Newborn Servants of Bokrug
“Well-equipped, I started out on a spring morning (near the end of April 1929) and after a short climb I reached the top of the Tempelmauer. After a short rest between the cliffs I started to look for the entrance to the cave. Suddenly I saw a snake-like animal sprawled on the damp rotting foliage that covered the ground. Its skin was almost white, not covered with scales but smooth. Its head was flat and two very short feet on the fore-part of the body were visible. It did not move but kept staring at me with its remarkably large eyes. I know every one of our animals at first glance and knew that I faced the one that is unknown to science, the tatzelwurm….[the] tatzelwurm did not have large claws but short and atrophied-looking feet….Most probably the tatzelwurm is a rare variety of salamander living in moist caves and coming only rarely to the light of day.” – unnamed Austrian schoolmaster, quoted in On The Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans (1955)
Mythos grimoires relate the story of the doomed city of Sarnath, taking place somewhere in the misty recesses of prehistory in a land that was then known as Mnar. According to legend, Sarnath was a wealthy city-state that, early in its own history, had invaded the nearby city of Ib and slaughtered its residents. The primary idol of the Ibians’ god, a water-deity called Bokrug, was seized as a trophy and brought back to Sarnath. The story goes that the statue vanished on its own accord the next night, and one thousand years later, Sarnath was destroyed by Bokrug’s fury in a long-delayed night of vengeance for the butchering of its followers.
Scholars disagree on whether Sarnath ever existed, or whether, like Plato’s Atlantis, it was strictly a metaphor, a cautionary tale told to demonstrate a philosophical point, and even among believers in the Sarnath-legend, debate rages as to where on the modern globe corresponds to the location of ancient Mnar.
Europe’s southern Alps may hold the key, as there is evidence to suggest a connection (physical or metaphysical) between the Alps’ glacial lakes and the lake on whose shore the city of Ib once stood.
Since the 17th century, travelers through the region have periodically reported encounters with strange, fat-bodied reptiles with anywhere from two to six legs and a rounded, cat-like face. These creatures, dubbed Tatzelwurms or Stollenwurms, are reported to exhale clouds of poisonous gas when approached. Though Enlightenment-era scholars disputed the veracity of sightings, the creatures continue to be seen at intervals up to the present day.
These travelers’ tales are accurate. Much like the olm, the blind, albino cave salamanders of central Europe’s subterranean waterways, Tatzelwurms are an unusual species of cave salamander, growing to lengths of two meters. Their large eyes and retained larval gills give their round heads a cat-like appearance. Normally spending their entire lives underground, seasonal flooding occasionally flushes one or more of the creatures into a surface lake, from whence they venture on to land for brief periods.
Somewhere in the flooded caverns beneath the Alps sits a temple of Bokrug, the ancient god of Ib, and it is in the chill waters flowing through this temple that the Tatzelwurms are born. The strange and alien energies radiating from the statue of Bokrug that squats in icy darkness at the heart of the temple nourishes the Tatzelwurms, helping them grow large and strong despite the relative scarcity of food in the depths.
Of the few Mythos scholars who have drawn a connection between Tatzelwurms and Bokrug, most believe that Bokrug’s influence is producing incrementally more intelligent creatures, and that given time, the Tatzelwurms may evolve into a new iteration of the goggle-eyed, flabby-lipped people of Ib. The main piece of evidence presented in support of this theory is that in 1733, Swiss polymath Johannes Jakob Scheutzer was attacked by a Tatzelwurm but that the creature was repelled at the sight of a carved Elder Sign Scheutzer happened to be carrying after receiving it earlier in the day. Three days later, Scheutzer was found dead in the lakeside cabin he had been renting, his body covered in strange bites and the bed soaked with lake water. The Elder Sign was never recovered, though Scheutzer’s first-hand account of the initial encounter was found in his diary next to the bed.
Special Powers
Poisonous Breath: Tatzelwurms can belch up a small cloud of noxious gas if threatened; enemies within 3 meters must roll CON versus POT 8. Failure results in retching and dizziness for 1D6 rounds.
Tatzelwurms, Mythos Cave Salamanders
char. roll average
STR: 2D6x5 35
CON: 3D6x5 50-55
SIZ: (2D4+1)x5 30
DEX: 2D6x5 35
INT: 1D6x5 20
POW: 3D6x5 50-55
Average Hit Points: 8
Average Damage Bonus (DB): -1
Avgerage Build: -1
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 4 crawling/6 swimming
Combat
Attacks per round: 1 (bite) though their teeth are not particularly large and sharp, tatzelwurms can deliver aggressive bites if provoked.
Fighting 30% (15/6), damage 1D3-DB (minimum of 1 damage)
Dodge 17% (8/3)
Skills
Climb 80%, Jump 40%, Listen 75%, Stealth 75%
Armor: none
Spells: none
Sanity Loss: 0/1D4 to encounter a tatzelwurm.
William Adcock is a historian by training and a horror author by necessity.
