Cop Killers

Four police officers died one night in the small, rural town of Cadillac, Michigan. According to the police department, two officers on patrol drove out to check on a disturbance call. The disturbance turned out to be a group of rowdy teenagers who shot and killed both police officers. The second car arrived soon after, but they too were killed by the teenagers. A third car was unable to locate the murderers.

The bodies of the four dead police officers were immediately examined by the coroner, who declared the cause of death as gunshot wounds. The officers were cremated, the funeral taking place two days later. The group of teenagers has yet to be found, and they have not struck again. No one witnessed the shootings, and the police do not know who phoned in the original disturbance report.

One of the four widows, Jake Dean’s wife, Heather, doesn’t believe the official story. She has hired the investigators to discover what the police are hiding. The only information that Heather can provide is that she was given a call about midnight and told that her husband was dead. Then, she was pressured into cremating him.

Possibilities

1 That night, Spencer Monson’s dog woke him up. The dog was barking quite loudly at a figure in the darkness. Spencer, a 70-year old senile widower, called the police, went back to sleep, and forgot all about the incident.

The first patrol car arrived and quickly found the figure – it was a werewolf! The policemen opened fire, but it killed them both. It killed the next two officers as well. The policemen in the third car were finally able to kill the weakened creature. To prevent hysteria, the deaths were blamed on a group of rowdy teenagers with guns and the werewolf’s body cremated.

Currently, the police are searching for the origin of the werewolf. Within the next week they will find out that four werewolves have been living in the woods around the city for the past several years. Only recently, since construction has begun invading their sacred lands, have they become hostile.

2 The police chief belongs to an in-the-closet cult consisting of several high-ranking city officials. Recently, one of the cult members was arrested on murder charges. The chief caused these charges to be immediately dropped. Since then, the chief has ended a number of other investigations. Jake Dean and three other officers had become suspicious of the chief and started snooping around.

Soon after the snooping had begun the police chief figured out what was going on and killed the officers by summoning a gug. He then invented the story of the armed teenagers to cover up the truth. The coroner, also a cult member, backed up the story by saying the officers died of gunshot wounds.

Fortunately, one of the officers kept a journal. This journal includes the officers suspicions as well as a list of the investigations the chief ended. Unfortunately, the journal appears to be missing.

3 The four murders were committed by a gang of nine teenagers. The police department has leads which leads to the murderers’ arrest within a few days. What the officers don’t know is that the gang leader was being controlled by a malicious member of the Great Race of Yith, which constructed a deadly weapon.

The weapon stopped the heartbeats of the officers, but the gang leader then shot them so the police department would have a murder weapon. Afterwards, the Great Race member returned to his native body. When the police arrest the gang leader he will have no idea what happened. The other members of the gang describe the alien weapon, which no one can locate.

© Vince Vatter

City Fear

The papers are full of horrific stories. Children’s bodies, mutilated then burnt alive, have been found across the city. The police are baffled and the public is restless. The media outcry is vociferous, and the police department chief’s job is on the line. In an attempt to show some activity the police have taken to arresting the criminal community at random. But still the murders go on . . .

Possibilities

1 The murderer is a frenzied cultist, one of the Cult of the Flaming Brand. The children are components for a great spell: a spell to summon Fthaggua. One more death and Fthaggua appears. As the city burns the remaining members of the Cult of the Flaming Brand greet the Great Old One and are swallowed by the fiery inferno, never to be seen again.

2 The murderer, Frank Potter, is mad. As a former member he also has valuable information on the activities of a dangerous cult, information that the investigators need to destroy it. Unfortunately, the city’s criminal community, sick of police harassment, have done some investigating of their own and have captured Potter. They intend to carry out their own form of justice, and yes, they do have a death penalty.

3 The murders are being carried out by a religious fundamentalist group who believe they are destroying the anti-Christ and his minions. If they are not stopped the murders become more and more outlandish as their ambitions and bloodthirst rises.

© Simon Taylor

A Turn of Fate

A dreidel is a four-sided top. It’s a harmless toy played with by children at Hanukkah, a Jewish festival celebrating the rededicating of the Temple at Jerusalem. This one, however, is different.

It is always cold to the touch, though a thermometer gives normal readings. Animals, especially cats, seem wary of it or its bearer. Cats will scratch anyone carrying it who tries to pet them. Even the baby who tries to put everything he can in his mouth won’t touch it, and tries to crawl away.

The top itself is solid lead, and weighs about 150 grams, as it should. The four square faces are about 2 cm on a side. The first four Hebrew letters, aleph, beth, gimel, and dan, protrude slightly from each face on the top’s body, one letter to a face. When spun, this dreidel makes an eerie whistling sound, not at all like a normal dreidel. The whistling is due to air rushing through small holes where the raised letters attach to the top’s body, If the investigator pries off these letters, he finds odd carvings underneath.

Possibilities

1 The carvings are Aklo letters representing magic, death, power, and knowledge. The top was once owned by the serpent man Ynarak, who used it to locate strong necromantic regions, such as burial mounds, murder sites, or terrible accidents. The range of this device is about four miles. If there are no places within range, then repeated uses of the dreidel creates one. (Astute investigators may notice an increase in killings coinciding with increased use of the top.) If an appropriate spot is located, the letters glow, and the top acts as a gyroscope with the stem always pointing toward the centre of the region.

2 The top is one of four, and the carvings are mystic symbols which spell the last syllable of Azathoth’s secret name. Investigators knowing the spell Curse of Azathoth will know this. The other three tops spell the rest of the name. If the tops are used in ceremonies praising Azathoth, there is a chance He or one of his servitors will ‘reward’ the celebrants.

Unfortunately, spinning the top becomes addictive and eventually the poor owner is dragged away by Azathoth. At first the owner hears strange piping sounds all the time. Doctors consider this hysteria. Then he begins dreaming about the Outer God. Finally, the owner (and possibly a chunk of the surrounding countryside) disappears.

3 Even with the outer faces removed the top still whistles. It was a gift from Nyarlathotep to the now dead sorcerer Karlon Angor, which increases the chance to summon and control a flying polyp. Unfortunately, each time the top is spun there is a cumulative chance of summoning an uncontrolled polyp. Eibon writes of such devices, though this one is not mentioned specifically. Some experimentation may be necessary to discover the top’s secret.

© Joe Louderback

Fluke

James Simpson has been infected by a parasite, currently living in his gut. The parasite is meta-dimensional, winking in and out of this plane; as it feeds and grows stronger, it becomes more anchored in this plane. Simpson conversely becomes weaker as the parasite grows stronger.

Conventional medical procedures (purges, emetics, even surgery) have no effect, as the parasite flicks between dimensions until the danger to it passes. Ultimately, the parasite becomes strong enough to be permanently anchored in this plane. When this happens, Simpson is dying and the parasite (about two feet long and an inch in diameter) can be felt under his abdomen.

The parasite possesses one other unusual feature – It can compress its circumference until it is able to pass through the smallest of holes (although it is later able to tear its way through bone, plaster, and light brickwork). This means that it can exit Simpson at any time through his ears, tear ducts, nose, mouth, penis, or anus, should it be provoked.

Possibilities

1 Simpson, formerly an explorer and anthropologist, was captured and tortured by the Tcho-Tcho people in south-east Asia who tattooed on his belly summoning and binding rituals. Rapid research might reveal a dismissal spell but unless the investigators can remove the tattoos the worm will be summoned back into its host.

2 Simpson is the victim of a summoning spell cast by a hostile sorcerer. An Elder Sign pressed against his abdomen causes the parasite to erupt violently from Simpson, killing him. The worm is ‘anchored’ in front of the Elder Sign and can then be dealt with relatively easily.

3 The parasite is a servitor of Crom Cruach, the great worm god. It consumes Simpson entirely, before moving on. Once Simpson is consumed, the worm is larger and can enter and internally consume one more human-sized body, after which it reaches anaconda-sized proportions. Any further attempts to enter a human body results in the host’s immediate and messy destruction, unable to accommodate the creature’s increased size.

© Charles Ross