Somewhere out there, is a trove of forbidden knowledge that could destroy your Agents. Detailed here are a few more such troves. Any one of them could be the one to open the way to madness and death. (Special thanks to people on the Night at the Opera Discord server for their help with this.)
The Portable Hard Drive of Timothy Ingrid
In English and Spanish. Study time: weeks. Anthropology +1%, Archaeology +1%, History +1%, Occult +2%, Unnatural +2%. SAN loss 1D4.
“Clearly, this is a mistranslation. I don’t know what the hell a Yig is, but it sure as fuck is not the true face of an Aztec god that created humanity. Now, as for the rest of the text, it rambles on and on about ritual human sacrifice. Seems like a sensationalist overreaction to me, a leftover from the old Spanish Conquistador days. And what do Mayan depictions of snakes have to do with plagues?”
The freelance investigative journalist Timothy Ingrid’s last project before his mysterious disappearance was a deep dive into Pre-Hispanic folklore and mythology. He travelled the Americas from Nevada to the very south of the landmass. He collected some very interesting tales and legends from local experts on the region. It is only when he began to acquire some rare and obscure books on the Western European occult to compare and contrast with the gathered lore that his project started to go wrong. Timothy Ingrid was reported missing and presumed dead 8 months after his work started, and his home in New Mexico was found brutally searched and looted by an unknown burglar just a day after. The man’s portable hard drive, full of his research and sources, was stolen. The files on the hard drive contain not just Ingrid’s personal diary, but his insights into the otherworldly presences plaguing the American south, not to mention what he copied and deciphered from forbidden texts during the course of his project. The last entries of Ingrid’s diary allude to dabbling in strange powers and contacting bizarre monsters.
Recommended Rituals: Exaltation of the Flesh, Lure the Hungerer, Mediation Upon the Favoured Ones.
The Impermanence of All Worldly Things
In Japanese. Study time: months. Occult +4%, Unnatural +10%. SAN loss 2D6.
“We incarnate in the Six Realms of Desire. But always trapped, no escape is there from rebirth except through enlightenment to the true nature of reality, unseen and unknowable. It is easy to mistakenly believe, so wrapped up in the pain and suffering of rebirth, that this is all there is. This world is illusion. There exist things beyond time. Beyond desire. Know this as surely as you see me now. Come, drink the pure waters of knowing.”
This lengthy book of “scriptures” appears to be an attempt at radically reinterpreting Buddhist doctrines and common sutras that are popular in Japan. It delves deep into esoteric topics and tries to “map out” various metaphysical layers of reality. Most mainstream Buddhist priests would consider it blasphemy, heresy or just plain insanity. Urban legends say copies of the tome are occasionally reported found in random places (typically remote or historically important locations) of modern day Japan, with no obvious explanation. Nobody knows where the tome comes from, or who plants the copies.
Recommended Rituals: Clairvoyance, Create Stone Gate, The Dho-Hna Formula, Leaves of Time, One Who Passes the Gateways, Open Gate, The Primal Lay, See the Other Side, Song of Power, Soothing Song, The Voorish Sign.
Sealed by the Deluge and the Northern Wind
In Icelandic. Study time: weeks. Anthropology +1%, History +1%, Survival +5%, Navigate +4%, Occult +3%, Unnatural +6%. SAN loss 1D10.
“We handed Mickey over to the shaman as a peace offering. The mountain folk have their own way of dealing with thieves. The Swede told me it was like the sky burial, but we’d be tying him up and breaking his legs at the highest part of the mountain, where the cold winds would scour him down to the glittering bones. Ice would preserve the corpse until spring, so the Sky Owner could take his time torturing the ghost. And to think I had assumed my time amongst these backwards savages was going to be boring.”
This tome, written in 1924-1936, is a Scandinavian travelogue of the horrific, recording many strange and awful encounters with the unnatural in the wilderness of Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Greenland and Finland. In particular, the author makes contact with several cults dedicated to “the Sky Owner” and documents their beliefs (including chunks of pre-human history) and rituals. The writer of the tome himself is not named, but the personal thoughts and history given in his accounts paint a complete portrait of his inner self; a sadistic psychopath who enjoyed the danger and power of the unnatural.
Recommended Rituals: Call Zombies, Finding, “Name of the North Winds” (Contact Itla-Shua), Speech of Birds and Beasts, Withering, Zombie (Draugr variant).
DIY Biohacking: The Coding Language for Your Flesh!
In English. Study time: months. Medicine +4%, Science (Biology) +6%, Surgery +3%, Unnatural +1%. SAN loss 1D4.
“Cells age because special structures at the end of our chromosomes retire them when enough damage accumulates to the point where the cell can no longer divide – or else the cells become cancerous. Reversing the cell damage that we call getting old requires a special science made possible through exotic dark energy transfers. Done properly, the fresh injection of dark energy into a human body should reset the telomere structures and regenerate the lost cells with replicated DNA strands. Currently, no mainstream gene therapy programs can fully manipulate the polymerise enzymes in this manner. I, however, have discovered a way to do it.”
At first glance, this thick and large beta-copy of a never-released book is a pathetic attempt at a complete guide to “homemade” “self-taught” “biohacking” – a ludicrous pseudo-scientific “discipline” of conquering your body’s limitations through gene therapy and physical modifications. It is only with serious study that the reader realises the author has refined authentic unnatural methods of “flesh-crafting”. The author’s name and bio was never credited to the book, so the identity of the writer and the source of his knowledge has been lost. Only the first drafts of his work remain, which is occasionally copied and distributed as a PDF onto certain dark web file exchanges by persons unknown. It is incomplete, missing several body enhancement rituals.
Recommended Rituals: Ageless Banquet, Changeling Feast, Exaltation of the Flesh, Healing Balm, Petrification, Preserve Living Brain, Raise from Essential Saltes, Reanimation Formula, Zombie.
DNA of the Soul: Memetic Techniques for Everyday Life!
In English. Study time: months. Anthropology +1%, HUMINT +5%, Persuade +5%, Psychotherapy +2%, Unnatural +2%. SAN loss 1D6.
“The All-in-One has planted memes in human languages and cultures to serve as the human source code. With sufficient knowledge of these memes, the user can convince almost any human, or mass of humans, to believe almost anything. This is why mainstream academia and conventional wisdom believes that there is no such thing as reliable memetic techniques.”
A lot of conspiracy theories and hucksters claim to know the truth about “neuro linguistic programming” or “memetic techniques” that allow you to essentially mind control others. It is, of course, all nonsense. People familiar with this kind of nonsense may recognise that this tome, upon reading it, is not fraudulent drivel despite supposedly covering the same topic as those fools and liars. This tome is the real deal; it genuinely outlines and teaches unnatural rituals that manipulate the minds of men, in addition to more mundane insights into human psychology and the social sciences. The writer of the tome is dead, assassinated by Delta Green. He was a dangerous “evangelical” for worshipping unnatural entities. The Group believes this tome was an attempt to lure the greedy and the desperate into deeper understanding of the unnatural, and eventually exploitation of those greedy and desperate by the unnatural. This tome has been copied many times and is now circulating on remote corners of the Internet, with Delta Green tracking down and deleting it whenever it catches up to the data transfers.
Recommended Rituals: Fascination, Infallible Suggestion, Obscure Memory, Soothing Song.
The Journeys Alongside Devils
In Latin. Study time: weeks. Occult +3%, Unnatural +3%, SAN loss 1D4.
“Cave! Vocat quae non deponant.”
This hundred-year-old book of rambling and crazed occult studies instructs the reader in various “demon summonings” and “the lore of hellish dimensions”. The spells within the grimoire deal with “managing” unnatural monsters – typically binding them to the sorcerer’s will. Its authorship is unknown, and no copies of the tomes other than the original are believed to exist. It is theorised to be the work of a particularly eccentric and unhinged Jazz Age medievalist who served in the First World War. The tome is currently kept under lock and key in an obscure but prestigious American museum. Delta Green is planning to steal the tome from the unusually well-guarded vault of the institution.
Recommended Rituals: Charnel Mediation, Exorcism, Pentagram of Power, Prayer to the Dark Man, Lure the Hungerer, Mountain and Sea, Winged Steed.
Three Hundred and Thirty-Three 