Background/History: Born 5 A.M. Sunday, February 2nd, 1913, Wilbur Whateley is the son of Lavinia Whateley and the extra-dimensional god known as Yog-Sothoth. Due to his rather unique heritage, he grew from an infant to an adult standing over six feet in height in 12 years. He could walk at 7 months, and could speak fluent English at around 18 months of age. By the time he was four he was the size of a 15 year-old boy, and already capable of riding a horse, or firing a pistol. Standing over nine feet tall at his death in 1928, there’s no telling how large he would have grown, nor how long he would have lived, or even if he’d still have looked even remotely human once he’d reached “adulthood.”
Personality/Motivation: Devoted to his father (Yog-Sothoth), Wilbur’s main desire was to expand his magical knowledge so he could open the ways from his father’s realm and Earth. He cared nothing for humanity, and while he honored his (human) grandfather, apparently thought little of his mother and may even have murdered her. He cared for his brother to the best of his ability, but may have been a more than a little jealous of his brother’s natural talent for sorcery. Certainly, Wilbur’s desire to study a proper copy of the Necronomicon caused him to act rashly, and led directly to his death at the teeth of a savage Miskatonic University watchdog.
Quote: “Mr Armitage, I calc'late I've got to take that book home. They's things in it I've got to try under sarten conditions that I can't git here, en' it 'ud be a mortal sin to let a red-tape rule hold me up. Let me take it along, Sir, an' I'll swar they wun't nobody know the difference. I dun't need to tell ye I'll take good keer of it. It wan't me that put this Dee copy in the shape it is....”
Powers/Tactics: Wilbur’s primary power is in his knowledge of the occult. Possessing a large library of ragged tomes, which he’s studied extensively, Wilbur also knowns a number of magical rituals, and as apparently either summoned and/or contact beings from other planes in order to receive further instruction. Curiously, despite his huge size and un-earthly physical form, he died rather easily when confronted by a guard dog, his body eventually dissolving into nothingness.
Appearance: “The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin. … It was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the Whateley's upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated.
Above the waist it was semi-anthropomorphic; though its chest, where the dog's rending paws still rested watchfully, had the leathery, reticulated hide of a crocodile or alligator. The back was piebald with yellow and black, and dimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes. Below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here all human resemblance left off and sheer phantasy began. The skin was thickly covered with coarse black fur, and from the abdomen a score of long greenish-grey tentacles with red sucking mouths protruded limply.”
Their arrangement was odd, and seemed to follow the symmetries of some cosmic geometry unknown to earth or the solar system. On each of the hips, deep set in a kind of pinkish, ciliated orbit, was what seemed to be a rudimentary eye; whilst in lieu of a tail there depended a kind of trunk or feeler with purple annular markings, and with many evidences of being an undeveloped mouth or throat. The limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled the hind legs of prehistoric earth's giant saurians, and terminated in ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves nor claws. When the thing breathed, its tail and tentacles rhythmically changed colour, as if from some circulatory cause normal to the non-human greenish tinge, whilst in the tail it was manifest as a yellowish appearance which alternated with a sickly grayish-white in the spaces between the purple rings. Of genuine blood there was none; only the foetid greenish-yellow ichor which trickled along the painted floor beyond the radius of the stickiness, and left a curious discoloration behind it.”
Designer’s Notes: Wilbur Whateley is from HP Lovecraft’s excellent short story The Dunwich Horror. The character sheet is based on things mentioned within the story, meaning GMs who wish to use Wibur in some form have a lot of leeway in expanding his character sheet. For example, he doesn’t have any spells, mainly as his magic is so vaguely described. That, and it’s not totally clear what he’s summoning (if anything). Thus, if you wish to use Wilbur, I suggest you have him summon whatever is specific to your game setting and go from there. If you wish to keep with the feel of an HPL story, then his summon will require Extra Time (lots of it), Gestures, Incantations, an immobile Foci (a ring of standing stones on a hill), and possible a Limitation of “the stars must be right” (meaning Wilbur can only cast his spells at certain times of the year).
(Wilbur Whateley created by Howard Philips Lovecraft, character sheet created by Michael Surbrook.)
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