TEXT:  
   
  The Transmigration of the Emerald Lama 
  An Adventure for the Secrets of Japan setting 
  Written by Jean-Michel Abrassart 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  2 
   
   
  Credits 
   
  Written by Jean-Michel Abrassart. 
   
  Proofreaders:  
   
  Playtesters: Fabrice Brabon, Murat Briggs, Benoit Brochot, David Buccella, Alex Coninx, Rémi 
  Danos Deplanque, Raphaël Gothesman , Alain Pilette and Olivier Verbreugh. 
   
  Photographers: Jean-Michel Abrassart and Andy Carlier. 
   
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
  Jean-Michel Abrassart is Belgian. His native language is French. He has a PhD in psychology and has 
  written several books in French about parapsychology. He currently teaches Japanese in a night school for 
  adults. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Call of Cthulhu is a Trademark of Chaosium Inc. and is used with their permission via the OBS Community Content 
  program.  
  For more information please visit Chaosium’s website: www.chaosium.com 
  The Miskatonic Repository Logo is used under license 
   
  
  Table des matières 
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR ..................................................................................................................................... 2 
  Table des matières ............................................................................................................................................ 3 
  THE SETTING .................................................................................................................................................. 4 
  WHAT HAPPENED SO FAR ............................................................................................................................. 4 
  MAIN NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS ................................................................................................................. 5 
  SCHOOL TRIP TO NAGATO ............................................................................................................................. 5 
  THE DREAMS .................................................................................................................................................. 6 
  LOOKING FOR ALLIES ..................................................................................................................................... 6 
  EVENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 
  RETURN TO THE SHRINE ................................................................................................................................ 7 
  THE KITSUNE VILLAGE.................................................................................................................................... 8 
  THE RYOKAN .................................................................................................................................................. 8 
  IMPORTANT PLACES IN THE VILLAGE ............................................................................................................ 9 
  THE CEREMONY ............................................................................................................................................. 9 
  POSSIBLE ENDIGS ........................................................................................................................................... 9 
  KITSUNE, Fox Spirits ..................................................................................................................................... 11 
  KAPPA, Amphibious vampire ....................................................................................................................... 11 
  THE EMERALD LAMA (avatar of Hastur) ...................................................................................................... 11 
  ANNEX 1: THE TOWN OF HAGI .................................................................................................................... 12 
  ANNEX 2: INVESTIGATORS ........................................................................................................................... 13 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  4 
   
  An investigator is approached by a handsome Japanese 
  businessman during a school excursion at the 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine in Nagato. He tells him that 
  it’s time to come back to his own people. That night, the 
  investigator starts having strange dreams involving a 
  green light coming out of vermilion torii gates. It’s up to 
  him and his high school friends to find out what it all 
  means! 
   
  This scenario takes place in the Secrets of Japan setting 
  but you don’t need that book to play this scenario. It is 
  set in present day (2020 at the time of this writing) in the 
  prefecture of Yamaguchi, Japan. The investigators are all 
  high school students at Shōin High School in the town of 
  Hagi. At the beginning of the scenario they are on a 
  school trip in Nagato, another town 20km west. They are 
  in the same class and they are good friends. This scenario 
  can be played has a one-off or as a sequel to Mizuumi no 
  Bakemono by Jean-Michel Abrassart, published in 2018 
  on the Miskatonic Repository. 
   
  Note to the Keeper of Arcane Lore: all the photos 
  illustrating this document have been taken on location 
  in Yamaguchi prefecture. 
   
  Trigger warning: this scenario deals with the topic of 
  child abduction. 
   
  THE SETTING 
  The action of this scenario is set in the prefecture of 
  Yamaguchi, south of Honshu, the main island of Japan. 
  Nagato and Hagi are both real towns, but we obviously 
  took some creative licenses with it. If you wish to know 
  more about the town of Hagi, please read the Annex 1. All 
  the investigators go to Shōin High School. The Keeper 
  will find advices on how to create investigators for this 
  scenario in Annex 2. 
   
  WHAT HAPPENED SO FAR 
  A long time ago, when he was a young man, the father of 
  one of the investigators went hunting and fishing in the 
  mountains near the town of Hagi. That very day, he 
  found a withe fox with his leg trapped in a duke trap. The 
  father, having pity, freed the animal. The next morning, 
  a beautiful young lady came to his house. Her name was 
  Rumiko. They fell in love and had a child, one of the 
  investigators. Of course, that beautiful lady was the 
  magical fox, or kitsune, the father had saved the previous 
  day in the forest! The kitsune became his wife for a short 
  time. For this scenario, it is essential that one of the 
  investigators is multiracial: his father is human, but his 
  mother was a powerful nine-tail kitsune (for more on 
  kitsune, see Secrets of Japan, p. 228-230)! 
   
  If this part of the background sounds like a fairy tale, 
  it’s because it is like one! Indeed, this story is very 
  similar to many classical fairy tales from the land of the 
  rising sun. 
  The mother was the leader of a kitsune community 
  leaving in the Dreamlands, in a place connected to the 
  Waking World through the Motonosumi Inari Shrine, 
  situated near the town of Nagato. After the investigator 
  was born, Rumiko left his father because of her 
  responsibilities in the Dreamlands. Back there, she had 
  another son, Hitoshi. She passed away in recent years 
  and her son is now the current leader of the kitsune 
  community. 
   
  The local legend says that Motonosumi Inari Shrine was 
  built to honor a white fox spirit. It has a tunnel of 123 red 
  torii gates leading to the Sea of Japan. With the proper 
  magic ritual, this tunnel can be used, to reach the 
  Dreamlands and the kitsune village on the other side.  
   
  The kitsune living at Motonosumi Inari Shrine worship 
  the Emerald Lama (an avatar of Hastur), a new Old One 
  original to the Secrets of Japan setting (p. 252-254). This 
  Old One has a specific characteristic: it is not immortal! 
  It sometimes dies of old age and then reincarnates later, 
  in an endless cycle. Here’s what Secrets of Japan (p.252) 
  says about it:  
   
  “The Emerald Lama is not ageless: his physical form can 
  be destroyed. After 200 years he must take a new mortal 
  shell. He is a reincarnating thought-form who consumes 
  the soul of a Tibetan innocent while incarnating on 
  Earth. The time between incarnations is the most 
  vulnerable as his Dugpa followers search the countryside 
  for the child who has the Mark of the Lama (a green 
  birthmark on the forehead).” 
   
  The Emerald Lama wants to transmigrate this time to a 
  young Tibetan boy, Ngawang Dorje. His parents own an 
  Indian food restaurant in downtown Hagi, called 
  “Yamarāja” (Yamarāja is the god of death in Hinduism 
  and in Buddhism a wrathful god said to judge the dead 
  and preside over the Hells). Their son disappeared one 
  year ago, when he was seven years old. The police believe 
  he has been abducted by a serial killer, but his body has 
  never been found. They stopped looking for him a while 
  ago… The investigators have probably heard of it at the 
  time, because it was big news in the area. Other people 
  talk about “kamikakushi”, which means “spirited away”. 
  This is closer to the truth: he was in fact taken by the 
  kitsune to be raised in their village in the Dreamlands. 
  They believe that with the help of the proper ritual the 
  Emerald Lama will be reborn at last. They only problem 
  is that they need lots of blood from an old and powerful 
  kitsune bloodline to cast the spell. They already have 
  Hitoshi’s blood, but it’s not powerful enough by itself. 
  That’s why they also need the multiracial investigator to 
  help them, willingly or not. 
   
  
  5 
   
  You can make this scenario more personal by having 
  one of the investigators be the older sister or brother of 
  Ngawang Dorje.  Another option would be to have one 
  of the investigators be the neighbor of the Dorje family. 
  In that case he would have practiced baseball in the 
  nearby 
  parc 
  with 
  Ngawang 
  Dorje 
  until 
  his 
  disappearance a year ago. 
   
  MAIN NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS 
  - 
  Ngawang Dorje (future reincarnation of the 
  Emerald Lama). Ngawang is a boy who has a 
  green birthmark on his forehead, the Mark of 
  the Lama. He is currently seven years old, but 
  soon, with the help of the proper ritual, he will 
  fully become the Old One known as the 
  Emerald Lama. Most of the time Ngawang 
  behaves like a normal kid, but from time to time 
  he starts talking in a very adult voice about 
  some deep Cthulhu Mythos knowledge. 
  - 
  Rumiko (powerful nine-tail kitsune). She was 
  the leader of the kitsune community living in 
  the Dreamlands. She passed away a few years 
  ago. She had two sons: Hitoshi (the current 
  leader of the kitsune community) and one of the 
  investigators. 
  - 
  Hitoshi (kitsune). He is the son of Rumiko and 
  the half-brother of one of the investigators. 
  Hitoshi is the owner of a ryokan in the 
  Dreamlands and the current leader of the 
  kitsune community that leaves around his 
  Japanese Inn in this parallel version of Nagato. 
  He worships the Emerald Lama and wants to 
  hasten his reincarnation. 
  - 
  Suiko (female kappa sorcerer). She is Hitoshi’s 
  lover. She’s helping him with the ritual for the 
  transmigration. Hitoshi is not very good at 
  occult magic: he needs her to cast the spell 
  hasting the reincarnation of the Emerald Lama.  
  SCHOOL TRIP TO NAGATO 
  The investigators all meet up in front of Shōin High 
  School, waiting for the bus to go to Nagato. The players 
  should at this point take the time to introduce their 
  characters if it’s a new group. The daytrip includes a 
  pleasure cruise around Omijima Island in the morning. 
  The coastline is breathtaking with its beautiful 
  monolithic rocks. After eating lunch at the harbor, it is 
  time to go on the bus again. This time, the destination is 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine! 
   
  The students arrive at Motonosumi Inari Shrine and 
  start visiting the place, especially the tunnel of torii gates 
  leading to the Sea of Japan. It’s a gorgeous spot for 
  tourists, even if it’s quite remote. While they are visiting 
  the Shinto shrine, a handsome Japanese businessman 
  will approach the investigator who is half-kitsune and 
  bump into him. The Japanese businessman is himself a 
  kitsune in human disguise. It is Hitoshi, his half-brother. 
  As he bumps into him, he will whisper to the 
  investigator: “It’s time to come to us. Your family has 
  been waiting for you!” Bumping into someone like this is 
  very unusual in Japan, a country were physical contacts 
  are uncommon. 
   
  The goal of bumping into the investigator is to initiate a 
  drain. Secrets of Japan states about this (p. 229):  
   
  “To initiate a feeding the kitsune need only touch the 
  target’s bare flesh once.”  
   
  This kitsune has a POW of 65. The investigator will have 
  to do an opposed roll against the kitsune’s POW. If he 
  wins, he loses only 1d4 CON. If he fails, he loses 1d8 and 
  feels extremely dizzy. Whatever the result is, he will start 
  to have strange dreams about Motonosumi Inari Shrine 
  the following night.  
   
  Investigators can notice with a successful Spot Hidden 
  roll that something is off with the man’s shadow, like if 
  he had several tails; or is it tentacles? Witnesses of the 
  shadow lose 0/1 SAN. If a psychic character succeeds a 
  Channel Spirit roll, he will briefly see the Japanese 
  businessman for what he really his: a kitsune (Sanity 
  Loss: 1/1D6 SAN). After bumping into the investigator, 
  Hitoshi will disappear in the crowd of tourists, then leave 
  the shrine. If the characters try to chase him, he will hide 
  behind a takoyaki (ball-shaped Japanese snack with 
  octopus inside) stand and, when hidden, shapeshift into 
  a fox. In that case the investigators can only find his 
  clothes laying down on the ground, with no other clue.  
   
  An investigator who succeed at a Religion (Shinto) or an 
  Occult roll would know that Motonosumi Inari Shrine is 
  dedicated to Inari, the kami (or Japanese god) of fertility 
  and agriculture. In Japanese folklore, kitsune are 
  believed to be Inari’s messengers and servants. With a 
  Hard Success, they also would be familiar with the local 
  legend that says it was built to honor a white fox spirit 
  (actually Rumiko a long, long time ago). If they look for 
  it, there is even a pair of statues of kitsune in front of the 
  main sanctuary, a male and a female.  
   
  
  6 
   
   
   
  The Channel Spirit Skill (or Reikan) 
   
  An investigator with the Channel Spirit skill (for more 
  on this, see Secrets of Japan p. 64) can see the true form 
  of kitsune in human disguise. The name of this skill is 
  “Reikan” in Japanese. Like the 6th sense in the western 
  world. Reikan is the ability to sense the supernatural, 
  especially ghosts. The rule in Secrets of Japan (p. 229) 
  states:  
   
  “Those people of a religious nature, such as Shinto 
  priests, yamabushi, miko, and itako do not see kitsune 
  illusions but their true alien form. These holy people can 
  unsettle a kitsune, causing it to lose concentration and 
  disrupt its illusionary tricks.”  
   
  This is way too powerful! The rule we suggest instead is 
  as follow: when encountering a kitsune in disguise (for 
  example in human form), an investigator with Channel 
  Spirit can roll under that skill. If he passes the check, the 
  investigator can have a glimpse of the yôkai’s form. 
  That means that instead of seeing a human, the 
  investigator briefly sees a kitsune. Contrary to what is 
  stated in Secrets of Japan, he doesn’t see the true alien 
  form of those creatures. 
   
  A new rule we are also proposing is that an investigator 
  with the Channel Spirit skill can use a kokkuri game to 
  contact the spirit of a kitsune, a tanuki or another yôkai. 
  The kokkuri game is very similar to a Ouija board, but 
  allows contact with the Japanese fairy world, not the 
  spirits of the dead. The character could have the idea to 
  try that with a successful Occult roll. Of course, to really 
  contact the spirit of a kitsune, he will have to pass a 
  Channel Spirit skill check while playing the game. If he 
  fails, the kokkuri game will either not move, or will only 
  move because of the ideomotor effect and thus give 
  inaccurate answers.  
   
  THE DREAMS 
  The following night, the half-kitsune investigator will 
  start to have strange dreams. Those will repeat every 
  night until he will go back to Motonosumi Inari Shrine, 
  cross to the Dreamlands through the tunnel of torii gates 
  and met Hitoshi on the other side. The dreams are as 
  follow: the investigator sees himself at the beginning of 
  the tunnel of torii gates. After a few seconds, a green light 
  starts to shine through it. A portal opens. The 
  investigator sees himself crossing the threshold. In the 
  morning he will have an additional CON drain 
  (1d4/night). The investigator will die if he reaches 0 in 
  this fashion. This should motivate any reluctant 
  character to go back to the shrine! When the dream 
  repeats, the Keeper can add the following detail: the 
  investigator takes a knife and cut his own wrist in front 
  of the tunnel of torii gates. This action is indeed 
  necessary for opening of the portal. 
   
  LOOKING FOR ALLIES 
  The investigators can easily talk to a Shinto priest or a 
  Buddhist monk about what happened to them at 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine. They know the local legend 
  that says it was built to honor a white fox spirit. With a 
  successful group Luck roll, they can also tell a strange 
  story about a man who came to talk to them around 
  twenty years ago. One day that men went hunting and 
  fishing in the mountains. He found a withe fox with his 
  leg trapped in a duke trap. The man, having pity, freed 
  the animal. The next morning, a beautiful young lady 
  came to his house and they fell in love. The man came 
  after that unusual experience to talk about it to the 
  Shinto priest or Buddhist monk. The priest or monk 
  didn’t really believe the story. But he thinks that, if it was 
  real, the creature would be a kitsune. At the time, the 
  priest or monk advised the man to send the woman away. 
  He has not seen him since then. Of course, this man is 
  the father of one of the investigators. After he left the 
  priest or monk, he didn’t follow the advice and didn’t ask 
  the woman to go away. Instead they got married and had 
  a child.  
   
  Given the proper circumstances, the investigators can 
  get the same information directly from the father of the 
  half-kitsune or even their science teacher Ryuichi 
  Kimura, if they know that he is very knowledgeable about 
  the Mythos after playing the scenario Mizuumi no 
  Bakemono (a scenario published in 2018 on the 
  Miskatonic Repository). 
   
  If the investigators go specifically to a Shinto shrine, the 
  priest will offer to make them an o-fuda or talisman. 
  They can come fetch it the next day.   
   
   
   
   
  
  7 
   
  O-fuda (talisman) 
   
  An o-fuda is made by inscribing the name of a kami and 
  the name of the Shinto shrine on a strip of paper. It 
  works like an Elder Sign, but only works on yôkai 
  (Japanese fairy creatures) and yûrei (Japanese ghosts). 
  It has no effect whatsoever on Mythos monsters. The 
  investigators can, for example, put them at the entrance 
  of their house and thus prevent Japanese supernatural 
  creatures to come in easily.  
   
  EVENTS 
  There can be a few days between the school trip to 
  Nagato and the investigators deciding to go back to 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine to try to access the 
  Dreamlands, even with the CON drain in full swing. This 
  is the perfect opportunity to flesh out the life at school, 
  family dynamics, and so on. Here are some ideas of 
  events that can happen in the meantime. Those are not 
  necessary and can be skipped in order to shortening the 
  time length of this scenario. The goal of this section is 
  really to give an “anime” feel to the scenario. 
   
  1. 
  The investigator’s little brother comes back 
  home with lots of bruises. He has been beaten 
  by bullies. They want him to give them 10000 
  yen or they will continue to attack him after 
  school. Those bullies are in the same school 
  year of the investigators, but in another class. 
  What are they going to do about it? 
  2. 
  The father of an investigator loses his job. He 
  worked there for more than a decade. The 
  family is in a state of shock: what are they going 
  to do? Maybe the mother can work has a 
  waitress in a fast food? Of maybe the father can 
  start working for the local branch of Yotsubishi 
  (about this company, see Secrets of Japan p. 
  174)? 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Neko-Mata 
   
  This event can only happen to an investigator with the 
  Channel Spirit skill. He will encounter a neko-mata. 
  This is another type of yôkai. “Neko” means cat in 
  Japanese. A neko-mata is a shapeshifter cat.  One 
  evening, while coming back from the juku (night school 
  for teenagers), the investigator will notice the shadow 
  of a big feline in an alley nearby. The animal seems to 
  be as big as a tiger or a lion, but when it comes out of 
  the alley, it’s just a cat (Sanity Loss: 1/1D4 SAN)! One 
  strange fact: the tail of the cat is divided into two. With 
  a success on an Occult roll the investigator will know he 
  is facing a neko-mata. This creature can talk. If the 
  investigator tries to engage a conversation with it, the 
  cat will reply in Japanese. He knows about the 
  Dreamlands and about the kitsune village there. Later 
  in the scenario, they can meet him again in the kitsune 
  village: they also have the power to travel between the 
  Waking World and the Dreamlands. There is no reason 
  for a fight, but if a confrontation happens anyway, the 
  Keeper can use the stats for the bake-neko (Secrets of 
  Japan, p. 237) for the neko-mata in full giant cat form.  
  The investigator with the Channel Spirit skill should be 
  alone for this encounter, but if someone is with him, he 
  will only see a normal cat.  
   
  RETURN TO THE SHRINE 
  The investigators will have, sooner or later, to go back to 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine. The multiracial investigator 
  will notice a kanji written ( 血 , read “chi”) at the 
  beginning of the tunnel of torii gates. This kanji means 
  blood. It is invisible to humans. The rest of the 
  investigators cannot see it, except for someone with the 
  reikan ability that would succeed a Channel Spirit check. 
  If the multiracial investigator cuts himself and put some 
  of his blood on the stone, it will open the portal to the 
  Dreamlands (cost: 1d4 POW to do this). A green glow will 
  come out of the tunnel of torii gates. They can now cross 
  to the other side. The effect of the kitsune drain doesn’t 
  stop when they go into the Dreamlands: for that the 
  investigator must meet Hitoshi. Once on the other side, 
  the portal will close and it’s not possible to reopen it on 
  this side without knowing the spell for doing it. 
   
  
  8 
   
  THE KITSUNE VILLAGE 
  As often with the Dreamlands, the area where the 
  investigators will emerge is not at present day. It is still 
  very similar to the Edo period (1603BC to 1868BC). The 
  portal will make them appear in a countryside akin to the 
  one in the Waking World. There is a path leading from 
  the tunnel of torii gates to a nearby village. That village 
  is (more or less) at the same place that Nagato is in the 
  Waking World. The big difference is that the habitants of 
  that village are mostly yôkai! There will be kitsunes (in 
  human, half-human or fox form), but also kappa (they 
  come from the Abugawa river to do business with the 
  kitsune, see Mizuumi no Bakemono on the Miskatonic 
  Repository for more on this). They can also meet a neko-
  mata (in giant cat or in normal size cat with two tails 
  form) or any other yôkai the Keeper likes.  
   
  If you wish, they can also be a few humans, (samurais, 
  merchants and peasants) in the village and even other 
  creatures form the Dreamlands (zoogs are good 
  candidates for this). Some people can even confuse the 
  investigators from travelers coming from far away 
  Unknown Kadath because of their strange clothes!  
   
  In the real world the town of Nagato is famous for his 
  several ryokans and his Dreamlands counterpart is the 
  same, except that there is only one big Inn. The village is 
  surrounded by a wooden fence. Two kitsunes stand 
  guard at the entrance and the investigators will have to 
  talk to them to get in. They will want to know why they 
  are here… The village is in a valley and is built on both 
  side of a river flowing through. There is a big ryokan 
  (traditional Japanese Inn, often with a public bath) on 
  one of the hills near the river. It is built along the slope: 
  each floor is following its shape. If the investigator’s 
  response is vague, the two guards will advise the 
  investigators to go talk to Hitoshi, the owner of the 
  ryokan, as he is currently the leader of the town. 
   
  THE RYOKAN 
  The ryokan is standing on the slope of a hill in the middle 
  of the village. The river is flowing in front it. Four 
  Buddhist monks are making a temporary Emerald 
  Mandala in sand near the entrance of the ryokan. The 
  monks are cultists of the Emerald Lama and speaks only 
  Tibetan. Here’s what Secrets of Japan (p. 254) says 
  about this Mythos artefact:  
   
  “The Emerald Mandala creates an unconscious hunger 
  for knowledge and enlightenment. Found in copies of 
  select esoteric texts, meditating on its geometric 
  configurations opens the path to madness and cold 
  inhuman enlightenment.”  
  The investigators should be strangely attracted by it. If 
  an investigator meditates on it and fails an INT roll, he 
  will have a vison of the Emerald Lama (1/1D4 SAN loss). 
  The Emerald Lama will appear as a Buddhist monk. He 
  will be floating above ground, his legs and feet not to be 
  seen. 
   
  Ngawang Dorje is often meditating in front of the 
  Emerald Mandala. He’s spending the rest of the day in 
  the ryokan. He always has a kitsune samurai with him, 
  preventing him to try to escape and protecting him from 
  attacks. The investigators should see him and his 
  bodyguard as they get to the ryokan. Someone can also 
  notice the green birthmark with a success on a Spot 
  Hidden roll. A roll is necessary because it’s a little bit 
  hidden by his hair. They can remember that Ngawang 
  Dorje disappeared from Hagi the year before with a 
  success on an EDU roll. It was all over the local news at 
  the time. His parents own an Indian food restaurant in 
  downtown Hagi, called “Yamarāja”. The police believed 
  Ngawang Dorje was abducted by a serial killer. Other 
  people talked about “kamikakushi”, which means 
  “spirited away” in Japanese. 
   
  The ryokan is a touristic place for kistunes of the 
  Dreamlands. They come and enjoy the onsen here. When 
  the investigators arrive, Hitoshi will welcome them 
  personally in his ryokan. He will offer a room and a meal 
  to the travelers for the Waking World, free of charge! 
  When he has a chance, he will ask his brother or sister to 
  talk with him alone. At that point, he will cast a spell in 
  Aklo to remove the drain. He will then explain who he is, 
  and why he has invited his brother or sister in the 
  Dreamlands: in needs him or her blood for a religious 
  ritual! He will try to hide details if possible, like the goal 
  of the ritual or the fact that Ngawang Dorje will “die” 
  during the ceremony and be replace by the Emerald 
  Lama.  
   
  Hitoshi is a cultist, but a friendly one! The Keeper should 
  play him as extremely (too?) nice and forthcoming.  
   
  Hitoshi is helped in his project by a female kappa 
  sorcerer named Suiko. Even if she spends lots of time in 
  the cave under the ryokan preparing the ceremony, she 
  can also be seen wandering the ryokan and, from time to 
  time, talk to Ngawang Dorje about some deep Mythos 
  knowledge. Hitoshi is not good enough in occult magic 
  to do the ritual by himself and he needs her help to cast 
  the spell. On top of that, Suiko has a Mythos tome called 
  the Kinki Kyôten. She can sometimes be seen in the inn 
  studying the book. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  9 
   
  Kinki Kyôten 
   
  It is a 18th century Japanese translation of the 
  Forbidden Sutra (see Secrets of Japan, p. 123-126). 
   
  Sanity loss 1D10/2D8; Cthulhu Mythos +13 percentiles; 
  average 50 weeks to study and comprehend.   
   
  This tome contains several spells, including the one 
  describing the ceremony the hasten the transmigration 
  of the Emerald Lama. 
   
  Spells: Meditation of the Emerald Lama (Call/Dismiss 
  Emerald Lama), the spell to open the portal from the 
  Dreamlands to the Waking World, and many others. 
   
  IMPORTANT PLACES IN THE VILLAGE 
  - 
  Cave: There are galleries under the ryokan 
  that can be access from the 1st floor of the inn. 
  Those galleries go to a large underground cave 
  where the ritual will take place if everything 
  goes according to plan. Cultists (especially 
  Suiko, but also Hitoshi and the Buddhist 
  monks creating the mandala) can be seen 
  going in and out of it, preparing the place for 
  the ceremony. 
  - 
  Emerald Mandala: Four Buddhist monks 
  are making a temporary Emerald Mandala in 
  sand near the entrance of the ryokan. 
  - 
  Foot bath: there is a public bath near the 
  ryokan with hot water in which people can 
  bathe their feet. Visiting kappa often go there 
  to relax. 
  - 
  Market: visitors can trade and buy items in 
  the town market. Amongst the merchants, the 
  investigators will see kitsune, kappa and 
  humans (from Japan, but also from other 
  places in the Dreamlands like Kadath or 
  Ulthar).   
  - 
  Onsen: next to the ryokan is an onsen where 
  clients from the inn can bath and relax. 
  - 
  Rumiko’s tomb: The tomb of Rumiko can be 
  found at the outskirt of the village, near a 
  beautiful waterfall. She died of natural causes 
  (at least natural as far as it goes for a powerful 
  nine tails kitsune) after a very, very long life. If 
  the players are really lost, the Keeper can make 
  the spirit of the mother appear at this location. 
  She became a kami after she died and can give 
  some advice to her child if truly needed. 
  Someone with Channel Spirit could potentially 
  also see this spirit. 
  - 
  Ryokan: The ryokan is standing on the slope 
  of a hill in the middle of the village. The river is 
  flowing in front it. 
  - 
  Shinto shrine: there is a Shinto shrine in the 
  village, dedicated to the Emerald Lama. 
  Investigators can see there a green statue of a 
  Tibetan monk in meditation. A miko (shrine 
  maiden) or Shinto priest can be found working 
  there at time. If asked, they will say that the 
  “Emerald Lama wants to give knowledge of 
  the real world to everyone” and other 
  sentences of the same kind that are not so 
  threatening at face value, but can be to 
  someone with Mythos knowledge. 
  THE CEREMONY 
  The ceremony will happen at night in a cave under the 
  ryokan. A pentacle is engraved on the ground floor. Four 
  very powerful kitsunes will surround Ngawang Dorje. 
  Hitoshi will be one of them, on one of the branches. For 
  the ritual to works, the brother of sister of Hitoshi will 
  have to join them. Ngawang Dorje will be in the middle 
  of the pentacle and Suiko will be next to him, leading the 
  ceremony, reading from the Kinki Kyôten. They all will 
  start chanting. The multiracial child will have to chant 
  with them and give some blood at the proper time, 
  cutting his wrist. The blood will then drip on the branch 
  of the pentacle and magically run toward Ngawang 
  Dorje. At that time, Suiko will cut his throat with a 
  ceremonial dagger. The boy will die and then, after a few 
  minutes, come back to life. If all that happens, he will 
  change into the Emerald Lama. A green light will slowly 
  envelope his body and he will grow to his adult form, 
  looking like a Buddhist monk. The green scar on his 
  forehead will continue glowing for a few minutes. He will 
  start talking with a supernatural voice. Every cultist will 
  bow toward him. At this point, if the investigators are 
  present, they should do a Sanity test and lose 1d3/1d10 
  for seeing the Emerald Lama in his human form. The 
  incarnate god will stay in the cave and teach the cultists 
  about the Mythos for the foreseeable future. 
   
  If the half-kitsune investigator refuses to participate 
  willingly to the ritual, Hitoshi will hunt him or her down 
  and force him or her to take part in it. He will send 
  (kitsune) hunters chasing after the group of investigators 
  (1 hunter for each investigator). If caught, he will put 
  them in a cell in the inn until the time is right for the 
  ceremony… 
   
  POSSIBLE ENDIGS 
   
  Investigators have several ways to prevent the 
  ceremony: 
   
  - 
  Kill Hitoshi, 
  - 
  Kill Suiko, 
  - 
  Kill Ngawang Dorje, 
  - 
  Kill himself, 
  - 
  Steal or destroy the Kinki Kyôten.  
   
  There are a few different ways this scenario can end: 
   
  - 
  The investigators don’t stop the ceremony but 
  manage to flee in the Waking World, escaping 
  the kitsune hunters. They will chase them in the 
  Dreamlands but not beyond it, at least for the 
  time being. The problem here is to open the 
  torii portal on this side. Hitoshi and Suiko 
  knows the spell to reopen it, and it’s not difficult 
  to learn, but the investigators will have to find a 
  way to make them talk… The spell is also in the 
  Kinki Kyôten if the investigators manage to 
  steal it and to find the time to study it. 
  
  10 
   
  - 
  The investigators decide to kill Ngawang Dorje 
  before the ceremony. At the end of the day, this 
  is the only way to really stop the Emerald Lama 
  from reincarnating into the boy. This should be 
  of course a moral conundrum for the players… 
  But if they do so, the Waking World and the 
  Dreamlands are saved from the Emerald Lama 
  for a few centuries, until the next opportunity 
  for the transmigration. 
  - 
  The investigators prevent the ceremony and 
  flee the village with Ngawang Dorje. The 
  kistune will chase after them and try to kill 
  them in order to recover the boy. The 
  investigators will have to fight the group of 
  hunters. In this case, the scenario should end 
  with someone noticing some strange light 
  coming out of the Ngawang Dorje’s green 
  birthmark, while the boy is smiling in a very 
  creepy fashion. Another option is to have the 
  investigator visit Ngawang Dorje’s house a few 
  months later and find his family killed in an 
  horrible way, the boy being nowhere to be 
  found… 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  11 
   
  KITSUNE, Fox Spirits 
   
  char. 
  rolls 
  averages 
  STR 
  5D6x5 
  85 
  CON 
  2D6+6x5 
  65 
  SIZ 
  4D6x5 
  70 
  DEX 
  2D6+6x5 
  65 
  INT 
  4D6x5 
   
  70 
  POW 
  3D6x5 
   
  50 
   
   
   
  HP 13 
  Average Damage Bonus: +1D4  
  Average Build: +1 
  Average Magic Points: 10  
  Move: 8 
   
  ATTACKS  
  Attacks per round: 1 
  Weapons (fox form):  
  Fighting 50% (25/10), damage 1D4 (bites) 
  Breathe Fire 40% (20/8), damage 1D6  
  Kitsune-Bi 30% (15/6), fire or electrical damage 1D8+2 
  Armor: 1 point of fur.  
  Spells: none.  
  Sanity Loss: 1/1D8 SAN to see a kitsune’s true alien 
  form, or to see one transforming. 
   
  - 
  In fox form, STR is one-quarter normal, SIZ is 
  one-half normal (with a corresponding 
  reduction in hit points), and Move is 12.  
  - 
  For each 100 years of life add 1D6 to INT and 
  POW. 
   
  Kitsune-Bi and Fox Fires (Secrets of Japan, p. 
  230): 
   
  “A kitsune is able to create lightning or fire by rubbing 
  its tails together. This forms into a natural energy ball 
  and is usable as a weapon against opponents. Fox-
  spirits can also breathe fire up to five feet. Small 
  kitsune-bi can also be used as a source of illumination 
  or hurled. These attacks are often confused with ghosts 
  of the same name, which is to the kitsune’s liking. This 
  kitsune special ability costs the creature 1 magic point 
  per round it is used.” 
    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  KAPPA, Amphibious vampire 
   
  char. 
  rolls 
  averages 
  STR 
  4D6x5 
  70 
  CON 
  3D6x5 
  50 
  SIZ 
  1d3+1 
  15 
  DEX 
  3D6+6x5 
  80 
  INT 
  3D6x5 
   
  50 
  POW 
  3D6x5 
   
  50 
   
   
   
  Special: A kappa with an empty crown has only 25% of 
  all characteristic ratings. 
   
  HP 6 
  Average Damage Bonus: None 
  Average Build: 0  
  Average Magic Points: 10  
  Move: 9/16 Swimming 
   
  ATTACKS  
  Attacks per round: 1 
  Weapons: 
  Bite 
   
  40% (20/8), damage 1D6+db 
  Armor: 1 point of clammy skin, a kappa’s shell affords a 
  3 points bonus from the rear. 
  Spells: Breath of the kappa, Create Mist of R'lyeh and 
  Breath of the Deep. 
  Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 for seeing a kappa. 
   
  THE EMERALD LAMA (avatar of Hastur) 
  “The Emerald Lama exudes the aura of an enigmatic 
  holy man cloaked in shimmering tattered green robes. 
  As the Lama walks, a wrinkled torso with parchment 
  skin of a faint greenish hue is barely visible. The cloak’s 
  folds only reveal a passably human head and neck. 
  Usually covered in a shadowy hood, its head, akin to a 
  withered bald human’s, is noticeably larger and egg 
  shaped. Those looking into the shadows will see no nose 
  or mouth, only glowing green pupil-less eyes. The only 
  other feature is the third eye, a faceted emerald gem 
  embedded in the forehead and about the size of a fist. If 
  the robes are parted, where one would expect to see legs 
  is instead empty space. Where hips should be is a torso 
  that tapers off into three vestigial tentacles that hover 
  three feet above the ground at all times. The Lama’s 
  arms are unseen until it attacks: where each human 
  shoulder should be are two spindly appendages. At the 
  end 
  of 
  each 
  “arm” 
  are 
  five 
  wiry 
  knuckled 
  tentacles/“fingers” with lamprey mouths on the “finger-
  tips.” (Secrets of Japan, p. 252). 
  
  12 
   
  ANNEX 1: THE TOWN OF HAGI 
  Hagi is a tourist destination (mostly for Japanese, not so 
  much for foreigners) because of its rich history toward 
  the end of the Edo period and the following Meiji era. 
  There is still a samurai area that tourists can visits, with 
  lots of old houses. There was a castle too, but it was 
  destroyed during the Meiji era. At this point there is only 
  a park and the building itself is a ruin. The biggest town 
  nearby is Yamaguchi city, the capital of the prefecture. 
  Hagi is especially famous in Japan for its pottery, called 
  hagiyaki. The food specialty is mikan, a kind of 
  mandarin. North-west of town is the Sea of Japan. There 
  is a beach, a harbor and a sea market. South are 
  mountains that are covered by snow in winter. Hagi also 
  has a river named Abugawa. 
   
   
   
  The urban exodus has taken toll: most teenagers dream 
  of living in big cities like Osaka and Tokyo. The fact that 
  the town is on the Sea of Japan coast and that the 
  shinkansen (bullet train) doesn’t reach it doesn’t help. 
  Nowadays, jobs are few and far between. Because of that, 
  there are less and less young people in the countryside... 
  The town is doing slightly better than others because it is 
  a tourist destination, but not a lot better. 
   
  The name of the High School the investigators go to 
  comes from Yoshida Shōin, who was a famous 
  intellectual (1830 – 1859) at the end of the Tokugawa 
  shogunate. He had a small school in the town at the time, 
  but today it has become a shrine that tourists can visits. 
   
  Mythos locations in the area: 
  • 
  The Abugawa dam 
   
  A dam has been built on the Abugaza river in the 
  mountains. A community of kappa lives in the lake 
  beyond it. Those yōkai are anthropomorphic turtles who 
  likes to eat humans. This species of monster is distantly 
  related to Deep Ones. For more on this, see the scenario 
  Mizuumi no Bakemono by Jean-Michel Abrassart 
  (published in 2018) on the Miskatonic Repository. 
   
   
  • 
  Motonosumi Inari Shrine in Nagato 
   
  The local legend says that Motonosumi Inari Shrine was 
  built to honor a white fox spirit (kitsune). It has a tunnel 
  of 123 red torii gates leading to the Sea of Japan. This 
  tunnel can be used, with the proper magic ritual, to reach 
  the Dreamlands. Nagato is a town 20 kilometers west 
  from Hagi. It takes around 1 hour by train to go from 
  Hagi to Nagato, following the coastline. 
   
  Some important Non-Player Characters in the setting: 
   
  - 
  Ryuichi Kimura (science teacher). He’s a 
  member of the Third Eye Agency, an 
  organization fighting the Mythos in japan (for 
  more on this, see Secrets of Japan p. 197-199). 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  13 
   
  ANNEX 2: INVESTIGATORS 
  In Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, the rules for creating 
  investigators between 15 and 19 years old are as follow 
  (Investigator Handbook, p. 45):  
   
  “Deduct 5 points among STR and SIZ. Deduct 5 points 
  for EDU. Roll twice to generate a Luck score and use the 
  higher value”  
   
  You can either create adults with different occupations 
  then deduce those points to make them teenagers (for 
  example you create an “antiquarian”, then deduce those 
  points to transform him in a high school students: he will 
  be a “budding antiquarian“) or you can use the “High 
  school student” occupation in Secrets of Japan (p. 50) if 
  you prefer. But if you choose that second option, 
  remember that the “High school student” occupation in 
  Secrets of Japan is not design for the Call of Cthulhu 7th 
  edition, so you'll have some tinkering to do to make it 
  work. As equipment, all the investigators get at the start 
  of the scenario a bike and a smartphone. 
   
  Itako (occupation) 
   
  A possible occupation for investigators in Secrets of 
  Japan is to play an itako, a kind of Japanese medium. 
  The problem with this idea is that there is only around 
  20 itakos alive today, if not less! They live in Aomori, 
  near Mount Osore, when on the other hand this scenario 
  is set in the Yamaguchi prefecture. On top of that, they 
  are all elderly blind ladies. Because of those reasons, we 
  suggest that instead of directly playing an itako, the 
  investigator could be the granddaughter of one of them. 
  She must be a female character and she has terrible 
  eyesight (-20% on rolls based on vision, especially Spot 
  Hidden). The investigator can add the skill Channel 
  Spirit/Reikan (see Secrets of Japan p. 64) on his 
  character sheet at based level (05%) at the start of a 
  campaign.   
   
  Families are very important in a scenario in which 
  players are portraying teenagers. The Keeper can either 
  ask them to invent their own families or they can use the 
  following backgrounds.  
   
  If he wishes to do so, the Keeper can decide to connect 
  the families together. After all, Hagi is a small town in the 
  countryside: everybody knows everybody here! For 
  example, if someone’s father owns a ramen restaurant 
  and someone else’s father is a yakuza, the second one can 
  come often to the first one to threaten him, and so on. 
  Connecting the families that way creates more drama 
  and brings the setting to life. 
   
  Backgrounds below are quite unusual. If you wish to 
  have a more realistic feel, fathers and mothers should 
  simply be company employees (“salaryman” in 
  Japanese), shop owners, fishermen, hotel staff and so 
  on. But if this was a TV show or an anime, every family 
  would be a little bit special. Of course, it’s less plausible, 
  since for real Hagi is quite a normal Japanese town… If 
  you wish to go for the “TV show” style, please use some 
  of the backgrounds below. 
   
  1. The investigator is a foreign student from 
  Arkham, USA. He is part of an exchange 
  program that allows American High School 
  students to study for one year in a Japanese 
  school. He leaves as a guest with a Host Family. 
  2. The grandmother of the investigator was an 
  itako, a kind of medium in Japan (see Secrets of 
  Japan p. 50). She has inherited her gift: the 
  ability to see ghosts and the true form of yōkai! 
  The investigator must be a female character and 
  her eyesight is terrible (-20% on rolls based on 
  vision, 
  especially 
  Spot 
  Hidden). 
  The 
  investigator 
  can 
  add 
  the 
  skill 
  Channel 
  Spirit/Reikan (see Secrets of Japan p. 64) on 
  his character sheet at based level (05%) at the 
  start of a campaign.   
  3. The investigator comes from a family of 
  burakumin, an outcast group at the bottom of 
  the Japanese social order. During the Edo 
  period, his family members were butchers and 
  because of that they were considered “impure” 
  based on Shinto and Buddhist ways of thinking. 
  Today the government has abolished the class 
  system, but discrimination continues. His 
  father could never find a job in a company. He 
  stays at home all day and it is his wife who goes 
  to work as a secretary. The family lives in an 
  area of Hagi where other descendants of 
  burakumin also lives. This came about when at 
  some point in the past the government tried to 
  help burakumin by providing them with cheap 
  houses to rent. A side effect was that they all 
  ended up living in the same area. The 
  investigator doesn’t tell openly that he is of 
  burakumin descent. 
  4. The investigator’s father disappeared one day. 
  That is not so unusual in Japan: thousands of 
  people just vanish each year. They are called 
  johatsu or “evaporated people”. Under social 
  pressure from work, he just left one day leaving 
  his wife and child behind. That’s what the police 
  believes anyway… The investigator’s mother 
  had to raise her child by herself. In order to do 
  so, she must work as a hostess in a hostess bar 
  and she comes back sometimes home with a 
  client. Prostitution is illegal in Japan, so a 
  hostess is officially just supposed to talk to the 
  client. If sometimes thing go further than that, 
  the owner of the bar is not responsible. The 
  hostess bar is managed by the yakuza. This 
  family is quite poor, barely making it every 
  month. 
  5. The investigator's father was a member of a bike 
  gang, or bōsōzoku, when he was young. Those 
  
  14 
   
  gangs were very popular in Japan between the 
  1980s and 1990s, but nowadays they're 
  numbers have greatly diminished. They almost 
  don't exist anymore. Because he was a member 
  of a bike gang when he was young, the 
  investigator’s father never really found a stable 
  job. He survives doing part-time jobs here and 
  there since then. He currently works in a small 
  bike shop, repairing them. The mother left him 
  when the investigator was still a baby. The 
  investigator doesn’t even know what she looks 
  like.  
  6. The father of the investigator is of Korean 
  descent. The great-grandfather (or great-great 
  grandfather) of the investigator was a soldier 
  and he had a child with a “comfort woman” 
  during WW2. “Comfort women” were girls 
  forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial 
  Japanese Army. She died in childbirth, but the 
  great-grandfather saved the baby and brought it 
  back in Japan with him. This is a terrible family 
  secret. Maybe the investigator knows about it, 
  maybe not. The mother works in a bank. The 
  father works at the Hagi Sea Market.  
  7. The parents are members of the Buddha’s Tears 
  sect (see Secrets of Japan p. 181-184). This cult 
  is heavily influenced by the Mythos, but the 
  investigator doesn’t know it. The parents are 
  only very basic members of it, anyhow. What 
  the investigator knows is what is officially said 
  about the cult (Secrets of Japan p. 92): 
   “Officially established as a new religion in the 
  1960s, Butsu no Namida borrows heavily from 
  Pured 
  Land 
  and 
  Nichiren-shu 
  for 
  its 
  background doctrine. Run by a charismatic 
  leader, Asahara Shinyama, this sect has an 
  alarmingly sizable following of lay believers 
  who study “The Doctrine of Buddha’s Tears”, a 
  small pamphlet containing the central precepts 
  of this Buddhist sect: that only the tears of 
  Buddha can cleanse a spirit of karma and 
  wash away the endless cycle of reincarnation.”  
  8. The parents work for Yotsubishi. Working 
  mostly in the accounting department of the 
  local branch, they are not currently involved 
  with anything Mythos related. Here is what is 
  publicly known about this company (Secrets of 
  Japan p. 174):  
  “This former zaibatsu originated in the 
  Tokugawa Period from a group of four 
  samurai families who were charged with 
  protecting 
  the 
  emperor. 
  Marrying 
  into 
  merchant families in the Meiji Era, they 
  formed Yotsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. 
  Numbering over 200 companies by the end of 
  WWII, considerable funding was invested in 
  R&D resulting in experimental craft such as 
  jets, subs, medical chemicals and machinery 
  used in Unit 731, and possibly even an atom 
  bomb. Dissolved by the Allies, the group 
  reformed in the 1950s around Yotsubishi Bank. 
  With some thirty-five companies and 150,000 
  employees, 
  Yotsubishi 
  favors 
  military 
  contracts and manufactures nuclear power 
  plants, aircraft, semiconductors, computers, 
  energy, 
  ships, 
  pharmaceuticals, 
  robotics, 
  medical equipment, electronics, generators, 
  and telecommunications. (…) Since 1992, the 
  Yotsubishi Group has also formed a holding 
  company, Yotsubishi Holdings Ltd., where 
  presidents meet for strategy planning on 
  “Black Monday.” There, on the top floor of the 
  sixty-story Yotsubishi Tower, they also discuss 
  returning to a zaibatsu structure. The 
  corporate soldier is the salaryman. Most living 
  in company dorms, they each go to work with 
  a brown briefcase, regulation haircut, and 
  black suit sporting a company lapel pin. 
  Yotsubishi’s corporate pin is four silver blades 
  forming an “x” on a black circle.”  
  To know more about how Totsubishi is dabbling 
  into the occult, the Keeper should read Secrets 
  of Japan p. 193-195. 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu/3rd Party/Miskatonic Repository - The Transmigration of the Emerald Lama.pdf