It was horrible, fucking horrible. The “sorcerer,” shit. My cousin Christopher, we grew up like brothers, had to be trepanated for a nick of his brain. Doctor Wilson split him open like he was performing an autopsy, to take a tiny piece of his heart, and he did a spinal tap for some fluid. They mixed all this up with Christopher’s blood.
When he woke up, he said a bunch of crazy shit in some language and dropped some of this on that creepy ass map. It fell into the margin and made a weird symbol. Somehow, this gave them an idea where Tiffany had been taken.
Now we’re down in this room beneath a basement at some big wood door with metal bands. They put some kind of drops in my eyes that made everything look clearer, more real. Apparently there’s some other world on the other side of that door. All I know for sure is I’ve got my 12 gauge pump, a shitload of ammo, and we’re going to bring her home.–From a sheaf of handwritten notes found in the Special Archives Room at the Miskatonic University Orne Library.
A Blood Map is a more or less rectangular sheet of thin leather, generally 1’ x 2’, on which is a map of the earth. In order to activate it, the user must incant a ritual, then allow a single drop of their blood to fall from a large needle or pin onto the map while speaking the name of a person or object they wish to find. In the first three instances below, the blood will fall unerringly on the general area where the desired person or object is located. These assume the desired object is within the ordinary universe.
In the fourth instance below, the blood must be blended with a tiny amount of the user’s brain tissue, heart muscle, and spinal fluid. Naturally, the user must survive the harvesting of these substances in order to use the map–each must use their own.
Following are the four categories of targets which may be found by use of a Blood Map, as well as the ensuing Magic Point or POW expenditure and Sanity lost.
Mundane object, regular person, or loved one. This results in a dot in the appropriate location on the map. Cost: 1 M.P. and 1 SAN.
Minor magical item, fledgling wizard/sorcerer, or minor mythos creature. This results in a dot in the appropriate location on the map. Cost: 1D4 M.P. and 1D4 SAN.
Major magical item, powerful wizard/sorcerer, or major mythos creature. This results in a tiny dot, which provides greater accuracy. Cost: 1D10 POW and 1D6 SAN.
Any of the above which exists in an alternate universe, space with more than three dimensions, etc. (This includes ghouls.) This results in an arcane symbol (mystical runes, swirling lines with spikes, etc.), which will land in the margin, away from any geographical feature. Cost: 2D10 POW and 1D10 SAN.
The knowledge of how to create a Blood Map is all but lost, though there may be the rare sorcerer or tome holding such information.
Formation of a Blood Map: The creator of such a thing must kill a wizard/sorcerer under the light of a new moon and skin the torso. They must then harvest the brain, heart, blood, and urine. These three substances are puréed. At first light, the creator of the map must begin preparing the skin as one would the hide of an animal using the fluid to soften it while scraping away the remaining muscle tissue.
As the sun sets on the 28th day, the map may be drawn with ordinary inks and the map will be complete at dawn. At this point, the creator of the map loses 2D10 POW and 1D10 SAN.
Once created, a Blood Map is extraordinarily difficult to damage or destroy. It can only be torn or cut by extreme force, and burning it requires fire in excess of 1000̊ Fahrenheit (538̊ Celsius).
My name is CthulhuBob Lovely, I live in my childhood hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and have a son and two daughters. I volunteer at MisCon, which occurs each year on Memorial Day Weekend in Missoula, Montana and help out at other shows.
In my younger years I had seen H.P. Lovecraft’s books in the collection of my older brother, Brian, who is also responsible for introducing me to Monty Python, Star Wars and many other things geek.
I began running and playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1977 at the age of 15, and Call of Cthulhu since its original publication in 1981.
I believe geekery and gaming can have positive effects on math, reading and writing, and social interaction skills, as well as family togetherness. I have three published stories online at
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/bios/lovely_bob_bio.html
