by J. Edward Tremlett (Original World of Darkness | The Mythos Project | Resources)
"...I realized we were in a spot of trouble when our local guide began to beg, cry and plead with the shadows around us. We'd known that, at any time in this jungle expedition, we might run into various tribes who could hide in the darkness and pierce us with arrows from far afield. For a few tense moments, those arrows were all we could see from the shadows surrounding our party, and then their owners came into view.
"I was struck at once by their grotesqueness. They seemed the quintessence of everything we Christian folk had been warned of when we set foot into these jungles. They were the menace of shifty-eyed, short and leering tribesfolk made manifest. Their hair was like a bowl that stuck close to their sweaty, brown scalps, their eyes glittered with some strange realization, and their skin was covered with tribal scars and markings in patterns that baffled my eyes. They wore torn and jungle-stained scraps of leathery clothing, and were naked to the waist. And as they approached, and smiled, I saw that their teeth were filed into sharp points.
"I lost half of my party to their damned arrows right then and there. The rest of us turned and ran back they way we had come, only to run into another group of them. We surrendered, seeing a hopeless battle, but now, as I write these words and hear the screams of my colleagues -- I refuse to turn around in this cage and see what they are doing to them! -- I wish we had gone down fighting.
"It would have been a faster, and less painful, end."
- Last Record of Dr. Harvey Wellingthorpe, lost in the Jungles of Asia in 1857.
Common Knowledge
If you ask most people about Tcho-Tchos, they won't have heard of them.
Some of the more astute will get out a book on modern Anthropology out and tell you that the Tcho-Tchos are a diminutive and primitive people who can be found in central Asia. They share a lot of physical features with other Asiatic tribesmen of the area, but are reputed to be quite hideous in both appearance and demeanor. They are spread out over a wide area, radiating down and East from Tibet. They practice a polytheistic religion. And they have a bad reputation amongst their fellow tribes as being aggressive and territorial.
Anthropologists are unsure as to their exact origin, and Linguistic studies of their tongue have produced baffling results. It doesn't help much that the tribe's chosen locations are so dangerous that most field studies end in the tragic loss of entire parties, either.
Anyone who served in Vietnam might think they heard that they were being armed and trained to fight the Vietcong along with other tribes, but no one can remember working with them, either. Anyone who did isn't talking.
The Canadian Government pushed through some bill to make it easier for them to emigrate there back in the 80's. The rationale was something about their being a "persecuted" people in need of international attention. Some Senator in Washington put a similar bill under Reagan's nose around the same time for the same reasons. There's word that the United Nations is considering some kind of aid.
So now you'll see them in the West Coast cities of both Canada and the United States. They've made restaurants to support themselves, and anyone who likes Vietnamese food will probably like what they have to offer. Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco have temples, which you can't get into unless you're a member. And, of course, very few non-Tcho-Tchos can be members, but the Tcho-Tchos aren't white or Christian so that kind of discrimination is no problem at all.
Uncommon Knowledge
If not much is known about the Tcho-Tchos, it's because most of the "lost" scientific and anthropological studies went down the tribesmen's gullets. The Tcho-Tchos are, in fact, dangerous cannibals who worship grotesque and strange Mythos entities.
When the entity Chaugnar Faughn came to Earth, he created a strange race of dwarf-like creatures, the Miri Nigri, to serve him. Over time, this race intermingled with the nearby human population, and the Tcho-Tchos were the unhappy result. Even though their progenitor race has been lost in time, the Tcho-Tchos still carry on the worship of the unspeakable thing that gave them birth. They worship other Mythos entities too, of course, but Chaugnar Faughn remains near and dear to them.
The tribe has its homeland on the blasted plateau of Tsang, which is supposedly somewhere in Tibet. On that place is a gateway from our world to the Plateau of Leng in the Dreamlands. The Tcho-Tchos are known to trek from here to there and back from time to time, but they don't make the journey that often due to the dangers that lie on the roads to Leng.
From the blasted and cursed plateau, they have trickled South and East into the jungles of Southern Asia. The strange thing is that no one ever saw them move, nor do they seem to want to. Once they get somewhere they prefer to stay and seek isolation from their neighbors -- except when they get hungry, of course. Since no one can get too close without becoming dinner, how or why they spread remains unknown.
In more recent times, the Tcho-Tchos have found the modern world both friend and foe. The encroachment of the West has brought some variety to their diet, but sometimes the meals brought unwanted consequences. The early days of explorations that could go lost without much reprisals gave way to other things. Often, they found themselves on the defensive, especially in China and the jungles South of there once the Communists took control.
They suffered the destruction of some of their temples prior to the Vietnam conflict, and the resultant anger brought them to the attention, and aid, of America's Central Intelligence Agency. (1) The end of America's role in that conflict brought some problems with the Vietcong, who remembered all too well what the Tcho-Tchos were capable of in the field. The Khmer Rouge went after the Tcho-Tchos' villages in Cambodia as well, exterminating them with a zeal otherwise reserved for eyeglass-wearing intellectuals.
Many Tcho-Tchos died in these purges, but at the same time they scored some stunning victories against those soldiers who went into their territories, perhaps owing to divine help. After a time, the Khmer Rouge began to joke that the surest way for your detachment to find the Tcho-Tchos was to follow what was left of the detachment who'd gone in before you. Pol Pot didn't think it was very funny, though, and redoubled all efforts to purge the tribesmen from the area.
After the Khmer Rouge was routed by the Vietnamese, the methodical extermination of the Tcho-Tcho people came to light, and that led to their classification as a persecuted people. Some in the West have addressed their "plight" with aid and visas. Most of these well-meaning people are just that: altruistic fools and bleeding-heart dupes who don't understand what they're dealing with.
Others are not so naive. A shadowy group of Mythos cultists, who seek to share in the understanding that the Tcho-Tchos enjoy, have greased the wheels of state to get their tribesmen to the Americas. A number of mutually profitable arrangements have been made, and Chaugnar Faughn is enjoying a new flock of worshipers because of it. The restaurant business was a stroke of genius: blood spills, malign influence spreads, dollars are made, and times are good for the people.(2)
Average Tcho-Tcho
Attributes
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 1
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 3
Abilities
Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Dodge 3
Skills: Archery 3, Melee 3, Stealth 3, Torture 2
Knowledges: Cthulhu Mythos 1
Willpower: 5
Virtues: Conscience 0, Self-Control 3, Courage 5
Sanity: 0
Weapons: Bow, Club, knife
Spells: None
Special Abilities: Dreamlands Connection (see below)
In the jungles of Asia, the arrows will be tipped with deadly poison. In more urban settings, bows are conspicuous and clubs and knives will have to do. The same poison is around if needed.
For tribal sorcerers or leaders:
* Increase Manipulation to 4
* Increase Torture to 4
* Increase Willpower to 8
* Give them a Cthulhu Mythos of 3 or more
Sorcerers, leaders and priests will usually know the Mythos Magic spell to Contact one or more deities, usually Chaugnar Faughn, and any other amusingly gruesome spell the Storyteller cares to give such a one. Sample Mythos spells known to the Tcho-Tchos are given below. The sorcerer will most likely have some Hedge Magic paths, too -- especially Cursing.
Due to their small stature, Tcho Tchos will never have a Strength or Stamina of more than 4. They will never have an Appearance higher than 1, either, barring some kind of plastic surgery. Since they consider their looks to be a gift from the one who made them, in his image no less, such a course of action would be heretical.
Dreamlands Connection: The close proximity to the Dreamlands has given the Tcho-Tchos a connection to that strange place -- a magical twisting of the genes that makes them partly of the waking world and partly of the Dreaming. Due to this connection, they have a strange affinity with the Fae. They can, with some concentration (Willpower rolls at diff 6) see the Fae Miens of Changelings, and this power lasts for one scene per success on the roll. During this time they can also be harmed by Chimerical things, though, as they have opened themselves up to the Dreaming.
Tcho-Tchos' interaction with the World of Darkness
The Tcho-Tchos are a race descended from Asiatic humans and a strange, amphibious people thought to be extinct. Their outward physiology is almost entirely human: from an external appearance, only their hideousness and birth into tenuous sanity remain to speak of their hybrid legacy. They can mate with normal humans and bear children, and such offspring retain the Tcho-Tcho curse of lesser sanity and hideous bearing. However, such children are only partially of the race, and do not share in the connection to the Dreamlands. The Tcho-Tchos consider such offspring to be good for food, only.
Tcho-Tchos can be embraced, and ghouled, but lose their connection to the Dreamlands so long as they have vampiric blood in their veins, or are one. If they mate with a very high-generation Vampire, or a Kuei-Jin with a Yin imbalance, a child might result, and would be as outlined above. They cannot become Kuei-Jin, though, as they tread an entirely different wheel than the others.
They cannot be Shifters, nor kinfolk. They cannot be Changelings or Kinain, either, in spite of their connection. They cannot be Enchanted, nor can they enter Freeholds or the real, true Dreaming of which the Dreamlands are but a strange reflection (or is that the other way around?)
Something about their close proximity to the Dreamlands keeps them from Awakening, for which we can all be very grateful, but they can, and do, practice Hedge Magic in addition to their knowledge of Mythos Magic. They have as much of a chance of becoming a Wraith as anyone else, usually winding up in the Jade Kingdom, and occasionally Swar. They have no likelihood of being Imbued.
Their servitude to strange things has provided them with a decent grasp of Mythos information. And their placement has given them the opportunity to travel back and forth from the dread Plateau of Leng, provided they dare make the journey.
Tcho-Tchos' Relations with the World of Darkness
Vampires: Most Cainites have had no contact with the Tcho-Tchos prior to their emigration from Asia. Kindred in North America who have seen their restaurants have probably just dismissed them as some new racial underclass they can feed off of without much fear. Depending on whom they try to chow down on, this could be a fatal error.
The Kuei-Jin are in a better position to know more, especially those who belong to the Golden Courts, but much of what they "know" is filtered through their own perceptions. And as no Kuei-Jin has been able to set foot in Tibet for ages untold, their knowledge of the Tcho-Tcho's origins and homelands are based on hearsay and what they're able to beat out of captured tribesmen.
The best the Kuei-Jin can do, then, is to say that the Tcho-Tchos serve the Yama Kings, and truck with Akuma. This isn't accurate: the Akuma who seek them out usually wind up dead, or worse, and placating a Yama King would be a step down for most Tcho-Tchos.
Garou: Some of the Hengeyokai would know of the Tcho-Tchos, and that they worship foul gods and commit unspeakable crimes upon their neighbors. Some of the more sagely amongst their number might even know of their supposed origins. Either way, the Tcho-Tchos smell of something that is partly of Gaia, and stink of something that is partly of somewhere else. And that can't be good.
The Western shifter folk are in the same boat as their Kindred enemies: are the newcomers part of some indigenous culture that "civilization" has harmed, or are they something more sinister? The smell will throw them for a time. Depending on what the Tcho-Tchos are trucking with in your Chronicle, the Shifters' actions might be clear-cut ("they're dealing with Wyrm things!") or confusing ("I have no idea what THAT could be...").
The effects of the Tcho-Tchos can be felt in resonances in the Umbra. The floors of their restaurants run with blood, and the air is thick with a long, pregnant silence -- the moment of calm before the horrifying scream. If they're very unlucky they might be there just in time to see something come through. Gaia help them if they do.
Mages: The Akashic record holds stories of the connection between the dark lands of Tsang and these Tcho-Tchos. There aren't any records of the Dreamlands, nor Leng, however, and any Brother who goes looking may find more than they cared to know. Some pieces of the Euthanatos' early records describe contact with the blasted Plateau of Tsang, and may even give the reasons why such places are not good to enter. Sons of Ether may have run across them on exploratory missions, but since a lot of these expeditions suffered strange fates and were never heard from again, any reliable information about the Tcho-Tchos may be in tattered, lost rucksacks scattered in deserted places all over Southern Asia.
The other Traditions are most likely to encounter them on home soil once they emigrate there, and may notice the same sorts of peculiarities that others do. Those who travel in the umbra will definitely see the resonance. Trips to their temples for kicks, or to follow up lines of enquiry, will produce hideous results. And the Ecstatics may well wonder why eating at that new restaurant on the corner produces strange visions in their heads when they try to sleep.
Technocrats: The Zaibatsu has detailed files on the Tcho-Tchos from the time that the Western intelligence agencies spent coddling them. They do not like what they have read, but they have determined that the tribesmen do not pose a major threat when compared to shape-shifters, "magicians" or the walking dead. Stories of dark gods have been written off as tribal superstition that will be eradicated once enlightenment has been brought to the masses. And as for their dietary practices..., if they kill and eat one another, what more is there to be said?
These recommendations have been passed along to the Western side of the Technocracy. Hopefully they will review these findings carefully and research their accuracy. Anyone who plumbs the records from when the Void Engineers were the Void Seekers and the Celestial Masters (and there isn't that much) might come across some of the former's treks into that region, and the horrors they found.
Changelings: The connection to the Dreaming will be evident on the Tcho-Tchos, but most of the Western fae will have no idea why. When viewed from the Changeling perspective, their hideousness is magnified: they come across as the embodiment of dirty, snarling and evil. Contact and conflict is almost inevitable, and may be rather gruesome.
The Hsien know a lot more, and, wisely, leave them to their blasted lands. If the Tcho-Tchos come into their areas they will leave them in pieces, if at all. Such is the message of the spirit world against such hideous defilers.
Wraiths: The dead of the Jade Kingdom stay well clear of the blasted plateau. It is said that those who die there are enslaved by a great, horrible THING. The Emperor, in His infinite wisdom, has decreed those areas off-limits to all subjects. Do you dare to disobey Him?
As for the Western dead, the effects of the Tcho-Tchos can also be felt in resonances. The crumbling floors of their restaurants are covered in sticky, coagulated blood that can only be human, and the basements are charnel pits. All around is the feeling of despair, horror and madness, mixed in with the strange scent of obedience and acknowledgement of that which lies beyond sight and sound. Faith. Strong faith. Dark faith.
The Grim Legion's got quite a number of new recruits coming from their kitchens, some of which they have to fight the Penitents for (after all, any Tcho-Tcho who comes over here from Asia is as insane as they come). And the Grim are taking careful notes, too. Any Tcho-Tchos who die in Stygian territory will be clapped in irons and sent to trial for skin-murder, no doubt.
Hunter: "They are not fully of this world. They are not fully human. They eat human flesh, and they serve the darkness that we cannot understand lest we go mad."
What more justification do you need ?
Tcho-Tcho Spells
These spells would be the sorts of things most Tcho-Tcho priests would know. Along with their technical descriptions are listed possible rituals and preparatoins. Storytellers may use, add to, subtract from, or ignore these suggestions as they see fit.
Curse of the Crystal Tusk
Never, ever make a Tcho-Tcho priest angry. The wraith of the elephant god will fall upon you with the weight and surety of a boulder rushing down a mountain path. A number of people who have drawn connections between the sudden increase of missing persons and the appearance of Tcho-Tchos in their neighborhoods have been found slumped over dead, the victims of heart attacks. How strange that so many of them were so young and vital...
System: This must be done by using an enchanted Avatar of Chaugnar Faughn, as the priest is really using that god's power to kill. The caster and victim square off in a resisted roll against each other's Permanent Willpower, and each success the caster gets over the victim causes one level of lethal damage. This manifests as a terrible, squeezing pressure on the chest that is indistinguishable from a heart attack. Levels of health lost in this fashion will not get worse if not treated, but must be healed with medical help.
If the victim ever goes below Incapacitated because of this attack, he dies. Onlookers will see what appears to be a crystal tusk fly from the victim's sternum, and then slowly recede back. (0/2 Sanity Roll) Upon inspection there is no hole in the clothes or chest.
Each attempt to kill the victim costs one point of Temporary Willpower and one point of Current Sanity. Only one attempt can be made every twenty four hours, and the attempts must be made at night.
Possible Ritual: The priest stands before the likeness of the elephant god, holding the name of the victim up for the most high one to read. He chants the song of death and offers his power to the god in tribute. He has bitten his tongue with his filed teeth, and licks the paper on which the name is written, leaving a streak of blood and saliva along the hated name. The eyes of the god glow dimly, and then intensely--
Halfway across the city, at his cheap apartment, a muckraking reporter doubles over in sudden pain and terror. He winces as his heart, weakened by nights of booze and mornings of coffee, finally betrays him. In his ears he can hear a strange pounding, as though a massive elephant was barreling out of the trees to run him down. He thinks he can almost see the glowing, baleful eyes of that elephant as he slips away into the blackness...
Enchant Avatar of Chaugnar Faughn
Each Tcho-Tcho temple has, in its core, a gruesome likeness of Chaugnar Faughn sitting on a dais. Here, before the gathered crowd, the high priests sacrifice their victims before the elephant god's eyes and offer their souls to him. In order for the souls to go to their god, however, an appropriate likeness must be created. And this likeness can be so keen as to kill.
System: Two points of Permanent Willpower must be placed into the dais, and there must be some kind of likeness of Chaugnar Faughn on it, or else something with which to make the likeness (see Possible Ritual). It costs two levels of Current Sanity to do this, and may be cause for some additional Sanity Rolls depending on how gruesome the method of enchantment is.
After the ceremony, the dais, and whatever was on it, will act as a method by which Chaugnar Faughn can communicate with his followers, or receive their tributes. He may also manifest inside the statue, climb down from the dais and attack intruders, or activate various spells from afar. When he is "in residence," the eyes of the idol will glow.
Possible Ritual: The priest must create a rock dais, and the rock must be of the strange, mottled kind that litters the blasted plateau of Tsang. The eldritch construction takes a lunar month to complete, and must be started, and ended, at the night of the gibbous moon.
On the night the dais is completed, three living victims, all bound together, must be placed on the dais. As the Moon is directly overhead, the victims' brains will be dashed out against the rock to the chanting of the worshippers, and as the ceremony reaches its climax the broken, bloody corpses will merge into the elephantine likeness of Chaugnar Faughn. Once the transformation from flesh to ivory is completed, he will manifest with a primal roar. He will then stride forth and take his due by slaughtering a few, grateful worshippers, and then return to the dais, and his state of rest.
Enchant Cooking Utensil
Tcho-Tcho cuisine is based on cannibalistic practices, and some of the dishes they prepare are delicate, blasphemous things that have a strange power all their own. In order to transform human meat into something amazing, one needs the right tools. Most Tcho-Tchos make do with a sharp, primitive knife, but some of the immigrants have fallen in love with modern cooking tools, and the sheer variety of them. Still, a knife's the best thing.
System: A point of Permanent Willpower must be placed into each utensil to be enchanted. The enchantment causes the loss of one level of Current Sanity, along with whatever other rolls may be called for due to the peculiarities of the ritual. Bladed utensils work best, though there is precedent for enchanted soup ladles, spoons and meat hammers. You can't enchant an electric carving knife or a blender, though.
After the utensil has been enchanted, it can be used in various cooking spells. It can also do damage to extra-planar entities that can only be harmed by enchanted weapons, spirits and ghosts. Such damage is aggravated to these things ONLY. It will never rust, corrode, break or lose its edge.
Possible Ritual: The utensil must be used to kill a person whom you do not know anything about. While the blood of the victim is still warm and flowing, the utensil must be washed in it, and the words of power spoken over it. Once that victim is dead, it's traditional to carry the body back to camp and have it be the first meal for which the enchanted utensil is used.
Prepare (Special Meal)
Those who dine at Tcho-Tcho restaurants are in for a real treat. The food is just wonderful, and the preparations are exquisite. But then, at night, as they sleep, strange visions find their way to the minds of some of the diners. Some wake up changed, some come back for more, and some just disappear...
System: There are any different kinds of special meals the Tcho-Tchos make with their enchanted utensils and human flesh. Some of them are mildly harmless, some of them are used to poison or weaken their foes, and some of them are designed to empower the ingester with various supernatural powers, or create certain effects.
Storytellers should come up with their own meals, and use them accordingly. The urban Tcho-Tchos are smart enough to not kill their clientele, though they will unleash some rather nasty concoctions on those they suspect of poking around in their affairs.
Some suggestions are: soups that allow the ingester to enter the Dreamlands that night; the house special that's psychologically addictive, ensuring the diner will be back for more; a special "chicken" dish that creates deadly nightmares (all damage suffered in the dream becomes real in the morning, and those who go below Incapacitated just vanish); the specially prepared brains and spinal column of a pregnant woman which makes the eater's Permanent Willpower seem to be two higher (maximum of 10) for all Willpower rolls for the next 24 hours.
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(1)A brief history of the Tcho-Tcho's involvement in the Vietnam conflict as allies of America's Central Intelligence Agency can be found in Pagan Publishing's Delta Green on pg. 39: "As early as 1965, Delta Green was concerned with the character of some of the 'Anti-communist allies' the CIA was finding among the hill tribes of the region. While the CIA's Hmoung, Meo, and Montanyard allies were savages and opium smugglers, the CIA's Tcho-Tcho Mercenaries were worse - they were unfathomably sadistic as well as being avowed cannibals."
It goes on to say that the Tcho-Tcho's involvement came about because the Vietnamese razed one of their holy sites while building the Ho Chi Minh trail, leading to a "rabid hatred" of the communists. But, after the CIA had trained and armed them, it became clear that the Tcho-Tchos were "more interested in killing and eating their Hmoung, Meo, and Montanyard neighbors than they were in fighting the Communists."
(2) The modern state of the Tcho-Tchos, as related here, is largely inspired by Pagan Publishing's Delta Green and the modern-day Call of Cthulhu scenario At Your Door (Chaosium). The latter posits a situation where the Tcho-Tchos have infiltrated North America thanks to powerful, well-to-do and insane Westerners. The idea of the Tcho-Tcho restaurant comes straight from "At Your Door."
