We went there to clean, okay? The old lady died. The family wanted an estate sale. Routine job. The place was a fucking mess, right? She must have really let herself go before she finally bit it. The walls were covered with sharpie scrawls, as though toddlers and not an 80-year-old lived there. Same goes for the piles of trash. It smelt of piss and shit. Unwashed bodies. How many times do I have to go over this? I don’t know where Junior is. He’s cleaning one moment, screaming the next. Then… nothing. Gone. Vanished. His clothes were all we found, lying there on that awful bathroom tile as though he had come home drunk and stumbled into the shower. No sign of him. No blood. No nothing. Just the clothes. The mirror all fogged up too, though it was cold as hell in there. I would be lying if I told you I did not hear anything…. I thought something was tapping from the inside of that mirror. Tap tap tap on glass, echoing out of that endless slate of grey. Try and find him if you want. I’m not going anywhere near that fucking house again.
Those who delve long enough into moldering tomes will discover that words can never truly convey absolute knowledge. Many are content to accept this “compromise,” going no further than limited, linguistic acts of blasphemy. Yet there are others that want to step beyond the barrier of words, to feel the very fabric of reality against their skin. Most who walk this past are lost, eviscerated long before their goals are obtained. Others learn to check their hubris. It is far safer to gaze upon the flowing cosmos than to grasp it. Eons of Eldritch experiments have led to the discovery of a process by which to turn the silvering of mirrors into windows. Gateways of sight into the fathomless abysses of the cosmic night. With the visions come unspeakable vistas of revelation and madness. Through such a mirror, one can gaze into the very court of Azathoth.
Insanity is not the only risk of using such a tool in the pursuit of knowledge. Sight is not the only thing that can pass through such mirrors. Drifting in the mad swirls of Azathoth’s dreams are Mirror Cysts, cancerous masses of bubbling flesh, tendrils, and mouths that endlessly feed on the entropic streams within reality itself, as blind and thoughtless as that which dreams them into being. These Cysts are attracted by the gaze of those looking at the cosmic infinities, and those who look too long in the mirror may find such a Cyst squeezing itself through the window to plunge them into an eternity of horror.
Spell: Create Mirror of Azathoth
Cost: 300 Magic Points, which can be spent over the course of the casting; 1D10 Sanity points; 20 POW.
Casting time: One year.
Transforms a mirror into a Mirror of Azathoth. This is a volatile and dangerous process, and the caster must sacrifice 1d4 points of POW in addition to the cost of the spell each week or else risk the mirror imploding (Hard POW check to avoid). Should the mirror implode, it deals 1 damage per Magic Point invested to each entity within a radius equal to 1 yard per Magic Point invested before the implosion. The implosion is a kaleidoscope of cosmic entropy. Anyone reduced to zero hit points by an implosion is torn from the fabric of reality and sent screaming into the court of Azathoth.
Should the year be completed, and the final 20 POW cost is paid, the mirror clouds with a grey murkiness. It is now capable of showing anyone who looks into it visions while simultaneously exposing them to Mirror Cysts.
Alternative names: The Lens of Truth, Dream Glass, Cosmic Spyglass
MIRROR OF AZATHOTH, window of cosmic knowledge
A grey mirror that appears to reflect an endless sea of clouds. It can be broken like an ordinary mirror, but each shard maintains the properties of the Mirror of Azathoth. The only means by which to dispel a mirror of Azathoth is to invest the same amount of POW, Magic Points, and SAN that went into the mirror’s creation. This must be done at once, though the cost can be split among multiple individuals, willing or otherwise, who are looking into the mirror or one of its shards.
An individual staring into the mirror gains 1d4 points of Cthulhu Mythos every 1D10 rounds as the mirror shows them an endless procession of visions that reveal the horror at the heart of the universe and the Mythos. Additionally, the individual must pass a luck roll on each cycle. Failure means that they have attracted a Mirror Cyst.
MIRROR CYST, cancerous growth of the cosmos
char. roll average
STR 30D6 x 5 525
CON 30D6 x 5 525
SIZ varies varies
DEX 1D6 x 5 15
INT 0 0
POW 10D6 x 5 175
Average Hit Points: See Expansion below. If its Hit Points are reduced to zero, the parts of the Cyst that have entered reality are sluffed off and it drifts away back into the entropy behind the mirror.
Average Damage Bonus (DB): See Expand below.
Average Build: See Expansion below.
Average Magic Points: 35
Move: See Expand below.
Combat
Attacks per round: 2 (Expand, Absorb)
Each round, the Mirror Cyst Expands. Then, if it is contact with a living entity, it uses Absorb. Otherwise, it Expands again.
Expand: The Mirror Cyst does not move so much as force more of its insane bulk through the mirror, spilling itself out into reality in search of the consciousness that drew it through. It increases its Size and Hit Points by 1d10. If it reaches a size of 300, and it has not absorbed enough POW, see Absorb, it retracks back into the mirror.
Absorb: When the Mirror Cyst comes into contact with an entity that has a POW, the entity must pass an Extreme POW check or else be consumed by the Cyst. All of the entity flesh disappears into the Cyst, leaving behind any and all inanimate, POWless objects in its wake. If the Cyst absorbs a total POW equal to or greater than the POW of the individual that attracted it to the mirror before it has expanded to its maximum size, see Expand above, it begins to retrack back into the mirror.
Fighting 0%
Dodge: 0%
(It is mindless, vast, and blind. It does not dodge or fightback.)
Skills: None.
Armor: Immune to non-magical attacks.
Spells: None
Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D20 to see a Mirror Cyst.
