This universe was vast and empty, filled with regions where reality warped and where things that I could only guess at slumbered. Entire galaxies inhabited by elder races of all sorts, from an offshoot to the Elder Things to the galaxy spanning empires of the Migou. I travelled to them all, acquiring samples of biology and technology for later analysis. I was actually surprised to find numerous out there that were actually comparable to humans. The Migou encountered them all and oversaw their worlds. Some like the denizens of Yith had many under observation as future hosts.
And yet throughout it all the request of Syr came to me. The dream is over. Seeing the wider lovecraft universe, no longer insulated by the duties I gave myself I see the bleak and horrid realities of this universe. Even if I was given a millennium to wander the vast reaches of this universe I would still not encounter all the truths it gives. In it I see the truth of the mask of mortal form that many eldritch entities wear. I see how their human guise is merely that, a guise. Their human behaviors tailored to better fit into their world or as a form of entertainment and even then those group that try to fit in are all on Earth. In the wider universe I see many races utterly terrified of the human form, linking them to eldritch guises. It was rather disconcerting all things told.
It is why I agreed to it in the end. Leaving a child is distasteful, but it would be half star spawn. Things that I would deem horrid would be normal and expected of things like the Star Spawn. All research and documentation I had, even interrogating the other Star Spawn for any such half breeds have resulted in similar things. The child will be born human but grow into a full star spawn in maturity. Just like the Deep Ones. At least Syr was pleased with having completed all of her assignments.
---
From there my Safari continued though more subdued. At that point I have seen enough to acknowledge the horrors of this universe from a mortal perspective and simply went on for the sake of the mission. Countless creatures were taken and harvested, their preserved remains stored within a special warded section of the warehouse where only I was allowed into. The souls of numerous eldritch gods were slain and taken in. Of course such series of deicide did lead to some unwanted activity. In one case the house was outright pulled into Carcosa where I met face to face with Hastur. The Unspeakable one was much much more terrifying than Cthulhu. Cthulhu was a great old one that was half dead from the effort of staying awake in a time where it is meant to be dead.
Hastur was in the full glory of his power even if it was in Carcosa. Being the direct spawn of Yog-Sothoth made it not as limited as Cthulhu in that regard even if they were equal in power. What I did in the week in Carcosa I will not speak of save that it involved meeting two Outer Gods, and getting involved in the long game of one-upmanship that has been occurring between Hastur and Cthulhu for eons.
---
I start as the House shudders. Rushing to a door, I see a familiar blank sky and long rolling grassy hills. The jump was over. That didn't make sense. I still had a month left. Did the jump end early?
"No. Carcosa simply had a way to mess with time. The House of Mysteries was merely cought in it." A voice interrupts behind me. It was my benefactor.
"What?" I state flatly.
The masked being tilts in head. "They were aware of your impeding departure. While Hastur's domain is not on Earth it will still pay attention when Cthulhu stirs, even half dead as it was and you are a very interesting thing to them. It is why Nyarlahotep never encountered you."
My eyes widen at the implications. "The Outer Gods are aware of me?" I whisper in fear.
It nods. "Yes. Cthulhu was their high priest. Many paid attention after your visit. Nyarlahotep may be malicious but it is ever loyal to the beings that it embodies. Many were afraid of breaking you if they moved too close. They did not wish to lose the possibility that you represent."
"I…I see. You are rather more informative now than before," I note.
The glittering faced man steps back and shrugs. "They are as close to peers I can encounter in this world. I am free to communicate with instances of them."
"But not these instances," I continue.
"Indeed," It says. "Now let us continue to your next jump. It is a rather calmer one that should serve as a vacation of sorts for you though I will need you to meet the co-benefactor first."
I quirk a brow, "Oh? I did not think others can equal you."
"Sometimes it is easier than simply forcing my will onto the world like I usually do and it is rather…rude to do so when peers can be involved."
I nod, taking a hint at the type of community interdimensional nigh-omniscient beings always thought the extra things in jump documents was fluff. Things that the author put in and you are now following," I state as we walk through the richly decorated halls of the House of Mysteries.
"Yes and no," my benefactor says ahead of me. "Things are more complicated than that. In most cases it would be simple fluff but the method we are using lends more weight to the documentation than is normal. You should probably not think much about it," it finishes as we reach an unfamiliar door. It was a sturdy thing of hard wood with the ornate image of a lion that seemed more real than it should have been. If I had not been inundated with such sights for the past decade I would be unnerved.
My benefactor opens it with a simple click and pushes it open, gesturing for me to get in. I oblige. It was a large oxford office. Great bookshelves filled the office and in the center of the room was a table with seats for two. On it was the usual accoutrements for a tea party. Layered plates filled with pastries and a preclean pot that released a slight stream of fragrant steam indicating its contents.
Seated in one of the chairs was my benefactor. I know that if I look to the side and find that the one that accompanied was gone. Across from it is an enormous lion, its mane settled in a manner that looked like it was actually groomed. My benefactor gestures to the chair between them. "Jumper come. We have much to discuss about your next jump. I am sure that you know which world is coming next correct?"
I nod. "Narnia then."
"Yes," the lion says. "My world is open to you to live this part of your journey to exercise your remit as a Son of Adam."
I give a wan smile. "I still count as human?" I ask.
The lion nods. "For all that you have embraced powers beyond the ken of mortal and immortal alike at your core you are still human and that still requires acknowledgement."
I nod uneasily both worried and elated at his words, aware just what Aslan was in this universe and despite everything in the beginning I was a follower of Christ even if never an ardent one. I nod. "I understand. I will use your acknowledgement with care."
"You will try," the lion chuffs. "Now you must make your choice," it nudges at the table, at a packet of papers that was not there before. I take it gingerly and see a rather different document than the one I remember, though the perks and items and everything else were still the same.
I nod. "Very well then."
I gaze through the contents and rapidly make my decisions. Drop In and human are easily done. The free perk of the human race, the Preservation of Man was something that was beyond useful. To be able to see inwards with absolute clarity without any bias and self-deceit and extrapolate how I will change in the future all with a mindset of my idealized self. A way to stay moral and the counter to the downsides of moving to something other than humanity. Claim to hospitality was useful in getting acclimated to any unknown territory.
A tap gets Narnian Time. A measure to preserve myself against temporal manipulation and control the physical age of my body. An incredibly useful function given how often I will be reduced to the age of a child otherwise. Heart of a Child to preserve a part of me and a way to always maintain a sense of wonder at the world. After the dispiriting experiences in the previous universe.
Friend of the Wild and Four Loves. One to give me the ability to speak to not only animals but all the things of nature from trees to the wind. Useful in animistic universes. Four loves for widespread influence and power associated with a season. Jadis with experience was able to wrap an entire continent in winter. Despite all my power I lacked truly widespread powers and future possibilities of it all intrigued me. With an action a pop up appears, four options with the four seasons. After some thought I select summer.
For items I take the endless tea, because endless anything is always useful, and horn of desperation. I already had a way to retreat. Having a way to always call reinforcements is always useful. With Alucard brought along that left exactly 300 points in deficit. I already knew what I was going to use it on.
"Oh? You are selecting that drawback. Are you sure? Aslan will not be kind," it says and gestures to the great lion.
Aslan nods. "Indeed. While I commend your desire for a lesson. Know that I will not be kind. Even whatever lesson I give to you would be apparent with some thought put into the Tao. Are you sure of this?"
I shrug. "I can survive and," I smile wanly, "I am sure I can trust you to at least be mildly benevolent in your intentions. What is gain without any pain?"
"Very well then," my benefactor says, standing up from its chair and taking the table that I have laid on the table. "Alucard would rightly not wish to be in front of her when making a decision so he will be sent along after you. But first when do you want to be sent?" it asks.
"After the crowning of the Penvisces," I state simply. "After the end of the long winter."
"I see what you plan," the Lion states before nodding. "I allow it. Let us go then."
"Good luck Jumper," my benefactor says as he waves us off. The far wall had been replaced with a copse of ever greens, the distance shrouded in mist. "Alucard will be with you shortly."
Spoiler: Build
Chronicles of Narnia
Background: Drop In: You've managed to stumble into a world of magic and wonder. Perhaps destiny has something special in store for you. You have no pre-existing memories or personality from Narnia, though if you choose, you may have the memories of a transplanted earthling child.
Race: Human: You're a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve, with all the associated entitlements and responsibilities that come along with that.
Location: Redhaven, The Seven Isles
Perks
Claim to Hospitality: You've got a knack for making a good first impression, and find that strangers are much more inclined to invite you home for dinner. Within a few hours of your first arrival in any new place, fate conspires to make you cross paths with someone capable of offering you hospitality, a guided tour, or a least a healthy dose of exposition.
Anyone who has offered you hospitality will be seized with guilt if they attempt to betray you while you are under their roof. This protection does not apply if you betray them first, and sufficiently unscrupulous hosts may be able to overcome it by force of will.
Heart of a Child (800): Once a friend to Narnia, always a friend to Narnia. You possess a sense of childlike wonder and excitement that can never be completely extinguished, no matter how many years you live or how many horrors you witness. No matter how much you may change over the years, there will always remain some core that is essentially you. This also improves your resistance to telepathic influence, magical curses of despair, and other similar effects.
Narnian Time (500): Time is a funny thing, and never seems to run quite the way you expect it. Until now, that is.
First, you gain an internal clock which is accurate to the picosecond, and capable of separately tracking as many timezones as you're aware of. The benefits of this go far beyond never sleeping in again- it will help you in any activity that requires precise timing, from swordfighting to chemistry to ballet.
Second, you find yourself extremely resistant to temporal shenanigans. Attempts to cast you adrift in time and space will end up sending you someplace mildly inconvenient. Attempts to freeze you in an endless moment will simply slow you down. Attempts to assassinate your pregnant grandmother will result in very awkward family reunions. This protection also applies, to a lesser extent, to the unintended consequences of any temporal shenanigans you might initiate yourself.
Finally, you're now in complete control over your own aging processes. You can cause your body to mature rapidly, stay the same indefinitely, or even grow younger. You will never die of old age unless you do so deliberately.
Friend of the Wild (400): Anyone can talk to a Talking Animal or to a Dryad, but your affinity for nature goes far beyond that. You can understand and make yourself understood by birds and beasts who have not been given the gift of reason. You can converse with the spirits of wood and wave and rock, and occasionally call upon their aid... or at least implore them not to turn you into pigs.
The Preservation of Man: The more things change, the more things stay the same- and this too is true of the human spirit. Man, the creature that learns, that reasons, that hopes, is yet in his infancy. And as an infant, he faces the twin traps of eternal stagnation in the cradle, or of growing up into something horrifying. To help you avoid these traps, Aslan has given you the gift of the Tao.
Of course, the Tao that can be seen is not the Eternal Tao, but this gift is the next best thing. With a little self-reflection, you have ability to see through the lies you tell yourself, and obtain knowledge of your own deepest volition, to foresee what parts of it can remain coherent as it is extrapolated through all the changes you have experienced and those which you have yet to experience. This doesn't just tell you the things you want, but the things you want to want- what your idealized self would think if it was smarter, wiser, and better informed than you are now.
Baloney Detection (300): Dwarves have a very low tolerance for bullshit, and yours is lower than most. You have a preternatural ability to tell when someone is lying to you. Not only that, but this ability also detects when someone else is passing on a lie that someone else told them, and so on, even if they themselves honestly believe it. This ability doesn't function on matters of subjective opinion, but it will catch when someone is lying about what their opinion is. Unfortunately, this ability has one important limitation: just because a claim ultimately originates from a liar doesn't mean that the liar didn't accidentally stumble onto a truth, or that the believers in that lie haven't been working to make it true since. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and if you practice too much motivated skepticism, you'll be in for a nasty surprise when the first Black Swan arrives.
Four Loves, Four Seasons (-100): When you take this perk, choose Winter, Spring, Summer, or Autumn. You gain a magical connection to your chosen season. Yes, this includes the ability to wield the elements as weapons (eg: if you are a Winter Witch, you can cause spikes of ice to erupt from the ground or breathe gusts of freezing air), but the true power of this Aspect is more subtle.
You have learned how to impose seasonal weather onto a fairly large area, and seasonal feelings upon the emotions of those within. There is a beneficial and a baneful edge to each season. A hot summer's day might bring out the joy of relaxation... but if pushed too far, the heat might kindle people's wrath. A hundred-year Winter is almost guaranteed to bring despair, doubly so if it's never Christmas.
Utilizing and maintaining this power takes some effort, and can be fatiguing. Both the area you can affect and the intensity of the phenomena you can call up will grow with experience.
Summer
Gear
Fairy Stories: An ornate bookshelf containing signed first editions of the collected works of C.S. Lewis- including, of course, each book of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Endless Tea (-150): A beautifully enameled tin which can, on command, produce about two pounds of whatever sort of tea leaves you desire (except varieties that have magical properties of their own). It may be loose or bagged.
Also comes with teapots and kettles (which can provide their own heat and water), and enough fine china to serve it with, plus milk, cream, sugar, honey, or whatever you like to flavour your tea with.
Horn of Desperation (-250): This richly carved ivory horn, when blown in times of great need or desperation, has the power to magically summon aid to you. Exactly what aid it will bring, and how that aid will arrive, is extremely unpredictable. It might awaken great heroes from the past, teleport your companions to your side from any distance, or simply make a distant benefactor immediately aware of your location and approximate situation.
Companions x1 (-300) – Alucard
Perks
Claim to Hospitality
Narnian Time (0)
The Preservation of Man
Items
Fairy Stories
Drawbacks
Not a Tame Lion (0): At the best of times, Aslan is a distant, inscrutable mentor figure, but he's ultimately a kind soul whose meddling always turns out for your best interests in the end. With this drawback, however, he combines the malevolence of a god who works in "mysterious ways" with the capricious cruelty of a cat.
For the duration of your jump, he no longer intervenes in the world in any way that can be remotely described as "helpful". The reason for this soon becomes clear to you: he has decided that he has nothing better to do with his time but to teach you some sort of lesson. The exact nature of this lesson won't become clear to you until the end of the jump, but it involves using his divine powers to play dangerous or annoying pranks on you, usually with heavy-handed biblical symbolism.
You're still free to have adventures, make friends, and plunder treasures, but if you try to make any lasting societal change or interfere significantly with the actions of main characters, Aslan will show up to fuck up your plans. This drawback also makes him completely immune to any anti-plot-armor perks or abilities you may have.