(Warning: all the text by Jason Thompson is here, but I'll soon improve
the presentation for this page).

THE GAIA SOURCEBOOK

KULT places most of its scenarios in cities, but in LEGIONS OF DARKNESS an
alternative appears; Gaia, the unexplored wilderness, the green and
unpleasant land. Although some may find it a compromise of the unforgivingly
artificial horrors of Metropolis, Gaia shows another sort of dark universe.
In Metropolis, the corruption is a result of urban decadence, of the dark
side of knowledge and civilization. In Gaia, Nature turns out to be just as
pessimistic, and eat-or-be-eaten is the rule. Identity is lost; time has no
meaning; and gates open up to it in places far from the city, places where
veteran KULT players expect to be safe (just _let_ them move to the
country!). The converse to urban horror -- gangs and brutality, mechanical
monsters and the indifference of strangers -- is pastoral horror --
degenerate backwoods people and brutality, animal terrors and the isolation
of being miles from where anyone can hear you scream. What could be a better
change of pace?
        Sources drawn on for this brief article include Italian jungle
cannibal movies; Robert Holstock's MYTHAGO WOOD; assorted fairy tales; Harry
Harrison's DEATHWORLD; Pliny's INVENTORUM NATURAE; and many other books
and
films. When in doubt, for Gaia the best source material is real books on
nature, such as those published by National Geographic and Eyewitness Books.
Short horror stories should provide many ideas as well.
        Whether it is spoken of and never visited, whether it becomes
central, or whether it is merely the setting for fast-paced races against
time in a deadly environment, Gaia -- the rival and mirror image of
Metropolis -- can be a useful part of a KULT campaign.

SUMMARIZING LEGIONS OF DARKNESS...
Gaia was once our Garden of Eden, but like Metropolis, is now a forbidding
and overpowering place to us. Gates to Gaia open in the unpeopled parts of
the world; not only in forests and grasslands, but deserts (such as the
Sahara), mountains (such as the Himalayas), and in the uncharted oceans
(such as around the Bermuda Triangle, leading to an area of Gaia known as
the Ancient Sea). In Gaia, nothing is certain except change: landscapes
alter and change constantly, the very ground is alive, and everything
fights, breeds, and eats. A billion kinds of crossbreeds and monsters, of
which the beasts of the Illusion are timid descendants, sport and ruthlessly
hunt. The civilized pretensions of Metropolis, indeed of any will or
intelligence which thinks it can control Nature, break down just as steel
and plastic do in the influence of Gaia. Nature as we know it in the
Illusion exists only through the efforts of Malkuth -- efforts she has
recently abandoned -- to make it seem rational and controllable.
        When brought to Gaia, the human mind and body are overwhelmed by
wildness. Our memories our lost in weeks or months, followed by the shapes
we think of as our evolutionary peak, or as the Human Form Divine.
De-evolving and degenerating, in a variable amount of time we return to our
basic protoplasm, which then struggles back to human form, encapsulating the
Circle of Life. The physical effect takes years; but as a basic rule of
thumb, for every week in Gaia, one point of EDU is permanently lost.

GAIA IN HUMAN HISTORY
The original Illusion -- the world we live in, thinking it to be real -- was
modelled after Gaia. The Demiurge knew that Metropolis would remind us too
much of our mighty origins, and wanted to forbid us ever from constructing
cities. But the Demiurge knew also that the true Gaia would be too
inhospitable to our pitiable new forms, and worse still, might itself cause
us to Awaken.
        Thus Malkuth was conscripted to embody Nature. 'Nature' as humans
think of it is a mental construct, an idea of harmony and peace, which has
little in common with the true Gaia. Chesed, the Archon of satisfaction and
bounty, worked with Malkuth to create an appealing face for NatureQthe myths
of the Garden of Eden, the Happy Hunting Grounds. When the lictor Rousseau
spoke of the Noble Savage in the 18th century, he was describing Malkuth's
version of Nature. By putting this face on Nature, humans could be tempted
away from Metropolis. With preconceptions of orderly farmlands and 'natural'
human dominion over 'lesser' animals, humans were unable to see the true
Gaia before them. However, cities were built anyway; though the first few
were destroyed and those who looked back on them turned to salt, humans
continued to inch towards the model city they had known.
        For millenia Nature was unchallenged. However, in the 19th century
humans began to question the Demiurge, and a new face was put on Nature, one
slightly closer to its true form. The lictor Darwin and sociologist Herbert
Spencer displayed the constant change and survival of the fittest behind the
mask of the earlier Nature. 'Social evolution' was used as an excuse for
changes taking place in the world, and theories about genetics were used as
an excuse for racism and European domination. Malkuth started to chafe
against some of the changes made without her consent. In addition, the
growing human population put explorers and imperialists on a collision track
with Gaia; in the 19th century alone several groups of human scientists
disappeared into Gaia seeking proof of the theory of evolution.
        At this point Gaia and Metropolis collided, resulting in wholesale
pollution, and the Perverted Earth started to appear. The 'neutral' parts of
the Illusion started to be composed less of Gaia and more of Phlegethon, the
gray dimension of in-betweens, of asphalt and concrete, roads and
waystations. The ancient Greeks and other cultures feared crossroads,
because ghosts were said to lurk there; this is Phlegethon. (Phlegethon is
one form of the 'shadow lands' where those of indeterminate beliefs and zero
Mental Balance end up after death.)
        Frustrated, Malkuth outright rebelled. She determined to make the
Illusion more like Metropolis, and correspondingly our idea of what was
'natural' became more and more like the city. The new Nature became a place
of poisons, toxins and gradual extinction of species which could not survive
in Metropolis. The other lictors, especially Binah, absorbed the
sentimentalists and ecologists who continued to believe in the old Nature.
Meanwhile, out beyond the Illusion, Gaia still existed as it always had.
Now, however, when we entered its borderlands, we lacked Malkuth's
protection and were easy prey to the things from beyond, our old
hunting-partners and sparring-beasts, our old scavengers and cattle. Now,
Gaia had been forgotten...and, forgetting the fairy tales, the tribal songs,
the paths through the woods, we were less prepared for it than ever before.
        This is the world of the GAIA SOURCEBOOK.

WHY ENTER GAIA?
If the players spend all their time in the city (the setting most often
depicted by most horror and splatterpunk writers, not to mention KULT) and
there is little opportunity for the Illusion to break in rural areas, how
can you use Gaia in a campaign? And why would they risk entering an
environment even more unpredictable and inescapable than Metropolis? The
party, creatures from beyond the Illusion, and ritual magicians all visit
Gaia for different reasons. It may be that the players never exactly enter
Gaia, but simply encounter some of its creatures and surreal effects while
passing through a wilderness area in the Illusion.

Accidental Breaks in the Illusion
This is the most common reason to enter Gaia, at the individual GM's
discretion. The descriptions of the different areas suggest different ways
in which Gaia could be entered.

Hunting and Gathering
Many herbs available only in Gaia have medical or magical value. Disease
victims seek their cures here, drug addicts seek Verrucktpflanze and other
hallucinogenic and addictive plants, and magicians seek reagents such as
mandrake root or cockatrice's tongue. Some especially daring (or foolish)
hunters try to kill Gaia's creatures for trophies or even capture them
alive. More powerful organizations and individuals are able to fund large
expeditions, although when the compasses stop functioning and the decay sets
in, even the best-planned expedition can fail. Of course, side effects
abound, and patients who use Gaian cures may become more -- or less -- than
human.
        Unlike Metropolis, Gaia can easily be rationalized off by
scientists. What researcher, searching for the mysteries of biology,
zoology, botany and evolution, would not risk exploring the untamed jungle?

Gaia Attacks
Gaia is host to uncountable dangerous predators, some of which occasionally
break through into the Illusion on their search for prey. When they enter
our world, they leave trails of destruction later attributed to rampant
tigers, serial murderers, or simply a mystery with "Croatan" scrawled on the
trees. The players may be hunters trying to study or capture such creatures,
or they may be innocents caught up in the slaughter. Some of the more
powerful beings are intelligent enough to have other goals in our world
besides hunger, and some act in collusion with human cults or animals from
the Illusion.

Environmental Conflict
Are the characters environmentalists? Who will they side with -- the
loggers, businessmen and hunters who want to stop Gaia, or the radicals,
extemists and loners who wholeheartedly want it to spread? In places where
terrible ecological disaster has eliminated Gaia (such as those left by
Gamichicoth's destruction of farmland), gates open to the Perverted Earth,
and the characters may stumble through to the wilderness via a toxic waste
dump, a DDT-laced field, or one of the other sores on Gaia's skin. But even
"healthy" gates may spawn monsters which menace the Illusion. What side will
the players take?

Escape From the Archons
In Gaia, the long arm of the Archons and Death Angels -- the forces that
rule the Illusion -- is relatively weak. Ideology and control can make no
footholds into the wild, and refugees from the lictors often unintentionally
or intentionally come here. Nameless sailing ships skirt the borders of
Gaia, using its gates to teleport thousands of miles in the Illusion within
hours. Persecuted prophets flee from cities to the wasteland where they find
an entirely different Reality waiting for them. Cults and well-meaning
groups try to eke out an existence on the borders of Gaia, but failing to
follow the examples of thousand-year-old tribes are usually overwhelmed.

Paganism, Shamanism and Other Magic
A hundred magical traditions ascribe power to Nature. How many dare to live
out their theories? The Lukundoo, a secret society of indigenous magicians,
wield some power over Gaia. Communes, tribal peoples and sexual fetishists
try to make an example of the behavior of animals in Gaia, absorbing the
totem-spirits into their bodies. Scholarly groups follow ley lines to their
nexus in Gaia, and Wiccans and Druids know that some phases of the moon can
only be glimpsed from inside the wilderness. Gaia holds a reservoir of power
for those who know how to use it.

Exploration
Even today, optimistic travelers and naturalists seek lands not yet charted
on a map -- and find them, in Gaia. Those who return with their minds
unharmed have to live with skepticism, if not outright suppression of their
discoveries, and some cannot forget the experience but determine to find
Gaia again. Any place which is isolated and foreign can open up into part of
Gaia. Will the characters run from the unknown, or see how far they can go
before it's too late to turn back?

GAMEMASTERING IN GAIA
It can be difficult to fit Gaia into an existing KULT campaign, but if it
succeeds, the discover of a whole new world can provide hours of surprise
(and horror) to the characters. Gaia is your tool, to be used as you see
fit. Some GMs may prefer globetrotting wilderness adventures set in Gaia in
far-off parts of the world. Others will prefer a more bare, bleak, cold
depiction of the wilderness, where all the trees are leafless and bare, the
sky is cloudy, and the animals are dark, scabrous and mutated. Such a
setting fits in better with KULT's usual urban settings: places such as the
Perverted Earth and the Cold make good crossover points between Gaia and
KULT's Metropolis. Remember that Gothic literature is not exclusively urban;
the vampire is originally a creature of the barren mountains, and werewolves
fit naturally into the woods. A house, a remote town or some other outpost
of civilization can be a crossover point between Gaia and other adventures
("West of Arkham the hills rise wild...").

Gaia can be a difficult setting. Even more than in Metropolis, encounters
are prone to degenerate into fight-or-flight situations. It is easier to
ad-lib the next house than the next tree. The emphasis has to be less on the
characters' immediate surroundings and more on the general environment,
their goals (if any), and their predicament of trying to keep alive and
sane. Finding food and water, and roleplaying the often unpredictable mental
and physical degeneration of Gaia, can be very involving. Some parts of
Gaia, such as the Empty Quarter, depend on a mood of isolation, alienation
and infinity. Other places, such as the Jungle, are screaming pits of chaos
where the characters are constantly in danger. A mixture of both elements is
preferable. To describe the environment, keep books and photograph albums of
plants, animals and landscapes handy. A few descriptive and weird touches
can make an area or a creature memorable. When describing the life forms of
Gaia, the GM is advised to follow an idea first set down in ARS MAGICA: if
the player characters have never encountered a given creature before, and do
not know what it can and can't do, you are free to make it capable of
anything.

In LEGIONS OF DARKNESS, Gaia is presented as a place of complete chaos which
constantly changes. While that interpretation stands, for the purpose of
writing this sourcebook I've had to group the chaos into specific landscape
types and potential encounters. (I have intentionally followed the format of
the METROPOLIS SOURCEBOOK.) The landscapes in this book are not regions on a
map with exact boundaries; they are constantly shifting, changing and being
replaced with one another, as the GM chooses.

The de-evolutionary effects of Gaia make trips there necessarily shortlived,
so adventures may have to be fast-paced and desperate as the characters'
memory and sanity drains away (it can be aggravating to have to buy back 10
points of EDU after an adventure). However -- especially if the characters
have never read about Gaia in the rules -- remember that his effect is the
GM's tool and can occur as fast or as slow as wanted.

LOCATIONS IN GAIA

THE ELYSIAN FIELDS
The Elysian Fields are the safest part of Gaia, and closest to our world.
Our farmlands, gardens, and fields can open up to them. The general
landscape is a grassland, which ranges from the prairies of the American
Midwest to the African savannah. In other places are trees and rolling
hills. Sometimes specific plants or crops mark the entrances to Gaia (such
as four-leaved clovers or the rare Gahnesian Fern), other times the entrance
is hidden behind the monotony of a seemingly endless landscape pattern.
Homeless people on park benches may sleep and dream, and wake in Gaia. It is
easy to get lost in such a place, precisely because it is so outwardly
pleasant, and hours go by before people realize they are off the map, or
that night is coming soon.
        As one enters Gaia the plantlife grows wilder and more exaggerated.
Fruit and vegetation grow everywhere, in green tangles only occasionally
guarded by toxic milky secretions, ensnaring vines and inch-long thorns.
Briar patches sprawl over the landscape, the ground underneath them infested
with burrowing shrews and ratlike animals. The true shapes of ordinary
animals can be glimpsed; owls' eyes now roam free of their sockets as they
were intended to, and foxes peel back their lipline to reveal the extra rows
of teeth. Dragonflies and fist-sized cicadas represent the insect kingdom.
Panting and wagging their tails, stray dogs come back from feasting on the
carcasses of Gaia's creatures, their mouthes and fur soaked in blood.
        In the Elysian Fields one can sometimes recognize pieces of the
gardens and parks of our world, quilted together oddly. Instead of the
Boulevard de Paix with its rows of elm trees, the same row of elm trees
faces one another across a thicket. Cucumbers may vanish from a vegetable
patch, actually the owner harvesting them from the safety of the Illusion.
Birdseed appears for no reason as someone throws it for the pigeons in what
to them is Central Park. But these areas are few, and so easy to slip back
to the Illusion that it is difficult to walk along the borderline.
        This is not to say that the Elysian Fields are harmless. Ravens nest
here, enjoying the iron spikes in their claws that they possess in Gaia, and
fly into the Illusion to pluck out the eyes of unattended babies. Wolves
appear where wolves have been extinct for centuries, angry and savage.
Sowbug-like, malicious insects dig for corpses in cemeteries, possess them,
and force the bodies to hunt for their food. Familiar nuts and berries turn
out to be poisonous, hallucinogenic or full of worms just as eager to leap
inside a fresh throat. And there is competition for food and water by
suddenly living plants; suddenly carnivorous versions of cows, horses,
sheep, birds; and black, wart-skinned things which come from other parts of
Gaia for food. After dark, disturbing things crawl from unexpected places to
hunt by moonlight, and -- as in all of Gaia -- the mood of the land changes
utterly. Meek animals visibly swell to twice their size and go on rampages.
        As one walks, one finds farmhouses and grain silos overcome with
decay. Grass grows on their roofs, the entire buildings have become
landscape features, and they may have been abandoned in the 18th century or
yesterday. Sometimes people have held on and live blindly within such
structures, believing themselves still within the Illusion, or entering and
leaving it by a complicated series of movements. These people have
compulsions of their own, from the long exposure, and families who grow up
near these areas are especially prone to incest, wanderlust, and odd
alterations.
        Before they lose their learned skills and intelligence, humans in
the Elysian Fields lose their memory. A childlike sense of exploration makes
them less and less likely to return to the Illusion even if they know how.
Humans in the Elysian Fields (without sinking into darker parts of Gaia) are
called the Eloi. Knowing them to be easy prey, razides and other
human-hating entities come here when they can.

The Gardens of Eden
Quite close to Metropolis are these gardens, a between-point created by the
Demiurge or our old Awakened selves. A wall separates it from Metropolis,
broken by baroque gateways like Victorian arbors forty feet high. Around the
borderland, neither world is quite the same; slowness and age creeps into
Gaia, and weeds grow in cracks in the sidewalks of Metropolis. Within, the
Garden consists of an endless series of pleasant glades and lawns bordered
by thick dark patches of tall trees. It is the sort of landscape that would
have been drawn by Piranesi or Dore. Gates open infrequently here from the
Palace of Versailles and other places.
        The Gardens have few permanent inhabitants these days. It is visited
by wild animals from Metropolis (such as ferocci) as well as by the more
sophisticated beings of Gaia (such as those who like to play with their
prey). The air smells of nectar and ambrosia. Paths lead to well-maintained
flower-beds full of species unknown to science. Eroded monuments, gazebos
and sundials are inscribed with everything from mathematical formulae to
incongruously primitive cave-paintings. GreeneryQincluding plentiful grape
vines and other edible vegetationQgrows on the remains of fallen tree trunks
and Greco-Roman marble structures. In some places, the looming trees block
the sunlight from dark clearings where bones lie in heaps.
        The most dangerous things in the Gardens are the archangels the
Demiurge left to guard it from us. They resemble giant winged marble statues
whose faces are too bright to look upon, and they can set things on fire
with their gaze. The wrathful archangels patrol the Gardens and keep them in
a state of arrested decay. Some of them have become subsceptible to the
influence of Gaia, and are beginning to go mad and regress into half-animal
things.
        Many Christians, Cabbalistic scholars, and others have died in this
area searching for the Biblical Tree of Life, which was said to have existed
here.

The Scarecrow
Walking in Gaia, the players see a scarecrow swinging from the remains of a
wooden post. With ragged clothes, a blank pillowcase for a face and a straw
hat, the most surprising thing about it is that it is intact at all. As the
players come close, however, the scarecrow begins to twitch and move (Terror
throw at -5 to approach). Stuffing, mice and worms tumble from its stitches.
If the players do not interfere, the scarecrow may break free from the rope,
pull itself apart in the process (the individual pieces continue kicking),
or simply give up and hang still again.
        The thing has been animated by Gaia. Already a nervous system worms
its way through the straw. Its consciousness is new, but the scarecrow has
inherited an appalling amount of sentience, and partly believes itself to be
a human, the (now dead) previous owner of its farm. It is confused,
terrified, and partly retarded, and does not realize that it is not human.
If it goes free, its mute efforts to communicate with the players may
gradually turn to frustration and anger, directed either at itself or them.

Baleston
In a town in Kansas, America, a story familiar to places which have come too
close to Gaia is carried out. Baleston is thirty miles away from Gove, the
nearest large town. It is flat, empty country. Travelling on dusty, ill-kept
dirt roads, the visitor observes how weeds and brush have crept over fences
and infested the corn crops. Ruined farmhouses and mills are visible from
the road, and every so often one hears a distant gunshot. There is a single
telephone line, frequently collapsed after a hard rain. Baleston itself
consists of several dozen houses arranged around a general store and jail.
        Since the 1960s Baleston has been dangerously close to the Elysian
Fields, and the population of 300 has been changing ever since. It began
when the farmers on the outskirts of town stopped leaving their farms, and
then were never heard from again. The survivors moved closer to the center
of the ramshackle town. Illiteracy and ignorance have become the norm. A
third of the births in the last thirty years have been congenital idiots.
The citizens have begun to distrust the outside world, and their level of
reactionarism approaches a Luddite's; outside of a few televisions, only
simple machines such as pick-up trucks and guns are to be found in town. A
vague sullenness and a sense that the old ways are better -- no one can say
how old -- has possessed most of the citizens. Physically most of them look
like normal people. However, the men are starting to grow notably stocky and
hairy. They have abandoned most of their ties to the outside world --
relatives, friends -- and during the Winter the road is allowed to remain an
impassable tract of mud, cutting them off entirely. Strangers who stay at
Baleston's one boarding house encounter open suspicion, along with attitudes
and superstitions thought to have died out in the 1920s.
        The changes in Baleston have not gone unnoticed, and not all the
citizens welcome them, but even their resistance to them has been tainted.
If asked upfront, they would not realize how much things had changed in the
last thirty years. They are afraid of wolves, and all believe in Bigfoot,
werewolves, and other old legends -- unaware that the animal-like things
some of them have glimpsed in the woods are only their old neighbours,
physically changed from being in Gaia. The sheriff, Wayne Hudnall, openly
wears a revolver and shotgun, and leads the men on punitive hunting
expeditions which grow increasingly savage. It is behind closed doors that
Gaia is appeased most strongly, however, as incest and bestiality become
ways of life for many of the townsfolk. In some cases, bestiality has born
children, and these half-human freaks are locked away, killed after birth,
or let loose.
        Lately a former town councilman from Baleston has led expeditions
into Gove and other towns to secretly erase Baleston from maps and remove it
from city records. Within ten years, few people will remember that it ever
existed.

The Veldt
The landscape becomes treeless, exposed to the sun, and the grass turns
increasingly dry and yellow. The veldt is connected to Africa, Australia and
other places; a grassland where fast beings run, chasing down prey with
stealth and swiftness. The only visible traces of the superefficient
predators -- besides the dark silhouettes on the horizon before they hunt
again, possibly for the observer -- are the great piles of dung and rotting
red meat, stripped to the bone by two-footed scavengers with ghoulish,
decomposing flesh and the mouthparts of stag beetles. Pits are dug in the
soil to trap food by other things which resemble foot-thick acorn worms.
Across all this, great herds of buffalo and extinct animals rumble
ceaselessly, throwing the ground into an earthquake. The grass itself moves
in spots, like a green blob rolling after its prey, picking them apart with
wounds like thousands of papercuts. Humans abandoned on the plain become
possessed with furtiveness, an urge to feel speed and rushing wind, and
claustrophobia (or agoraphobia, depending on their reaction).

(Coming Tuesday: The Jungle!)

THE JUNGLE
Some people consider the jungle, which stretches over endless miles, to be
Gaia in its purest form. In South America, in the African Congo, in India
and  the islands of Sumatra gates open to the primal wilderness of fighting,
biting, breeding green. Not only a jungle, it also encompasses rain forests,
mangrove swamps, and all sorts of thick vegetation. Entrances are often
visible in extreme heat, concealed by ripples and distortions in the air.
        Entering Gaia, a traveller sees the palm trees grow higher, and the
ceiling of forest branches rise, often over 100' tall. There is a subtle
change in the quality of light from the sun. The ferns and succulent plants
become impossibly thick and high, while the ground underfoot becomes a
brownish-black rot of fallen leaves, dirt and the semiliquid corpses of
animals. Vines climb up the trees, with green creepers forming a web between
them. The ten-foot-long roots of giant banyan trees sink into the humus.
Decay and growth are rapid enough to be seen with the naked eye; dead matter
rots visibly, sleeping animals wake up with moss in their fur, and plants
never stop growing. Even with a machete it is difficult to hack your way
through the undergrowth, and no tracks or paths can exist even for a minute;
lacking instinct or the ability to track by smell, in Gaia you are always
lost.
        Those with botany skills notice the strangeness almost immediately.
Ground, middle, and treetops ecosystems are incongruously mixed; layers of
dirt and sod lie fifty feet up in the branches above, and on them grow
bushes and grass. The solid trunks of the oaks melt and resolidify, twisting
into new forms, coiling with other trees. Carnivorous plants large enough to
injure a human are everywhere. Ordinary species appear in enlarged and
mutated variations, crossbred with one another in disturbing ways. Plants
generate wasps inside clusters of larvae-like seeds. Vines with the heads of
blue snakes sway and flicker their tongues. Pitcher plants emit the smell of
perfume and a slurred whisper like drunken speech. Fruiting bodies appear on
the surfaces of giant slime molds like baseball-sized acne, then burst and
spray everything nearby with sweet liquid. The characters would do well to
watch the teardrop-shaped fruit, within whose translucent veiny surface can
be seen something like a green, claw-handed mannikin.
        The animals of the jungle are even stranger. Prehistoric things
continue to live here; dinosaurs, fifty-foot crocodiles, giant lizards, the
ancestors of dragons. Birds with colorful plumage, scales as well as
feathers, or the heads of insects fly from tree to tree. Panthers, Ferocci
and great cats with glowing tongues like anglerfish hunt here. Apelike,
slothlike things which look natural from a distance turn out to possess
elastic limbs, egg-laying ability, or dizygotic twins growing from weals in
their chests. Shrewlike beasts, all mouth and stunted legs, chase their prey
in groups of hundreds. Insects are everywhere. It is difficult not to get a
parasitic infection. Thirteen-legged bugs, fist-sized flies, and
eyeball-stabbing mosquitoes run wild. Army ants maraude over the landscape.
Snakes with fishlike fins or razor blades for teeth slither along the
branches. Slugs with four eyestalks spit poison. Monsters with sunken faces
lined with spikes and limbs covered in fatty, excess skin grab their prey
and suffocate them with their flesh. Orangutuan-like things with a distended
abdomen full of tear-gas-like musk show their three-inch tusks as they haul
themselves up the trees after you.
        The jungle is never quiet. Under the leaves, things crawl; branches
crack as large predators move through; screeching bats, birds and insects
fly through the upper levels. The rustling, shuffling, dripping and mating
calls can drive sensitive people mad. A cracking twig or a sudden breeze may
be the only sign of an impending attack. At night, the darkness is almost
absolute, and the truly awful predators come out, turning the world into a
feeding frenzy in which the only goal is to survive until dawn.
        Although always tropical, the jungle's weather is unpredictable.
Fogs make the forest damp and dim, then vanish revealing the hot sun.
Monsoons and storms send huge amounts of rain crashing against the treetops,
changing the landscape into a new, foreign form when the water clears.
Seemingly stable trees crash to the ground, struck by lightning or simply
sinking with ponderous rotten weight. It is very hot, and humans may
collapse with heatstroke in the muggy air. Sometimes the air fills with so
much oxygen that one or more trees will spontaneously burst into flame --
but the fires, floods and constant changes only make Gaia healthier.
        The jungle inspires strange lusts and hungers. Humans kept there
quickly develop Cannibalism, if not worse disadvantages and limitations.
They become afraid of technology and fire. Changing rapidly, they revert to
apes or (if their Mental Balance is low enough) to what their own neuroses
imagine to be the ultimate predator. Gorilla-like brutes, covered with
gaping, bleeding wounds and callouses, are the end result of many soldiers
who have disappeared into Gaia in wars such as Korea and Vietnam.

Green Hell
The plantlife becomes thicker and moister. Enormous ferns, plantains and
elephant palms compete for space. A rank vegetable smell fills the air, but
no animal life is visible -- although the jungle is still full of the sounds
of rustling and twitching. The landscape is covered with rivers of kudzu and
ivy, and moss hangs from the trees.
        Gaia's tracts of carnivorous plants are dangerous indeed. In
addition to normal pitcher-plants, sundews and flytraps, many of the species
are large and specialized enough to kill humans. The Cnidarian plants (q.v.)
grow here, huge pitcher-plants that spit gallons of acid. In the water grow
pseudopods of concealed, strangling seaweed. Skunk cabbages knock out their
prey by emitting toxic gas, then send out roots to grab the unconscious
bodies. Mandrake roots grow here; they are a powerful magical reagent, but
when plucked from the soil their dying shriek will kill human beings or
drive them mad. Propellor-like seeds with insects' legs float through the
air. Slime molds and jellies creep about. A humanlike figure approaching
from a distance turns out to be a biped made of vegetable matter, with green
arms, legs and a flytrap head; within its transparent stomach can be seen
the remains of a child from Brazil who has not yet been reported missing. In
holes inside trees snap wooden teeth, chewing the corpse of an ape or lemur
who strayed too near. The most intelligent plants are the Gaian Flytraps
(q.v.).
        Few people or beings enter this area if they can help it, though the
plants are able to dine on a steady stream of insects, stray animals and
when necessary each other. Atypically, the area is safer at night than
during the day, as many of the lifeforms are dormant.

The Fountain of Youth
        Ponce de Leon searched most of his life for this Fountain, a
bubbling pool of murky mineral liquid which connects at its far end to the
Primal Sea. Those who drink from it grow younger, and if not stopped
drinking will gradually become self-mobile embryos, slipping away into the
Primal Sea to be reborn.

The Dark River
Through the jungle flows a great river, combining elements of the
Mississippi and the Amazon, and wider than either. The water is black with
particles of dirt and dead life vented into it by Gaia. At points it becomes
a waterfall; at other points it widens into huge freshwater lakes. Frogs
croaking, crickets, running water and leaping fish give it a recognizable
noise. It has no source, and no destination. Whirlpools and eddies indicate
possible breaks in the Illusion. Over the still parts drift clouds of flies.
When the river recedes seasonally, it leaves acres of black mud and dead
fish in a gluey mass.
        The river conceals many forms of life. Foot-long tadpoles with
breasts and humanlike ears lurk in the water, staring upward with unblinking
eyes and occasionally beckoning someone downward. Fish ranging from salmon
to great gars swim in it, though the most common by far are the ubiquitous
pirahna. Some types of mutated pirahna, with legs like mudfish, can crawl
miles inland after prey. The evolutionary milestone of animals moving from
water to land is constantly repeated, as fish crawl up onto the bank,
convulse, and grow lungs, legs, and useless appendages making them resemble
early-stage fetuses. Other fish walk on stiltlike fins. Newts with forked
tongues sit smiling blindly on the black rocks. Fearsome Jub-jubs,
flat-skulled birds whose stare can hypnotize, swoop down to feed on the
frogs.
        Needless to say, it is dangerous to swim in the water. Even drinking
it is a sure cause of severe parasitic infection. Where the water is deeper,
larger predators live; the beings which inspired the myths of the hippo-like
Catoblepas and the carnivorous, skinless Nuckelavee. Coalacanth (q.v.) sun
themselves on mud banks, and prehistoric alligators forty feet long sit with
only their encrusted eyes peering out over the water.
        The dark river is sometimes the destination of boaters and canoeing
explorers. Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald's doomed paddleboat/opera house, lost in
the Amazon, turned to rotten wood on these shores. Occasionally when mist
rises from the water a cloaked figure poling a dark ferry is seen in the
distance, but it rarely answers calls from the shore.

Landslide
This event, although fairly common in the jungle, might occur after a
character seriously failed a Terror Throw.
        The earth shakes, and only seconds afterward the ground begins to
rock up and down like a roller coaster. It suddenly takes a putty-like
texture and the plants begin to sink into it. The characters must make a STR
roll with greater effect than a roll by the earth's STR of 10 or they are
caught in the ooze. Great blobs of earth start to reach for everything
alive, and there is a 1 in 10 chance each round (or use Luck/Bad Luck) that
any given character is grabbed by one of the foot-thick pseudopods which
rises up from the soil. Muscles, veins and tendons can be clearly seen in
the earth. If the characters are grabbed by the Living Earth, they have one
additional round to save themselves -- whether by outside aid or chopping
off their own limbs -- before it envelops them and they are swallowed. The
safest place is to climb the trees -- if the characters make at least one
Climb roll every two rounds, they are able to stay out of the ooze. The
earth's STR increases by 5 each round.
        The effect lasts for 1d10 rounds, after which the now-barren earth
settles, 10 to 20 feet higher than it had been. A few seconds later, the
indigestible parts of the corpses float up to the surface, covering the
ground with bones and rancid tissue. Within an hour, everything looks as it
did before.

The Tar Pits
A thick, sulfurous smell starts to overwhelm the characters, and the air
grows even hotter. Gas vents in the ground expel carbon dioxide with a
regularity suggestive of breathing. Within a wide clearing, lake-sized pools
of black tar bubble and expel poisonous gases. Periodically the tar recedes
slightly, and giant skeletons of hideous animals can be seen soaked in the
mire. The smell is nauseating.
        The tar pits are the digestive organs of the Living Earth. They seep
across the landscape digesting animals, particularly the largest and
fiercest; and the most invulnerable creatures are brought here, carried in
streams of oily earth, to be immersed for months in the boiling tar.
Sometimes their partially-fleshed skeletons can be seen splashing and
fighting out in the pools. Wise magicians bring things here which cannot be
destroyed any other way: artifacts and certain Living Dead. The tar
periodically overflows its banks and detaches into separate wriggling
fragments which ooze after prey or lie quiescent in bodies of water like
patches of glistening oil.
        The smell of the tar pits is so noxious that humans who stay too
close to it may faint or asphyxiate.

Pangaea
All times are encapsulated in Gaia. The myth of evolution is so well
accepted that the areas of Gaia which resemble what we think of as the
'past' can come as a shock.
        Pangaea is one of the lushest parts of the jungle. Enormous
dragonflies and other invertebrates crawl and fly in the thick,
sweet-smelling air. Primitive plants such as ferns, horsetails and club
mosses dominate, growing more than ten feet tall. Lily-like plants choke the
banks of broad swamplands. The forests are comprised of giant cycads and
conifers with scaly bark.
        The dinosaurs hunt here. They are not quite as scientists have
conditioned us to expect them . On ground, blunt-faced things wearing
armadillo-like armor waddle and hiss aggressively. Thin saurians with fast
running legs and perpetual smiles of interlocking teeth race on two feet
over the landscape. Scaly, nimble crossbreeds of iguanas and snakes climb
through the trees. In the water, enormous Diplodocuses with sagging, fatty
skin devour mouthfuls of weed; the extra mouth at the end of their tail
indicates the use to which their hindbrain is put. Archaeopteryx-like birds
flap their wings from tree to tree, and things like pteranodons with the
heads of fish hang upside down from the branches. The largest bipedal
carnivores, thirty-foot Gorgosaurs and Tyrannosaurs, are extremely
dangeorus, and many have advantageous mutations.
        Pangaea is not its own place as much as an element of Gaia as a
whole, where it is incongruously side-by-side with "modern" areas. It evokes
a primitive reaction of fear in human beings, who, if they believe in
evolution, may dwindle and shrink into rat-like, hairy beasts.

The Wild Boy
This event only happens once. The characters have noticed that they are
missing some small items, perhaps having lost them overnight while camping.
Good PER rolls notice the bare, and apparently human, footprints of the
thief. Over the next few hours, however, the presence of someone following
them becomes even more obvious. Finally, they are able to catch sight of a
dark-skinned boy with long black hair, who is skittish and scared of loud
noises, and seems to have the intelligence of an animal.
        The characters (particularly if they have high MB or Animal
Friendship) may befriend the boy. His eyes sometimes wander and he has
difficulty making eye contact, but he has a full range of emotion and will
smile and even show affection, for example if they feed him. It is difficult
to tell exactly what age he is, with his child's face, somewhat muscular
body, and the dark, liverish spots in places on his brown skin. They can
observe him catching small animals to eat, and sometimes he will make cooing
sounds or noises which may resemble human speech. He may help them fight
predatory opponents.
        There are several ways for this friendship to end. If the characters
take the boy out of Gaia into the Illusion, he may adapt well, and even
learn to wear clothes and speak over a number of years. However, come
puberty his body changes alarmingly, and he will prove to be a Bete Noir, a
crossbreed of a human and some Gaian creature. Alternately, he could be a
normal human but an exceptional medium, whose lack of normal human knowledge
renders him subsceptible to magic cast either by the characters or their
enemies. Or, when the characters wake up one morning, they may find nothing
left of him but his skin, pitted with small holes in the places where his
liver spots had been. The wild child should remain an enigma.

(Tomorrow: The Weir Wood!)

------------------------------

THE WEIR WOOD
Temperate and coniferous forests open up onto the woodlands of Gaia.
Centuries ago, gates to the Wood were common in Europe and Russia. In the
20th century deforestation and urbanization have sealed many of them off,
but stories of them have been passed on in oral legends throughout Western
civilization. Gates open at certain times of the year, such as Samhain and
the Equinoxes, and are often visible to children and animals. Where the
perspective makes the trees appear to repeat infinitely, or the wanderer
feels them growing and growing, the wanderer has entered the Weir Wood --
Weir in the antique meaning of "Prophecy."
        The woods are lonely, dark and deep. Little sunlight filters through
the incredibly thick trees, and particles of dust and fiber hang in the air.
Rich scents of peat, lichen and musk play with the visitor, luring them on.
Most of the wood appears to be in perpetual autumn; the dominant colors are
brown, yellow and russet, and the earth is two feet thick in dry, fallen
leaves. In other places the leaves are green, and damp moss coats the trunks
of the enormous, dirt-black trees. Great oaks, maples, and elms grow
intertwined in a way that seems to suggest a pattern. Visibility is poor,
either because of the great shadows of the hoary trees or the mist that
creeps around everything. The forest is built on layer after layer of death
-- hollow stumps, deadfalls of jagged broken branches, and rotten logs are
everywhere. In some places trees two hundred feet tall rise like the pillars
of a great abandoned building. In other places the tight, claustrophobic
brush suggests an animal's warren, and visitors must go on their hands and
knees.
        After a few hours in the wood, the strangeness begins to gather. The
trees rearrange themselves when no one is looking, and grow at odd, bent
angles; certain species have carapaced branches resembling the limbs of
giant insects. Some trees drip sap which smells like and has the effects of
wine. The mushrooms and shelf fungus which cling to the trees will grow on
anything they touch. Grubs fighting under rotten bark prove to have the
teeth of lampreys. The branches are grafted together as if they had been
made of rubber, melted and refixed. Serrated edges and thorns defend
innocuous trees, making it even harder to force your way through the
overgrown areas. Gross phallic and vaginal symbols, gaping mouthes and idiot
faces shape themselves from the branches in response to human apprehension.
The mounds of leaves tremble and move slightly, and if they cover you, you
may never awake.
        Although most of them are hidden by day, many creatures live in the
Wood. Wolves range through it, large and proud, hunting prehistoric boar and
deer-like things with the multifaceted eyes of flies. Bears with sharks'
jaws walk on two or four legs through the wood, their battle scars visible
behind their lice-ridden, stinking black fur. Many species of birds make
their nests here, improbable specimens with figure-eight beaks or hair-like
feathers or great claws as large as their bodies. In melodious or shrieking
notes, they gossip about which visitors they bet will survive, or which they
should sell out to the lictors. Subtly altered versions of hedgehogs,
beavers and foxes creep about. Marrow-eating squirrels defend their treetop
stash of human bones. In the ground burrow moles with porpoise-like features
or blind, tendril-covered faces. Nine-inch larvae spin cocoons and gestate
into clumsy fluttering butterflies with hypodermic syringes for mouthes.
Shaggy gray bipeds whose hair is covered with briars climb the great trees
to try to see through to sunlight. A visitor to the wrong clearing is warned
away by a choked growl from a predator which hangs by a gluey strand of
web-like saliva in its mouth.
        In the Wood also dwell the things which are the originals of many
Western legends, particularly from tribal and Greco-Roman times. Satyrs
originate here, lecherous half-goat things covered in wiry hair and reeking
of sex, with foot-long tongues and fingers and an affinity for
flute-playing. Sharp-winged harpies -- no more able to fly than chickens --
coo softly to lure prey into their throats where they remain being digested
for weeks. Crossbreeds of humans and other animals -- usually mammals --
manifest in arbitrary cut-off points where the distended animal parts meet
the human. Minotaurs and fawns are other examples, while centaurs prove
different than expected with their solid, gleaming black eyes and the
distinctly caterpillar-like nature of their 'horse' parts. The attitude of
these creatures varies from amused disinterest in humans, to vengeful
cruelty, to a desire to change normal humans into creatures like themselves.
(Sometimes the alterations are contagious during sex.) In the dark parts of
the wood, swine-bellied predators with rats' feet and heads resembling
sneering old men do not look up from guzzling the raw meat of their catch.
All these halfbreeds are overseen to an extent by the Hesperides (q.v.),
whose loyalty to humans is offset by their self-pity for their corroded
bodies.
        Strange effects of time distortion are reported in the wood.
Sometimes humans spend only a few hours there, but years have passed when
they return to the Illusion. The wood is quiet, but occasionally a bird
hoots, or a rustling and crackling resolves into the sound of something
chasing the visitor -- hundreds of somethings with glinting eyes,
wedge-shaped furry faces and sharp teeth. The sound of footsteps and nearby
breathing is not uncommon. The weather is usually dry, but sometimes rain
falls heavily, flooding the dark hollows of the trees and causing green
plants and oozing mold to sprout for a few hours. Tadpoles and swimming rats
take advantage of the stagnant water.
        At night, the wood is dark except for the phosphorescence of dead
wood, bioluminescent creatures, and strange fungus growths which emit
blue-black or pink glows. However, sometimes one sees the moon -- a white
one similar to ours, not the black moon of Metropolis -- which rises
unusually commonly and unusually fully over this part of Gaia. Its white
glow mesmerizes animals and humans with low EGO, driving them to acts of
savagery and revelry they repress when the moon wanes. The moon appears to
be made of the Living Earth itself, and sometimes its craters rearrange and
shift like scar tissue; at times it even shoots beams of light which
transform creatures, or drips white, pasty material onto the earth.
Sometimes this material takes animal form and enters the ecosystem; other
times it allows itself to be eaten, perhaps by its worshippers. Perhaps the
moon is an entity with independent consciousness.
        Humans in the Weir Wood may be scared by the wood and its
inhabitants themselves, but also tend to develop a form of schizophrenia
which damages their ability to make generalizations or assumptions based on
logic. Once in this state they are better suited to deal with the Wood's
neurotic structure. Humans with very low MB grow grotesquely short, deformed
and often hairy; hunched and twisted, with two-toed feet, snoutlike noses,
or elongated ears, they themselves become the goblins and dwarves of legend.

Ley Lines
A person with Magical Intuition within the Illusion, perhaps one of the
player characters, may under some conditions make a PER roll to notice
glowing, luminous lines under the ground. The lines (which resemble the aura
of a living creature) thicken under heavily rural areas. Magic performed
over one of the lines has +1 to its Effect, and -1 on the sorceror's roll to
cast the spell properly. However, odd images enter the sorceror's
visualization, making emotion overcome their intellect and suggesting a
tangle of great tree roots, possibly concealing a hidden pattern. The
magician must make an EGO roll or they feel inclined to seek out the source
of the energy.
        Ley lines have been found under Stonehenge in England, in Alaska,
and in many other places. They are a lure which tricks human magicians into
Gaia. Some think they are created by spells cast by beings on the other side
of Gaia; others think they are a spiritual part of the Living Earth itself.
Tidal forces increase and decrease the ley lines' strength. Humans who pass
over the junction of one or more ley lines suffer strange effects, such as
increased sex drive or an ability to see in the dark. These effects are
usually temporary, unless the contact is prolonged. When a human follows a
ley line to its nexus, they invariably enter Gaia, and are then at the mercy
of its inhabitants; it is always much harder to follow a ley line out. The
nexus of lines is usually around giant trees or in quiet, moon-haunted
clearings.
        In Norse legend the lines are linked with the idea of Yggdrasil, the
world tree which connects heaven and hell. This may be the reason why around
ley line nexuses, beings which remain close together for very long time may
physically merge. Former human beings half-melted into the brown bark of
trees give testament to the ley lines' power.

The Subterranean Wood
In certain parts of the wood the lack of sunlight is more oppressive than
others, until it is impossible to tell whether you are underground or above.
Piles of pine needles, rotten leaves and decaying organic matter heap around
the bases of twisted trees until the soil becomes a black, tarry muck of
indeterminate depth and solidity. Gradually the trees themselves seem to be
a maze of white roots, dirt-covered tendrils forming impenetrable walls and
tunnels. The only light comes from phosphorescent fungus. Filmy mold hangs
between the branches. Maggots consume the caps of giant mushrooms and
morels. The bark of trees is liable to rot away with a touch, sinking your
fingers into something unpleasant. The dark, the black ground, and the pale
blue glows makes the forest look like the bottom of the sea.
        It is easy to be lost in the quiet burrows of the subterranean wood,
where even up and down is hard to determine. Sly, creeping animals which
cannot survive in the more violent parts of the wood lurk here, waiting to
steal light sources from human visitors. Giant earthworms swim in the black
ground. Mycelites (q.v.) contribute to the spread of rot and sticky-sweet
gray fungus, and staggering corpses animated by Mycelite puffballs crawl out
of burrows towards sounds. Where the water from the roots collects, shy
albino herd beasts with eyes on their flanks go to drink. By following a
trail of leprous skin a human can always come upon a Hesperide (q.v.) -- one
of Gaia's shunned groundskeepers -- where they often lair here, surrounded
by the severed heads of baby birds and other tokens of their hatred for
other animals.

The Black Forest
Parts of France, Germany, and Russia border on the Black Forest of Gaia.
Here, giant oak and beech trees (or pine and birch trees, in some parts)
grow in somber stands over thick undergrowth. Trails and footprints lead
back and forth in the wood, promising a way out, but leading only to
shifting, unpredictable destinations. Sometimes the roof of a primitive
lean-to or a cottage is even visible, but is usually gone when a visitor
arrives. Thick walls of greenery bearing deadly nightshade, monkshood and
sour fruit tempt wanderers to stay and eat. Some of the animals look normal,
but are unafraid of people; others have a strangely baroque look, such as
the rooster-like firebirds with their feather mosaic, or the eohippi,
two-foot-tall horses with a painful-looking horn-like swelling between their
eyes. It often snows in the Black Forest. As night approaches, the howling
of wolves becomes audible, and the moment the sun goes out of sight packs of
them sweep through the forest, eager to feed.
        If visitors here survive the wolves, they can meet many unique and
powerful creatures. A dwarf wearing torn stockings and a jesters' cap made
out of fetal skin sits before a fire, throwing knots of hair into it, each
one of which he addresses by name. The sound of a young woman's scream,
abruptly cut off, rises over the landscape. At the crossroads of trails are
encountered tall, arrogant, modernly-clothed men with the heads of wolves,
their behavior a combination of masculine charm and predatory murderousness.
The characters may briefly understand the speech of the birds. A gaunt
gray-skinned figure with an Indian headdress stalks the woods, eating the
livers of sleeping humans, causing them to suffer a slow death. The
characters hear a man cry out, but by the time they arrive in the clearing
all they see is a four-legged thing trying to shake its way out of a baggy
suit.
        All intelligent things in the Black Forest speak and think in
riddles, their speech patterns elusive at best. If the player characters
remain long, soon their thoughts too will become circular and cryptic, a
mask for the primitivism overtaking their bodies. The forest is one of the
few parts of Gaia in which lasting human habitations can exist, but even
then are usually the lairs of powerful sorcerors, such as Magyar and gypsy
magicians or Lukundoo, who do not wish to have visitors unless they are
hungry. Bone fences testify to some of these inhabitants. Other houses are
themselves alive. In one part of the wood a hut rises on giant-taloned
chicken legs, which sometimes pursues prey through the woods.

The Pine Barrens
Gnarled pine trees, moss on their north sides, climb forty feet high in the
quiet forest. The ground underfoot is dry and sandy except for the rustling
piles of pine cones and needles, and occasional stretches of grass and rough
underbrush. In swamplike areas, water pools around the base of the trees.
Heaps of dead branches, covered with mold, make other areas impassable. The
weather is usually gray and cloudy.
        The Pine Barrens open onto the Illusion in New Jersey, where they
form an area of unbroken wilderness remarkably close to New York. The
Barrens often entrap visiting tourists as well as the "Pineys," poor,
desperate locals who have lived close to Gaia all their lives. At night
will-o-the-wisps and strange lights move out among the cedar trees, and the
few roads which twist through the Barrens alter their routes.
        The main threat, however, is the Jersey Devil, a half-human creature
which has been rumored since the 18th century. Supposedly the bastard child
of a family living in a cabin in the woods, the thing is a sharp-toothed,
bat-winged monstrosity with a roughly horse-like, elongated face. A
cannibal, it feeds on human flesh. The Devil may either be a single entity
or one of a species of monsters.

The Old Growth
An area of giant trees and great stillness, which can reached in a forest in
England. Dry river-beds half-blocked with fallen branches cut through the
forest, and huge lichenous rocks lie about, vaguely resembling petrified
giants (the occasional stone eye or nose does little to correct this
superstition). Wild boar, bears, and pheasant are common. The forest is
cold, and the trees are enormously large, their bark alone often three
inches thick. In truth, they are thousands of years old, and have absorbed
the legends of the human inhabitants of the land.
        As one goes deeper in the wood, one follows a spiralling trail past
increasingly aged trees. Some of the trees grow over low regular hills which
resemble the burial mounds of dead pre-Celtic kings. In other places,
primitive axes and stone clubs can be found buried. (These artifacts quickly
disintegrate if removed from the wood.) Time distortions are common; the
characters may come upon their own footsteps before they have made them, or
be pursued by an enemy they killed days before.
        After a little time in the wood, the characters will encounter
anachronistic people; men and women in furs with bows and arrows, primitive
hunters and gatherers, who speak archaic languages or no recognizable
language at all. They behave like real people, are not aware of their
anachronisms, and are as surprised as the characters. Giant, extinct species
of elk and game also live within. The deeper one goes into the wood, the
more primitive the people are; foresters, Druids, and finally Cro-Magnons.
The wood shapes itself to human thought, and if the characters fear it, the
people they encounter in it will be increasingly bestial, ugly and finally
inhuman, with brutal teeth, nonexistent foreheads and fingernails stretching
up to the knuckle. On the other hand, if the characters have a positive
Mental Balance, the wood could produce people who resemble friends and loved
ones of the characters. If killed, the wood people decompose completely
within two days, becoming something resembling leaf mulch more than a human
corpse.
        There is no way out of the center of the wood, which is a gateway to
Gaia.

The Wild Hunt
This event could take place anywhere either within or outside the Illusion,
but always at night on the full moon. As the range of the forests decreases,
the wild hunt increasingly passes through lonely highways, biker rallies,
industrial yards and the outskirts of cities. For several minutes before the
onslaught, people in the vicinity hear a dog howling, and may see a shadow
pass over the moon.
        Then, from a point on the horizon or around the corner, a pack of
hounds starts to run -- great hunting dogs, baying seemingly endlessly,
without ever drawing breath. They seem to float over the ground as they run.
They do not attack, but anyone in the way is at least injured, possibly
crushed. The flood of dogs draws shocked attention and stops traffic if it
is in a populated area. Witnesses feel an erotic and aggressive charge and,
if they have appropriate Disadvantages, may need to make a Terror throw.
        After what seems like hundreds of dogs, a thundrous clatter
announces the arrival of giant stags, who with muscled flanks, hooves and
six-foot hornspans trample by. Sweat and froth pours from the stags, and a
cold light shines from their eyes. Riding and running along with the pack
can be seen hunched, many-toothed once-human things.
        Moving along at the speed of a train, a single figure finally makes
its appearance. Nine feet tall, it rides a great stag which it pulls with
leather bridles and cuts with spur-like growths on the heels of its feet. It
resembles a massively powerful nude man whose body is so crisscrossed with
scars as to resemble different pieces sewn together from a corpse. Curled,
wiry hair grows from it and a great beard covers most of its chest and back.
Its face seems partly to be made of exposed bone, and the top of its head
grows into gigantic ram's horns. Mute, the Master of the Hunt leads his pack
with gestures and the sound of his fists striking the stag's back.
        People are driven mad or exhiliarated by the Hunt's appearance, and
some try to hitch a ride or follow it. They are either torn apart by the
hunters or end up in faraway places, or in Gaia, naked and lost and soaked
in other peoples' blood. People who lack Enhanced Awareness and have a
Mental Balance close to zero will forget the Hunt after it happens.
        Alternately, the person or thing that is being hunted could pass
through the scene before the Hunt does, panting and clutching their chest as
they run from inevitable doom.

(Next: The Empty Quarter.)



THE EMPTY QUARTER
Cultures in Arabia, Egypt and Mongolia have long feared the desert parts of
Gaia. Today, the desert of Gaia -- the endless wasteland -- is as powerful
as it ever was, challenged only by rusty oil wells and Middle Eastern
warfare which drags more humans into its realm. A tank division was lost
here through a gate in Ethiopia during World War II. Shimmering
heat-distortion in the air often conceals a gateway, wind-carved formations
of rock and sand are the sacrificial shrines to Gaia, and sandstorms may
carry people between the worlds into the Empty Quarter.
        Visitors find that water evaporates at more than the normal rate,
leaving canteens empty if they are opened only for a short time. Sand
stretches as far as the eye can see, yellow or tan-gray. It is difficult to
walk over the silty desert without sinking. Dunes range from small, rippling
patterns to enormous, rounded hills. A hot wind whips along the sand,
creating abrasive clouds and blowing sand into the faces of human
travellers. To humans, the wind may sound like whispering or distant
gunshots.
        In other areas, the desert hardens into a flat plain of cracked, dry
dirt, like a lake bed, often encrusted with white masses of salt. The earth
rises at each footstep, creating a choking brown cloud. Plains of dry shale
and pebbles make the landscape even more difficult to traverse; giant
steppes and pits of boulders give the impression of a landscape disturbed by
earthquakes and disasters. In some places, the sand has fused together into
miles of glass, either slippery and blinding or cracked into hundreds of
deadly shards. In every case, though, one's current landscape seems as if it
will never end; most adventures in the Empty Quarter should concentrate on
this feeling of endless nothingness.
        Only a few landmarks disturb the monotony. Irregular, oblong rocks,
seemingly sculpted by the wind, sometimes break open revealing white
coccoons. Mountains or pyramids appear on the horizon, then vanish. The
landscape sometimes turns into maze-like rock gulleys, where dead-ends lead
to walls of rock spikes or grotesque formations resembling staring eyes.
Pillars of hardened sand rise sixty feet. A purple-gray glow comes from the
black, pitted exterior of a fallen meteorite. Sometimes glittering pieces of
quartz or diamond are mixed with the sand. The sand may sink, revealing a
buried, Ibis-headed statue which opens its gummy eyes in search of
worshippers or food. The only signs of humans are a few discarded bullet
casings from pre-Civil War revolvers, or the occasional trails of dry blood
which end at a corpse in white rags, face down where they had crawled.
Western ghost towns pass into Gaia before disintegrating utterly. The bones
of camels, cracked open for their marrow, can be found. Gray-blue sands in
the Rub Al Khali of the Arabian Peninsula are said to conceal Irem, City of
Pillars (possibly a gate to Metropolis), which only materializes at night.
        Although it seems lifeless, the Empty Quarter hosts animals, like
all of Gaia. Crossbreeds of scorpions and centipedes march across the sand.
At night the ant lions come from their hideouts, and bite their prey while
secreting an anesthetic substance, such that they can chew through to
someone's ribs before the person wakes and the pain begins. Birds also dwell
here; blackbirds whose rows of eyes are on the underside of their wings,
vultures which blacken the sky with their carrion-eating flocks, and
six-foot-tall awk-like birds which shift from leg to leg on the sand, the
upper half of their body already so corroded from the sun as to be little
but red translucent meat over bones. Beasts wait in the sand in ambush;
buried below are another layer of plump, atavistic creatures whose legs
dwindle away into roots, and who can be dug up and eaten for what little
moisture they contain. Sometimes the sand itself comes to life and drags
travellers down (q.v. LEGIONS OF DARKNESS). The most intelligent inhabitants
are either the reclusive kangaroos or the carnivorous ghouls. Ghouls, with
their mummified skin, sharp teeth and claws, were feared in Arabia centuries
ago. Now they skulk among the quarries of the Empty Quarter, dressed in
rags, and sometimes cross over the Illusion into our cities.
        Almost nothing grows here. The sight of a few shrubs, plants and a
pool of water often indicates a departure to another part of Gaia, or is an
oasis guarded by some dangerous entity. Small, rock-hard red growths line
the desert in some places, but are so bitter they actually drain the
moisture from animals as a touch, withering their fingers and lips. Sinewy
cacti covered with spines take shapes reminescent of barbed wire or frozen
figures, waiting to leap. More frequently one encounters only the dead husks
of lifeless black trees. On the borders of the desert are occasional sere,
barren grasslands ('The Veldt,' q.v.) or, more incongruously, green lawns
maintained by expensive sprinkler systems and frequent watering, in parts of
the Illusion such as Southern California.
        By day, the sun always shines over the desert, and temperatures
climb to 150 degrees Farenheit or higher. Mere exposure to the sun leads to
painful sunburns which can develop into cancer. The desert floor often
becomes as hot as a skillet, frying exposed human skin; before dying, many
people look as if they have been half-roasted, with the blackened remains of
their burnt limbs trailing beneath them. The reflection of the light
sometimes leads to a physiological mirage where the blue sky seems to be on
the ground; the sufferer then mistakes it for water. At times sandstorms
rage across the landscape; great bipedal horrors stalk through the darkness
of the storm, hunting for prey which they lick clean of sand with their
great tongues. At night, however, the desert floor quickly cools, and it is
unpleasantly cold. Travellers may have to race as far as they can during the
night before the sun turns the rocks red hot under their feet. Some parts of
the empty quarter (those close to Tibet and Mongolia) are cold, gray and
oppressive instead.
        Humans in the Empty Quarter may develop agoraphobia as the sky and
the sand bears on them relentlessly. The fear of the vast, open spaces
causes them to shrink and dwindle, just as their skin tightens and their
bones protrude to conserve water more effectively.

The Anthills
The hardened red-brown soil starts to give off a curious smell, and the
number of insects increases, until the earth is covered with ants, termites,
and locusts crawling, hopping and flying along. They seem to be streaming
away from a point on the horizon; it is impossible to go closer without
being covered with the swarm. As visitors approach, a lumpy mountain rises
to block the sun, the earth contorted into intestinal and egg-like shapes.
Parts of it seem to change color, but this is only the motion of the ants,
red and black, moving over the mound which is hundreds of feet tall.
        In this place the consciousness of Pazuzu (q.v. LEGIONS OF
DARKNESS), lord of flies and insects, resided before it was imprisoned in
the Illusion. Now the remainder of its body carries on automatically,
fighting itself, defending against outside threats and breeding ceaselessly.
The granular earth is composed of sand, spit and the corpses of dead
insects. Parts of the hive occasionally collapse from the weight of the
insects above, revealing sticky chambers full of white larvae and pupae, or
bloated honey-sucking ants, or what appears to be an exposed, blood-slick
brain. At times it rebuilds itself into shapes almost like skyscrapers,
complete with windows and chimney-like vents from which fly hordes of winged
ants. If necessary, the hive can create anything it needs for defense, even
simple machines, out of the bodies of willingly participating insects. Out
of sight live the queen ants, their taut, stretched thoraxes the size of
trucks, communicating with a solid line of saliva which flows between the
queens' mouthes along lightless passages underground.
        Oversized insects resembling potato bugs, long-legged spiders or a
thousand other combinations of virtually interchangeable limbs come to the
defense of the anthills when needed, erupting from the ground. The sight and
smell of the anthills can hypnotize humans, who are eaten when they pass a
certain point. Others are kept alive to be gradually used as building
material for the piecemeal structures.

The Cartographer
>From a distance, the characters see a human figure walking over the sands.
Periodically it stumbles, then gets up and continues walking. If the
characters investigate, the figure resolves into a tall, thin, approximately
thirty-year-old man in the middle stages of dehydration, wearing the remains
of a khaki shirt, pants, and a backpack. His skin is tanned brown and he
smells of sweat. Over his head, to block part of the sun, he holds a broad,
worn but intact paper map.
        The man is desperately grateful to see anyone. His name is Jack
Perry, and he is an American photographer who was on an African land
surveying expedition when the group became lost. The jeep broke down,
hysteria overtook the group and finally everyone became separated. As Perry
speaks with the characters, however, he will continue consulting his map and
scribbling on it with the stubs of several pencils. If asked for an
explanation, he says that he has been trying to find where he was on the map
and since he is in uncharted territory, he has decided to map it. The map,
and several notebooks in his backpack, are now covered with scrawled writing
and symbols, and his right hand is gray from constantly rubbing against
pencil-lead. Perry has gone mad and will resist any efforts to remove his
map. If the characters are about to leave Gaia, he will stay behind, saying
he cannot until the map is finished. About all other subjects he is
relatively sane.
        People with Enhanced Awareness or Schizophrenia may actually see a
path to something they seek, such as an exit from Gaia, in the shifting
maps. If the characters and Perry sink into even worse circumstances, Perry
will injure himself in order to continue writing in blood.

The Outback
Through gates in Australia, a strange area of Gaia can be found. The
aborigines there have many rituals and poems which they use to enter and be
safe in what they know as the Dreamtime. The land is dry, flat earth broken
with occasional shrubs and bushes. Occasionally water holes even lie in
ditches surrounded by grass and solemn trees. The sounds of strange birds
can be heard in the trees, and when they take flight it can be seen that
some of them are luminous. At night, many things take on strange, starry
glows, and the auras of humans become visible. Herbs and plants which are
important to magical rituals grow here, although they must be picked with
the proper respect and ritualism or they will turn into slugs, or even twist
and bite the picker's hand. Many foods which are normal in the Illusion are
narcotic here, and vice versa.
        The outback is not especially dangerous by Gaia's standards, but
contains many odd creatures, including beings from Australia's past (the
continent was mostly forested before the arrival of humans). The water holes
are guarded by the bunyip, large seal-like carnivores with clawed flippers
and a chilling howl that can be heard by miles. Sloths with hands and elbows
bent backwards lie curled on the ground, dreaming their own dreams which
sometimes effect those of human sleepers. Two-foot-wide tunnels are bored in
the ground by horned, hungry creatures with screw-shaped fists. Agoura (q.v.
LEGIONS OF DARKNESS) hunt for human and animal prey. Reptilian creatures and
things like frogs with tentacles sometimes seem to swim through the air.
Kangaroos no longer bother to conceal their intelligence. Tall,
skeletally thin monkey-like things with long claws hunt the other animals;
they can be approached with the right obeisances, and even provide
information for witch doctors and sorcerors.
        According to some sages, the Outback is centered around Thuwathu,
also known as Minyindagarr, an immense tortoise-god with Dreaming ability,
whose sleep and dreaming makes the area both more surreal and more stable
than the rest of Gaia. The turtle's body occupies the area corresponding to
Ayers Rock in the Illusion. (This is a reference to the Dreamlands material
by Matthew.)

The Sea of Sand
Beneath the red sand of some areas creatures swim, moving through the sand
as fish move through the sea. Some can detect vibrations as sensitive as a
person's footsteps from miles away; others instead rely on periscope-like
eyestalks which rise from below. An entire ecosystem lives this way;
wormlike, silvery creatures which only rarely surface for air; predators
with bear-trap teeth who attack from directly below, biting the feet of
walking humans; and porous, fungus things which release a substance into the
soil which turns it into quicksand. It is difficult to defend oneself from
any of these unseen opponents, and even more damaging to morale is the habit
of some of them of tossing the half-digested bodies of their prey through
whale-like flukes back above ground.

The Conscious Sand
Like an endless beach, the flat, sun-parched sand stretches on forever. In
some areas the allure of this emptiness are more pronounced, and visitors
must make an EGO throw. Failing this (or an appropriate role-playing test),
they start to be obsessed with the sand, spending more and more time
touching it, rubbing it and even carrying it, while letting their clothes
and belongings fall and rot away. They find its warmth reassuring; they will
begin to sleep immersed in it. Eventually they lose all interest in
everything else, and will lie in the sand for days, staring at the sun,
dehydrating and seeming to age rapidly. The sand will cling to their skin,
and before the end, they may even begin to swallow sand, bloating them and
causing severe medical problems should they be rescued at this point.
        If this fails, the sand becomes less subtle. It will gradually
insinuate itself into everything, invading sealed containers and pneumatic
suits, and destroying machinery. It will start to move and take humanlike
forms. Mounds of it will slither by. Arms will reach up and caress the
sand-hypnotized. Ugly, malformed faces and beautiful women will appear in
the shifting fields of sand, forming themselves out of separate grains as if
from static on TV screens. The aim is not to outright eat prey, but to
entice them to join the desert in its embrace. These sand-ghosts sometimes
follow humans back into the Illusion.
        (This last area combines references to Stephen King's BEACHWORLD and
Ramsey Campbell's BESIDE THE SEASIDE, both short horror stories.)

Next: The Carpathians, the mountains of Gaia.


THE CARPATHIANS
In the Middle Ages European peasants feared mountains, thinking that their
intimidating height was either a sign of or a challenge against God. The
latter was right, and in Gaia the primal force of the blasted mountains
originates. Named by scholars after a remote European country which vanished
into Gaia in the 16th century, the Carpathians can still be reached in
Switzerland, parts of South America, and Tibet. The gates to it are all very
high up; mountain climbers sometimes disappear there, finding an even higher
mountain rise up behind the record peak they scaled, and even planes
sometimes cross over in the upper atmosphere.
        The Carpathians are a giant mountain range, far above the treeline;
nothing grows there but lichen on the rocks. As one climbs, the air becomes
thinner and colder. The earth gives away leaving nothing to stand on but
rock and stone, frequently slick with ice or slushy snow. Ropes, hooks,
spikes and other mountaineering equipment are necessary to travel far. In
some parts one must climb; in others, walk.
        The mountains of Carpathia inspired Gustav Dore and Roerich. Concave
slopes, like the top of the Matterhorn, are not infrequent. Some are mighty,
snow-capped peaks, lost in fog or rising awe-inspiringly from the mist. They
have a disturbing habit of growing higher as one attempts to climb them.
Others lean perilously, with dark, steeple-like outlines looking like knives
protruding from the earth. Some are hollow, and serve as the lair for
nesting creatures or single, dark intelligences. Some mountains are said to
be the heads of sleeping or dead giants, but others are rumored to be alive
and only waiting for prey to walk over them. The clouds of steam which rise
from geysers in the mountains may in fact be the breath of these buried
things, rising from fleshy, organic tunnels underground. In other places,
volcanoes erupt, and lava pours down the mountainsides turning the raw iron
of the mountains white-hot.
        In the lower parts of the mountains live rock-climbing goats and
vole-like mammals which leap from peak to peak. Further up on perilous crags
are giant birds' nests of branches and twigs, where the originals of the roc
and the Indian thunderbird lair. Bat and bird are mixed in leather-winged,
sharp-beaked beasts whose young cling to their stomachs and pick at prey
grasped in their mothers' claws. Sharp-toothed creatures with long,
goose-like necks and wide, flat feet slide on their feet like skis to
surprise prey. White camouflaged things which are the origin of the yeti
legend hunt furtively with six-fingered hands. Other, more grotesque
crossbreeds of human and animal, blank-eyed men with pig-like tusks, spend
their lives tearing boulders free from the mountainside and hurling them on
travellers below. At the height of the storm, a pair of red eyes appears
amid the falling snow and darkness and impels travellers to step forward
into the fur-covered shape, similar to a giant manta ray, which lives by day
in the caves in the mountains.
        No one is ever safe from falling in the mountains, and humans with
vertigo are at a terrible disadvantage. Humans' poor direction sense
overcomes them, and unless they are stable and specially trained they may
lose their sense of up and down, or the landscape may seem to sway. One
always seems to be on the edge of a giant pit, or the side of a wall, with
sharp peaks and jagged mountains terrifyingly far below. Some valleys are
quiet and still to an unearthly degree, as any noise will cause echoes which
lead to an avalanche of snow and ice, carrying mountaineers into the gorges
below. The mountains appear to be eternal, but in actuality, most of them
are constantly being reshaped as titanic earthquakes and tectonic plates
push new summits of living rock into the atmosphere.
        The weather in the mountains is the worst of any part of Gaia.
Thunder and lightning constantly assault the highest peaks. Entire peaks are
sometimes  electrified; creatures with bat's wings and titan figures
combining the features of humans and rams fly through the upper air,
frenzied by the releases of energy. To stand on the top of one of Gaia's
mountains is either to be transfigured or to be eradicated; some magicians
have sought enlightenment this way. Storms cause a hail of rocks, pelleting
and eroding the cliffs. The wind carries shrieking clouds of bird-clawed
creatures and giant-throated, laughing beasts which fight one another and
drag away bystanders as they fly by. In times past, the Lukundoo (witches)
had their bacchanals here, and each year a few more would lose their reason
and become Furies; now those once-human things glide in the awesome winds
from mountain to mountain, shrieking.
        To enter the mountains is to be tested; if one survives, one can
expect to gain at least some power. Survivors -- humans hardened into
ruthless machines by Gaia -- are often the result, but occaisonally a chance
bolt of lightning or a mind-altering encounter with vertigo awakens unknown
powers in a normal person. They may, however, be too haunted by their
experience ever to feel right on flat ground, and problems with balance and
coordination may last for years.

The Fossils
When earthquakes tear away portions of the mountainside, exposed in the rock
beneath can be found fossils. Pressed between plates of shale and other
rocks are the outlines of bones. The animals there are many; great-jawed
dinosaurs, the fragile bones of birds, many-ribbed fish. Boneless things,
like oversized microscopic life-forms, are also present in the dry stone as
if they had been smashed there and left an indentation.
        The difference between fossils as humans are conditioned to expect
them, and fossils in Gaia, is that here they are the _origins_ of life. If
the fossils are watched for a few hours, the bones will begin to thicken and
fill in, and meat and tendon will begin to spontaneously appear on the
outside. Gradually the entire creature will appear, including a beating
heart which is visible through the partial ribcage, and then the thing will
pull itself free from the rock, fully alive. Visible behind the fossils are
more beings, waiting to be born from the living rock. It may be dangerous to
stay near here because of the many newborn animals, most of whom are hungry.

The Aeolian Harps
Up in the highest peaks, where the rock rises in formations resembling
cartilage or a Gothic cathedral, are deep caves and rounded chambers from
which rushes wind in almost orchestral sounds. The Harps are the Living
Earth's vocal chords, and sometimes the voice of the earth itself speaks
through here; human prophets climbing mountaintops have mistaken it for God.
The voice is more a rumble than a voice, and the commands it gives are
irrational at best or sadistic at worst. At other times, beautiful music
emits from the caves, or even sounds which the lost and desperate can
mistake for the voices of those they love.
        Around the harps cluster Aeolites (q.v.), inorganic-looking
identical birds with gray gelatinous skin. The Aeolites parrot and mimic the
notes of the Aeolian Harps, twisting them into increasingly disturbing
variations. They feed on humans and other animals, whom they first deafen by
emitting resounding, echoing bellows (which, in addition, sometimes cause
earthquakes).
        Curious chemical processes are at work in the Harps. The structure
of some of the rocks resembles that of the lungs or the tonsils, in addition
to the hollow stalactite-like structures which appear to be made more of
horn or bone than rock. Sometimes saliva or spittle carries on the wind as
well. Every few hours, the wind from the harps reverses, and people and
things are sucked helplessly into the interior of the mountains.

The Caves
An opening in the side of the mountain promises momentary shelter from the
storm. Within is a cold, damp cave which narrows at the far end, then widens
again into a large chamber. The gray-green limestone walls are slick with
water which trickles in from an unknown source, and stalactites and
stalagmites show the age of the cavern. Further tunnels lead off in
different directions; to foul dens covered with bat guano and full of
sleeping, furry shapes; to warmer lairs lined with shed hair and the residue
of meals; to vast dark galleries; and to forges far underground, where
malformed, scab-covered beings instinctively work red-hot metal in pits of
fire, and wear the metal pieces like hermit crabs.
        In addition to bears, bats and blind cave salamanders, the caves
which honeycomb some of the mountains contain larger, disturbing beings;
hungry lurking presences which stay out of the light, cave crickets and
glow-worms which like to worm under human skin, creatures like wet rags
which come to life like lampreys. Two-headed, foot-long bugs crawl on the
ceilings of caves waiting to drop. Flattened, ragged things who bite prey
directly with the sharp points of their ribcages pad their way up from the
dark. Albinism is the most common traits of all cave-dwellers.
        In the real world, most caves are created by the extremely slow
process of water carving channels in limestone and karst deposits. These
caves are sometimes connected by underground waterways, which pose perils to
any traveller. Other caves are created by processes such as lava flows. Such
caves exist in Gaia, but so do stranger caves created by unknown forces.
Deep down, the caves of Gaia connect to the Labyrinth.

(Coming on Monday: The Cold.)



THE COLD
Antarctica, Greenland, Siberia and the Canadian north are some of the least
explored places left on Earth, and many gates still open there to the cold
spaces of Gaia. Untouched by human incursion, and still deadly threatening,
the Cold has only recently been forced back by the Greenhouse Effect. When a
sudden chill grips travellers in the polar regions without any wind or
apparent cause, they have crossed over the border into Gaia. Compasses will
go wild at first, but soon will point perpetually towards 'North.'
        Most of the Cold is a plain of ice covered with a layer of snow. In
some cases there is liquid water underneath the ice; in other cases visitors
may be on top of a glacier hundreds of feet thick. The snow lies in white
rippling sheets, broken by huge slabs, running with icicles, which erupt
from the ground. Occasionally the ice that is the foundation for the world
shakes, and grinding sounds like squeezing cork and breaking metal linger
for hours. Other areas are tundra, with frozen earth instead of ice, and
brittle, yellow-brown weeds rising up between the snow. Here, the cold is
dry as well, and even more hostile to life. And in some places the ice is
broken into icebergs floating over a black, slushy sea.
        The only variations in the flatness are the occasional glaciers --
pieces of ice the size of mountains, perpetually frozen solid. Glaciers are
dangerous to climb upon because of the slipperiness of the ice and the
possibility of breaking through it into a submerged water-hole or a tunnel,
carved by streams running through the glacier. The interiors of glaciers are
dangerous and awe-inspiring places, full of blue light and sharp ice
formations and water colder than freezing. Impossibly long worm-entities
coiled in gut-like loops drill tunnels through the interior glaciers, and
families of headless apes with faces growing from their necks make their
lairs on the outside. Trespassers are impaled from stalagmites dripping
glittering necklaces of frozen blood. The greatest danger in the glaciers is
a collapsing ceiling, or a sudden flood of water that carries both predator
and prey into the frozen sea.
        On the borders of the Cold are dark forests of pine and conifer,
lifeless and gray or almost petrified with ice. These areas usually
connect the Cold to the Weir Wood.
        Some recognizable life lives here; enormous, shaggy mammoths (within
whose fur live cold-blooded parasites), giant horned elks, white-furred
foxes, polar bears. Fenrir (werewolves), the spawn of the Russian Boyars'
unnatural experiments, hunt the plain in great packs, their breath releasing
freezing vapor which paralyses their prey. Clutches of white eggs resembling
snowflakes glide on the wind, releasing small writhing entities with
shrimplike tails. Penguins migrate across the ice, sometimes giving birth to
giant, stillborn-looking carnivores with the necks of plesiosaurs. In beds
of snow lurk wolverines whose hair ends in sharp barbs. Where the frozen
ocean is visible, killer whales hunt, sometimes exploding from beneath the
surface of thin ice to swallow prey. Albino manatees bellow from the frozen
sea.
        Deep in the Cold Barrens, black shapes are frozen in mammoth chunks
of ice; monsters resembling grotesque composites of other creatures, frozen
in states of hibernation. Some of them watch travellers with their
yellow-tinted eyes. Breaking the ice releases an entity which is all the
hungrier for its years of imprisonment. Other places are haunted by the
Manitou, which Indian shamans know how to avoid, an invisible spirit with
Commanding Voice which possesses humans and slowly twists them into horned,
faceless hunters.
        The temperature is almost always below the freezing point, sometimes
much, much colder, but unpredictable elements still interfere. Sometimes a
sudden heat wave causes the ice and snow to melt, turning the wastes into
untreadable slush or, worse, melting the ice floes beneath travellers
stranded above the dark sea. More often, winds and snowfall conspire to make
travel close to impossible. The frequent snowstorms often block out the sun
for days on end, creating a perpetual night.
        Exposure to the Cold results in some of the most rapid alterations
in all of Gaia. Cannibalism doomed the Donner Party when they became lost in
Gaia, although some of the members were able to painstakingly hide their new
hungers upon returning to society. Humans quickly gain fur, even a pelt, to
protect themselves from the extreme temperatures; their teeth also become
longer and stronger, like the Wendigo of legend. From frostbite humans lose
their toes and then their feet themselves, the stiff cold flesh rotting into
stumps or hoof-like shapes. Nearly lifeless with all their skin frozen away,
the survivors may resemble zombies more than visitors to Gaia.

Snowblind
With the endless whiteness of the snow, and blizzards and clouds often
adding up to 'whiteout' conditions, it is easy for travellers to go
snowblind. Every day that the characters walk in the non-tundra parts of the
Cold without dark glasses or some other form of protection, they should make
PER rolls. A failure indicates that snowblindness begins to set in.
        An afflicted character loses one point of visual PER every 1D4
hours. Their pupils shrink to dots and everything gradually becomes a white
blur, until their PER drops to zero, at which point everything is white and
even motion cannot be detected. First Aid, or covering the eyes with a
wrapping or headband, prevents further PER damage. After PER reaches zero,
the characters should make a CON roll every day until they receive medical
attention; each failure means that 1/4 of the PER loss (round up) was
permanent. Creatures of the Cold often possess echolocation, good hearing or
smell, or other ways of locating blinded prey.

The Northern Lights
At night, the glow of the Aurora Borealis often shines over the Cold
Barrens. These lights, which appear shortly after sunset, resemble giant
purple and green curtains hanging over the horizon. In Gaia, the lights are
brighter than over the Illusion, and can often be seen moving like liquids
swirling together. They embody an evil spirit which feeds on sentient souls.
        Anyone who sleeps -- or even falls unconscious -- and allows the
glow of the Northern Lights to fall on their bare flesh, has nightmares. In
these dreams, which segue into reality, they feel uncomfortably warm; they
imagine themselves sweltering in the summer sun, thrust into an oven,
burning in hot coals. Subsequent dreams reinforce the same imagery. They
feel their skin crisping and blackening and their flesh melting off their
bones. If they fail an EGO roll, they continue to feel too warm when they
awake. Their bodies will begin showing symptoms of overheating; they will
sweat and feel uncomfortable. If they fail a second EGO roll, they will be
gripped by a desire to go 'north', to immerse themselves naked in the snow.
They are still capable of rational behavior in other ways. An Art of
Dreaming roll is required to identify the Northern Lights within the dreams,
as a creeping, shapeless presence.
        If a human succumbs to the Lights, they will continue to feel too
hot, even as they lose skin and coordination to the freezing conditions.
Each day they will also lose one EGO point. The Northern Lights will
artificially preserve their life until they are a limbless trunk, at which
point it will feed upon the dying release of energy. When they die the
lights will swirl down from the Heavens and take the corpse's soul for its
own purposes. The Northern Lights can be exorcised as a Creature of Death
with EGO 20, but it can summon previously half-frozen prey to try to disrupt
a ritual and kill the sorcerors. These are always large bears, walrus and
other creatures; the Eskimo call their rotting bodies _tupilak_.

The Esquimaux
While wandering in the Cold, the characters stumble back through the
Illusion. Not far from them stands an igloo made of blocks of ice. A faint
line of smoke trickles from a hole in the roof. Maybe the characters can
find shelter.
        To enter, the characters must crawl through a narrow tunnel. The
fire in the center of the room has mostly burned out, but enough light still
flickers to iluminate a scene of carnage. On the seal and bear furs are
splashed streams of not-quite-frozen blood. A few boots laced with walrus
sinew lie in the corner still containing pieces of toes. At least one person
has been killed here; human bones, not yet dry, litter the area around the
fire, and hunks of meat and eyeballs lie in a copper cooking-kettle
blackened with frequent use. The bones have been gnawed; a Forensics
examiner or dentist recognizes the marks of human teeth. Everything must
have happened only a few minutes ago; and the only thing missing from the
igloo is any kind of weapon or knife...
        Somewhere out on the ice is the cannibal. Perhaps he is waiting for
the characters outside, or perhaps he returns while they are still
searchiing. Possessed by the frozen spirits of Gaia and the Cold, dozens of
people near the Poles become cannibals every year. Eskimo also have other
interesting legends, which may or may not be true, such as the idea that the
ghosts of dead babies, thrown out in the cold to die, may stalk the ice
looking for meat or a womb to crawl back inside.

The Derelict
        From the flat ice rises a ghostly blue-gray shape which, as the
characters come closer, reveals itself to be a Russian ship. The Cyrillic
lettering on the side has faded; icicles drip from the frozen chains and
ropes hanging from the bow; and the snow which is piled on the deck and the
skeletal radio tower indicates that the ship has been frozen in place for
days or weeks. The ghost ship, a Russian icebreaker, may have been trapped
in the ice mere days ago or may have been stuck there for years (the
freezing temperatures of the Cold can preserve things which would normally
disintegrate quickly when in Gaia).
        Assuming that the ship is abandoned and none of the crew are still
alive, the characters may search it for equipment or use it as a temporary
shelter. The ship's log may reveal an interesting or disturbing story:
perhaps telling of the ship's course into Gaia (and suggesting a way out?);
perhaps giving important information about the crew or cargo; and perhaps
telling in a pitch of rising fear how the crew vanished one by one, killed
by an invisible presence, and now the captain is the last person alive,
sitting in this room, writing in the log...

***************

(Next: The Perverted Earth.)

------------------------

THE PERVERTED EARTH
As Metropolis has gained a presence in the Illusion, Gaia has been the
target of all-out war. The efforts of Malkuth to spread new technology, and
the short-sightedness of humans and lictors alike, have caused terrible
pollution. But rather than retreating, in many cases Gaia has endured;
diseased and twisted, but still gruesomely alive. In these places, a new
sort of nature prevails, on Metropolis' terms. Some say that Gaia is not
actually injured; it is merely trying to adapt itself to an impossible
situation.
        Fields of candy wrappers, soft beer cans and plastic trash bags
litter a landscape under a gray sky. The earth is a muddy black and smells
like gasoline and rotten meat. Rusting metal tins lie about, and white,
cottony fungus grows over some of the more biodegradeable refuse. Sticky,
sweet residue lies at the bottom of aluminum cans; spoiled milk sits in
thick tubs. Everything seems to be a combination of a landfill, a garbage
dump, and a swamp; the only life that is visible are crowds of flies, which
settle around the nose, ears, and eyes of visitors. Upturned earth is
stacked around a huge pit with six inches of oil at the bottom; the remains
of a gas station. Old sinks, radiators dripping freon, pieces of rusted
metal, and other trash lie about, often impaling the earth as if pushed
there with great force. The brand names are often still visible. The
charcoal from huge fires, apparently burnt out, dirties everything. In some
spots the fires still burn, and poisonous smoke climbs to the skies. The
only remaining electricity seems to be used to power billboards which
advertise cigarettes and hair sprays.
        In other places, huge leaky drums are half-stacked, half-buried,
inscribed with warnings and the names of chemicals; terrible pollutants and
toxic waste, sometimes radioactive, soak into the soil. Half-open vaults
contain the waste from nuclear power plants, glowing ingots which shine a
light out the door. Tangled networks of pipes, covered in greasy dirt, vent
poisons into the ground. Sometimes the vapors are deadly, and the green
pools must be carefully avoided. Half-melted corpses, their skin dissolved
in the acid, float to the top of the pools. Acid rain falls, corroding
everything. Storm drains sit choked with old paint, fuel oil, detergent and
bleach, and an oily film covers the surface of mercury-filled rivers.
Everything stains human flesh; it is nearly impossible to wash off. The
corpses of animals extinct, or nearly so, in the Illusion are impaled to
metal sheets with huge harpoons and knives; elephants with their tusks
gorily removed, tigers soaked with blood from bullet wounds, monkeys with
the tops of their skulls removed so their brains can be eaten by
businessmen. Others lie flattened in the middle of roads reeking of freshly
laid asphalt. A great slaughter appears to just have ended.
        The life that exists here is chaotic, as mad as the land. Most of
the creatures here are transients, originating in another plane. Humans
often wander through the perverted earth, unable to perceive what lies
behind the Illusion as they throw away another half-eaten hamburger. Lictors
sometimes come here to see what they have created, but usually send their
servants, the yellow, callous, frog-faced serviliants (q.v. LEGIONS OF
DARKNESS). War goes on between small groups of environmental activists and
large, heavily-armed lictors' mercenaries fighting over limited natural
resources. In places, genetides and serviliants simply plunge knives into
the ground again and again, or dig holes in the earth so as to fill them
with gasoline. Grossly sexual oil wells assault the soil. Machines with
multiple rows of axes hack down trees and trespassers alike. Things with
smokestacks rising from their shoulders leave a trail of blood and mucus as
they try to peel their tire rubber skin off their face. Then the Living
Earth itself rises up and pulls the combatants in. The normal animals that
live here are broken, beaten things, frequently mutants -- two-headed
infants, nine-legged cows, and worse.
        Some lictors feel that the Perverted Earth has gotten out of
control, as the ground itself now starts to produce its own toxins and
poisons -- which rise up as if from springs -- and it expands towards parts
of the Illusion which the lictors want to preserve. Gaia seems to be almost
masochistic. But some evidence exists that it is not, in fact, pleased with
the changes. At times, seemingly out of revenge, everything in an otherwise
normal landscape -- the plants, the trees, the grass and earth -- will
suddenly converge upon and eat a human being, melting and ripping them to
shreds.
        The Perverted Earth is closer than most humans realize. Humans who
enter it, or live in its vicinity, first lose their memory and develop
traits of wastefulness and compulsive consumption; their appetites increase
while their discrimination vanishes, until they will eat unpleasant and
repulsive things. They develop acne, bleeding sores, and other skin
disorders (such as a doughy texture). In some cases they gain a white,
powdered appearance as if makeup had sunk into their skin. They start to
exhale cigarette smoke, their extremities become stained with nicotine, and
finally the proportions of their limbs and head swell and shrink grotesquely
until they resemble congenital freaks. In this degraded form they at last
de-evolve into protoplasm.

The Human Touch
An area of crumbling, wet earth, it is sometimes found when the Illusion
breaks near cosmetics factories, gyms or hair salons; places of human
vanity. Any piece of flesh, hair, nail or bone of human origin which is
buried in the ground here will become a living, self-perpetuating,
unintelligent thing.
        Nails, growing like translucent yellow-gray reeds, and hair, looking
like the scalps of buried humans, grow copiously, but it is only the
beginning. Bits of mucus or earwax turn into oily, puddle-like molds. Teeth
reproduce into a hard white carpet of molars and incisors, slightly damp.
Underneath the ground can be felt buried shapes as if the visitor were
walking on a thin layer of dirt over corpses. If flesh, even as much as some
blood and skin from a wound, falls here it will take root. Fingers rise from
the ground, moving faintly with reflex activity. Piles of ears grow together
like clusters of cabbage. Noses and protruding throats can be heard
breathing. Intestines coil along the ground. Only in the worst places are
whole bodies buried -- sprouting new torsos and limbs like buds on rotting
potatoes.
        If a body is uprooted, the part below ground will be found to have
turned into a pinkish web-like mass of tendrils. Animals sometimes forage
here for food.

The Hydra
The landscape takes on a soft, almost organic look, like foam rubber.
Sometimes it seems to shed layers of itself, which dry, harden and break
away. It can be seen rising and falling, like yeast or a breathing torso.
These areas -- which often lie uncomfortably close to the Illusion -- are
usually strictly surrounded by wooden slat fences, yellow-and-black signs
warning trespassers to keep away, and barbed wire. Rumors are spread that
they are toxic waste dumps, or nuclear test sites, or anything other than
what they actually are. If a person or animal walks over the soil, the
Living Earth will give way, partially trapping them. It will then take
various forms -- leech-like maws full of teeth, the heads of its past
victims, sucking lips -- and painfully devour them.
        Small, short-lived patches of the Hydra are also known to appear
when humans bury corpses in remote places -- the mafia has lost several
members this way.

Slash & Burn
>From miles away the fires can be seen. Great plumes of black smoke rise from
the distance, carrying with them hot embers and bits of burnt wood. The heat
intensifies, and the increasing concentration of smoke sets travellers to
coughing, costing 30 points of Endurance per hour of exposure (if they
collapse or attempt to sleep in this area, most visitors will die). Because
of the smoke, it always seems to be night.
        In their greed lictors and humans have created this growing part of
the Perverted Earth, which covers much of South America and Canada. 24 hours
a day, rumbling metal machines and gas-mask-wearing things in stained,
rubberized suits shoot hoses of napalm over trees, turning them instantly
into torches from which burning branches drop, frequently crushing the other
workers. Chains are flung around the trees and bulldozers pull them down.
The earth is covered with charcoal and ash. Harrows and slave-labor humans
wielding axes and saws cut down other trees by hand, and stack the lumber in
rows ten stories tall, which are often consumed by the raging fires. The
bark is cut away by plane saws and wood chippers and spit over the
landscape. For miles nothing is left but blackened stumps surrounded by
stacks of wood, around which lies a pall of smoke and still-flaming pools of
gasoline.
        Anyone attempting to stop the important work will be attacked by
robots, starving human workers, and madmen with flamethrowers.

The Cattle Fields
Dry, yellow stubble and dusty earth are the only landscape. Gradually a
terrible smell, a hundred times worse than the Chicago stockyards, comes
into being. The dirt becomes covered with manure, over which buzz swarms of
flies, and a stinking mixture of fertilizer and blood. An occasional
barbed-wire or slat fence lies half crushed in the mire.
        For thousands of miles lives nothing but uncountable cows, where
they are kept here to feed humans within the Illusion. Most of them resemble
normal cattle, but sickly and grossly overweight, barely able to stand on
their hooves for the rolls of fat. Others are missing facial features or
limbs altogether, and simply sit as quivering blobs covered with a thin
layer of white hair. They feed on regurgitated dirt; their eyes are vacant
and glazed. Conditions are so cramped that lesions form where two cows rub
against one another. Milk and pus swirl together in the mud. Infections and
skin cancer have formed on many cows, tearing the skin like a rupturing
balloon. Some appear to already have been partially cooked, trailing off
into piles of hamburger or sausage. Many have chewed off their own lips,
exposing their teeth and gums.
        Lictors and serviliants tend the fields, which border on much of the
American Midwest, and drive away with great tanker trucks of meat. It is
said that at one point the fields border on Inferno, where humans are kept
in conditions identical to those of the cows.

The Wasteland
The earth is blackened and covered with fallen ash; it is cold, and the sky
is dark red, smothered in clouds. The ruins of buildings -- smashed brick,
melted glass -- rise from the ground, in addition to large areas of
blackened trees, each fallen in the same direction. In some places the
buildings are anachronistically primitive -- tribal huts or feudal European
cottages. Everything seems to have been exposed to great heat and knocked
over as if by an enormous force. Going closer to populated areas, one finds
black outlines of human beings -- their shadows -- seared into stone walls.
Beneath the rubble are human and animal corpses turned to ash which crumbles
at a touch; they are frozen in positions of surprise, mothers clutching
children, spears fused to an incinerated hand. The only things that live are
maggots, cockroaches and Nachtkafer (q.v.).
        The Wasteland is strongly linked to the End Dimensions, a realm of
Time & Space where every end-of-the-world scenario, from overpopulation to
pollution to Ragnarok, exists. Lictors conducted tests in this part of Gaia,
on native and tribal populations, to determine the effectiveness of nuclear
weapons. In the 1950s and 1960s gates opened to it with alarming frequency,
but army lictors and others who know of it (such as the Guardians of the
Earth) are relieved to find that it is less prevalent lately. A U.S. army
base at Goose Lake in Utah conceals a permanent gateway. The Wasteland is
close to Metropolis.
        Needless to say, the Wasteland is suffused with high levels of
radiation. After an hour or more in the Wasteland, one begins to feel sick
and queasy, and loses some hair. Soon vomiting of blood and other symptoms
set in and there is no turning back. The GM is encouraged to look up the
realistic symptoms of this deadly condition.

*******************

(Next: The Ancient Sea.)
THE ANCIENT SEA
The Ancient Sea is a powerful and frightening place. Some commentators refer
to it as distinct from Gaia. As many gates open to it today as ever, though
smaller ones are bypassed by large modern passenger ships and freighters;
the Carribean Sea, the South Pacific and the area between Iceland and
Greeland are the most unstable regions. The Marie Celeste floated through
here, losing all her crew to the Sea, and then floated back through to the
Illusion. Travellers stare at its waves and know instinctively that the Sea
is the Meaning, the primal source of life. Red skies at dawn, the sight of a
landmass on the horizon which then vanishes, a sudden total calm of the sea;
all these are ways in which sailors know the passage to Gaia has been made.
        The Ancient Sea looks much like any other ocean, but more
tempestuous and unpredictable. Sometimes strange colors appear in the water,
or beds of floating plants and unusual-looking seaweed choke the sea.
Occasionally the water surface itself seems to thicken, become syrupy, and
clots of bubbling foam, smelling of salt, converge upon sailing ships. More
typical are strange smells; the wind over the Ancient Sea carries the smell
of rotting fish, of fermentation, of indescribable scents that leave entire
crews vomiting. Mostly, the Ancient Sea is a greenish-black expanse of
turbulent water, resisting the efforts of sailboats and battleships alike,
and constantly in the throes of storms.
        The pounding, plummeting water and weather blur the distinction
between sea and sky. Tsunamis sweep across the horizon, crushing ships in
their wake. Thunder and lightning flash from the clouds, sometimes striking
and electrifying portions of the ocean which phosphoresce and burn off into
mist. Rain plummets down from the clouds, sometimes carrying with it small
fish and frogs or clusters of jelly-like eggs. Periodically the water itself
gains life like the Living Earth, and sucks ships and swimmers down. Since
the moon itself sometimes seems to change shape or even merge with the
blurry clouds, tides make no sense and seem to come in and go out based
largely on observers' fear of the water.
        In the Ancient Sea new life sometimes generates spontaneously out of
the murk of the water. Corpses lowered into its briny deeps are said to have
returned to life (though being eaten by fish is more likely). Green-scaled
mermaids with transparent skin through which their internal organs can be
seen swim here. The model of the medusa lives here, an octopus-headed blimp
which propels itself over the ocean surface like a water-treading insect.
Tusked dolphins and baleen-toothed birds leap through the waves. Thousands
of types of fish live here, constantly breeding and growing. Many of them,
like the Tiburon-sharks and the sea serpents, are simply mouthfuls of
knife-shaped teeth, or stealthy and terrifying versions of the prehistoric
ocean's inhabitants. Blood in the water attracts lampreys and schools of
predators, and eyeless great white sharks the size of battleships swim up
from the deep. Strange creatures with webbed feet hypnotize humans with the
glare of a single great eye. Horse-headed and hammer-headed fish fight in
deathly struggles. The smooth backs of submerged monsters are mistaken for
islands. White whales, their skin rough as lumps of oyster, drift through
the ocean on unknown missions. A carnivorous creature has a lure growing
from its jaw which roughly resembles a drowning human, and which can emit
moans of pain. Oversized plankton swim in schoals. Deeper underwater, the
pitch-black water is heavy with nutrient fluid, and bubbles rise up from
places unknown; the ocean is bottomless. Some say it connects to the Abyss.
Glowing, almost embyronic fish dwell there, side by side with gigantic
squids and kraken. Humans swimming in the water cannot expect to last long
before their limbs are eaten, one by one, or they are pulled down.
Tentacles, teeth, fins and feelers adorn the grotesque but superbly
functional bodies of the spawn of the Ancient Sea.
        The Ancient Sea is not the Primal Sea, that birthplace of the human
body which resides in Metropolis. Sometimes dimensional gates lead to it in
a roundabout way, through the Polluted Sea, a noxious-smelling ocean covered
with black oil, the corpses of dead seabirds, and plastic six-pack holders.
In the Polluted Sea, giant schoals of dead fish and whale carcasses are
constantly rising to the surface, eventually leading to the Primal Sea's
stew of boiling meat.
        Boats travelling on the Ancient Sea quickly become infested with
barnacles and plants; the paint peels, the iron rusts, and the ship becomes
a rotten hulk before finally sinking. In some cases, however, the ship may
become bio-organic instead, its engine and motor turning into intestines and
skin. Humans generally alter in one of two ways. Some become fish-like,
amphibian things, growing fins and scales and gradually losing their noses,
body hair and the ability to blink. Others melt into the brine of the sea
itself, their skin becoming gelatinous and then fluid until they become
jellyfish. (90% of the human body is water, after all...) They float forever
in the froth of the Living Sea, or until Gaia releases them and begins the
evolutionary cycle anew.

The Fogbound Coast
Occasionally the Sea borders on other parts of Gaia, forming an area of
ragged coast. Fog always blankets these fjords and beaches, making it
extremely difficult to approach by ship without crashing on the rocks. Giant
sand fleas, red-eyed seagulls and crabs whose mouthparts resemble plane saws
wait to eat the survivors from just such shipwrecks. In tidal pools mobile
anemones wait for the tide to rise to allow them to swim towards stranded
prey.
        Along the gray coast rise steep cliffs of sand and clay, vanishing
into mist and the sound of the eternal waves. Out on the ocean, the
bellowing of mating icthyosaurs sounds like foghorns. Travellers have made
it to shore only to never find a scaleable cliff leading up from the coast.
For hours one can walk passing only mounds of rotting weed and the beached,
putrefied corpses of creatures of the deep. Sometimes fossils (q.v.) are
found in the rocks. Quicksand patches are common along the beach and suck in
unwary wanderers.
        There are also many islands in the Ancient Sea, all of them
individual. They rise from and sink into the depths. These are up to the GM
to flesh out.

The Sentient Reef
If the characters are in a ship, the pilot must make a Seamanship or Pilot
Boat roll with Average effect or the ship runs aground with a grating noise.
Looking outside, the characters see the waters receding, revealing a great
reef of porous coral of all kinds; orange sponges, spiky white masses, and
mushroom-like pillars. The mass is the size of a submerged city, with arches
and spiny blobs protruding from the water. It is hard and sharp, and
difficult to walk on without cutting oneself. Trapped among the coral,
petrified and covered with the coral ooze, are the remains of sunken ships
and the mostly-dissolved skeletons of different creatures. The coral
stretches underwater indefinitely, and the shapes become more gruesome as it
goes down.
        Repairs will probably have to be made on the characters' ship, at
the least, for them to escape the reef. However, these must be done quickly
as already the coral is hardening around their ship, anchoring it to the
reef. The coral is a vast neural net, its sentience a part of Gaia, which
absorbs ships and creatures (though it is not fast enough to absorb living
things unless they stay in one place for several days). The reef sometimes
changes its shape, forming composites of different ships and disappearing or
growing overnight. Moray eels and shale-skinned goosefish live symbiotically
with the mass.

The Sargasso Sea
The sea goes utterly calm and stagnant beneath a layer of fog. The ocean
surface is gradually covered with seaweed: filmy, hairlike strands; green
and black morasses of plantlife; fleshy bubbles and pods. Ships which
stumble into these parts are gradually stuck in the sea.
        The weed looks thick enough to walk upon, but it actually is not,
and the thickness also hinders swimming. Great crabs and many-tentacled
octopi live in the sea, as well as walking leeches which weigh little enough
to stand on the weed, and look similar to Oberons (q.v. the METROPOLIS
SOURCEBOOK). However, the greatest threat is the weed itself.
        Humans who immerse themselves in the seaweed -- by entering the
water -- are gripped by a cool, pleasant sensation, and failing an EGO throw
(which becomes 1 point harder for each minute they are underwater) do not
want to leave. They will at first make excuses and act rational, but
gradually will forcibly resist any attempts to make them leave, and will try
to convince others to get in the water. Over a period of 24 hours their
flesh and internal organs are dissolved by the weed, and their submerged
portions become only a skeleton covered with thick veins. At this point, or
soon after, they will start to immerse their heads as well.
        Howling for any uninfected humans to join them, the fleshless things
will board ships after throwing handfuls of weed onto the decks; they are
incapacitated with pain and function at +15 to all rolls when not in contact
with seaweed. They retain all their normal statistics; treat them like
zombies, save that their limbs will cease functioning if severed or blown
away from the main body.

The Shipwreck
This is an outlined event which could be role-played to bring the characters
into Gaia. The wreck sequence (a storm works just as well) assumes a large
boat; if the characters are in a small, private vessel, they will
effectively be under lifeboat conditions anyway, without a wreck being
required. While en route to another destination, a sudden stilling of the
ocean surface is remarked on by the captain and crew. If above deck, the
characters may see the sea go completely flat. Characters with Sixth Sense
have a twinge of fear.
        Suddenly, the entire ship lifts several feet, then splashes down
onto the suddenly again-active sea. Characters who make a PER roll
distinctly hear a roar in addition to the sound of water and rending metal.
Down below, the hull has been breached and water is quickly filling the
bulkheads of the ship. Characters who go below to look immediately after the
crash may notice, with a PER roll, giant pieces of inhuman flesh caught on
the twisted spars of the hull. However, by this time water is probably
rising fast in the lower levels, including the cargo hull, the engine room
and (in large liners) the economy-class quarters.
        The characters must get aboard a lifeboat or raft, which may or may
not be difficult depending on the ship. Make the scene tense; the characters
have only minutes to escape the ship. What will they bring along? If there
is insufficient room (bring Bad Luck into play here), will they squeeze in,
fight for the seat, or put on a life jacket and try to swim? If the ship is
sizeable, and anyone is swimming nearby when it sinks, they are pulled under
and must make a Swim roll with Good effect to avoid being sucked underwater
along with the craft. Failure to immediately move a lifeboat away from the
craft may also carry some risk of being pulled under. After about a minute
ripped-up segments of the hull float to the surface if the boat was made of
wood or another light material.
        The characters are now stranded in cramped conditions. Radios bring
nothing but static. Food in the lifeboat's emergency pack consists only of
dry biscuits and insufficient water. Even if the boat crashed in a storm,
the ocean should now be calm, the skies completely cloudless. Soon the
characters will start to feel the effects of lack of food and water as shown
in the KULT rulebook. The different lifeboats may drift apart if the
characters are unable or unwilling to row them.
        After a few hours (sooner if anyone died in the wreck) several
sharks start to appear, fins above the water. First small sharks appear,
then sharks whose fins are two feet or more above the surface. Anyone who
makes a Natural Science or similar roll notices disturbing abnormalities in
the sharks. A chance motion sets up a brief chain-reaction of wobbling in
the lifeboats. The sharks start to tear into any floating dead, and clouds
of blood fill the water. They begin fighting in a splashing mass, and at
this point the characters see the double vertical row of teeth inside the
mouth of one of the larger sharks. Anyone who falls in the water at this
point is, of course, in extreme danger. A liferaft may be punctured if
violence takes place, or develop a slow leak. If a boat flips over, people
may climb onto the bottom of the boat, but only half the boat's normal
capacity can stand on the upturned boat without it sinking completely. A
knife and flare pistol are probably available in the lifeboat to fight the
sharks, or the characters can use pieces of metal debris, if it comes to
that.
        Eventually this torture ends, although some sharks may follow the
boats hoping for more. Then, large birds fly by high above. The characters
may think they are near land. However, soon the birds -- strange crosses
between gulls and pelicans with sharp webbed claws -- start to descend upon
the survivors, pecking at them, tearing away strips of meat. They can be
fought (or, if there are not many people in the lifeboat, the characters can
crawl under the tarpaulin), but the characters will have an easier time of
it with long-distance weapons, as the birds stay out of hand-to-hand range
and only close in to attack. The Keeper may want to dash the characters'
hopes about land being near by having some of the birds dive under the
water. Tailor the number of birds to the number of characters and whether
combat is intended to be a viable solution to the problem.
        Of course, what would a shipwreck be without cannibalism? The
sharks' meat can be eaten, but the birds are so stringy and salty that a CON
roll must be made to digest them. If the characters are on the sea for weeks
or more, and are not alone, a suitable Keeper-controlled character may
suggest cannibalism even if they do not, inspired by the urges of Gaia (by
this point, the characters are probably already losing skills and memory,
and their clothing has begun to rot away). Cannibalism requires a Terror
Throw, modified by the circumstances (whoever has to kill, cut and prepare
the meat may suffer a +10 Terror Throw, or more if they knew the victim
well), and may trigger physical changes in those already of extremely low
(-50 or lower) Mental Balance. Of course, if only one person eats, only they
will regain CON, while the other survivors, weakened, may not be able to
resist when they next hunger...
        After a certain period of anguish, the party may either return to
the Illusion or land in other parts of Gaia, or the Keeper can devise some
puzzle to allow them to escape.

The Maelstrom
A perpetual storm moves across the Ancient Sea, and scared fishermen in the
Sea of Galilee when the Illusion was only freshly made. The great storm of
the Sea consists of hurricane winds, driving rain, and a whirlpool so giant
it goes down out of sight, appearing endless. Anyone caught in the maelstrom
who does not make proper provisions (such as lashing themselves to an object
which will float against the current) is lost forever. Leviathan, the
largest and oldest living creature in all of Gaia, lives at the heart of the
Maelstrom, churning all the waves of the Ancient Sea. It is said that when
the Apocalypse comes, Leviathan will steer the Maelstrom into the Primal
Sea, and empty it with his thrashings, devouring the embryonic souls and
causing there to be no more difference between life and death.

**********************

(I think I should mention that I think Gaia and Metropolis are a little like
the Archetypes in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" -- as the True Reality,
they are the real version of CITY and WILDERNESS of which our own world is
only a distorted shadow caused by the light flickering on the wall of the
cave. In practice, this makes things like the Gaia Sourcebook and the 2nd
Ed. Metropolis Sourcebook have a lot of 'exaggerations' of the real-world
features of such places. It's up to the individual GM to decide what to use
in a campaign and what is just too overdone.)

(Next: NPCs, Monsters and Humans in Gaia.)


NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
Although Gaia as a whole resists power structures, it is nevertheless home
to many powerful and unique creatures which could be called Gods:
Leviathian, Thuwathu (aka Minyindagarr), Helen Vaughan (q.v.), Baba Yaga,
Yggdrasil, Fenris, The Wild Hunt, The Hungry Moon, The Northern Lights, The
Ferryman of the Dark River, Pazuzu, certain presences in the Carpathians...
the list goes on. Shiva Nataraja dances through Gaia as he does through the
rest of the universe; each living creature sees him as one of their own
species. Malkuth used to have Incarnates in Gaia, but they were mostly
abandoned in order to concentrate on her other plans. Some of the Living
Gods from Metropolis moved here after the Fall. In addition, witches,
intelligent beings of slightly less than godlike power, and some human (or
humanoid) tribal societies dwell within Gaia or near its borders. Only a
small number of the many groups and entities which deal with Gaia are listed
here.

ADAM WELSH
A lictor who once served Chokmah, Adam Welsh has never abandoned his past
master's cause. In a past identity Welsh was ecologist John Muir and tried
to equate religion with nature, believing that humans could be steered away
from Metropolis and made to accept Gaia (as seen through the Illusion) as a
sign of holiness. The Muir plan succeeded in part, and Welsh has held his
current name and visage since 1961. According to falsified records, he was
born in 1934 in Sausalito, California.
        Welsh is a tall, strong man who appears to be in his early 40s, with
a Hemingway- or Connery-esque beard and mustache. He dresses in
loose-fitting shirts, shorts and other intentionally unformal clothes.
Unlike most lictors, he makes little effort to disguise his great physical
potency. He is the founder of the Natural Law Party, a political
organization dedicated to the idea that certain rights, conditions and
political affiliations are natural and healthy, with a strong spiritual
undertone. The movement has supporters among the Green Party, health
faddists in several states, and many liberal Christians. Welsh's definitions
of Natural Law generally exclude any enemies of the organization or of the
Archons, and are vague enough that all members see in them what they want to
see.
        The movement is not quite a "cult," although hundreds of party
volunteers look up to Welsh fanatically. He chooses nonviolent methods and
has discredited his opposition using Passion Magic and performed selective
assassination using creatures summoned from the Ancient Sea. Welsh lives in
Bolinas, California, a misty ex-hippie town along the coast.
PERSONALITY: Welsh has a genuinely pitying, condescending attitude towards
humans. He makes a friendly, down-to-earth impression, and has a sense of
humor. When the Illusion is broken, he becomes more authoritarian and the
random, bestial elements in his behavior become shockingly noticeable. (Even
lictors are effected by Gaia, although the process is much slower than it is
with humans.)
GAMEMASTERING HINTS: Take deep breaths and make strong gestures. Smile, act
reasonable, and listen to others, but the players may become gradually aware
you don't necessarily care what they say; you're tolerant because they're
insignificant.
AGL 35
STR 45
CON 45
COM 16 (4)
EGO 31
CHA 22
PER 26
EDU 30
Terror Throw Modification: +5
Height: 260 cm
Weight: 475 kg
Senses: Acute, especially its sense of smell. Sees infrared and ultraviolet
light.
Communication: Speech and telepathy
Movement: 17 m/combat round
Actions: 5
Initiative Bonus: +23
Damage Bonus: +9
Damage Capacity: 9 scratches=1 lw, 8 light wounds=1 sw, 6 serious wounds=1
fw. Takes 2 fatal wounds before dying.
Endurance: 255
Natural Armor: 2 points blubber
Powers: Commanding Voice, Telepathy, Telekinesis 100 kg, 10 m/second,
Invulnerable to fire
Skills: Natural Science 50, Theology 50, Rhetoric 50, Survival 50, Hypnosis
30, Meditation 30, Net of contacts: politicians 30, Information Retrieval
30, Occultism 30, Man of the World 50, Etiquette 30, Diplomacy 50, Unarmed
Combat 30, Swim 20, Rifle/Crossbow 30, Area knowledge: California 30, Seach
30, Seamanship 20, Track 30, Trap/Bait Animals 30, Climb 30
Attack modes: Bite 20 (scr 1-6, lw 7-13, sw 14-24, fw 25+), 2 claws 25 (scr
1-7, lw 8-14, sw 15-28, fw 29+), Unarmed Combat 30
Magic: Lore of Passion 50, All spells 30
Home: Bolinas, California

GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH
An America-based group, the Guardians of the Earth consists of survivalists,
ecologists, and members of the military whose goal is to convert more of the
Earth into Gaia. They think civilization is a sham, an unnatural construct,
and believe that when people are forced to live in Gaia they will live in
harmony and contentment. Few of them are violently insane; still fewer
realize that Gaia is not so altruistic. Their increasing isolationism has
attracted some suspicion, but they still have many contacts among the U.S.
Army and the scientific community, thanks to their prominent members,
numbering among them Generals and Nobel Prize Winners.
        The group consists of several hundred core members, surrounded by
tens of thousand volunteers and part-time workers who think they're only
another environmental group. They are predominantly male, and their beliefs
sometimes include sexist thoughts on the roles of the genders, though this
is not the core of their teachings. A few intelligent creatures from Gaia
work with them, disguised as humans. The group began in the 1950s and 1960s
when the government set up several army bases near gates to Gaia, to monitor
and try to understand them. Their data (although biased by their beliefs),
held in military bases in the American Southwest, is the most comprehensive
study of Gaia in the 20th century. They are more fully described in LEGIONS
OF DARKNESS.

KARMAN SHAUGNESSI
Shaugnessi was born in 1958 in Novosibirsk in the former Soviet Union. A
proud young Communist, he went with his friends on wolf-hunting expeditions
out on the tundra. One day a pack of Wolven mauled most of his comrades and
the shock sent Shaugnessi into Gaia. When he escaped he had lost many of his
memories, but with great willpower he painfully regained them. A relative
with local industry connections spared him the insane asylum and Shaugnessi
repaid him by joining his factory staff. He became an administrator, but
never forgot his terrifying experience.
        When Shaugnessi gained Enhanced Awareness after a chemical poisoning
incident, he studied the occult and made assumptions about what he had seen.
He decided that serviliants, lictors and the like were things that came from
the Cold Barrens and which were trying to infiltrate society. He developed a
personal religion and theory about the universe, which though false was
all-inclusive. Only by eliminating Gaia could the Things which live in
lonely spaces be vanquished.
        Becoming a prominent industrialist, Shaugnessi has worked to cut
down forests and spread houses throughout the former Soviet Union.
Capitalism has made his work much easier. From within his black factories in
the Ukraine, Shaugnessi oversees what he views as the obvious extension of
the pioneer spirit, the total taming of the planet. Several lictors and
razides are aware of his plans but encourage him or allow him to go on for
various reasons.
PERSONALITY: Shaugnessi has a seeming open-mindedness and earnestness which
wins people to his side. In reality, every new piece of information he
processes only makes his conspiracy theories more elaborate. A sufferer from
early stages of black lung disease, he cannot acknowledge the pollution and
poisons of the work he oversees.
GAMEMASTERING HINTS: Be businesslike and deep-voiced, but periodically let a
moment of insecurity make you seem more human and vulnerable (you still
remember your early traumas). Be shrill, threaten violence when your
assumptions are seriously challenged.
AGL 13
STR 13
CON 8
COM 14
EGO 17
CHA 17
PER 11
EDU 18
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 85 kg
Movement: 6 m/combat round
Actions: 2
Initiative Bonus: +1
Damage Bonus: +2
Damage Capacity: 3 scratches=1 lw, 3 light wounds=1 sw, 2 serious
wounds=death
Endurance: 70
Mental Balance: -20
Dark Secrets: Supernatural Experience, Guilty of Crime
Advantages: Influential Friends, Enhanced Awareness
Disadvantages: Fanaticism, Nightmares, Manic-Depressive, Greedy
Skills: Information Retrieval 17, Russian 17, French 17, English 12, Net of
contacts: Russian mafia 17, Net of contacts: industrialists 17, Accounting
17, Diplomacy 17, Etiquette 17, Handgun 11, Drive Vehicle 11
Attack modes: according to weapon
Home: Moscow

THE NATURAL FULFILLMENT SOCIETY
Natural Fulfillment is a British group which started in the 1970s as a
service for jaded yuppies who wanted to experience the hippie commune life.
The society would take groups of people out into the wilderness, force them
to forage (aided by food brought back from the base camp if things went bad)
for a time, and teach them about nature. Many honeymoons were made on
Fulfillment tours. Peter Hamilton, a voyeur and then only a guide for the
business, noticed that couples seemed more sexually stimulated when camping
in certain parts of the country next to old standing stones. He gradually
became addicted to the stimulation and at one point finally murdered a woman
on the tour who threatened to have him arrested for rape. When investigating
his case, his employers noticed the effects of the stones. They gradually
became addicts themselves and re-organized the Society in the late '70s as
an overtly sexual group which made enormous amounts of money from mostly
rich clients. Crackdowns in the Margaret Thatcher era forced them to go
partly underground.
        Clients of the Society encounter a very smooth, professional
organization run out of the second floor of a good apartment building in
London. Videotapes and literature describe the Society in health-oriented,
_The Unbearable Lightness of Being_ terms, always following the latest
trends and jargon. Once clients are on tours, however, any doubts they have
about their slightly bestial guides are erased when they arrive in the deep
wilderness, entering parts of Gaia where their inhibitions and willpower are
broken and they participate in orgies and bestiality with the other society
members. Afterwards, Passion Magic causes any dissatisfied or horrified
members to forget their experiences, or failing that creates parallel
neuroses so that the insanity cannot be traced to the Society.
        The corporate board of the Society, and many of its repeat clients,
have lost memory and reasoning skills to Gaia, which they try to cover up
with drugs and therapy. Peter Hamilton, still a guide, is the most
degenerated, with a very low Mental Balance, barely present social skills,
and several subsidiary limbs growing in his crotch and waist region. He is
physically incapable of eating anything but raw meat. Some members have
tried to sue the Society after having deformed births from their sexual
encounters in Gaia, and the Society has used blackmail and intimidation to
keep them quiet. Several thousand people, many influential, are on the
Society mailing list.

THE AINU
The Ainu, a Japanese group of mountain-dwelling nature worshippers, have
dwindled in recent centuries but still exist. Since the 19th century they
have been assimilated into society, but now practice their religion as a
sect instead of a people -- with several magician-lictors among them
providing the upper ranks. 300 of them live in Hokkaido, and 100 in the
southern, more populated island of Japan.
        The Ainu philosophy considers humans and animals to be part of the
same spirit of life; humans do not have any innate importance. Therefore,
Ainu magicians have developed spells (in the Lore of Death) which allow
humans to be consistently resurrected into the bodies of animals. From this
experience, they believe, people will learn humility and respect for Nature.
They also try to preserve the sacredness of entrances to Gaia throughout
Japan. The Ainu are mostly an altruistic group, although they use magic
against their opponents.

HELEN VAUGHAN
"Here too was all the work by which man had been made, repeated before my
eyes. I saw the form waver from sex to sex, dividing itself from itself, and
then again reunited. Then I saw the body descend to the beasts whence it
ascended, and that which was on the heights go down to the depths, even to
the abyss of all being. The principle of life, which makes organism, always
remained, while the outward form changed."
-- Arthur Machen, THE GREAT GOD PAN

The entity called Helen Vaughan was released into the world in 1902, when an
Edwardian scientist broke the Illusion in a part of the Weir Wood and
unwittingly allowed a mute servant girl to be trapped there for hours. She
was impregnated by a horrible creature which left her catatonic, and died
giving birth to a precocious, normal-looking girl who seemed mute for years,
so spoke so little. Passed back and forth between upper-class orphanages and
foster homes, Vaughan grew into a beautiful woman, three of whose husbands
committed suicide or went mad on their wedding nights. When in 1940 her
apparent age of 21 was attracting attention, and several prominent
parapsychologists were found bloodily murdered after breaking into her
widow's apartment, she vanished and has only periodically been seen in
public since, spreading horror and depravity and keeping pace with the
times.
        Vaughan is one of several beings who could be considered an
Incarnate of Gaia, a human-appearing creature who roams Europe and America,
spreading tragedy by corrupting people and convincing them of the
worthlessness of their intelligence, their morals, and their civilized
beliefs. Physically, she is a very attractive, yet strangely repulsive woman
of 19 to 21, with dark hair, olive skin, and an indistinct Caucasian racial
appearance. When she wants to, she can have a very charming and expressive
personality, but frequently she is quiet and dismissive. Seen through the
Illusion, she looks no different, but her shadow has the shape of a giant
horned beast. Humans with a negative Mental Balance in her vicinity act as
if their Mental Balance was 25 points lower.
        Vaughan has access to many sources of money, and generally wears
good clothes of whatever era or country she is in. She particularly likes
dark dresses. She rarely has need for other equipment and never uses
conventional weapons. She has several passports and the savoir faire to get
more, and travels under varous aliases all with the initials "H.V.". Vaughan
is more powerful than a lictor, and they allow her to roam as she chooses.
        If attacked, Vaughan usually flees if she does not expect to be able
to kill all her attackers. In battle, however, and in sex she can change
into a loathsome true form; a constantly changing mass of black jelly,
altering into freakish bat-like and goat-like forms and masses of
pseudopods. She can change her age and sex at will (as a man she may still
be recognizable to those who know her), and when inhuman can double or halve
her mass and size. She disdains physical violence, preferring to tempt
others into committing suicide or despicable acts. Sometimes she will
teasingly reveal her origins or her seemingly endless store of knowledge to
try to cause such acts in others.
        (Helen Vaughan is taken from the story THE GREAT GOD PAN by Arthur
Machen.)
PERSONALITY: Helen Vaughan's thoughts are unknowable; in a great way, she/it
shares the consciousness of Gaia, which sometimes distracts her or makes her
act irrationally. She feels a warm, exultant superiority over human beings
and lictors alike. She views death, like sex, as a transformation; both are
welcome, even inevitable. Her intellectual side enjoys playing with words
and subtle distinctions.
GAMEMASTERING HINTS: Look coldly at the players, do not move your face much.
Occasionally break out in a wide-eyed smile and talk pleasantly but quickly
in a quiet, nonaggressive voice.
AGL 42
STR 39
CON 50
COM 30 (1)
EGO 40
CHA 20
PER 25
EDU 22
Terror Throw Modification: +10 when transformed
Height: 160 cm (variable)
Weight: 55 kg
Communication: Speaks all human languages.
Senses: Acute. Sees auras and Mental Balance.
Movement: 20 m/combat round
Actions: 6
Initiative Bonus: +30
Damage Bonus: +10
Damage Capacity: 11 scratches=1 lw, 10 light wounds=1 sw, 8 serious wounds=1
fw. Dies after 3 fatal wounds.
Endurance: 280
Natural armor: none
Skills: Seduction 30, Savoir Faire 30, Etiquette 20, Man of the World 30,
Survival 40, Gambling 20, Dancing 30, Riding 30, Acting 30, Hide 30,
Occultism 30, Parapsychology 30, Style 30
Powers: Enhanced Senses, Infrared Vision, Hunting Vision, Regeneration,
Infinite Endurance, Resistant to Poison, Shapechange
Weaknesses: Vulnerable to Radioactivity
Attack modes: Claws 20 (scr 1-8, lw 9-14, sw 14-19, fw 20+), Tentacle 20
(scr 1-7, lw 8-13, sw 14-18, fw 19+), Hooves 30 (scr. 1-9, lw. 10-14, sw.
15-22, fw. 23+), when transformed
Magic: Masters the Lore of Passions as an Awakened human; no need for
rituals or Endurance loss.
Home: Europe

INHABITANTS OF GAIA
There is a literally infinite variety of monsters in Gaia, and the following
list describes only a few. The GM is encouraged to make up their own beings,
using the brief notes provided in the place descriptions if they like. Some
of these creatures are expansions of those notes; others are new.

PLANTS
        * Gaian Man-Traps
        * Mycelites
        * Cnidarian Plants
        * Verrucktpflanze
        * Hounds of the Hedges

GAIAN MAN-TRAPS
This is a catch-all category for the many variations of this species which
inhabit the Jungle. Man-traps are giant plants, rising out of a hillock of
their own roots to a height of several feet. The top half of the plant is a
profusion of green leaves and vines (which sometimes pulse with a bloodlike
substance), and pitcher-plant-like blooms that are curved into shapes like
flutes or mouthes. 2D3 long tentacles grow from the middle of the plant,
resembling six-inch-thick blackberry vines covered with thorns. Most species
have no face or head per se, though the center of the plant rises into a
noticeable lump. The brain-center of the plant is at least a foot below the
skin, down among the roots.
        The plants can move slowly along its roots. The blooms can emit
music and mimic the sounds of animals to attract prey. With experience, they
can even imitate mechanical sounds (such as gunfire) and human shouts and
sobs. Meanwhile, the tentacles -- which have a range equal to half the
plant's STR in meters -- slowly close in, often creeping underground or from
behind, using their extreme length to their advantage. (Roll the Man-Trap's
Sneak skill against the prey's PER.) The tentacles then strike, either
grappling the victims or slashing them with thorns. When a victim is caught,
the plant can bring another tentacle to bear, grinding them like a vise. The
resultant damage releases showers of blood, which are rapidly absorbed.
        Individual tentacles are disabled by a Fatal Wound, which does not
count against the plant's central body. They have 5 points of armor and can
Dodge with a skill of 20 when not grappling prey.
        After the blood is drained, the corpse is used as bait for
predators. The Man-Trap can also dig one of its tentacles into the spinal
column of prey and speak with their voice. They range from clever to
extremely intelligent and malicious, and some of them even form elaborate
plans to break into the Illusion to feed.
        Some subspecies of this plant have one or more large mouthes similar
to the Venus Flytrap which can bite prey and make simple conversation. In
these cases, the brain of the plant is still in the roots, and is not harmed
by the loss of its mouthpiece.
AGL 3D10+10 (26)
STR 4D10 (22)
CON 4D10+30 (52)
EGO 1D3x1D10 (5-16)
PER 1D10 (5)
Terror Throw Modification: --
Width: 300 cm
Weight: 200 kg
Senses: Excellent smell and hearing, infrared vision. No normal vision.
Feels vibrations through earth (such as footsteps) in a EGOx10 meter radius.
Movement: 2 m/round (4 m/round through mud)
Actions: 4
Initiative Bonus: +14
Damage Bonus: +6
Damage Capacity: 11 scratches=1 lw, 10 light wounds=1 sw, 8 serious
wounds=dead.
Endurance: 340
Natural Armor: 5 points of tough skin
Skills: Sneak 25, Mimic Sounds 16, Dodge (tentacles only) 20
Attack Modes:   2d3 tentacles 17 (scr 1-6, lw 7-12, sw 13-17, fw 18+).
Tentacles can either cause grappling or wound damage.
                        Maw 12 (scr 1-4, lw 5-10, sw 11-15, fw 16+)
Magic: Mantraps with an EGO of 20 or higher sometimes know elementary
Passion Magic at a score equal to their EGO. They can crosspollinate with
plants within the Illusion, effectively forming an 'Incarnate' which can
take many forms.
Home: The Jungle
Number Encountered: 1

MYCELITES
The Mycelites are some of the only creatures from Gaia to successfully incur
into Metropolis. They are a white fungus which grows in dumpling- or
bole-like clusters, composed of a spongy material which tears easily but
releases millions of spores. If eaten it is nourishing and has a sweet,
bread-like taste.
        The touch of Mycelites is contagious. Anyone who eats the Mycelites
is infected from _within_; the infection is first visible in the tongue and
throat, by which time the damage is already irreparable. At this point, the
victim begins to cough up balls of fungus, Mycelite boles, which adhere to
any available surface. Their own limbs become fungus, and they may be
possessed by an urge to eat portions of their own transformed body. These
victims are a gruesome sight, ranging from people covered in white fuzz to
shapeless gray masses which do not appear to have human form. Finally the
victim simply collapses into rot.
        The presence of Mycelites has a positive effect on the growth of
fungus in the Illusion, which triples in growth and adaptability in a 100'
radius.
        (Mycelites are taken from a short story by William Hope Hodgson.)
STR: 1
AGL: 1
CON 3D10+10 (26)
EGO 1
PER 1D5 (3)
Terror Throw Modification: -5
Height: varies
Weight: varies
Senses: Detects Body Heat and Organic Matter.
Movement: 1 m/round
Actions: 1
Initiative Bonus: none
Damage Bonus: none
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 4 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: unlimited
Natural Armor: Invulnerable to normal weapons (can be killed by fire, acid,
cold, electricity, etc.)
Attack Modes: Touch 5 (scr. 1-13, lw 14-24, sw 25-30, fw 31+). The touch
does minimal damage, but if it penetrates armor, the bodypart which is hit
must roll for infection by Mycelite spores.
MYCELITE SPORES
The spores' potency (amount of CON loss) is 1d10 normally, but 3d10 if
ingested instead of merely touched. After infection of the entire body is
complete, the victim will remain alive for 2d10 days, albeit covered in
fungus. Being completely covered with fungus requires a Terror Throw at +10
effect. Having an arm or leg be completely infected requires a Terror Thow
at +5 effect. Arm or leg infection can be treated by professional medical
help or acids/poisons (which may also harm the victim); full-body infection
is fatal. It is impossible to treat mouth/tongue infection once it is
visible.
CON Loss: 1d10 (CON=0, infection of the entire body within 1d10 days;
CON=1/3, infection of the effected bodypart (or mouth/tongue) within 1d10
days; if allowed to continue, infection of the entire body within an
additional 1d10 days; CON=1/2, itching and infection of the effected
bodypart within 1d10 days; CON=2/3, no effect.)
Home: Metropolis, the Subterranean Wood, Islands in Gaia
Number Encountered: 5d10 (27)

CNIDARIAN PLANTS
Cnidarian Plants grow in those parts of Gaia bordering Sumatra and
Polynesia. They are large pitcher-plants, composed of green vines and
tendrils supporting a heavy grayish or yellowish pitcher as big as 2 1/2
feet long. Unlike most pitcher plants, however, no flies or bugs can be seen
swarming around their cup. Instead, their cup serves a defensive function.
        The Cnidarian Plant can sense when prey approaches. The pitcher
swivels in the direction of prey and fires a jet of acid up to 5 meters
away. They often target the head (-6 to hit). The steaming, hissing
greenish-yellow stream is comparable in power and velocity to a firehose of
hydrochloric acid. It takes the Cnidarian Plant 5 rounds or less to recharge
between shots (trauma speeds up the process; for every light or serious
wound it takes in the course of the 5-round period, subtract 1 from the
waiting time for that period). The plant is stationary and has no other
defenses, but its skin is extremely tough.
        The Plants supplement their photosynthesis by absorbing the
acid-eaten bodies of passers-by (through their roots). The acid smells so
putrid that other creatures will not touch the corpses.
AGL: 2d10 (11)
STR: 2d10 (11)
CON: 3d10 (16)
EGO: 1
PER: 3d10 (16)
Terror Throw Modification: -5
Initiative Bonus: none
Movement: none
Endurance: unlimited
Attack Mode:    Acid Stream 20 (scr. 1-4, lw. 5-7, sw. 8-13, fw. 14+)
                        (Only usable once per 5 rounds or less (see above)).
Natural Armor: 10 pts. Immune to acid.
Damage Capacity: 5 scratches=1 lw, 4 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious wounds=1
fw
Senses: Radar. Excellent hearing. Feels vibrations through the soil at a 10
meter radius.
Home: The Jungle.
Number Encountered: 1d10 (5).

HOUNDS OF THE HEDGES
These strange beings, like the Barometh or vegetable lamb, represent a
balance of the plant and animal kingdoms. They resemble large canines --
beagles or corgis -- formed out of grass, clover, and other common plants,
intertwined in a way that resembles organs, muscles, and hair. Aphids and
other small, harmless bugs live symbiotically with the hounds. Their saliva
is chlorophyll, and their sweat is dew.
        The Hounds are rare, nonaggressive creatures who live by
photosynthesis alone. They are friendly to humans, although they resist
being captured or trained, and can bite or scratch if necessary. They cannot
be killed by normal weapons; arms, legs and head will continue living if
severed, and will eventually join together or regenerate into a new animal.
Home: The Elysian Fields
Number Encountered: 1

VERRUCKTPFLANZE
The Verrucktpflanze are the origins of the legends of fairy fruit. A green,
grapevine-like, stationary plant, it grows copious berries which resemble
round, blue-purple strawberries. The berries are edible and delicious, but
powerfully addictive. After they have been eaten, the victim must make an
EGO roll against the plant's EGO of 3d10 or they will be haunted by the
taste of the fruit and vow to taste the Verrucktpflanze again. If they are
unable to do so, they will grow disgusted by the taste of all other food and
drink; to them, everything will taste like the berries, and the taste will
grow increasingly rotten. Eventually the victim refuses all nourishment and
will starve to death. They can be cured by being given the merest taste of
the Verrucktpflanze, which will allow them another EGO roll against 3d10 to
avoid falling into the same cycle of addiction.
        When consumed in combination with other substances, the
Verrucktpflanze has powerful magical effects and can improve the casting of
Dream and Delirium rituals. The Sidhe, and certain species of goblin-like
beings native to Gaia, are immune to its negative effects and often tempt
humans with it. The plants themeselves have a dim, creeping intelligence and
may have more control over the minds of their victims than simple addiction.
EGO (POT): 3d10
Home: The Jungle, The Elysian Fields, The Weir Wood
        (The Verrucktpflanze were originally used in the rules I wrote up
for the Lore of Delirium. The statistics printed here are a little different
and don't necessarily supersede the older ones.)

ANIMALS & MONSTERS
        * Harrows
        * Aeolites
        * Parazoocytes
        * Hidebehinds
        * Colacathant
        * Nonochtos

HARROWS
On the borders of Gaia and Metropolis these predatory machines can be found.
Harrows are created by lictors from blueprints found in the Machine City, to
keep the wild growth of Gaia under control. Razides also use them as
footsoldiers. In the Illusion they look like bulldozers or forklifts. Beyond
the Illusion they look like metal things resembling a cross between
bulldozers and humans on all fours, with an organic throat and mouth inside
which can be seen "teeth" composed of bloodstained chainsaws.
        Harrows eat anything alive, including trees, and excrete small items
of consumer culture: chocolates, keychains, suntan lotion, anything useless
and inexpensive. The waste products are later collected by serviliants or
humans with mental constrictions and sold. Permanent groups of Harrows
patrol the Amazon basin, India and parts of the American Midwest.
AGL 2D10 (11)
STR 4D10+10 (32)
CON 3D10+10 (26)
EGO 1D3 (2)
PER 1D10 (5)
Terror Throw Modification: +5
Length: 210 cm
Weight: 100 kg
Senses: Poor. Infrared vision, detects sudden movement.
Movement: 5 m/combat round
Actions: 2
Initiative Bonus: none
Damage Bonus: +5
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 4 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: infinite
Natural Armor: 6 points of tough metal and muscle
Attack Modes: Chainsaws 10 (scr 1-5, lw 6-9, sw 10-14, fw 15+)
Home: Metropolis, the Perverted Earth
Number Encountered: 2d10 (11)

AEOLITES
The Aeolites resemble parrot-like 2' tall birds carved out of transparent
soap; their skin is grey and gelatinous, with few internal organs. Although
birds, they have teeth inside their beaks. They live in hordes near the
Aeolian Harps, where they squat like gargoyles or the babies in drawings by
H.R. Giger. Aeolites repeat the strange, guttural noises emitted by the
Harps, and add their own embellishments and screeches, making the music all
the more disturbing. For every 30 minutes of exposure to Aeolite-song,
humans with a Mental Balance of less than 100 lose one point of MB, until
down to -50.
        When five or more Aeolites are present for each human, they will
begin to bawl. The bawling and bellowing sounds, produced in unison, are
deafening; it is also a hideous noise that requires a Terror Throw from
listeners, even in reproduction (i.e., on tape, etc.) Every round that the
Aeolites bawl, humans within 100 feet must make a CON roll or lost one point
of PER. The CON roll is at +1 penalty for every five Aeolites over the
initial five (note that Aeolites brood in the hundreds in parts of the
Carpathian mountains). After PER reaches zero, the human is deafened. Every
round following, they must make a CON roll or one point of the PER loss is
permanent. (Outside of the range of the Aeolites, temporary PER loss returns
to normal in 1d20 hours.) When brought to permanent zero PER, the victims'
ears look crushed and flattened, almost liquefied. Aeolites also dive-bomb
and bite prey. They eat flesh, especially ear tissue, but some say they
truly live off their victims' screams.
        Aeolites are difficult to kill. Any portion of an Aeolite remains
alive and moving, and will eventually regenerate, as long as there is more
than 30 decibels of noise in the vicinity, although dismembered Aeolites can
no longer make noise.
AGL 3D10 (16)
STR 1D5 (3)
CON 2D10 (11)
EGO 1D3 (2)
PER 2D10+10 (21)
Terror Throw Modification: -10
Height: 55 cm
Weight: 15 kg
Senses: Good, especially their hearing. Echolocation.
Movement: 8 m/combat round (flying)
Actions: 3
Initiative Bonus: +4
Damage Bonus: none
Damage Capacity: 4 scratches=1 lw, 3 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious wounds=1
fw. Aeolites cannot die permanently unless it is quiet; dismembered Aeolites
reform in 2d10 rounds.
Endurance: 85
Natural Armor: none
Attack Modes: Bite 10 (scr 1-8, lw 9-16, sw 17-26, fw 27+), Bellowing
(special; victim must make CON rolls or loses one PER each round).
Home: The Carpathians
Number Encountered: 3d10 (16) and up

PARAZOOCYTES
These odious creatures live in dank, wet parts of Gaia. They resemble giant
(horse-sized) gray-green slugs with a yellow shell made out of ribcage-like
bone and tendon. Their heads consist of only a single eyestalk, several feet
long, with a small lump beneath it.
        Parazoocytes are deceptively slow-looking. When attacked, they turn
their cyclopean eye to face the predator, and emit a stream of poison out of
a gland in their eyestalk. The curare-like poison causes localized paralysis
in the area which is struck (a fatal hit to the head or chest results in
inability to breathe, and quick death). The lump beneath their eye opens
into a triangular mouth, with which they attack and do biting damage. Their
eyestalk can be struck (treat as a hit to the head; a serious wound severs
it) but will grow back within an hour.
AGL 2D10+10 (21)
STR 5D10+10 (37)
CON 2D10+10 (21)
EGO 1
PER 3D10 (16)
Terror Throw Modification: -10
Length: 240 cm
Weight: 140 kg
Senses: Poor
Movement: 4 m/round (moves slower than it reacts)
Actions: 4
Initiative Bonus: +9
Damage Bonus: +7
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: 190
Natural Armor: 4 points of hide
Attack Modes: Spray Fluid 16 (poison damage, see below), Bite 10 (scr 1-9,
lw 10-17, sw 18-27, fw 28+)
PARALYZING FLUID
CON Loss: 3D10 (CON=0, localized paralysis for several hours; CON=1/3,
localized paralysis for 1 hour, CON=1/2 localized paralysis for 1d10 rounds,
CON=2/3 cramps, stiffness.)
Home: Underground, the Subterranean Wood, the Fogbound Coast
Number Encountered: 1d5 (3)

HIDEBEHINDS
The Hidebehind is a folk tale in the Ozarks. It dwells in forests, where it
hides behind trees, following its prey for days. Under no circumstances does
the Hidebehind attack prematurely. In fact, it wants its victims to know
they are being stalked.
        The Hidebehind is a telepathic thing which becomes increasingly
powerful, uglier and taller as its prey become more scared. When it first
encounters a victim (Terror Throw at -5 if seen), it is in its basic shape:
a pale, hunched thing, 150 cm tall, with an owl-like, staring face, and
claws. As time passes and its prey becomes more frightened, it becomes
larger and more powerful. When it requires a straight Terror Throw to see,
it has elongated to 180 cm tall, its hands and claws become more splayed and
rounded, and its face becomes uglier and flatter. When it requires a +5
Terror Throw to see, it is 210 cm tall, its face is unspeakably hideous, its
legs are stalks, and its bones and tendons are now visible under a thin
layer of dead white skin. It can grow as unpleasant as the GM wants it to
be.
        In game terms, each time the Hidebehind's prey fails a Terror Throw
due to the creature, it metamorphoses over a period of hours into a stronger
creature, gaining 5 points in AGL, STR and CON to a maximum of three growth
stages. Its Terror Throw modifier also changes, going from -5 to +5 (the
Terror Throw has only two growth stages). After it eats its prey, or if it
loses its prey for a period of more than a week, it reverts to its original
state.
        Nominally a mammal, the Hidebehind buries its broods of 4-6 young
underground, where they lie in pits waiting for passerby.
        (Hidebehinds are taken from a story by Manly Wade Wellman.)
AGL 2D10 to 2D10+15 (11 to 26)
STR 2D10 to 2D10+15 (11 to 26)
CON 3D10 to 3D10+15 (16 to 31)
EGO 1D10 (6)
PER 1D10+10 (15)
Terror Throw Modification: -5 to +5 (see above)
Height: varies (150-225 cm)
Weight: 65 kg
Senses: Acute. Hunting vision. Telepathy which lets it know where its victim
is.
Movement: 11 m/round
Actions: 4
Initiative Bonus: varies
Damage Bonus: varies
Damage Capacity: 5 scratches=1 lw, 4 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious
wounds=death
Endurance: 110
Natural Armor: None
Skills: Sneak 30, Hide 30, Ambush 30, Track 20
Attack Modes: 2 Claws (scr 1-7, lw 8-14, sw 15-19, fw 20+)
Home: The Weir Wood, The Carpathians
Number Encountered: 1

COLACATHANT
These 12' long predators look most like a cross between large, prehistoric
crocodiles and a Dimetrodon. Their blue or green skin varies in roughness,
from an almost impenetrable armor on their backs to a scaly but weaker skin
over their bellies. Their fist-sized eyes are sunken beneath bony ridges,
but can extend out, giving them a bug-eyed appearance. Two large fins
protrude from their backs. By flapping these, they can leap for great
distances.
AGL 1D10+10 (15)
STR 8D10+30 (74)
CON 6D10+20 (53)
EGO 1
PER 2D10 (11)
Terror Throw Modification: --
Length: 400 cm
Weight: 220 kg
Senses: No color vision; good hearing and smell
Movement: 7 m/round; 14 m/round (swimming); leap up to 20 m once per five
rounds
Actions: 2
Initiative Bonus: +3
Damage Bonus: +10
Damage Capacity: 12 scratches=1 lw, 11 light wounds=1 sw, 9 serious wounds=1
fw. Dies after 2 fatal wounds.
Endurance: 195
Natural Armor: 7 points of flak-jacket scales on their back; none on
underside
Attack Modes: Wing-Beat 20 (all creatures within a 10-meter radius must make
STR rolls with normal or better effect or be knocked down), Bite 19 (scr
1-4, lw 5-8, sw 9-14, fw 15+)
Home: The Jungle, Pangaea, The Dark River
Number Encountered: 1d3 (2)

NONOCHTOS
        Grayish-pink, four-legged lizards the size of small ponies, the
Nonochtos are essentially unintelligent animals. They eat insects, and only
attack larger creatures in self-defense, using their sharp teeth. They are
sought by humans for their 'milk' -- a white substance which drips from an
udder on the underside of the Nonochtos' body.
        Nonochtos' milk has several effects. It improves the effects of
Schizophrenia or Enhanced Awareness, making the drinker more likely to see
through the Illusion. It causes feelings of manic euphoria which develop
over time into Megalomania (-10). And lastly, it is extremely addictive,
causing the victim to require more and more 'milk'. As the addict becomes
more insane, they soon desire no other food or drink, and if their Mental
Balance is low enough to cause physical changes, they eventually wither into
a small homunculus which becomes attached to the Nonochtos and finally is
absorbed into its udder.
Home: The Jungle, Delirium
        (The Nonochtos were originally used in the rules I wrote up for the
Lore of Delirium. The description printed here is a little different and
doesn't necessarily supersede the earlier ones.)

HUMANOIDS
        * Hesperides
        * Sidhe
        * Hafgygr
        * Ghouls
        * Fenrir

HESPERIDES
Nude, human-sized creatures, they resemble a human whose upper body and
shoulders turn into the swollen head of a tapir or hedgehog. Their bodies
are dirty and hairy, and the upper regions are covered with sharp quills and
needle-like protrusions. The two-foot-long hedgehog-head has a narrow, ugly
mouth, and the eyes are empty sockets, which dribble pus; its skin has an
unhealthy appearance.
        Hesperides used to be our groundskeepers and companions in the
Garden of Eden, but in our absence they have become diseased and warped.
When they see humans they become obedient, in their way, but their
recreations of the hunts and feasts that were held in Gaia are now
frightening to us, and in any case the magic can hardly be performed by the
now rotting Hesperides. Their frustration drives them to terrible acts of
cruelty against the other beings of Gaia.
AGL 3D10 (16)
STR 4D10 (22)
CON 3D10+5 (21)
EGO 3D10 (16)
PER 2D10 (11)
Terror Throw Modification: --
Height: 200 cm
Weight: 75 kg
Communication: Sign language. Speaks to and understands all animals.
Understands all human languages.
Senses: Infrared vision only; no standard vision. Other senses average.
Movement: 8 m/round
Actions: 3
Initiative Bonus: +4
Damage Bonus: +4
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious
wounds=dead.
Endurance: 135
Natural Armor: 2 points of spiny hide.
Powers: Infrared Vision, Resistant to Poison
Skills: Fertility Rites 11, Spear 20, Bow 20, Throwing Weapon 20, Track 20
Attack Modes: 2 Claws 16 (scr 1-10, lw 11-16, sw 17-22, fw 23+), Bite 10
(scr 1-8, lw 9-14, sw 15-18, fw 19+), or by weapon
Magic: 1 out of 5 Hesperides know the Lore of Passion and several spells
(including ritual spells not listed in the rulebook) equal to their EGO.
Hesperides must make a CON roll with Effect equal to the level of the spell
for the spells to work; otherwise their bodily corruption causes the spell
to succeed only partly in some way determined by the GM.
Home: The Elysian Fields, The Weir Wood
Number Encountered: 1d5 (3)

SIDHE
Less than six inches tall, they resemble fairies; unnaturally slender,
female-appearing (though commonly hermaphroditic) humans. Delicate fly
wings, blue-black and glistening, grow out of their shoulders and the
underside of their arms. They are neither plant nor animal and live
partially on photosynthesis. Their skin is a green or brown tinge, and their
hair resembles plant matter or grass. They are often beautiful by human
standards, with slightly Oriental features and large eyes.
        Like flies, the Sidhe eat by vomiting upon material, which then
melts enough for them to consume it. They breed in stagnant water; their
young are larvae covered with bristly appendages, unrecognizable as the same
species as the adults. Alluring glows, like will-o-the-wisps, hover over
these pools.
        The Sidhe are creatures of dreams and passion, who have no
allegiance to us. They carry out rituals and romances under the bark of
trees and in remote locations lit by the light of putrefying bodies. The
Sidhe like to collect human blood and breath for unknowable purposes, and
will trade with a traveller or trick them utterly and fatally.
AGL 4D10 (22)
STR 1D3 (2)
CON 2D10+10 (21)
EGO 3D10+10 (26)
PER 4D10 (22)
Terror Throw Modification: -5
Height: 10 cm
Weight: 2 kg
Senses: Acute. Sees in infrared and ultraviolet. Sees auras. Limited ability
to see through solid objects.
Movement: 11 m/round
Actions: 4
Initiative Bonus: +10
Damage Bonus: +1
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: 155
Natural Armor: none
Powers: Telekinesis, Eternal Youth
Weaknesses: Sensitive to iron, Sensitive to electricity
Skills: Rhetoric 16, Occultism 16, Erotica 16, Sneak 20, Hide 25, Natural
Science 20, Drugs and Poisons 20, Dodge 25
Attack Modes: Blowgun 16 (scr 1-14, lw 15-25, sw 26-34, fw 35+). Blown darts
are usually poisoned with any of a variety of substances.
Magic: All Sidhe have a score of their EGO in either the Lore of Dreams, the
Lore of Passion, or both.
Home: The Weir Wood
Number Encountered: 1d10+10 (15)

HAFGYGR
The origin of the Grendel legend, Hafgygr are apelike things eight feet tall
which live in swamps, rivers and fens. Their bodies covered with hair,
either white or black, usually slick with water and knotted with briars and
thistles. Their deformed, Neanderthalish faces lack a nose, and they have a
great maw with sharp teeth, the size of a goosefish's jaws. Their eyes glow
redly in the dark. They can hold their breath for several minutes, although
they cannot breathe water. The underparts of their body are usually covered
with leeches.
        Like Jenny Greenteeth and other water monsters, Hayfgygr are
attracted to gaps in the Illusion by movement or noise above water, where
they then surface to attack prey. They eat meat and sometimes use primitive
weapons such as wooden clubs wielded in their enormously powerful arms. The
females are more aggressive and intelligent than the males.
AGL 3D10 (16)
STR 4D10+20 (42)
CON 4D10+10 (32)
EGO 1D5 (3)
PER 2D10 (11)
Terror Throw Modification: --
Height: 300 cm
Weight: 110 kg
Senses: No smell; good eyesight, particularly under water and through
darkness.
Movement: 8 m/round; 12 m/round swimming
Actions: 3
Initiative Bonus: +4
Damage Bonus: +8
Damage Capacity: 7 scratches=1 lw, 6 light wounds=1 sw, 5 serious
wounds=dead.
Endurance: 240
Natural Armor: none
Skills: Swim 20
Attack Modes: 2 Hands 16 (scr 1-9, lw 10-15, sw 16-24, fw 25+), Bite 16 (scr
1-7, lw 8-12, sw 13-18, fw 19+)
Home: The Weir Wood, The Dark River
Number Encountered: 1

GHOULS (described in the text)
Ghouls have lived among humans in Egypt and the Middle East since the dawn
of Time. Corpse-eating scavengers, they are nonetheless highly intelligent
and attracted to the trappings of human society. They do not often fight
openly, but prefer to waylay lone travellers, or to break into freshly dug
graves. They live on the borders of Gaia, the Labyrinth, and the Illusion,
finding their way through a network of catacombs and rituals similar to
those used by the insane.
        Their faces vary greatly. Some resemble jackals or bats; others
resemble dried-up human corpses. Some of them have a huge hump of fatty
flesh and blood, like an enormous scar, where their nose and forehead would
be. (Like a camel's, the hump provides nourishment.) Their pupilless eyes
can see in complete darkness, and their tiny nostrils have excellent smell.
Their skin is leathery and resistant to sand, with great burrowing claws on
their hands and feet. Their lipless mouthes expose their teeth and their
long, flickering tongues.
        Ghouls are crafty, treacherous, and irreverent, and sometimes can be
dealt with through bribery or diplomacy. They can use tools and learn human
languages. They usually wear white wrappings or bandages to protect
themselves from the heat of the desert; with human clothes, some of them can
pass for human at a distance. In the past they posed as beggars and
outcasts; nowadays many of them take a more violent approach bearing
submachine guns and automatic weapons stolen from military forces in the
Middle East.
Home: Metropolis, The Labyrinth, The Empty Quarter
        (The ghouls described here are mostly inspired by H.P. Lovecraft,
but research into the traditional ghoul of the Middle East should provide a
regional focus and a distinction.)

FENRIR (described in the text)
These savage quasi-human beasts are the primary origin of the werewolf myth.
They are the outcome of inbreeding and cruelty, coupled with an obscure form
of pre-Christian shamanism, which was passed on among Russian nobles
throughout the Middle Ages. The Lictors decided to eliminate the Fenrir
problem in the late 19th century, and they have not been seen within the
Illusion since the Russian Revolution.
        Fenrir appear as giant furry humanoids with the heads and claws of
wolves. Their hair is white or gray to blend in with their arctic
environment. Their eyes are solid black. They run in hunting packs
across the ice, some on two legs, some on four.
Each pack is ruled by the oldest, strongest member. The
soles of their feet are broad, like snowshoes, and spiked to cause more
damage in combat and ensure safe footing on the ice. They can sometimes
speak a few words of human languages, albeit in a horrifying, baying voice.
As they grow older, their fur becomes thicker, and their muscles and
skeleton become less like a human's and more like an enormous wolf's. They
sometimes mate with humans to keep their breeding stock fresh. After
generations of degeneracy, heir only goals are to breed, survive and kill,
although they also take pleasure in torture. Sometimes one of their kind
demonstrates atavistic qualities of higher-level intelligence. It is said
that the hearts of the oldest Fenrir are frozen in their chests, making them
unkillable except by fire.
        Fenrir can emit clouds of frost from their mouth and nostrils to
incapacitate prey. The range is only four feet, approximately, but in close
combat the intense cold (humid, and below -150 degrees Farenheit), coupled
with the innate toxins of the Fenrirs' saliva, can blind, shock and even
flash-freeze parts of their prey. Needless to say, the Fenrir are immune to
cold.
HOME: The Cold
        (Note that this follows the rules for the 1st edition, where
"Wolven" are distinctly _not_ werewolves, unlike the 2nd edition Player's
Handbook where they are.)

HUMANS IN GAIA
While in Gaia, humans die from violent shock, and gain or lose Mental
Balance, just as they do elsewhere. They do not often die of old age,
however, as they are more likely to de-evolve into another form over the
course of years, unless they are already very old when they enter Gaia, or
if they have some magic which spares them from Gaia's effects. Once a human
begins the cycle of de-evolving into mindless protoplasm and back again
(each cycle of which takes several decades), they can theoretically live
forever unless they are killed  by another creature -- although in Gaia this
is almost assured. Once they are killed, their soul will re-enter the cycle
of Heaven, Hell or rebirth as if they had died within the Illusion.
        Normally it is impossible to retain one's memories and consciousness
while undergoing the evolutionary cycle, but the Ainu and certain other
tribal magicians know methods which sometimes work.
        * Survivors
        * Children of Gaia
        * Lukundoo

SURVIVORS
It takes a strong person to survive in the endless wilderness, and madness
can provide strength. Humans of Mental Balance below 75, but not quite
Furies, often take a new form which allows them to compete with the other
animals, on the terms of survival of the fittest.
        Survivors maintain something of the original determination and
memories which allowed them to live, but their bodies are altered. Their
skin becomes hard, armored or leathery like a rhinoceros'. Their facial
features become coarser and blunter, often resembling a shark or a bug, and
their teeth become a rasp-like or saw-like contraption to enable them to
feed more effectively. Their muscle structure becomes wildly exaggerated.
They move quickly, but stiffly and mechanically, and in the end may gain
metal and cybernetic parts as well; as their gear from the Illusion fails,
they grow extra bodyparts to replace it (i.e., a hand becoming a survival
knife). Survivors are paranoid and ruthless. When they escape from Gaia, or
find what they are searching for, their lives usually end bloodily shortly
afterward as realization of their physical alterations catches up to them.
AGL 2D10+10 (21)
STR 4D10 (22)
CON 2D10+20 (31)
COM 1D5 (3)
EGO 2D10 (11)
CHA 1D5 (3)
PER 2D10+5 (16)
EDU 1D3 (2)
Terror Throw Modification: --
Height: 200 cm
Weight: 80 kg
Communication: One language at skill score equal to their EGO.
Senses: As human. Improved smell.
Movement: 10 m/round
Actions: 4
Initiative Bonus: +9
Damage Bonus: +5
Damage Capacity: 7 scratches=1 lw, 6 light wounds=1 sw, 4 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: 155
Natural Armor: 1d10 (5) points of hardened skin
Mental Balance: -50-(9d10) (-95)
Advantages: Endure Hunger/Thirst, Endure Pain
Disadvantages: Rationalist, Touchy, Mental Constrictions (physical changes),
Depression, Forgotten, Death Wish, Animal Enmity, Rage
Powers: Protective Skin, Natural Weapons, Regeneration, (some) Hunting
Vision, Fast Reactions, Enhanced Senses
Weaknesses: Hunting Instinct, Cannibalism, Inhuman Appearance
Skills: Track 16, Sneak 16, Survival 20, Unarmed Combat 20 (or Martial Arts)
Attack Modes: Unarmed Combat 20, Fangs 15 (scr 1-6, lw 7-12, sw 13-17, fw
18+)

CHILDREN OF GAIA
Nothing is wasted in Gaia. Reproductive fluid that falls on fertile ground
-- or is absorbed by the living earth in the course of eating a being -- can
germinate, forming the Children of Gaia.
        The Children of Gaia are composed of clay, sod and dirt, itself
alive in a meatlike fashion. 1-5 are born from a given batch, all of which
share group Telepathy. On the outside they look like normal, if somewhat
filthy, humans, identical to the person who sired them (though they may be
of a different sex, or a younger age). Their hair is not composed of
individual strands, rather of a solid mass of fleshlike substance. If killed
they collapse into dirt and mud. They have no souls.
        The Children of Gaia understand Gaia in a way humans cannot. Most
are merely clever animals, though some of them develop split personalities
instead, still believing themselves human. The normal ones encourage humans
to de-evolve and degrade inside Gaia; they take a childlike, polymorphously
perverse pleasure in tormenting their parents. They have a short lifespan
(1d3 weeks) after which they become a heap of compost-like, cannibalistic
soil; further crossbreeds from the same stock may create even more
human-like Children, and the Children are not unwilling to try.
AGL 3D10 (16)
STR 3D10 (16)
CON 2D10+10 (21)
COM as parent
EGO 1D10 (5)
CHA 1D10 (5)
PER 2D10 (11)
EDU 0
Terror Throw Modification: n/a
Height: varies
Weight: varies
Senses: As human. Understands physical disorders and conditions on a
cellular level. Knows when the Living Earth will move or attack.
Movement: 8 m/round
Actions: 3
Initiative Bonus: +4
Damage Bonus: +3
Damage Capacity: 6 scratches=1 lw, 5 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious wounds=1
fw
Endurance: 155
Natural Armor: none
Weaknesses: Controlled by external force (Gaia)
Attack Modes: Unarmed Combat 16
Home: Gaia
Number Encountered: 1d10 (5)

LUKUNDOO
Among the tribal peoples of the world, a cult of magicians exists that dares
to understand Gaia. It's not a true organization as much as a phenomenon
which has developed simultaneously in many places, particularly in South and
Central America and Australia.
        Lukundoo can sometimes be distinguished from other shamans by the
fact that their fetishes and animal totems, although nominally corpses and
furs, sometimes exhibit signs of life. They study the primal essence of
Gaia, and seek to give their bodies and souls up to it, usually with passion
magic and by mortification of the flesh -- becoming "a voice crying out in
the wilderness." In modern days a global network of Lukundoo, forgotten by
the lictors, plots to save the world from the encroaching domination of
Metropolis, but they are going mad almost faster than the world's ecology is
being destroyed. They are individually powerful, able to summon or breed
deadly creatures and inflict diseases and curses.
        Higher-mental-balance Lukundoo are muscular and calm, with an
instinctual understanding of things. Lower-mental-balance Lukundoo gain the
features of animals, such as muzzles, enlarged canines, extreme hair growth,
and extra nipples. The snarling remains of Lukundoo shamans are often
mistaken for werewolves, stalking in daytime in the fragments of their
former robes. Many are cannibalistic predators. Most of them have brought
things back from Gaia and their personal possessions include shrunken heads
which refuse to stop mouthing for food, teeth of enormous animals, and
flapping headbands made from the dried wings of birds.
AGL 1D10+11 (16)
STR 1D10+10 (15)
CON 1D10+10 (15)
COM 1D10 (5)
EGO 4D10 (22)
CHA 2D10 (11)
PER 3D10 (16)
EDU 1D5 (3)
Terror Throw Modification: n/a
Height: 190 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Senses: As human.
Movement: 7 m/round
Actions: 3
Initiative Bonus: +4
Damage Bonus: +3
Damage Capacity: 4 scratches=1 lw, 3 light wounds=1 sw, 3 serious
wounds=dead
Endurance: 105
Mental Balance: -40-(4D10) (-62)
Advantages: Animal Friendship, Magical Intuition, (some) Endure
Hunger/Thirst, Resist Heat/Cold, Resistance to Illness
Disadvantages: Wanted (by lictors), Persecuted, Fanaticism, Ecomaniac,
(some) Unwilling Medium, Bad Reputation, Schizophrenia, Hygiene Disorders,
Paranoia
Powers: (some) Enhanced Senses, Increased Ability (STR or CON)
Weaknesses: (some) Hunting Instinct, Controlled by external force (Gaia),
Inhuman Appearance
Skills: Track 16, Sneak 16, Survival 16, Martial Arts: Student or Instructor
of Karate or Jujitsu, Budo Maneuvers, Spear 16, Bow 16, Occultism 20, Drugs
and Poisons 16, Natural Science 16, Man of the World 16, Plant Lore 16,
Singing 16, Meditation 20, Night Combat 16, Area Knowledge: world 10
Attack Modes: By Martial Arts or weapon. Some Lukundoo carry guns and
military gear; others insist on using only primitive arms.
Magic: Lore of Passions to EGO, all spells up to EGO; sometimes one or more
other Lores up to 1/2 EGO.