The Volcán Wolf Testimony

The Volcán Wolf Testimony

English, German, Spanish, French, Latin and Greek, by Montgomery Lowell, 1830. German annotations by Ingo Quiring, 1841–1845.

Description
During the year 1830, the English naturalist Montgomery St. John Lowell was in close contact with an Elder Thing imprisoned in Thal’n’lai beneath the Galápagos Archipelago. During this time, he recorded his revelations across the walls of a cave located in the caldera of Volcán Wolf. In the early 1840s, Lowell’s “testimony” was copied to three leather-bound journals by the Jesuit geologist Ingo Quiring, who added marginalia in his native German. No other copies of this “testimony” are known to exist.

Contents
Lowell’s testimony is a collection of detailed observations, scientific theories, mathematical equations, diagrams, musical notations, maps, diary entries, and philosophical conjectures. Produced over a nine-month period, Lowell’s original scribblings had little organization, and were etched into the igneous walls of his cave using a metal stylus of K’th-thyalei origin. In order to bring some kind of sense to Lowell’s testimony, Quiring imposed a loose organizational framework. He decided on three overarching themes:

Book I. Personal Observations
Written in a combination of English and university Latin, these are personal observations and notes recorded during Lowell’s time on Albemarle Island. Read strictly as a diary, it depicts a man descending into madness, killing and eating his fellow castaways and using their bodies for scientific experimentation. Even more shocking, it reveals Lowell’s attempts to mate with the imprisoned Elder Thing, a creature he eventually came to believe was his wife, Sarah Campbell.
Language: English and Latin
Sanity Loss: 1
Cthulhu Mythos: +2
Mythos Rating: 10
Study: 12 hours

Book II. History
Disjointed and lacking a coherent narrative, these pages suggest a radical alternate history of earth. According to Lowell, a race of amphibious creatures once ruled earth before human beings. These creatures turned against an even older species, a dying race of extraterrestrial beings who possessed a vast wealth of scientific knowledge. The amphibious creatures trapped these “Primordial Ones” and stole their knowledge, and act of hubris that brought catastrophe to the planet and precipitated the rise of mammals.
Language: English, Spanish, French; or German (Quiring’s translation)
Sanity Loss: 1D4
Cthulhu Mythos: +3/+6
Mythos Rating: 20
Study: 24 hours

Book III. Science
The majority of the Lowell’s testimony is devoted to scientific theories, and includes dozens of mathematical equations and diagrams. Although Lowell uses nineteenth-century terminology and several of his own neologisms, his work anticipates modern topics such as plate tectonics, quantum physics, evolution, genetics, and string theory.
Language: Latin, English, German, Greek
Sanity Loss: 1D4
Cthulhu Mythos: +1/+2
Mythos Rating: 20
Study: 200 hours (see below)

The most difficult book of the “Volcán Wolf Testimony,” Lowell’s radical ideas are beyond the scope of most readers. To truly understand his theories, his diagrams must be studied extensively, his equations followed and understood, and his conjectures cross-referenced to existing scientific texts. Working through Book III requires at least 200 hours of study. For readers capable of understanding the text, a series of four comprehension rolls may be made after set periods of study. (Because of Quiring’s helpful marginalia, a successful Language (German) roll adds a +1 bonus die to any one prerequisite roll per study period.)

Failing one of these prerequisite rolls halts the progression until the reader gains at least 10 more points in Science skills through other means, or gains 10 more points in a relevant Language skill. For the purpose of this progression, Science skills include Mathematics and Mechanical Repair.

Getting the Gist of It
Whether characters read Lowell’s original inscriptions or Quiring’s handwritten journals, the general thrust of the “Volcán Wolf Testimony” can be understood by skimming through the English passages. This takes 24 hours of reading, minus 4 hours for each successful roll on Intelligence, Education, Language (English), and Library Use. (So making three out of these four rolls would require 24 – 12 = 12 hours of study.) Once the required time has been spent, the character may be given “Handout: Lowell’s Testimony.” This provides a broad overview of Lowell’s radical scientific theories and metaphysical speculations, but offers only hints and suggestions about Lowell’s misdeeds, the history of the K’th-thyalei, and the true nature of the Elder Things. This “getting the gist” does not cost any Sanity points, but it doesn’t add to Cthulhu Mythos or increase any Science-based skill. To fully understand the contents of each book, the reader must know the appropriate languages and spend the full amount of Study Time.

White Leviathan > Books & Grimoires
[Back to Le livre de la méchanceté | White Leviathan TOC | Forward TBD]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 29 October 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
PDF Version: [TBD]