Arcane Artifacts are items such as sculptures, paintings or jewelry that carry dread supernatural power, easily added to any Call of Cthulhu game. “Malyutin’s Nightmare Matryoshkas” — by Daniel R. Robichaud, ©2013, illustrated by Vicente Rivera Catalá, © 2013 — appears in The Unspeakable Oath 22, available in PDF and in print with free PDF download.
Matryoshkas or Russian nesting dolls are carved from wood and shaped like bowling pins. Each separates at the waist to reveal a smaller doll inside. This set contains five dolls, painted to resemble toad-faced women in 19th century Russian peasant dress.
The largest doll stands 11″ tall by 5″ in diameter at its widest and weighs half a pound. The smallest doll measures 3″ tall by 1″ in diameter at its widest and weighs one quarter of a pound. Though crafted in 1890, their colors are bright as though newly applied.
When viewed indirectly, imperfections in the wood give these matryoshka dolls inhuman aspects: water-bloated faces, digits bending backwards, broad bellies distended by tiny hands pushing from inside.
An Investigator’s Physics or Chemistry roll with appropriate tools and research reveals that the paints used to decorate these dolls has ferromagnetic qualities due to meteorite fragments mixed in the pigments. Individual dolls repel iron shavings and similar items at very short distances. When the dolls are nested the repulsion field increases, affecting items within several feet.
A History roll reveals this is the first matryoshka doll set designed by famous matryoshka inventor Sergey Malyutin. These dolls were inspired by conversations he held with a swarthy, half-mad sculptor at the infamous Abramtsevo Colony. Their design led to the world-famous versions Malyutin created with Vasily Zvyozdochkin. They were intended for inclusion in the initial doll presentation at the 1900 World Exhibition, but the matryoshka dolls vanished before arriving in Paris.
An Occult roll reveals a secret history. Because the designs disquieted those who beheld them, this set was dubbed the Nightmare Matryoshkas. Ownership is rumored to cause claustrophobic madness.
A Cthulhu Mythos roll reveals these dolls to incorporate specific angles and odd proportions that suggest extraterrestrial influence. In fact, their design elements correspond in several Mythos texts to ancient lore found in far-flung locales like fabled Celaeno. Such things are known to aid sorcerers in channeling magical power.
Keeper’s Lore
The Nightmare Matryoshkas occasionally appear in collections and shops throughout the world, often without the owner’s awareness. They are typically found together. An occultist who finds one doll often will go to great lengths to complete the set.
If the Nightmare Matryoshkas are incorporated into a ritual for summoning or binding a servitor race, each doll adds one additional magic point. During such rituals, the dolls’ features change subtly. Their cheerful grins are replaced with sorrow, agony, terror or madness, and the figures themselves seem to writhe in the sorcerer’s hands. A spell aided by one or more matryoshkas costs the caster an additional 1 SAN point.
With a complete set, once per week the dolls’ owner suffers a blackout. The owner wakes to find the surroundings rearranged. Possessions are packed inside boxes within boxes. Furniture is stacked in unusual ways. This experience costs 0/1 SAN.
Once per month, the owner of a complete set is plagued by gruesome nightmares about nesting and eruption. For example, the investigator’s body swells with the many “healthy” parasites it contains—each of which houses still smaller creatures, which contain still more, down to the single-cellular level. As all these parasites replicate and grow at maddening speeds, the investigator’s body distends and finally bursts. Monstrous contents spill out, whispering riddles, enigmas and secrets. The experience costs 1/1D4 SAN points, but it is also instructive: the dreamer gains +2 percentiles in Cthulhu Mythos.
The dolls always vanish from a collection 2D6 months after acquisition, never to again appear in the same person’s possession unless found elsewhere and reclaimed.
Malyutin’s Nightmare Matryoshkas appears in The Unspeakable Oath 22
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