The town of Innsmouth is a creation of H.P. Lovecraft, an author whose writings have become fused with nearly every form of fiction and which have spawned a slithering mass of related recursions.
Innsmouth lies along the Massachusetts coast and is in a horrendous state of decay, thanks to its residents having been inbred with horrifying sea entities called Deep Ones. Many residents in Innsmouth belong to the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which has three oaths for members: secrecy, loyalty, and the promise to marry a Deep One and bear or sire its child.
A recursion containing Innsmouth is only a toe in an ocean of the potential horrors that an exploration of Lovecraftian recursions might provide. Too much interaction with entities of such recursions (most of which are mere shadows, playing out their parts by rote) might result in the emergence of the spark in something squamous and rugose. And if such an entity were to somehow corrupt a recursor, bad things would certainly follow—such as a shoggoth or two, perhaps.
Level: 1d6+4
Form: Glass orb
Recursion: Innsmouth
Effect: When the orb is activated, the user can see random visions of other places within the same recursion, though sometimes the vision is from random locations in other recursions. Often, something useful can be gained. Each minute, the vision shifts to someplace new (requiring a new depletion roll), until the user stops looking through the glass. A creature viewed through the glass can also see the viewer as if through an open window (or inapposite gate if on another recursion), and it may attack the viewer.
Depletion: 1 in 1d100
Level: 1d6+4
Origin: Innsmouth (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Grimoire (no reader can long keep the book’s exact form in memory)
Effect: A reader who understands Latin can use this grimoire to accomplish a wide variety of occult operations, though all of them risk her sanity. Indeed, one must be a little insane, or at least naive, to use this tome, given its storied history. That said, the uses a reader can put the Necronomicon to include the following.
Each time the reader references the grimoire or casts a spell from it, the disturbing imagery, phrasing, and general evil nature require her to make a difficulty 5 Intellect defense roll. On a failed roll, she takes 5 points of Intellect damage, descends one step on the damage track, and takes one other action (determined by the GM) motivated by insanity. On a successful roll, she still takes 2 points of Intellect damage.
The Necronomicon is near the top of the list when it comes to fictional artifacts the Estate has banned its operatives from interacting with, on pain of dissociation from the organization. Unlike other similar relics, no versions of the tome have been found that can translate like a cypher. At least, not yet.
Depletion: —
Level: 1d6+2
Origin: Innsmouth (fictional)
Law: Magic
Form: Bone-white violin
Effect: Upon playing the instrument for a few rounds and succeeding on a difficulty 3 Intellect-based task, the player can close an inapposite gate or a translation gate. On a particularly bad roll (a natural 1) when attempting any task with the instrument, the user instead opens a gate to another Lovecraftian recursion (such as R'lyeh), a recursion of general horror (such as R639), or the Strange itself. Such a gate persists for up to one hour.
The violin can also generate other effects as a single action (often, as an attack), including banishing a creature not native to the recursion within short range, breaking an active spell within short range, or attacking the mind of a creature within short range. If the latter effect is attempted, the target suffers damage equal to the artifact level (ignores Armor). However, using the violin of Erich Zann is hard on a sane living mind, and after each session playing it, the user suffers 2 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) when the bow is put down.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (upon depletion, the violin attempts to rejuvenate itself with the spirit and life force of its player)