“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming”

All of us came from the sea. Whether in the very base of our brains from a billion years ago, floating in salty amniotic fluid within our mothers, or feeling the pound of our salt-blooded pulse, we feel the call of the salt, the urge to regress, sink beneath the waves, become the aquatic ape and indulge our simplest and deepest desires.

If the sea symbolises the unconscious, then the city is its opposite. The city is rationality, nature squared and walled away. In its rationality, artificiality and alienation it is connected to the labyrinth, reminding us that in the heart of the maze, the Minotaur of the unconscious still lurked, bounded and baffled by the structures of civilisation.

What then do we make of the city that sinks beneath the waves? Rationality is overwhelmed, flooded by the conquering tide of instinct. Tidal waves of desire crash across the feeble structures by which mankind seeks to rule itself. Feed. Revel in the weightlessness of the womb-like depths. Sport and enjoy ourselves. Kill.

When the labyrinth sinks beneath the waves, what becomes of the monster at its heart? He is free to permeate the waters, to send his great tendrils floating, bringing the message of the depths to all who heed his call. One day, when the stars are right, He will ascend above the surface, and then he will flood the world.

Masks in human cultures: The Kraken. Tangaroa. Dagon. Tiamat. The Minotaur. Cyclops, son of Poseidon. Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu. Moby Dick.

Taboos: Those who seek to channel Great Cthulhu should not dwell more than (100-rating) miles from the sea. They should value passion and instinct above the feeble stirrings of petty human intellect.

Avatar Channels

1-50%: Stirring the Depths.
“He spoke of the dreams in a manner none could mistake. They and their subconscious residuum had influenced his art profoundly, and he shewed me a morbid statue whose contours almost made me shake with the potency of its black suggestion.” The Call of Cthulhu

With a successful roll, the Avatar can express the call of Cthulhu and the sea in art, poetry, prose, etc, and cause his audience to feel the archetypal resonance. They can flip-flop any roll connected with creating such art. Viewing or otherwise experiencing the artwork is a disturbing experience, but the fact of causing such deep emotional response in all viewers guarantees a steady income. Most who channel the archetype do so un- or sub-consciously and never advance beyond this level.

51-70%: Smell of the Sea.
The Avatar seems to exude the primal smell of the sea; while this may seem objectively disgusting, it has a profoundly hypnotic and suggestive effect as the inhaler subconsciously regresses. With a successful roll, the avatar can place a person who inhales their scent in a hypnotised state. The hypnotised person gets a Soul roll to resist suggestions or commands that go against their instincts. A critical failure means that the person is actively repulsed and is instinctively hostile and even violent towards the avatar.

71-90%: Revel
“Mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy.”

Given a group of people, the Avatar can inspire them to throw aside their inhibitions and conscious thoughts, indulging in a mad, gluttonous orgy as they answer the Call. The Revel will last until sunrise of the next day. Unwilling participants may make Soul rolls, with success meaning that they are able to flee the scene – though this may result in them becoming targets of the Revel’s bacchanalian bloodlust. Appropriate modifiers should be applied given the nature of the targets: a group of Mormon theologians might incur a penalty, while a group of college students in Spring Break hardly needs a roll

At this level, those who consciously heed the Call and seek to channel the Archetype find that they physically adapt to the sea. Every time Great Cthulhu is successfully channelled, the Avatar further develops “the Innsmouth Look”: Fat layers below the skin, hair sloughs away or becomes scales, eyes enlarge, fingers and toes become webbed and gills form upon the sides of the neck, concealed beneath flaps of skin. An avatar roll must be failed for the person to be mistaken for a regular human, though they can pass as a sufferer of some strange skin disease.

The Avatar can substitute his Avatar: Cthulhu skill for his swimming skill, or any other skill performed in the water. He can stay submerged for a time equivalent to his Avatar skill in minutes without needing to breathe. As long as he stays beneath the surface of the waves, he does not age.

91-98%: Deep One
The Innsmouth look fully matures, and the Avatar becomes a Deep One, a fish- or frog-like humanoid of great strength, whose natural habitat is the deep ocean. The Avatar can stay submerged for a time equal to their Avatar rating in hours, and does not age while beneath the waves. He or she no longer bears any resemblance in mind or body to a human, and can only interact with humanity through use of the Smell of the Sea, Revels or other such powers.

Deep ones are powerfully driven to mate with untainted humanity, and use their powers for this purpose. The offspring of a Deep One mating is born with an automatic 25% rating in Avatar: Cthulhu.

At 99%, the Godwalker of Cthulhu undergoes a further growth and metamorphosis, becoming a titanic, Godzilla-like horror referred to as The Star Spawn. The Star Spawn is constrained by ancient enchantments to remain in the city of R’lyeh, deep below the Pacific, and can only leave the city if summoned by powerful magic.