(Grimoire) Something Old

[Yumyumcrow]

There was not a great deal of material relating to the grimoire in the library. There was the book itself, two manila folders, and some annotated maps that had been folded poorly, given them more bulk than they would otherwise possess.

The book is surely a joke: a supplement for a role playing game called the Necrotelenomicon. Its about A4 in size and dimensions but heavily stained and warped through water damage. One folder contains a basic lab report - a physical examination of the book that focussed on the glue binding, which turned out to be a rather unusual emulsion of glue and ectoplasmic residue. The second folder was much thicker and contained research notes pertaining to some of the "hidden texts" within the grimoire; the emphasis was on the Orphic Hymn cycle from which could be deduced the basic framework for a magical system that underpinned the other "hidden texts".

The maps were partial renderings of local lay line systems and their relation to a point just north of Sacramento International Airport. This point lay close to a major ley line, but was clearly not part of it.

Unless anyone takes the time to peruse the book and read the reports, that is the only information readily available. For those with the time and inclination, further details can be sourced here:
http://nwod.org/forum/showthread.php...light=grimoire
http://nwod.org/forum/showthread.php...light=grimoire
http://nwod.org/forum/showthread.php...light=grimoire
http://nwod.org/forum/showthread.php...light=grimoire

[Martha Villiers]

Martha takes her position near Eva. Watching Eva's legs and waiting to be invited to be seated and or helping with any investigation of a codex, cipher or anything else that may help...

Smiling, she watches as Eva studies the books and Martha takes time to read the rest.

Using her mastery of Time Management and drawing upon any information can glean from her powerful memory, Martha studies the book, reads the reports and tries to make some synthesis of all the data they now possess.

Moreover, she also begins to take photo's of the key texts with her cell phone, lest any of the originals suffer harm.

[Yumyumcrow]

No need for rolls. All the information is in the files... which I will summarise shortly. Tomorrow probably.

[Yumyumcrow]

The files are neat and orderly; hand written notes are backed up with typed summaries; the whole has been loaded onto a flash drive for ease of use.

THE NECROTELENOMICON: At first blush, the book appears to be a supplement for a role playing game. A perusal of the contents quickly ends that view. Former Castellan Teodor Raluca made a study of the book's history, which is rife with urban legend.

The book is one of a handful of similar texts that survived a botched print run. A storm reputedly raged over small press where the book was manufactured. At the same time, youths attempted a summoning ritual based on the legendary summoning text Trumpet of the Stygian Proctors that the leader of the group - and son of the press' owner - had somehow obtained. Hours earlier, the company accountant had hurled himself to his death from the factory roof in a fit of despair when his infidelity to his wife had been uncovered. It is unclear if the ritual was successful, but a lightning strike tripped the power and set the press machinery off, resulting in the botched print run. Most books were destroyed. A dozen are reputed to have been saved, and scattered. It would appear the Order has acquired a copy of one.

THE SELLER: Brother Raluca purchased the book himself at an unusual night market held at an underpass under the Capital City Freeway. Raluca's account does not detail much, other than there were three vendors and that Roderick and Korvin were also present. Raluca purchased the book from an Ostentatious Pete.

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: The book is in poor condition. The cover and pages show signs of heavy water damage and the spine is cracked and broken. Curiously, the book's is not falling apart: no pages have fallen out despite the damage the work has received over the years. Laboratory tests confirm that the glue is an emulsion, containing significant traces of ectoplasm and it appears that it is this rare substance that provides the glue with its strong integrative qualities. The emulsion is fragile, as tests have shown: heating the glue will release the ectoplasm, which boils away at room temperatures; and without the ectoplasm the glue crumbles and flakes to nothing. Tests also suggest that at one point the entire work was saturated in ectoplasm.

Dragon Martha Villiers made an extensive study on the book utilising the Gifts of her Clan. According to her written testimony, reading the auric imprint was like being sucked down into the pages and swept along as if carried along a churning stream, laced with snagging rocks and cascading falls. History weighs heavy in the aura - a lead weight pulling everything backward inevitability to the moment of creation: a small cabal of youths - post-punk, goth and grunge working together while an army of shrouded dead press down around them; the leading spectre looked up... and smiled. Other notable images were discerned: -

Giggling and sobbing, a woman (she might be one of the participants in the creation rite) fumbles about on a dirty floor with a dead man, drawing symbols and working from an open book. "Please. Just bring him back. Just bring him back!"

An old man with a beard hides the book in a room filled to bursting with books and manuscripts. Envy bleeds from him as he shuts the door and turns the lock.

Fire burns! A yacht screams its death cry. Two women, maddened, fight tooth and nail over the book as the waters come rushing in...

Four sit at a table in a darkened room lit by a single lamp. A man in a beret; the woman in the scarf; a bearded wanderer; and a man with a televangelist's smile, rings on his fingers and detailed scrollwork on his shirtsleeves. "You mean to use it, then?" asks the bearded wanderer. "Its the only way to bring her here. To have home ground advantage," says the woman in the scarf. "We have no choice," the man in the beret is resigned. He looks at the man with the smile. "Will you help?" "Happy to oblige," is the reply. The man fumbles for a pack of cigarettes and eases one into his mouth. "Question is, are you and your people willing to pay the price?"

A vague, insubstantial form. A woman. Kitchen sounds - smell of baking. "Hey! Don't touch that! You'll ruin my cookies!"

THE NECROTELENOMICON AND ITS CONTENTS: Ostensibly, the book is a supplement for a defunct role playing game called Warriors and Warlocks. A quick perusal reveals that other texts have somehow been "folded" into the document to such a degree that they slip, slide and crash into one another. It is a confusing mess to read. The sections of the book that are not related to role playing games are in fact large tracts from occult texts that have been long thought lost: large portions of a cycle of Orphic hymns and incantations relating to travel in the Underworld and an vision of one such journey - down the Acheron to the Sunless Sea - and chapters from a lost necromantic grimoire focussing on summoning and binding (these chapters are not only complete but have marginalia and commentary ranging from the childish to the deeply insightful).

The third text is the Revelations of the Eyeless King. Dragon Aileen MacFarlane made a major study of this work. The text was an examination of an Underworld kingdom and a series of prophecies made by its king. Aileen deduced that there was a pattern behind the works apparent gibberish and prophetic nonsense - a metaphysical system, elements of which had appeared in other contexts through history.

The Orphic Hymns are in Greek while the grimoire-within-a-grimoire is in 16th century English but laced with idioms that give the text a Scottish origin, the Blue Book of Thomas Crabbe. It is not a complete copy, but this is the first to be uncovered in nearly four centuries! The analysis and significance of these incredibly rare documents could take months or years. Thomas Crabbe's text outlines his own unique conjuring system. The hymn cycle not only covers protective charms and potion, but also provides a guide to various lands of the dead through which the Acheron flows through the Underworld, naming their chthonic flora and fauna - a detail that is almost unique.

ANALYSIS: Taken together, the texts constitute the basis of a new magical system, blending Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Persian lore within an early Orthodox Christian framework that, at its core, barely changed for centuries. Unfortunately, it is a system that fits poorly with Kindred metaphysics. It does not mean that the systems deployed in the incantations can't be studied for insights into the Vampire Condition.

Interestingly, the magic system is heavily reliant on a power source of its own - a substance the text refers to as Chrism. According to the text and other fragment from medieval archives, this substance was a rarified ghost-residue found only in the long-term possessed. The order of monks who wrote the Hymns evidently submitted to long term spiritual possession in order to obtain and manipulate this substance. In this regard, the Hymns fall into a category of Daimonic magic.

While the orphic order seems to have died out with the Byzantine Empire, elements of their ritual system do keep appearing through time. Sometimes in a cruder form and sometimes embedded in other complex and eclectic formulations. Now that the Dragon's have a signature to look for, they can trace it with relative ease once they stumble upon it. Following the trail forward through time, they come across The Revelations of the Eyeless King, the Chants of the Yellow Priests, and even some poorly preserved pamphlets written by the enigmatic and forgotten Thomas Crabbe. Elements of the Orphic Hymns are there, staring back at them.

The Necrotelenomicon was the most recent (re)emergence of the magic system with its emphasis on ritual and chants. It was not the only one to appear in the 20th century, however. A cult leader called Simon Temple was groping towards an understanding of the system when he was murdered; uncannily, he owned a farm near Sacramento. And before his group obtained the house, it was owned by a family who were deeply embedded in the Spiritualist movement.

[Martha Villiers]

Martha, seeing the book she'd studied earlier, recounts her visions to Eva and explains what she can.

"I wonder if this is the haunted house people have been speaking about? There has been talk of it around the city for a while." she muses, thinking about various radio broadcasts.

"The Grand Wyrm simply wants us to go to the location and... just report to him about it? I shall need to be prepared. We cannot go unarmed and without conducting a recon." blinking, she looks to Eva. Wondering about the details and if this linked to the Brady Situation. Anxious, she asks; "You mean to go now? If so, we should let someone know where we are going and why... I have no intention of repeating the mistakes made by other, less fortunate, investigators."

Martha looks to Eva and makes a few mental notes of her own.

[Martha Villiers]

Nodding, Martha is already checking her cell 'phone and begins typing a text to David and Tracy.

"I understand, and the Temple House; you think that is the locus of the wellhead, the key location? Given what we've just read, it would make sense..." her slender fingers poised over the keys of her 'phone.

"We shall be driving there, Miss? Or approach, uncover, on foot?" blinking at the remarkable haste Eva is showing, Martha's already trying to estimate an arrival time and thinking about the terrain.

"Are you armed and, will you allow me access to enter your mind with the power of Telepathy if the need arises for communication purposes?" she blinks again.