"It was with a trace of genuine dread and reluctance that I pressed the lever then heard the preliminary scratching of the saphire point, and I was glad that the first faint, fragmentary words were in a human voice --a mellow, educated voice which seemed vaguely Bostonian in accent, and which was certainly not that of any native of the Vermont hills. As I listened to the tantalisingly feeble rendering, I seemed to find the speech identical with Akeley's carefully prepared transcript. On it chanted, in that mellow Bostonian voice ... "Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young! ..."
In this section other visitors to Propping Up the Mythos share their ideas and experiences.
Topics:
Coloured Ink
Wax and Candles
Dirt
Mysterious Substances
Incense
Fake Blood
Making a Necronomicon Cover
Dry, Cracking Parchment
More Incense
Making Your Own Ink
A Better Gloss Finish
Better Surface for Painting
Using Weird Fonts
Keeping Your Text Straight
Copy Images Into your Book
Bind Your Own Book
Burnt Edged Parchment
Twelve Tome Detailing Suggestions
Aging Tomes with Tannic Acid
A Quick way to Roughen Page Edges
A Method for Transfering Images into Tomes
A New Binding Technique
Our first whispers come from Kevin the Insane:
"I've created (much smaller) mythos books for a number of live-action games I ran, and I had a few suggestions you didn't mention but that have worked really well for me:
Wax and Candles: If you're careful, you can burn the edges of the pages, scorch the cover, and otherwise subject the book to fire. Most of the tomes seem to have been rescued at the last minute by cultists from the fires of the Church, so this is particularly appropriate. I also like to go through the completed book with a butane blowtorch (available at most miscellany-type stores such as Brookstone for $40 or so) and carefully singe out words. Just single words. The players go crazy trying to figure out what those words were. Dripped candle wax on a page is good as well, as long as it's done in moderation; you can just imagine the shaking hands of the insane sorceror as he pores over the blasphemous tome late into the night...
Dirt: You mentioned rubbing dirt on the pages. One thing I did that worked very very well was to bury the book. About two weeks before the game, I went out to the side of the dorm, which was watered by sprinkler about twice a day. I dug a fairly deep hole, and proceeded to put the book in and leave it up until the game. When I got it out again it was nasty and goopy and filthy, and some of the pages were torn up from the water. I wiped it down, page by page, with a dry cloth (to get the most egregious dirt clods out) and voila! a blasphemous book.
Mysterious substances: I've splattered my books with all manner of strange things from time to time. Vivid green ink is good; glow-in-the-dark paint is better (found in these strange ceiling "paint the stars" kits that show up in upscale mall stores). Taking a suction cup and lightly brushing on some green paint, and then "walking" over the pages of the book is good, too. Writing in lemon juice, and then gently singeing the page to "bake" the juice brown is good, particularly if you only singe part of the page, so the words mysteriously trail off and vanish. That "slime" you buy in grocery stores dries out to a crusty, vivid mess... Sticking a strange (and pre-abused) piece of cloth in as a bookmark, particularly if it's blood-stained, is a good way to lead players to an important section of the book."
Steven Downer writes:
"With my blasphemous tome, I smoked it with incense after getting all the coffee grains out of it. Not only did it remove the annoying coffee smell but it gave it an added strangeness. Go down to a New Age shop or like shop to find tons of odd-smelling incense."
Enkireigns writes:
"To make some coagulated, messy, authentic looking blood without using a knife:
Aaron Vanek, director of My Necronomicon and The Outsider shares his experiences making a Necronomicon:
"I knew I wanted a prop of the book for the film, and, truth to tell, I wanted something that looked like the "Necronomicon" from Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" (photo)(which had a face on it).
Brown/Red-brown Ink: Most art supply stores carry this, and splattered on a page it looks exactly like a blood stain. You can thicken it up with corn syrup or flour or corn starch (my favorite) to get it really crusty and disgusting. You can also get a (damn, I can't remember what they're called -- one of those pens you have to dip in ink... yeesh... like a fountain pen) pen and write in the red-brown ink. I "decorated" a couple of pages of a book in this way -- writing bizarre and wholly insane commentary about blood -- and it creeped the players out far more than the actual text of the book. There was actually an argument as to who would have to carry the book!
mix red food coloring and soy sauce (chinese fast food restaurant type). When it dries it looks real. You'll have to fool around with the amount of each in your mixture.
I went to a used book store and bought a big black book. I had a choice between this one (the actual book was, interestingly, called "Lost Worlds", sort of a Time-Life book on Atlantis, Mu, etc.), and Pilgrim's Progress. I went with "Lost Worlds".
- The rest was easy: we bought some sculpey (a brand of moldable clay you can find at an art store) in the colors of grey, black, and green (even though I knew the film would be in black and white, I thought the colors would give differnt shades). We also bought a litle face mold that was happy and cheerful.
- I gave
some direction to Kirsten in the making of it, but mostly let her go. I told her I wanted faces, swirls, etc. She did a good job, and managed to stretch the faces she imprinted in the sculpey into screaming mouths. I wanted the sculpey to have a "rolled back" look to reveal the name. She painted the title on it with a black paint, and sprinkled some glitter on it (you can't see it in the film). Once it was done, we cooked the whole thing in the oven (to harden the sculpey)
For the inside, we took a page of paper, burned the edges, and she drew the symbols and words with a pen. For an example, I showed her the pages of the "Necronomicon" from an old issue of Heavy Metal that was devoted to HP Lovecraft. This page was loose from the book, so we cheated it on film."Chris Waring writes:
"In regard to making paper by staining it with tea or coffee - you can get a really good 'dry, cracking parchment' effect by roasting it in the oven for a while."
Professor Enoch writes:
"1. you may want to add liquid incense to the staining mixture (for aging paper).
2. obtain a silver spoon. smear it with mugwort. hold it while chanting over a violet candle. scrape the fine black residue off the spoon using parchment and collecting it in a small vial. Later mix this with gummed water (gum arabic is best) and any other additives. This is better than any ink you could buy."
Donald Eric Kesler writes:
"You mentioned a problem with finding a clear, glossy coat that would dry properly. For my RAFM miniture of Cthulhu, I used Krylon Quick Dry Lacquer. You can find the stuff in K-Mart's hardware department. (Shop smart; shop S-Mart.) The statue looks very slimey, but is actually as dry as a bone.
I have never used Sculpey, but I know that all painting techniques work a whole lot better if the surface is first painted with a coat of primer. I didn't see this step in your list of instructions."
Chip Powell, whose R'Lyeh text can be seen here writes:
"Using odd fonts, like the Cthulhu Runes, or others (I've come across likenesses of Hebrew, Oriental and Russian), you could create a text that has some meaning. Type the text on the
computer under MSword or something similiar (I used excerpts from Chaosium's Necronomicon), click on select all, and change the font from English to something bizarre. Print and transcribe. No one can actually read it, but there is a literal translation (something akin to Wilbur Whateley's cypher, in simplest form)."
"Another technique for transcribing: use post-it notes (the long ones) to rule the page as you go. The post-its serve as a guide for the letters, creating very even lines on the page. But they don't damage the page itself. Also, if you are left-handed like me, they keep you from smudging the work as you go."
"If you have a picture you want to use in your tome, print it out to the proper size on a sheet of plain paper. Cut off the outside edges leaving a bit of a margin. Turn the paper over and on the blank side begin covering the back using a No. 2 pencil. Use the pencil at an angle so that the flat of the graphite is used. Cover enough that it mirrors the image on the other side.
Turn the paper back over, and place on the page where you want the picture. Hold the picture in place using the adhesive edge of a few post-its (again with the post-its...) Carefully, with moderate pressure trace the picture using a ball point pen. When you are done and lift the paper, your page should have a carbon image in pencil. Go over it with a pen and when you are finished, erase the pencil marks.
A couple of notes: make sure while you are tracing the picture it does not slip off or shift. It's a pain to get back into place. Also, how detailed you want to trace the picture is up to you. I find that a basic outline is all I desire; I fill in details and shading later."
George Burruss writes:
"First I bought several books on book binding (as it turns out there is a web site which has a very good step-by-step, cheap and easy way to bind your own book with very minimal materials.
Next, I used Microsoft Excel to generate a random number series (1-150)and then copied and pasted about 40,000 numbers in installments of 5,000 or so (generating a new sequence every time- 100 pages (25 sheets) of 8.5 X 11 with two columns in landscape front and back) into Microsoft Word. Then I assigned a letter of the alphabet to each number up to 22. I excluded some letter that don't appear in Latin (J, V for Us etc...) Then I assigned Latin conjunctions and words along with Cthulorum, Nyarlhotepibus, Azathothus etc.. A sample line looks like this:
It's suppose to be a coded Latin manuscript. The random sequence makes it look like it should mean something. I then searched and replaced doubles like MALIFICORUM MALIFICORUM with other words or several letters like IAKU. As you can see words can appear close together so I'd recommend words like SUM SED ET QUIS QUID etc..
I then selected all and changed the font to a distressed New Times Roman (looks like someone dropped the paper in water and the print bled). Next, I changed the first letter in many lines with a Drop Cap feature and used Old English Font - thus it looks like a medieval manuscript. I also included several pages with nothing so I could add some art later.
So, with all that (which took about four hours) I printed the odd pages and then turned them over and printed the even pages all with 1 inch margins. The final result looks like a movable press printed manuscript.
Then I folded each landscaped page into half (thus making 4 pages of
printed text) and punched holes per the bookbinding instructions (easy but the most time consuming of the binding process). Then I sowed thread through each hole thus binding the manuscript (I added glue to the spine for added strength). Next I found an old worn piece of leather, trimmed it to size, and pasted the front pages (card stock for the front and back) onto the leather. Next I'll add some drawings and distress the pages.
Of course one could simply find an alien or foreign font and turn their term paper into a ancient manuscript and skip the random number process.
This process offers you the opportunity to make a very good, professional book with minimal effort. Also, you can write journals on the computer, use a handwriting font, print them and bind them much easier than doing it all by hand. In addition, you can choose any material for the cover!"
John Harding writes:
"My girlfriend told me a technique for tattering the edges and making paper appear old and decrepit. I thought you might find it useful as well. The page from the Necronomicon is an example of the technique.
1. Roll the paper long edge to long edge till you have a tube about 1.5 to 2 cms in diameter.
2. Set fire to the end of the paper roll until the whole of the end of the roll is alight.
3. Blow out the fire and quickly unroll the paper then blow out or dampen the glowing edges.
4. Re-roll and repeat for the other end, Don't be tempted to light both ends at once because when you are blowing out one end the other will be merrilly burning away.
5. Roll the paper short end to short end and repeat. This has the effect of burning away the sharp corners and making the paper look more parchmenty."
Matthew De La Poer writes:
"Here are twelve tome detailing suggestions:
2- For full page pictures (aka plates) put a tea stained piece of wax paper in front of it, they used to do that so the ink would bleed through.
3- Rub weird markings in the still wet paper.
4- Light a match and drop it gingerly onto the open pages...once they burn out youll have cool random spots.
5- Dont dry the book! let it air dry... the damp musty odor overpowers the tea/coffee scent, plus you might be lucky and get
some creepy molds growing across a page or two.
6-Get creative with matches... spell out words by burning the underside of a sheet of paper, burn holes through random words, let one page be burnt beyond recognition yet not effect other pages (spell gone awry?)
7- Take notes on the side in chinese or some other cool looking language you woudlnt expect.
8- Leave notes from Miskatonic scholars as bookmarks.
9- Try switching languages! Abdul was a crazy 'lil monk!
10- Use cheap tea or coffee...the scent will be much less noticeable and can be covered up easier...plus.. its cheap!
11- I used a bound sketchbook...it's big with thick heavy stock paper, perfect for staining. Cheap too! $5.99 at Walden's!
12- If you get tired, quit!! you can come back alter, but if you drudge along, you wont get creative and it'll look bad.
MorninmanX writes:
Supplies Needed: Printed book pages, cookie sheet, shallow baking pan,
instant tea, paper towels, dishwashing detergent.
Most commercial papers take quite a while to begin the process of oxidizing and changing color from white to brown or yellow. To duplicate the look of aged paper or parchment faster you can use a bath of tea to brown the paper as well as modify it's texture to simulate an aged text. The tannic acid in
the tea colors the paper fibers brown, while the water in the tea expands the fibers of the paper and makes it feel stiffer and more brittle when dry. The effect is quite convincing and easy, if messy and time consuming, to perform.
Your first step is to gather together the pages you want to age. For aesthetic reasons, I prefer to place the sheets together in the order they'll actually be appearing in the books. This helps assure that the color variations from page to page won't be too extreme as to be unrealistic and provides the benefit of keeping "stain" effects clustered to a group of back-to-back pages, as they would be in a real book.
In addition to the pages that will actually be appearing in your book you'll want to add two more blank pages to both the top and bottom of the pile. These will be your sacrificial pages. As the bundle of paper dries these sheets of paper will be wicking additional fluid from the bulk of the bundle. As this fluid dries the tannic acid will darken and oxidize the paper- the more fluid that's exposed to the air, the darker the effect as it dries. The sacrificial paper keeps your pages from becoming excessively dark and mottled from this reaction. There may also be some bleeding of the pigment depending on the ink used to print your pages. The sacrificial pages blot up this excess ink as well and prevents it from ruining your "showpiece" pages. I've seen sacrificial pages turned black from the combination of ink and tea, so make sure you add them.
To prepare your tea bath you'll be mixing warm water with instant tea in a shallow pan. Make sure you use the unsweetened instant tea mix or you'll be dealing with a nasty, sticky mess when your pages dry. Mix in enough tea powder to get a very, very dark brew. Once the tea is thoroughly mixed with the water add a drop or two of dishwashing detergent to decrease the surface tension of the solution and help it soak into the paper.
Once the bath is ready, start immersing the pages in batches of 5-8 sheets at a time. Use a probe of some kind, I use a cheap wooden spoon, to make sure the pages are totally immersed. Then add the next batch until the whole bundle of pages are submerged. Now it's just a matter of waiting. I usually let the paper sit overnight so that the pages are thoroughly saturated. Occasionally I'll separate some of the pages that seem to be clumping together and preventing the tea from reaching beyond the outer edges of the paper, but that's normally not necessary. Just flip the bundle now and again so that everything is equally saturated.
Now comes the part where you'll want lots of paper towels handy. I'd suggest plain white, unpatterned towels with a random surface texture. Rip off a bunch of single sheets now and prepare a pile you can set the wet book pages on and a pile to act as blotters. Remove the bundle of paper from the tea bath, hold it over the pan, and allow the excess fluid to drain. As this is happening you should "feel" the bundle lock together- the removal of the excess fluid snugs the sheets of paper together and it forms a single mass.
Any projecting paper will be very delicate and may rip, but don't be too worried about it. The rips just add to the aged effect.
Set the wet pages on the first pile of paper towels and blot as much excess tea as possible up. Carefully split the bundle every few pages, peeling back the paper slowly to prevent ripping, and insert a paper towel to blot up more fluid and act as a wick during the drying process. When you're done you should have a wet paper sandwich- layers of book pages alternating with sheets of paper towel.
Now set your oven on it's lowest setting, usually marked "WARM" on the dial. Place the bundle of wet paper on a cookie sheet or similiar, making sure the blotter towels on the bottom are still part of the bundle. You need to insulate the paper from the heat from the bare metal of the cookie pan or you may have problems with your ink melting and running during the drying procedure. Place the sheet holding the paper in your oven, make sure the door is left open 2-3 inches, and the drying begins. It may take quite a bit of time for the entire bundle to dry. You'll need to keep an eye on the paper and flip the bundle top-for-bottom occasionally to keep the drying even. As the excess moisture evaporates the pages will start to separate and you can begin removing the outer pages that are mostly dry. It's very, very important that you keep returning your sacrificial pages to the top and bottom of the bundle to prevent discoloration from excessive oxidation. As you remove pages place them in a loose pile to finish drying.
When all this is done you'll be left with a pile of rough, crinkly, aged paper. The final step is to take this pile, shuffle the pages into the proper order, apply a limited amount of tea to remoisten the fibers, compress it under weight, and wait for it to air dry. What you're doing is eliminating random variations in fiber expansion and equalizing each page so they nestle together like..well..the pages of a book. With a supply of tea from the soaking pan and some paper towels, blot up some tea using a sheet of paper towel, randomly splotch a page with a light spritz of tea, and then move a few pages down in the pile and repeat. You want damp, not wet. Once you've gone through the pile place a stack of books or similiar weight on top of your pages and wait a day or two for the pile to dry out a bit. After that just remove the weight and allow the pages to undergo final air drying. Another benefit of this final aging stage is that you can use the blotting procedure to eliminate any variations in coloration between the pages. If you come across a page that doesn't have enough staining you can just add the tea now and equalize the color. If you want to get creative you can also blotch in watermarks as you see fit.
After all this you'll have a bundle of book pages that just need to be bound to form your final product. If you'd like to go over the top there are a variety of procedures you can try to add mold stains and such using acrylic paint and daubing sponges, bloodstains, and scorch marks. Use your imagination, have fun, and put the "ultimate in your "Tome of Ultimate Evil". Jonathan Chaffin writes: Jonathan Chaffin writes:
A great way to transfer text and pictures into a Tome is a "Wintergreen Oil Transfer". Buy Oil of Wintergreen (many health food stores or "Natural" grocery stores have it. About $3 a bottle). Xerox anything you want to include in your book. (Note: this method will reverse whatever you transfer, so for text you might want to print it in reverse, then copy it). Place the Xerox face down on the page. Rub wintergreen Oil onto the back of the Xerox with a cotton ball (The Xerox should become translucent). Rub the back of the Xerox with a wooden spoon. Anywhere you rub will transfer. Basically you will transfer the toner to the page in the book. Practice first. (On the Plus side the smell of Wintergreen will kill the coffee smell).
Robert "Mac" McLaughlin writes:
Anyway... first I took whole text and tried to align all the pages pretty cleanly... always a little tough due to the aging process... but as good as you can get them. Clamped them along the "spine" with a few alligator clamps. Then edged the spine with hot glue from a hot glue gun. Pressing the glue into the spine with the tip of the gun and rubbing it back and forth along the spine so the glue really slips into the edges of the pages and helps to secure them nicely. Remove the alligator clamps as the process continues and the pages begin to bind together along the spine.
After that has cooled and set nicely... I lay two mini-glue sticks in the inside spine of the album cover, then set the bound pages inside the album... on top of the glue sticks. Clamping the album tightly shut with my hand... I took a clothing iron and began to slowly rub it along the spine... pressing harder and harder as the glue sticks began to melt. Soon... the two glue sticks liquified and seeped into the spine of the pages... and I got a flatter edge to the book spine by pressing so firmly with the iron as I secured the pages. After it cooled.... a really nice and solid binding. Just trim away any exposed glue goop, perhaps use some tape to edge the inside cover... and then paste a couple aged blank sheets to cover the exposed cardboard on the inside covers. Worked really well!
Do you have any knowledge or experience you would like to share? Join the Million Favoured Ones; email me at: cmatzke@miskatonic.net
NOMINE ET DEUS S. MAL. G. N. F.NUNC Y.B.H. MALIFICORUM IAVO H. OP.NTRV.
K. CUM SED Q. P. NECRO OIA MALIFICORUM IAKU O. EX.INFUR. IAO SUM VIT.
1- Tear out a page and tie it back in with some hair, and in weird insane places too.
