Voyage of the Empress

Booking cheap passage across the Atlantic has drawn the investigators to the converted cargo liner the Dragon Empress. Own by the mysterious but influential Chang Wei Saisong, the ship makes money moving bulk cargo, low cost no questions asked guest accommodations, and some customs personnel suspect more than that.

The ship hosts several shady characters, ranging from desperate aristocrats fallen on hard times and looking to start anew to criminals running from the authorities. Cabin doors are seldom left unlocked aboard the Empress. Early in the voyage, Saisong’s second in command, a half Dutch half Chinaman named Abelard suffers a violent episode, convulsions, speaking in tongues, and the like.

Midways through the trip Abelard suffers a second bout of convulsions, this time the fit ends with Abelard grabbing Saisong’s sidearm and organizing a mutiny aboard the ship.

Possibilities

1 Abelard is simply an undiagnosed epileptic and his fits have no real pattern or meaning behind them. Saisong has been short changing and underpaying his crewmen and this has created a large deal of hostility between the crew and captain. If the Investigators don’t try to defuse the situation, Saisong with try through force and instigate a shoot-out on the bridge in which several people are wounded and Saisong himself killed.

2 Abelard is a drug addict, and Saisong has been making a large fortune by moving Asian opium into Europe by smuggling it across the US and then aboard the Dragon Empress. The confrontation is Abelard’s play for power to gain control of the lucrative Dragon Road, the opium highway across America. Abelard’s fits are caused by his reckless use of more than one drug.

3 Saisong has been moving highly questionable items aboard his ship, many of which connected with the mythos. Unbeknownst to Saisong, Abelard has been spending too much time around these artifacts and has been reading the books that come across on the ship before they are sold in Europe. Thoroughly insane, Abelard plans to hijack the Dragon Empress and enact a ritual that allow his to take the ship to dreaded R’leyh.

© Jared Lain

Featherbrains

Archie Haversham, rich gadabout and amateur naturalist, wants a great auk carcass. (The auk is a flightless seabird that resembles a penguin. It became extinct in the late 19th century, but rumour has it that colonies of the birds might still exist in some inaccessible spot. Stuffed specimens and skins fetched astronomical prices; in the early 20th century, a specimen could be worth as much as £350.)

Haversham has heard that Ivor Oleg, an arctic explorer, has a stuffed auk for sale. Oleg is asking £400 for it. Oleg is also dropping hints that he knows of a colony of auks near the Arctic Circle that until now have avoided contact with man. Haversham is desperate to conclude the Auk deal, but he is bedridden with a broken leg and can’t conduct the negotiations himself. Someone will have to go in his place.

Possibilities

1 Oleg is a thief. He stole the auk carcass, and several other things, from Martin Ponsonby, another rich naturalist. Ponsonby is a paranoiac. To him, Oleg’s theft isn’t just a theft. It’s part of a grand conspiracy to steal Ponsonby’s life’s work. In addition, people who buy the auk from Oleg aren’t just unfortunate dupes to Ponsonby. They’re all in on the plot. Ponsonby’s attitude is that his enemies must be destroyed, (socially and legally, not murdered), and he has dispatched private investigators to recover the auk and gather dirt on his foes.

2 Oleg is selling a genuine auk. However, he also wants to con Haversham into funding another Arctic expedition. To that end, Oleg will spin tales of auk colonies hidden away in the inaccessible regions of the world. Oleg will try any story if he thinks it will get him funding. If the investigators hint that they might be interested in, say, hidden temples to forgotten gods lost somewhere in the Arctic snows, Oleg will be more than happy to tell lies about such things.

3 Oleg has been driven insane because of his contact with alien gods deep in the Arctic wastes. He thinks it is his duty to gather victims for the Old Ones. He uses the auk carcass and his story of more auks out in the arctic to gain funding for another expedition. Oleg intends to be the only survivor of this expedition. The others will be left for the God to devour. Oleg has other specimens from his last trip to show to prospective buyers. Fragments of tablet with strange inscriptions, odd carved statuettes made from whalebone, and other odd things that might alert Mythos scholars that Oleg found more than auks on his last trip out.

© Adam Gauntlett

Blown Glass

A small package marked FRAGILE arrives at an investigator’s home. Picking up the parcel immediately reveals that the contents have been smashed. Opening the box reveals a short letter and shards of green glass.

The package has been sent by Bartholomew J Perkins (an acquaintance or colleague) from Hokkaido, Japan. As the note reveals, the box contained a glass float used by fishermen to anchor their nets. Perkins hopes that the gift has arrives intact.

Possibilities

1 The ball is the product of the deep ones, constructed during an ancient war with the fire vampires. The globe was discovered by Japanese fishermen and used innocently for years.

The globe contained a special powder which retards open flame – such as that required for heating and cooking. The powder is released when the investigator opens the box. The phenomena is unusual, but not too alarming – until the fire vampires arrive. They have been drawn by the ancient weapon, and are spoiling for a fight.

Only the complete immersion of the box in water and thorough cleaning of the house prevents the fire vampires from returning.

2 The globe is a teleportation device. If the globe is reconstructed (it fits together like a jigsaw) it begins to glow. All those in the room are caught in a stunning blast of energy.

The investigators find themselves in another room, one with wooden floors and paper walls. They are on the island of Hokkaido, the globe is in shards again. Perkins is waiting for them, along with several black-robed figures. They smile, draw long knives and move forward . . .

3 The globe is the broken prison of an oriental demon. Assembling it causes it to expand and open like a shell. From the shell emerges a strange Asian woman. She is tall, green-eyed and dressed in silks. Then she disappears.

The woman is a cat demon named Hosatsu. She knows much about the occult and torments male investigators in their sleep. If she can be befriended, Hosatsu proves to be a powerful ally. Unfortunately. Hosatsu’s affections are very tiring, and although the investigator goes to bed earlier and earlier, he never gets enough sleep.

If Hosatsu is spurned she becomes hateful and dangerous, attacking the investigator while he is dreaming. Hosatsu can only be destroyed by an enchanted jade dagger, which research reveals must be held by the sleeper. Learning this, and then finding a suitable dagger, may not be an easy task. Battle with Hosatsu takes place in dream state, but the wounds she inflicts are all too real.

© G W Thomas