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“Lines on Graduation from theR. I. Hospital’s School of Nurses”

(To Be Spoken by the Author’s Sister)

The prologue's done — the play of life succeeds;

Our graver years respond to graver needs;

Yet shall we never in the wider sphere

Forget the happy days we linger'd here.

'Tis here that learning shap'd the course of youth,

And set our footsteps on the path of truth;

With kindly force our high ideals fix'd,

And art and practice in due measure mix'd:

'Tis here, from each companion's earnest face,

We drank the deepest draughts of friendship's grace:

And here our dearest thoughts must ever cling,

Whate'er of wealth or fame the years may bring!

– H. P. Lovecraft

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Miskatonic University is published by Chaosium Inc,

The great majority of the text of Miskatonic University iscopyright by Sam Johnson; all rights reserved.

Miskatonic University is published as a supplement to Call ofCthulhu®, Chaosium Inc.’s trademarked roleplaying game of

horror and wonder.

Miskatonic University ® is a trademark of Chaosium Inc.

Except in this publication and related advertising, theillustrations original toMiskatonic University remain the

property of the individual artist and are copyright under his orher separate copyright.

Similarities between characters in this book and persons livingor dead are entirely coincidental.

The reproduction of material from within this book for thepurpose of personal or corporate profit, by photographic, digital,

electronic, or other methods of storage and retrieval, isprohibited.

Address questions and comments concerning this book by mailto Chaosium Inc., 895 B Street #423, Hayward, CA 94541-5107,

U.S.A., or by email to chaosium@chaosium.com

Visit our web site at www.chaosium.com

ISBN 1-56882-140-9

Chaosium Publication 2389.

Published in October 2005

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in Canada.

H.P. Lovecraft1890-1937

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cover painting: Philip R. Rogers

interior illustrations: David Grilla, Alex Thomas,Paul Carrick, Tom Kalichack

interior maps: David Conyers

project and editorial: Lynn Willis

design and layout: Deborah Jones, William Jones, Charlie Krank

cover design: Charlie Krank

Chaosium is: Lynn Willis, Charlie Krank,Dustin Wright, Fergie & various odd critters

by Sam Johnson

With Sandy Antunes, Richard Watts, Keith Herber, Alan Matthews,

Chris Tutt, Doyle Tavener, Lynn Willis, and dyvers hands

A Handbook to the Pride of Arkham

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General ContentsINTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Required Reading; Essential Reading; Other Inspirations; Campaigning at Miskatonic; M.U.as Base, Resource,Presence; Lovecraft’s Shadow; Frameworks of “Authenticity”.

1. MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15A Brief History; map of New England; Selected Facts; Campus Legends; Campus Traditions; map of Arkham;Miskatonic Campus Guide; map and key for M.U.; the Campus; West Campus; South Campus; Off-Campus;Distant M.U. Facilities. THE ORNE LIBRARY: 4 Plans ff. Denizens of the Orne Library; a Brief Chronology;Legends of the Library; Contents of the Restricted Collection (list); Shadowed Stacks (many volumes described);optional Hermetic Spells; Mythos Materials. THE EXHIBIT MUSEUM; Holdings; The Vault; Museum Oddities;Museum Staff; Legends of the Museum; plan of the Museum.

2. PEOPLE ON CAMPUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Students; Housing; Curfew; Dining; Expense and Income; Grad Students; Professors; Tenure; Salaries; RecentExpeditions Map and Chronology; Guests; Insanity in Academia; M.U. Personalities (night watchman, physician,groundskeeper, oldest student). FACULTY AND STAFF DIRECTORY: Departments and Schools; theAdministration (president, vice-president, registrar, bursar); B&G; College of LL&A (Depts. and Instructors);College of Sciences (Depts. and Instructors; College of Medicine Depts. and Instructors); College of Law andBusiness (Depts. and Instructors). SOCIAL LIFE: Student Organizations; Selected Personalities (ongoing);Athletics; Frats and Sororities; Honor Societies; Fine Arts Clubs; Academic Clubs; Faculty Organizations;Professional Organizations; Political / Activist Organizations; Secret Societies.

3. GETTING AN EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Entrance Requirements; Tuition and Expenses; Graduate Fees; Class Levels; Academic Achievement; AcademicCrime; Alternative Grade Roll System; Alternative Courses of Study; Uprof; Facetious First Week Schedule;Generating Student Investigators; Family Status Defined; Skill Limits; Making the Grade; Schools andRequirements; Degree Plans Worksheets. THE SEMESTER CHECK: Definition; University Classes; Half` Checks;Modifiers to the Grade Roll; Applications; Slacking Off; Four Example Semesters. New or Restated Skills.

4. MISKATONIC SECRETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151The Campus Tunnels: History,Map, Conditions, Sewers. Denizens of the Tunnels; the Little People; Ghouls; OtherInhabitants. Ten Tunnel Features; 36 Tunnel Entrances and Exits. The Bronze Head. Miskatonic Mummy:Mummy’s Curse; Black Rites of L-K; Tesherkhenhekai. THE MYTHOS AT MISKATONIC: The Armitage Cabal(Armitage, Rice, Morgan,Wilmarth Allies, the Peaslees); Standing Alone; Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight;the Antarctica Expedition; the Missing; Chronology. OCCULTISTS & CULTISTS: the Eye of Amara; CollegiumArcana; the Rosicrucians; Malcolm Veidt; Asenath Waite; Basil Ives; Esoteric Order of Dagon; the theCrowninshield Hybrids; Lucas Tetlow; the Witch Cult; Knights Templar; Swanson Ames. MISKATONIC MYS-TERIES: Signs and Seals; Orne Library; Bernard Herber; Jeremiah Orne; George Locksley; the Tetlows; the SecretMaster; the Witch Cult; the Unseen Master; Sinister Seeds.

5. A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Investigator Information; the Coroner; Vittoria Nangelo; Charlton’s Room; Biff Williams; Asenath Waite; ClaudeOwen; School of Medicine Library; Chapman Farmhouse; the Root Cellar; Claude Owen in Person; the Parts.

APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226Flawed Spells; Many New Mythos Spells; Mythos Tomes in Play (individual research times, feverish study, skim-ming, Mythos tomes as references, learning spells, progressive Sanity loss; Useful Portable Items On-Campus;Learning Prehuman Languages; Existing Scenarios Adaptable to M.U. Play; Three Reproducible Diplomas; BlankDegree PlanWorksheets for the University’s Colleges.

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254-256

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Standing on the Shouldersof Giants

Awork of this scope would have been impossi-ble if the groundwork had not already beenmasterfully laid, and I consider myself lucky

and honored to follow a path mapped out so well bythose who have come before. My approach in writingthis book was (not surprisingly) an academic one: I haveembellished, interpreted, and compiled far more thanI’ve created in these pages.Miskatonic University was solong in the writing and took so many unsuspected turnsthat the sheer number of references has become impos-sible to track: my fingerprints and spin are all over thebook, but its bones and foundations were wrought longbefore I came to it. I’m sure that I’m leaving out a fewnames here and there, or missing the full extent of somepeople’s contributions. If I have slighted anyone’s workhere, I humbly ask for forgiveness, and hope you see thefinished project as a labor of love and see each referenceas homage.

Primary Sources

Miskatonic University would not exist without the sto-ries of H. P. Lovecraft. August Derleth’s work (particu-larly “The Thing at the Threshold” and “The Trail ofCthulhu”) served as the inspiration for any materialpertaining to Seneca Lapham, Billington’s Woods, andLaban Shrewsbury. The Mythos fiction of Lin Carter (asreprinted in the Xothic Legend Cycle from Chaosium)has also had a profound influence, particularly on thedescription of the Orne Library (Bryant Hoskins,Wilbur Akeley, and the bust of Cotton Mather all origi-nated in his stories). Additionally, the second edition ofthe Encyclopedia Cthulhiana served as a vital resource, asdid Joan C. Stanley’s Ex Libris Miskatonici (birthplace ofthe Tabularium, the Krypticon, and a primary guide tothe Orne Library’s history and contents). PeterCannon’s “The Chronology Out of Time” also helped asa reference and fact checker.

Secondary Sources

Most of the material in this book was first created (in aCall of Cthulhu context) by Keith Herber in ArkhamUnveiled, and later issued as theH.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham.

That material was revised, embellished, and expandedupon by Sandy Antunes in his Miskatonic UniversityGuidebook. The present work is another iteration, anattempt to expand and embellish even further while atthe same time incorporating more information fromthe canon of Mythos fiction and twenty-five years worthof Call of Cthulhu scenarios. Most of the people, places,and things you’ll find in these pages have their origin inthose works.

General Contributions

Alan Matthews, Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener, andChris Tutt all helped build the characterizations of theArmitage Cabal as described in the Mythos atMiskatonic, and contributed to charting the history ofthe University and the Orne Library. Their collabora-tion as sounding boards and brainstormers was seminalto this book: it cannot be measured tangibly, yet isinescapable.

Chris Tutt also drafted the first versions of theAcademic Standing skill and, with DoyleWayne Ramos-Tavener, created the semester check and grade roll sys-tems. Chris Tutt also helped expend upon the Eye ofAmara and the Rosicrucian cell.

Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener created the characterof Daniel Reardon.

Alan Matthews served as a cataloger of data, interimtypist, and helped contribute to the tone of the “Peopleof Miskatonic” section. He created the BurrowersBeneath, the shearing ceremony, Isaiah Potter, andWeatherton Artsbalm.

Sandy Antunes created and first described theMiskatonic Tunnels. Sam Johnson gave the tunnels ahistory, invented the locations within them, mappedtheir egress points, and filled them with Little People.Antunes’ history of Miskatonic served as the primaryinspiration for the version that appears in this volume.Antunes also created the characters of Scott Whidden,Diane Loring, Joe the Shelver, Amanda the Transient,Napoleon the Mastiff, Lucas Tetlow, and first mentionedthe Rosicrucian order on campus.

Sandy Petersen wrote an earlier short history ofMiskatonic, published as part of the MiskatonicUniversity Graduation Kit in 1987. Sam Johnson blend-ed this history with the version given by Antunes andthe tidbits found in Stanley’s Ex Libris Miskatonici.

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