GOD OF THE DROWNED TEMPLE
Nightmare under the sea
Our men searched him for souvenirs, and found in his coat pocket a very odd bit of ivory carved to represent a youth’s head crowned with laurel.
[…] I could not forget the youthful, beautiful head with its leafy crown, though I am not by nature an artist.
[…] The head of the radiant god in the sculptures on the rock temple is the same as that carven bit of ivory which the dead sailor brought from the sea and which poor Kienze carried back into the sea.
[…] And over all rose thoughts and fears which centered in the youth from the sea and the ivory image whose carving was duplicated on the frieze and columns of the temple before me.
The Temple, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1925
Hardly anyone can say whether this creature was buried with the legendary Atlantis or whether it can be found in other ruins under the sea. Sometimes small ivory figures depicting a youth crowned with laurels bear witness to his existence or even an encounter with this Great Old One. It is said that the god of the sunken temple can create transitions from the waking world to the dreamlands and vice versa, and perhaps even create portals to entirely different places or times. At all times, sailors have reported strange glowing under the water and depictions of the god on the exotic wares of foreign lands.
SPECIAL POWERS
Great Old One: The being is so powerful that it exists and acts outside the human imagination system. Therefore, it does not have values and the game master freely decides the consequences of direct contact with this being. However, an encounter usually means certain death or madness for humans.
Call of the Deep: The God of the Drowned Temple sends out his call to sailors and those who find his markings and likenesses on jewelry or goods, preferably traded in markets in foreign lands. A player character who hears the call must pass a POW × 5 test to avoid immediately following the god’s will. If the player character remains near the item, he must repeat the test daily until he falls to the call of the deep. A successful INT × 5 test causes the player character to become aware of this effect and its cause.
Gateway to Alien Worlds: If a player character succeeds in approaching the God of the Drowned Temple, which mostly requires descending into the cold and dark realms of the ocean, he or she may, with luck, be able to pass through the portal to strange worlds located near the god. Whether this portal leads to Atlantis, the Dreamlands or somewhere else entirely is up to the game master.
Unnatural Knowledge (+1d10): An encounter with this entity necessarily increases the player character’s Unnatural Knowledge by +1d10 points. The player character then simultaneously loses sanity points equal to this amount and suffers the usual consequences. No sanity check protects against this trait. Unnatural Knowledge occurs immediately after the regular sanity check and regardless of its result.
Yog-Sothothery: It is not known whether the God of the Drowned Temple and the Great Old One Cthulhu share common roots. However, the similarity of their fate is striking. With Nodens, the God of the Drowned Temple shares the domain of water, and with both, dolphins seem to act as a kind of trusted companion. People whisper to each other behind closed doors that it must be the god of Atlantis, who can be seen on the old coins and trinkets that appear from time to time in the markets. However, there is also a city under the water in the Dreamlands, the ruins of which Randolph Carter noticed from his ship.
GOD OF THE DROWNED TEMPLE, Nightmare under the sea
Sanity Loss: 1d10/1d100 (see also Unnatural Knowledge).