One of the things I've always loved about Call of Cthulhu is that an Investigator's most potent weapon in the battle against the forces of the Mythos is often his Library Use skill. Of course, libraries aren't without their own dangers, as anyone who's ever stumbled across a copy of Das Buch von den unaussprechlichen Kulten while perusing the stacks of the Bibliotheca Albertina can tell you.
And then there's the ever-present danger of the Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua, as this advertisement from White Dwarf #59 helpfully reminds us ....
As a librarian I can attest that this is all true.
ReplyDeleteAs a spawn of Cthulhu, I can also confirm.
DeleteSpent all my college years as a library assistant, so much horror lurks in the stacks during the wee hours.
ReplyDeleteThe University of California Berkeley library catalog at one time listed a translation of “Al Azif” by John Dee with a 17th century publication date. As a lark I submitted a request for it and got a note back saying that it was missing along with something to the effect that even if another library had a copy, “they wouldn’t loan it to us”.
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