Alsvartr-Mögr Saga (Tome of Eldritch Lore)

One of the most fun aspects of running Call of Cthulhu is the Borgesian task of creating Tomes of Eldritch Lore for investigators to discover. Here's one I've just introduced to my 1920s Arkham Country campaign. 

Alsvartr-Mögr Saga (Saga of the Black Kindred)

English, compiled by Snorri Sturluson, c. 1217, translated by Ovard Johnson in 1883

A lost saga compiled by Snorri Sturluson which tells of a berserker called only by the name Alsvartr-Mögr (The Black Kindred), a  jarl in pre-Christian Sweden who, upon death, became something akin to a vampire or draugr, continuing to rule over his lands for centuries until he was at last put to death by a Christian knight. Printed in a quarto edition, bound in skin of infant twins. One of twelve extant copies. This copy has been partially destroyed by fire, leaving the leaves loose and many of them burned. Only portions of the story are readable, leaving the narrative and knowledge therein dangerously fragmented—any spells or rituals it contains corrupted. To read the book without further damage to the text, one must use padded forceps to turn its leaves. Any physical handling of the pages may result in their crumbling to uselessness.

Sanity Loss: 1d6

Cthulhu Mythos: +2/+4

Mythos Rating: 22

Study: 12 weeks

Extant Spells: Awaken Sheath of the Dead (Skin Walker, pg. 168 of The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic); Contact the Skinless Man (Contact Nyarlathotep, pg. 75 of Grand Grimoire).

Effects of Possession: Anyone in possession of this tome for an extended period of time, after an Initial Reading, begins to have vivid dreams of life in Sweden. At first, these dreams are pastoral, where the dreamer lives as a farmer, but after a month or more, these dreams turn into nightmares, beginning with a raid upon the farm which results in the murder of the farmer’s wife and children, the youngest’s brains being dashed upon the hearthstones. Then the nightmares follow the life of the farmer, now off "a-viking",  upon raids in England until his crew is all but killed in Ireland and he is left to wander the moors, pursued by a black dog, who speaks to him as it nears. Out in the bogs, near to death, the Viking comes upon a skinless man dressed as a druid who waits for him, lasciviously, upon a bloodstained and knife-scraped altar, a goblet in one hand, a smokeless fire in the other. The black dog leads the farmer before the Skinless Man, speaking the name of the man who waits for him, although, in the dream, this name is unintelligible to the dreamer. The dream becomes lucid at this point and the dreamer must make the decision to drink from the goblet or take in hand the smokeless fire.