l  
  are 
  aware of YopSothoth, but do not serve it; instead, 
  they are adept at navigating past it in the spaces 
  between dimensions. Their plans to "untwist" 
  dimensions in our reality will not prevent the rise 
  of the Old Ones (who are comfortable in any 
  number of dimensions) but they might provide an 
  escape route to less hostile environs for a few rep- 
  resentatives of humankind. 
  Tulpas and Sandmen 
  Tulpas naturally belong in the Dreamlands, 
  Chaosium's Call 
  of Cthulhu is an 
  Origins -winning 
  favorite. Atlas 
  Games' Over the 
  Edge has been on 
  the cutting edge 
  since it came out 
  in 1992. 
  Combining the 
  two is easy, fun, 
  and gives you so 
  many ways to 
  mess with the 
  minds of your 
  characters that a 
  GM can get dizzy 
  trying to choose. 
  VOLUME V 
  NUMBER Vlll 
  
  The desire to 
  bust all of 
  humanity down 
  to the rank of 
  "sacrifice" while 
  Cthulhu and his 
  minions romp 
  across reality is 
  possibly the ulti- 
  mate in control 1 
  addiction. 
  where their plastic nature is a powerful help rather 
  than a hindrance. However, once in a while, a 
  tulpa will be tricked into slipping out through one 
  of the rare physical gates to the Dreamlands. (The 
  reason so many Tulpas reside in Al Amarja is that 
  there is a particularly large gate in the center of 
  Mount Ralsius - 
  possibly related to the fissure 
  described in "The Bliss of Death.") Once they 
  emerge, the psychic static of the mass of waking 
  humanity quickly erases the core of their person- 
  alities, leaving them blanks ready to be formatted 
  by the expectations of the next passerby. 
  Sandmen are servants of Nyarlathotep, though 
  they do not consciously know it. The Dreamlands 
  god will only accept the most debased of 
  sociopaths as servants, and once they have been 
  inducted into his cult they are given the unusual 
  powers of the Sandmen. However, the price of 
  their initiation is the surrender of their knowledge 
  of the cult. They simply forget how they came to 
  be Sandmen, confabulating memories of child- 
  hood "awakenings" instead. Their only memories 
  of dedicating themselves to Nyarlathotep are frag- 
  mentary recollections of degradation and torture 
  at the hands of their senior Sandmen - 
  which 
  explains the culture of violence in which these 
  loners live. 
  When it is time to induct a promising psychot- 
  ic, the loathsome deity will allow one (or several) 
  Sandmen to remember who they really serve. The 
  inductee is kidnapped and initiated; and then 
  they all forget again. Only once a year, on a secret 
  feast day of Nyarlathotep, do all the Sandmen 
  remember their true bond and nature. On that 
  day, they gather for ceremonies. 
  The reason Nyarlathotep creates Sandmen is in 
  order to disseminate Mythos dreams to humanity. 
  Sensitive sleepers can be reached with horrid 
  visions of Mythos significance; Sandmen are guid- 
  ed to these dreamers in order to imprint their 
  nightmares on Dreamweb, which makes the 
  nightmares available to those who are not psychi- 
  cally sensitive. 
  The Movers 
  Some Mover cells (notably the Hermetics) are 
  aware of the Mythos. Others (the Dionysus and 
  Gladstein cells) are unaware of the Mythos - 
  but 
  have been infilaated by fanatic cultists. If Cell Z 
  exists, it might be a highly secretive anti-Mythos 
  force, willing to use any means necessary (no mat- 
  ter how unethical) to protect unwitting humanity. 
  The Pharaohs and the Glugs 
  Glugs are, indeed, the "real" humanity. They 
  evolved around 1 million BC, largely free of 
  Mythas .interference. They were not noticed by 
  Mythos entities until about 750,000 BC. At that 
  time, Cthulhu was beginning to recover from the 
  Call Amarja of Cthulh~ . 
  damage that the fall of R'lyeh had inflicted upon 
  it. The Eight Kindly Sages came into contact with 
  the sleeping psychic juggernaut, and were warped 
  by the process into the Eight Evil Sages. They 
  -developed the Pharaohs, the Aphids and a slave- 
  warrior race (known as "humanity") in order 'to 
  dominate the world and pave the way for the 
  return of Cthulhu. After a lengthy struggle, the 
  Glugs were able to cause a widespread revolt 
  among the slave warriors. While the Pharaohs 
  were distracted, trying to keep the ravening 
  humans under control, the Glugs killed the Eight 
  Sages. However, neither Glug nor Pharaoh was 
  able to restrain the warriors who were going utter- 
  ly bonkers. The dark Age of Humanity descended, 
  and it goes on to this day. 
  At this stage, neither the Glugs nor the 
  Pharaohs are terribly hot on the idea of the return 
  of the Great Old Ones. The Pharaohs have gotten 
  quite used to the idea that they are the rightful 
  owners of Earth. They have a great deal of knowl- 
  edge on how to cope with Mythos manifestations, 
  and they aren't afraid to use it if they have to. (In 
  fact, the Neutralizers may simply be one of their 
  better-deluded dupe groups.) However, they have 
  a fine appreciation of what the greater Mythos 
  races can do, and are therefore cautious to use 
  expendable humans to do anything that might 
  annoy them. 
  The Glugs have been bracing themselves for the 
  return of the Great Old Ones for the past 750,000 
  years or so. Of all the branches of humanity, the 
  Glugs are by far the best equipped to deal with 
  Mythos threats. However, keeping their eye on the 
  ball in the long term has cost them a lot; for one 
  thing, their planet is overrun with kill-crazy 
  mutants (like you and me). For another thing, the 
  Pharaohs would certainly want to wipe them out if 
  they found out there were Glug survivors. 
  (Monique D'Aubainne knows about the Glugs, 
  and she's keeping this knowledge for when she 
  needs something special from the Pharaohs.) 
  Since humanity was bred as slaves (and sacrifices) 
  for Mythos beings, we are much more susceptible 
  to their powers than the Glugs are. 
  The Kergillians 
  The Kergillians are actually Mi-Go. Long ago 
  the Mi-Go developed the processes necessary to 
  surgically transform themselves into a form that 
  can parasitize human minds and bodies. They sim- 
  ply saw little need to do so. Now, however, some 
  event has made the fungi from Yuggoth decide 
  they need to take control of humanity. Perhaps 
  thev are involved in some interstellar conflict that 
  simultaneously prevents them from conquering 
  Earth oupight and requires them to mine more of 
  . . 
  'the rare minerals in which Earth is so rich. Maybe 
  they want to get as many goodies from Earth as 
  they can before the rise of R'lyeh. (The fact that 
  SHADIS THIRTY-THREE 
  
  Myndeworp du Jour 
  . .  . 
  they're accelerating their projects 
  is probably excellent cause for 
  alarm on that front.) Or maybe it's 
  simply a big experiment for 
  unguessable, 
  alien 
  ends. 
  Whatever the case may be, the 
  Mi-Go are taking their time - 
  but they're coming. 
  The Cut-Ups 
  The desire to bust all of human- 
  ity down to the rank of "sacrifice" 
  while Cthulhu and his minions 
  romp across reality is possibly the 
  ultimate in Control addiction. 
  The Cut-Ups have tangled with 
  Mythos cultists in the past 
  (though only Dr. What has ever 
  seen an actual creature of the 
  Mythos) but they are unaware of 
  the real importance of these con- 
  flicts. The cultists have done an 
  excellent job of distracting the 
  Cut-Ups into attacking other 
  conspiracies, while the cults pro- 
  ceed unmolested. 
  The only piece of human tech- 
  nology feared (if such a word can 
  properly apply to beings so alien) 
  by Mythos creatures is the Cut- 
  Up Device. 
  -- 
  COG P ~ i m a ~ y  
  The Movers 
  The Movers are, in fact, a big 
  front for Mythos activity. Almost 
  no Movers know this, however; a 
  few Vomites susDect it, and a few 
  Hermetics fear i. cell Z is dedi- 
  - -
  -
  -
  ~
  ~
   
  cated to the destruction of the 
  Mythos, and they think they're in charge; in fact, 
  they never accomplish anything significant, 
  because they're being manipulated by the real rul- 
  ing cell. (The true master cell has no name and 
  doesn't need one, but we'll call it "Cell C" for con- 
  venience.) The whole purpose of the Cell Z ruse is 
  (1) to recruit enemies of the Mythos into a power 
  structure where they can easily be fooled and muz- 
  zled and (2) to protect Cell C from any competent 
  Mythos investigators. Any such investigators are 
  more likely to run across Cell Z and believe that 
  the Movers are on their side than to discover the 
  core cult of Cell C. 
  Cell C can't wait for the rise of R'lyeh, as they 
  plan to be right on top of the world, robbing and 
  raping and rampaging with Great Cthulhu and the 
  Star-Spawn, proving that human beings can be as 
  unconscionable as anything else in the universe. 
  The LeThuys 
  Mr. LeThuy hasn't heard of the Mythos, but if 
  he did he would wet his pants in glee. They're 
  exactly the kind of outfit he'd like to see inherit 
  the Earth. 
  The Glugs and Pharaohs 
  For a full explanation, see the "OTE Primary" 
  section, above. Now make a few key changes. 
  (1) The Pharaohs were created to create condi- 
  tions conducive to Mythos invasion and domina- 
  tion. They've been fairly successful, and continue 
  to be. Their rivalry with the Movers is seen by the 
  leaders of both camps as a necessary deception to 
  keep bloodthirsty mutant humans motivated by 
  conflict. 
  (2) The Glugs' confidence in their ability to 
  resist and repel Mythos creatures is misplaced. 
  VOLUME V 
  NUMBER Vlll 
  
  Call Amarja of CthuU~u - 
  They can hold their own when the stars are 
  wrong, but as things get more and more conducive 
  to Cthulhu and his ilk, their techniques will 
  become less effective. 
  The Throckmorton Device 
  Things are as explained under "OTE Primary." 
  However, the domination of humankind by the 
  Throckmorton Device is timed to occur only a 
  hundred or so years before the rise of R'lyeh. That 
  means that instead of having to conquer a vital, 
  thriving and diverse humankind, the Old Ones 
  will have only a homogenous mass of complacent 
  nobrows whose "enemies" had their hash settled 
  long ago. 
  Perhaps this is just a coincidence.. . or perhaps 
  it's a particularly devious plot by an outer power. 
  (No cultist would come up with this, because the 
  device would prevent said cultist from being 
  devout to the Mythos; thus, if the device tri- 
  umphs, no humans will survive to serve Cthulhu 
  in the new world disorder.) (Well, all right, it's 
  dicey whether any will in any event; but the 
  cultists believe they'll be rewarded for loyalty, for 
  some reason.) 
  The Terminal 
  Do you believe a bunch 
  of smart corals could travel 
  between dimensions while 
  avoiding Yog-Sothoth? I 
  didn't think so either. Sure, 
  they don't broadcast their 
  affiliation, but what exact- 
  ly do you think the phrase 
  "In order to make this 
  dimension 
  comfortable, 
  they 
  are 
  planning 
  to 
  'untwist' 
  two 
  spatial 
  dimensions from their sub- 
  atomic tangle" (Over the 
  Edge page 86) implies? 
  Read page 126 in the Call 
  of Cthulhu rules where it 
  says "Yog-Sothoth dwells 
  in the interstices between 
  the planes which compose 
  the universe." Compare 
  and contrast.. . 
  Sir Arthur 
  Compton 
  Arthur and his gang of 
  icky followers can't wait for 
  R'lyeh to rise so they can 
  get their sick ya-yas out in 
  ways that haven't even 
  been invented on this 
  planet yet. 
  The Cut-Ups 
  Ah, the ultimate irony; the ultimate cruelty. 
  This brave, altruistic band has dedicated them- 
  selves to the-practice, principle and provision of 
  chaos. However, they don't realize the real chaos 
  they serve is of the crawling variety. 
  That's right; the ultimate source of the Cut- 
  Ups' 
  weird abilities is none other than 
  Nyarlathotep. Apparently one of his thousand 
  forms 
  is 
  none other 
  than 
  Chaos 
  Boys 
  Headquarters. 
  Note that no Cut-Up will ewer voluntarily 
  believe that their entire organization is being 
  manipulated by some unearthly entity from beyond 
  the beyond. Nyarlathotep has taken great care to 
  cover his tracks; in fact, there is very little chance 
  of the Crawling Chaos ever being connected to the 
  Cut-Ups, except possibly by an exceptional sorcer- 
  er who studied the source of C.A. Radford or Pere 
  Brinker's powers. No, Nyarlathotep is very protec- 
  tive of his little jokg the Cut-Ups will only learn 
  what their true role was after they have been used 
  to eradicate humanity. Qi 
  SHADIS THIRTY-THREE 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/EXTRA/Magazines/CoC - Call Amarja of Cthulhu.pdf