VIII Great Old Ones and Outer Gods Sandy’s Notes CAUGHT IN THE STORM Unfortunately, it is possible for individuals to encounter Ithaqua as a group, even if none of them have ever been infected by the wendigo soul virus (the corruptive influence that turns humanoids into wendigos), as Ithaqua’s influence spreads across the land At the edges of the influence, a huge arctic squall blows in, and the cold and ice and wind themselves make for an infinitely persistent foe for any party of adventurers All they can hope to is survive PCs risk frostbite and must seek shelter If they have some means of rapidly moving long distances, they may still be able to evade the full brunt of Ithaqua’s assault If another target has drawn Ithaqua’s ire (for example, a town), the party may only ever experience the storm at the outer fringes of the Windwalker’s fury Periodically throughout the storm, the howl can be heard, and all can feel its raw primitive tug on their minds and souls At influence stage and above, a party that draws near Ithaqua now sees and encounters shapes riding in the wind Typically, these are cannibal cultists, lesser wendigos, lycanthropes, and arctic life-forms driven mad with Ithaqua’s fury (wolves, bears, etc.) These enraged creatures strike at the party from the air Sometimes, they may stay for a while and battle, while other times, they may be snatched up again by the storm, leaving the party behind At this point, it is possible to see Ithaqua’s eyes glaring through the storm and the darkness Even closer to Ithaqua, the forms riding within the wind include more terrifying beings than simple cultists Huge and malformed, greater wendigos and other distorted monsters now flit and fly around the PCs, lashing out at them Beings commonly encountered at this point include hounds of Tindalos, gnoph-keh, and worse These should be challenging encounters When the players approach within a mile of Ithaqua, he becomes visible to all: a worldspanning titan who strides across the sky The terror of Ithaqua’s immensity and his malign glare drive most viewers to madness, despair, and a frenzy of terror It can seem impossible to physically fight the Windwalker, who is literally miles high, his head in the stratosphere And then “Défago,” smiling whitely, answered in that thin and fading voice that already seemed passing over into a sound of quite another character— “I seen that great Wendigo thing,” he whispered, sniffing the air about him exactly like an animal “I been with it too—” —Algernon Blackwood, The Wendigo 253