FORAY Tickets for a Prayer Wheel

This is the much anticipated continuation of the Call of Cthulhu chronicle created by Jim Comer for Viet Nam. If you missed the earlier Tickets, you can read them first by going to the Tickets Intro Page

Chapter Seven
Sixth ticket
Sauce from the sage

        The two people most knowledgeable about the particular mystery that the game addresses are a priest and a Confucian scholar. Each has his own way of seeing the matter, of course.
The Vietnamese doctor
     The investigators have by now become very curious about the matter of the whisperers. They have seen incontrovertible evidence that nonhuman sentient beings are present in the game, although they have suspected this for some time. It may occur to them to consult a sage character. They may find that a Vietnamese doctor, Tran Nguyen Phu, has a reputation for knowledge of the wilder corners of his country's folklore.
      He will consent to a brief meeting for tea in the garden of his mountain home in Dalat. He knows of the mutilations but blames them on buzzards, blowflies, and brain-damaged soldiers; many think that Americans are responsible. The cult center is feared. Chinese fear it, and recently the rumor of its evil has waxed. Hairy monsters are said to walk its paths by night; scraped bones wash down the river. As he speaks, his beautiful daughter will emerge from the house, heavily made up and dressed in the traditional au-dai. She will play the Chinese classics on the ch'in, or zither. If asked, the doctor will say that she's here on holiday from the university in Saigon where she is a student. He's lying. Her hair is a wig and her makeup conceals the scars that the investigators may already have seen; the girl is Co Tran Troung Nguyen, called Chi Nguyet in the VC team she commands.
     The players' stories will bring concern for their mental states. Hallucination is common in Vietnam. When pressed with multiple witnesses, he will admit that such mutilations do occur, and that they occur near the shrine area. He has heard of the alien things that the legends describe. Texts translated from Champa temples call them "the fishers". He does not know what they mean, but will hint that they fish into the world, especially Vietnam, from above, meaning the Himalayas or a place higher still. He will offer Annamese tea, with ginger from Dalat and tidbits spiced with fish sauce.
     In fact, the fungi know about Tran, and wish to gain his brain. They would wish Ho, who is by anyone's standards one of the greatest minds to come from Indochina since Mongkut ruled Siam, but Ho is inaccessible. The fungi made him so. Ho knew that he was aging, and would soon die. He consulted with the bandit leaders, who were Fungi, and made a pact. His nation would never surrender to the Americans, and the fungi would be unimpeded in their activities, but when Ho died he would pass into Yog-Sothoth, as did Curwen. Ho's body was reduced to salts and a waxwork took its place. The salts are hidden in a remote jungle stronghold(see below).   On the boy's twenty-fourth birthday, the magic rites would restore Ho's soul to his son's body. The returned Ho(?) would then lead his people to victory, or if victory was achieved, to further glory.
     The Catholic Priest
     There are other sources of information. If the investigators ask around among Catholic clergy and such, they will be directed to Pére David François-Xavier LaMettrie, the priest of a small Catholic mission in the town of Xa Dai, south of HI25. The town is in the mountain foothills. A helicopter takes them there in less than an hour, but the trip is some hours by jeep.
     The priest can be found in the mission church, teaching the kids of the village how to read and recite their catechism. He is a tall, stooped old man with a beard, dressed in the habit of a Franciscan friar. He is a Niçoise, though it would take a critical success on a Speak French roll to identify his accent. If anyone speaks French to him, he will add 10% to his reaction roll. He will consent to meet with the investigators. If they are soldiers, they have to help him do something first. A bomb fell during an airstrike and has lain in the main street of the village unexploded. The investigators must defuse it. They can try their Electrical Repair rolls once apiece. Success defuses the bomb. Failure leaves it unexploded, while a fumble kills the defuser and the two closest people. Unless the investigators themselves are closer, two small boys from the village will be there, peeking at the bomb's inside, and 'helping'. Their deaths will make the village very angry, not to mention Pére David, and the investigators must Fast Talk or fight their way out learning nothing. If they refuse to deal with the bomb, or promise to call specialists, then Pére David will not talk to them. If he does, he can tell them many important things. Bring these up one by one in conversation as the investigators ask for them.
     He knows that the legends of scuttling, whispering monsters are real. He calls them the whisperers("les chouchouteurs"). The priest here before him, Pére Lapalissoise, was old, and grew sick. He himself was stationed at Hué and visited Pére Lapalissoise every so often with supplies. Once Pére Lapalissoise was "sick", and afterwards went about only at night in a long cloak. Thinking this unsuitable, the Church offered to remove the old man to a hospital, and Pére Lamettrie was sent to get him. Lapalissoise refused to go, and was confronted by Lamettrie at midday in his darkened vicarage, where he whispered blessings to his Vietnamese flock. The older priest ran, his waxen mask falling to reveal an inhuman insect face. Pére David made a report that the old priest had died of a tropical disease and been buried quickly, and none objected. Sometimes his old friend's voice still whispers to him from the depths of the woods at night, while he tries his best to sleep.   His research since then has turned up a protective sigil used by the natives, which is unobtrusively woven into the carving on the doors of the church. It is the Elder Sign, the only spell he has learned.
     He knows that the Tcho-Tcho are not on the level. He strongly suspects cannibalism, as he has found evidence that the Jesuit priest sent to them in the nineteenth century was eaten. This man, Father Daniel O' Malley SJ, disappeared in Laos in 1895. His gnawed bones were found by a troop of soldiers, who returned them to the Church.
RETURN
     If the players leave either of these men unguarded, and then return, then the men will be killed and replaced by the fungi from Yuggoth. In both cases, the person will pretend to have suffered a crippling accident, rendering walking difficult, and damaging the voice box. They can talk only very softly, and the voices sound different. With any exertion, the fungi will reach the limits of their human disguise. They will prefer not to walk if possible. They will stay indoors in day, blinds drawn. If exposed, they will rely on the horror of their appearance to foil any attack. Both have the heat gun, but will be reluctant to use it.
CO CHI NGUYET
     The readers of Tickets can be forgiven for wondering when the VC were going to show. As crowded with menace as the game is, it would be incomplete without them.
     The area around the base is patrolled by a VC troop led by a man, Ha Tran Phu. His recent crippling in a bomb strike has caused the command to be taken up by his second in command, Co Chi Nguyet. This female cadre is a fine example of Vietnamese womanhood at its best.
THE VC BAND
     The VC group are not trivial characters in Tickets, but the game may go by without them appearing. They are a platoon operating out of a base in the valley east of HI25, at the end of a branch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Their leader is the redoubtable Co Chi Nguyet, or Sister Moonlight. She is a woman leading a double life-she is the daughter of the learned Doctor Tran, the sage consulted in Ticket. Her second-in-command, Vu Thi Luoc, is rather rabid.
     The VC will avoid field combat; despite their advantages of surprise and stealth, and skill with weapons, they know that any direct confrontation with either Pernell╯ might or Schwärmer╯ ferocity would wipe them out.
CAPTURE BY VC
     If the investigators are captured by the VC, the VC will provide the bare minimum of food-rice and plants, with fish sauce. The captives will be housed in underground tunnels, well guarded. Allow one chance per day for the individual investigator to catch the VC off guard-then you may play the escape. The VC will chase the investigator-play this carefully; they know the jungle well. They will not kill the investigators unless there is no alternative-they are not bloodthirsty. The investigators will be urged to the Communist point of view. If they resist, they will be persuaded. Allow one roll per player for SAN in the context of Undergo Severe Torture. Investigators who lose enough SAN to warrant a disorder will likely be afflicted with PTSD, Xenophobia, Hostage Psychology, Sadism or some perversion.
     If the investigators never escape, they will be taken up the Trail to North Vietnam and will be imprisoned. The Keeper must figure out how to run this. The prisons are grim. From a base period of two years, subtract the investigator╯ POW. This is the time he will spend in the system, being re-educated through labor. Each month, make another SAN check for severe torture. If the investigator contracts Hostage Psychology, and surrenders, he will never be tortured again, and is allowed limited freedom of movement. If he goes permanently mad, he will be adopted by the government as a propaganda tool. An investigator may also sham cooperation: match POW Vs POW to see if his jailers are fooled into believing him. Of course, when word reaches the US, the investigator will be branded a traitor and will have some trouble going home.
     This could be the start of a whole new campaign, but the scope of possible events is too large to cover adequately here. The investigators can reenter the mainstream of Tickets in several ways. Escaping, they will seek the mountains or head south, cycling them back toward HI25 and the scene of the action. Remaining in captivity, they could be brought by Patty Holeran to the final rite at the cannibal fortress, to be sacrifices celebrants in the awful sacred marriage there enacted. If dreamers,they could exit the gulag only to find themselves insane in their Nineties selves-or find a time gate somewhere in the prison mazes. Perhaps the most frightening possibility is that of covert operations-for if those he has chosen are taken captive, then at the head of a Special Forces rescue team will appear the mad Captain Schwärmer.
Sidebar
The secret history of the Tcho-Tcho
     The Tcho-Tcho are first recorded in Tibet in the early Buddhist period(600s AD). Their name means "destroyer sorcerer people". They are ill liked, and in the nineteenth century moved east and south into Burma, where they live in the remoter highlands. Some kept going, and settled in Laos, Vietnam, or even Malaysia. They are evil and abominable.
The Tcho-Tcho village.
     If the investigators win the Green Beret╯ trust then they will be allowed to visit the Tcho-Tcho village. They could also find its location by other means and visit without the team. Captain Pernell has the location, but the spells put on him by Schwärmer to divert his attention have succeeded. He won╰ think to give the players the information, and if they ask him specifically to find it, he must make the kind of POW roll described above in the description of the spell. The use of any sort of magic to find the location of the village or to find the village itself will involve a POW Vs POW struggle with the witch doctor of the Tcho-Tchos, described below, or with Capt. Schwärmer himself, if he is nearer. The village is on the Vietnam-Laos border, eleven miles southwest of firebase HI25 in rough mountain terrain. It is well hidden under an overhanging bluff in thick forest, with the necessary swidden plots dispersed widely in nearby jungle. It boasts two hundred inhabitants, the largest concentration of Tcho-Tchos east of the Mekong and one of the largest outside the Golden Triangle. The Tcho-Tchos will call themselves refugees. It would be hard to say whether they or Schwärmer gained the most, when the brass bracelet signifying honorary tribal membership was clamped to his wrist in 1964.
     The village is surrounded by garden plots. These grow maize, cabbage, and tubers in profusion. A roll vs. Botany or some other appropriate skill will reveal that no slash-and-burn field should yield so richly. The fertility of the field is entirely due to the application of the Milk of the Dark Mother, summoned in ghastly ceremonies. Any seeds or cuttings from the field will refuse to bear elsewhere and will die and rot. The crops grown here are identical to those at the cannibal fortress in Laos in the eighth ticket.
     Approaching the village, those not entirely mad or idiotic will first notice the smell. Schwärmer will claim that filth is ubiquitous among the lesser races, and knowing Vietnam, the investigators will be hard put to argue. The villagers are obviously strangers to toilets, bathing, and garbage cans. The sight of the place is as bad. Five longhouses lie about a central square that seems to be simply a rubbish dump pounded flat. Human and animal waste, carcasses, burnt food, and the refuse of American aid, mostly weapons and cheap candy and toys, lie everywhere.
     These people have low foreheads, ugly crooked eyes, short barrel-chested bodies, and black hair cut in a circle. The women are bare-breasted. Both sexes dressed originally in wraps of hand-woven cloth, but men often wear whatever clothes they can scrounge. The leaders wear brass and silver jewelry, and all the Tcho-Tcho, even the babies, have sharp pointed teeth. They will explain that they file the children╯ teeth to make them beautiful. Investigators who disagree will raise a ruckus from the Tcho-Tchos.
     In the longhouses, joints of meat hang from the rafters, and a Spot Hidden roll sees them. If questioned, the Tcho-Tcho will say that they travel far to hunt deer and pig(the haunches are neither, as any investigator with Hunting or Cooking skill will know), and return having smoked the meat en route. This is a lie. The meat is human, and their favorite repast. The headman╯ lodge is larger and more gaudily decorated than the others. He or the Captain will point out the squid-like and frog-like monsters with long slimy tentacles that decorate the façade. Here give players the chance to voluntarily drop one point of SAN. Within all is clutter and stink.   The Tcho-Tchos slouch among piles of ancestral bones, war trophy scalps, cloth and looms, baskets of rice and maize, tubers, ritual masks, strings of dried herbs and mushrooms, and weapons both traditional and modern. Fires burn on clay hearths on the floor, filling the rooms with smoke. The investigators may make a Spot Hidden roll to see a number of odd people and objects:
     -A number of children with light skin, blue eyes, and brown or blond hair. These metis and Amerasians are the offspring of Tcho-Tcho women whose husbands sought the favor of GIs, or who mated with prisoners about to be sacrificed.
-Human skulls, some with gold teeth and obvious dental work. Many are boxes: if opened, the brain case will hold a little drift of 靤alts�, used to conjure up the living dead.
-Photos, taken by König╯ Polaroid, of the ceremony used to initiate Schwärmer into the tribe. He is invited to the village, dresses in the native loincloth, receives a brass bracelet and drinks beer with the headman from a clay jug. An unidentified ethnic Vietnamese is led bound for their approval. Schwärmer is shown splashed with blood, his loincloth askew. Then there is a feast.
-Drums for the rites. One head has a design on it. With bright light it can be seen to be a tattoo.
-An old, old Tcho-Tcho. He huddles by a fire. His skin is covered with scars. The headman will call him his grandfather. In fact, this man is the headman╯ grandfather╯ grand-uncle. a hundred years old. He is the last known of the hairy Tcho-Tchos written of so long ago by the high priest Ter-Leth. This man is a potent witch doctor, though human wizards do poorly with his spells.
     If the investigators are with the Green Berets and ask about these relics, the Green Berets will claim that the taking of trophies has ended. The headman himself will pretend not to understand English when asked about these things. If he cannot do this, having already betrayed his knowledge of the language, he will state that the remains are those of Communist soldiers killed by loyal tribesmen eternally allied to the US cause. A Psych roll will reveal the lie.
     If attacked, the Tcho-Tchos will retaliate en masse, hoping to slow attackers down long enough for a few of their number to reach the longhouses and eat the hallucinogenic mushrooms called shzor-shzong. These fungi, produce a violent psychotic state; the user will never retreat or surrender.   CIA research in the late 1960s refined the active principle, known as CTH(chloro-tetraphenylalanino-hydronorepinephrine) and colloquially called cath, catharsis, or the hammer. The Army╯ research isolated the same material, referred to as the Ladder, and did a series of tests.    Schwärmer and Patty Holeran brought these fungi to the attention of the CIA.
    If the investigators observe the Tcho-Tcho village from hiding, they will see that these people are utterly inhuman. They hunt to capture live animals and torture them to death, doing the same to human captives. They believe that this improves the flavor of the meat. If there has been a battle recently, there will be American and South Vietnamese prisoners bound in the longhouses, being tortured. The victims are killed and eaten when they can live no longer. When there are many captives, the Tcho-Tcho will worship Shub-Niggurath. They troop to a huge stone in the midst of the fields, break the legs or spines of captives to immobilize them, and enact the gruesome rite that calls the Dark Mother. The Green Berets, if they are present, will sit by, watching the rite, but will not participate themselves. Any investigators who are collaborating with them are expected to do the same, losing 1d6 additional SAN for the knowledge that they could have tried to stop this atrocity . She appears soon (lose 1d10/1d100 SAN), as a cloudy mass, sending out vile pseudopods. Any investigators who know that the goddess is coming may look the other way and take the minimum San loss. Shub-Niggurath will eat her sacrifices, dance horribly, leave deposits of her Milk, and withdraw whence she came. She will have no effect on the play of this game.
Father David Lamettrie, Catholic Priest
STR 8 DEX 12 INT 15
CON 11 APP 11 POW 13
SIZ 12 SAN 50 EDU 19
HP12
Skills: French 90%, Vietnamese 70%, English 50%, Religion 50%, History 45%, Latin 55%, Greek 5%, Vietnam 80%, Psychology 50%, Psychoanalysis 45%, First Aid 45%, Library Use 70%, Orate 45%, Cthulhu Mythos 6%, Occult 10%
Spells: Elder Sign

All Material is © Conrad Hubbard.
References to products created by White Wolf or other
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Conrad Hubbard, Editor