Bad Dog

There hasn’t ever been a problem with strays in the neighbourhood, until about three weeks ago. A huge, black dog has been seen and has caused all kinds of mischief. Bins have been overturned, cars have been chased and the local children routinely terrified when something sleek and threatening bursts through the undergrowth, teeth barred. Cats refuse to go outside. Nobody’s really gotten a good look at the dog, so its breed hasn’t been identified. Nor has any owner.

Things change when a man is found dead in an abandoned house, savaged and ripped to shreds. The victim is identified as homeless man Ken Charles, and for a time the police comb the area hoping to catch the dog, but have no luck. The predator remains at large and the sound of howling echoes through alleyways, to the terror of man and beast alike.

Possibilities

1 The dog is normal in body, but not in mind. It contains the spirit of a murder who vowed to survive death and return to have vengeance on those who condemned him. The murderer, Wilbert Johns, was a homeless man who shared an abandoned house with Ken Charles and another man, Tom Warburton. Johns murdered Warburton as part of an occult ritual but didn’t realise he was being observed by Charles, who went to the police. Johns died fighting with the officers sent to arrest him, but not before he had put certain plans in place for his survival. He viciously killed Charles by trapping him in the house they’d squatted in, displaying intelligence highly uncharacteristic of a normal dog. The only problem for Johns is that he has to share his mind, that of a coldly psychological killer, with that of a dog, sometimes causing him to act out animal impulses.

2 The dog is a creature of a magical nature (demon, faerie or ghost, etc…) that was attracted to the neighbourhood by the magical energy radiating from the abandoned house which had a powerful artefact hidden away within it. Charles was killed when he disturbed the dog while it was searching the house. The dog isn’t really a large problem, but the artefact is going to start attracting things that are smarter and more dangerous in the hopes of claiming its power.

3 Ken Charles was not a simple derelict, but in fact a disgraced professor who had been researching the possibilities of time travel, requiring isolation to perfect his research. In a secret room in the basement he designed a machine that could facilitate the opening of a portal to the past, but to his misfortune it let through a prehistoric wolf that gravely injured him and ran off into the streets. Charles was able to drag himself into the basement and seal off the time machine room, but didn’t manage to close it off before he died.

© Paul Hebron

Aztec Troubles

In the dusty cellar of a fine restaurant in a close-by city lays a strange clay or stone tablet. It is an Aztec Sunstone and it houses the trapped and dormant spirit of an Aztec Priestess, or so legend goes. There used to be a magic shop in the building and was left behind when the store closed their business in the late 50s. This was a piece of the occult collection that was left behind and long forgotten.

Possibilities

1 The tablet contains the spirit of the Aztec priestess Xiuh-Tu-Nal who, according to ancient Aztec Lore she will be the key to her people’s revenge on the “White men invaders” (the Spanish landfall in the 15th century).

When awakened, Xiuh-Tu-Nal instinctively takes possession the nearest unfortunate victim - but suffers from memory lapses and confusion. She doesn’t speak English and will try to flee unless someone calms her down. As she stays in the possessed body, it warps and transforms into her original form – a process that takes about three weeks.

Before too long, Xiuh-Tu-Nal will remember the ritual for possessing another victim - and will quickly become a body thief, possessing victims and discarding them.

2 The tablet is a valuable Aztec sunstone, worth tens of thousand dollars to collectors. William Fletcher, the son of the former magic shop owner remembers seeing the tablet when he used to play at the shop when he was a kid. He has since seen a similar tablet at auction and stages a ‘bust’ with a couple of his friends. The bust is staged as a gang robbery – however Fletcher’s real goal is not the cash from the register, but the Aztec sunstone.

3 The tablet is sacred to an Aztec cult of cthonian worshippers, and is occasionally the cause for strange tremors. The tremors, when they occur, reverberate throughout the old building. Should the tablet be “used” properly, it will act as a beacon, summoning nearby cthonians.

© Dennis Toepoel

Aunt Joan’s Little Treasure

One of the investigators has a senile, irritating Aunt Joan who has recently died from heart failure. Unfortunately, all the investigator receives from the old crone is her ‘Little Treasure’ – Baldwin the dog. But Baldwin is no normal dog. Although very small--about Jack Russell sized or smaller--he is extremely mean looking, with eyes, a weasel-like snout, coarse fur and needle teeth.

After a few weeks certain things start to go wrong. Other dogs seem terrified of Baldwin, and his breed (a ‘Ti-Hao’, if they recall Aunt Joan’s description) cannot be found in any reference books. Was Aunt Joan right about his breed? And, most worryingly, why does he fly into a frothing rage whenever brought close to a holy place?

Possibilities

1 Baldwin is a unique dog, born through the mating of a normal bitch and an evil spirit; an incubus, forced on the dog’s mother by magic. The cult, known as the ‘Tsi-Hao’, operated across the globe before the second world war, and Aunt Joan acquired Baldwin from a desperate leader on the run in Singapore about ten years ago. Although not aggressive towards the investigator, he senses the supernatural and reacts to magic by biting and snarling.

2 Baldwin is one of a near extinct breed of dog from China. He was acquired by Aunt Joan from a Chinese ‘dog breeder’ about ten years ago. On birth, these placid beasts are blessed by the secretive cult that breeds them in the name of He Who Is Not To Be Named. This ritual transforms them into slavering, eldritch monstrosities at certain solar events - or when threatened. Aunt Joan did indeed die of heart failure - Baldwin, in monstrous form, ate it out during the recent conjunction of Mars and Saturn.

3 Despite his mean appearance, Baldwin is a normal, affectionate dog. However, an earlier brush with the Mythos has left a powerful ability attached to him; those around him start seeing visions of various Mythos beasts and gods in their dreams. These visions gradually mount in clarity and duration (over a period of years), until they are strong enough to send a someone insane. These visions finally killed Aunt Joan; after years mumbling about monsters and ghosts, she was found with her normally-dark hair turned white and her face rigid with terror.

© Rory Naismith

Bad Trip

It is a long, hot, dry summer. News reaches the papers of a late-night bus crash in a mountainous part of the country. While travelling between two small, remote communities, the bus came off the road on a steep incline, crashing through a fence and hurtling down the near-vertical slope of a steep gorge to smash into the rocks at the bottom, where it burst into flames. Anyone on board unlucky enough to survive the horrendous descent was burned to death in the conflagration.

Twenty-two people have been killed, nearly all of them from the small town the bus was travelling to. The bodies have been taken to the nearest hospital mortuary pending identification. Local police have called in expert help from a nearby city to assist the accident investigation.

Possibilities

1 Mi-Go in the area want several healthy human brains for a diabolical project. Intercepting the bus on the remotest part of its route, they remove the tops of their victims’ skulls and take the brains of everyone on board. The skulls are crudely repaired, and the bus and its cargo of brainless dead are crashed into the ravine and set on fire to conceal evidence of the crime.

2 The crash is a genuine accident, a coincidence that draws any investigation to the site of a cave within the ravine, the entrance to which had been concealed by dense undergrowth now burnt to ashes by the fire.

Deep inside the cavern, hidden within a maze of cramped tunnels, is the grave of a sorcerer who once held the native peoples of this area in thrall until a band of warriors gave their lives to overthrow him. Shamans placed his corpse in this deep cave, surrounded by wards to guard against an evil magic that might awaken him once more to walk amongst them. But now their spells are losing their efficacy and the sorcerer’s crazed spirit wanders the caverns, reacting venomously against anyone it comes across, seeking a way to return life to the shrivelled corpse that was once its home.

3 Around here lurks a small pack of werewolves. The crash occurred at the time of the full moon when one of the werewolves, mindless with blood-lust, flung itself on the bus in a savage attempt to get at the succulent flesh within. Not surprisingly this caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The werewolf was thrown clear before the bus made its final plunge into the ravine.

Although not killed, the werewolf was injured and, now in human form, is bed-ridden and weakened. Evidence of the werewolf’s attack can be found in a careful inspection of the wreckage: raking claw-marks in the bodywork of the bus and bite marks on one of the corpses (the werewolf smashed through a window to attack the victim before being thrown clear).

© Tony Hickie

An Old Friend

Late Friday evening an old army buddy contacted me. I hadn’t heard from him in years, and now he seemed desperate to meet with me. In secret. He wouldn’t say exactly why, so with an uneasy feeling, and an address scribbled down, I set out to meet with him.

The old rendering plant was smelly, dark, and had apparently been unused in some years. I found a loading door slightly ajar, with an old, but apparently serviceable, truck sitting outside. Inside I overhear a horse whisper, and after a moment I can associate that voice with a dark form accented by the minute glow of a lit cigarette. Even close to him, I can’t see him very well, but I can clearly make out the distinct scent of the cologne that was his signature.

“Here.” He thrust a small leather-bound volume into my hands. It wasn’t any bigger than a paperback novel, but so much heavier. The cover felt rough in my hands, and even though I couldn’t make it out, there felt to be some form of symbol in the leather.

After examining the little tome as much as I could in the minimal light, I was about to ask him what it was, or where he’s been all this time, but he was gone. Simply gone. Not a footstep did I hear. Just the smell of cigarette smoke and cologne.

Possibilities

1 The old friend has been dead for many years. Murdered during his army days and framed for a vile crime he didn’t commit. The journal is that of his murder, also dead. The ghost of the old friend has returned with the journal, hoping that the investigator will find the truth of his murder and set the record straight.

2 The old friend was a combat photographer in the army and has since moved onto independent journalism. The volume is a handwritten manual written by the head of a cannibal cult. It includes graphic depictions of ritual murders, and sketches on how best to prepare the human body for consumption. Inside the back cover is a complex symbol. It is the focus for a magical ritual allowing the creator of the book to summon the volume, and its thief back to the creator.

This time the ritual botched, bringing just the thief back for punishment.

3 The volume itself is not connected to the disappearance, even if that is not immediately apparent. The rendering plant itself is haunted. The invisible beast that makes its residence here enjoys quietly taking its victims deep below the building and torturing them for its entertainment.

© Eric R Provost

An Inconvenience to Travellers

The London Underground is under siege. In the last four weeks three passengers have been murdered, so horribly that the police have initiated a cover up. Public transport executives are concerned that business will be affected if the story comes out. Everyone in the know wants the murderer caught, preferably dead to minimise collateral damage.

Each murder was committed in a fashion mimicking a scene from a horror novel, movie or true crime; the police have yet to make that connection. A note from the killer has was found with each body. Victim 1, female, was stabbed and dissected (Jack the Ripper) whilst waiting for a late train. Victim 2, male, was stunned and tied to the tracks to be beheaded by the early train (Harold Lloyd). Victim 3, male, was assaulted and drained of blood using a syringe and medical tubing (Dracula).

Possibilities

1 Victor Mitchell is an ex-employee of the transit authority who plans on a nice extortion payment to supplement his meagre pension. He now works part time as a security guard but used to be an engineer. He knows the underground warrens exceptionally well, has basic medical training and has no fear of violent situations. The murders are inspired by the trashy novels which he reads on boring night shifts. The trophies are kept in a nigh-inaccessible underground storage area for use in the forthcoming extortion campaign.

2 An insane pathology student, Douglas Drew, is preying on his fellow passengers. The victims all caught their final train at the same stop in the city, as shown by the tickets amongst their personal effects. Drew studies at both the medical school and the library close to the station. He selects his victims for their apparent wealth and social status; he sexually assaults and robs the victims, keeping trophies at his rented accommodation. The notes are rambling subconscious cries for help rather than serious demands.

3 The victims were all members of The Willow Society, a secretive group of occultists and psychics who believe in meditation, positive energies and white magic. Professor Henry Gore, noted pathologist, is President of the Willow Society.

Dr Marcus Laine, a hypnotist, guru and faith healer, was recently debunked as a fake by the Willow Society; in revenge he used real arcane skills to call forth a ghoul to do his murderous bidding. Oddfellow, a recent changeling to ghoul, currently passes as Dr Laines manservant. The terrible twosome are arranging the murders in such a manner that The Willow Society cannot fail to fall under police suspicion. The trophies may be readily found in the basement of the society headquarters, a walled-off detached brownstone mansion.

Oddfellow now has a liking for his new career (he used to be a male nurse at Deadham Sanitarium). He enjoys the thrill of the chase and will soon begin a real campaign of terror in the city. Freedom from Dr Laine will allow him to prey on the train loads of people who use the underground every day; hence the notes placed on each corpse, unsubtle clues pointing at Laine and Gore. The clues are easily deciphered by those who have occult knowledge.

© Peter Devlin

An Apple a Day

An Apple a Day

A short walk across the countryside, far away from the troubles of the city – a perfect way to relax and regain – or perhaps to investigate some hidden mysteries behind the facade of innocent rural life? Whatever lead you here, right now you are walking along a small orchard with ripe, red apples. Plop – right down before your feet falls one of the fresh apples, just if it wants to tell you ‘pick me up and eat me’. Well, an apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Possibilities

1 The apple is not from an ordinary tree. The tree is in fact a direct offspring of the Tree of Knowledge from the garden Eden. How it got here, is unknown – its owner bought a couple of ordinary seedlings on the market, and this year would be the first time to harvest.

A bite from one of the apples will give the eater a prophetic look into past (a view into paradise and the origin of the tree) or future events, good (the correct numbers in the lottery) or bad ones (the eater apparently lying dead in a puddle of blood) or really bad ones (a view into hell itself, that will drive the eater mad).

2 The apple is not from an ordinary tree. The tree is possessed by a paranormal creature (demon, dryad, fairy, evil spirit). Through the creature’s magic, the apple’s seed will sprout inside the eater’s stomach, feasting on its blood with its roots, which causes the eater severe stomach’s pain. The creature might order the eater to obey its command to avoid a death caused by an apple tree bursting out of the eater’s stomach – or just grin and tell the eater of his inevitable doom...

3 The apple is from an ordinary tree. The tree belongs to Mr Jones, a farmer always carrying a shotgun and avoided by his neighbours who consider him to be completely mad. Mr Jones believes in the values of private property. Thieves, including people who steal his apples, are punished by doing hard labour in chains. And so far no one has ever pressed charges against Mr Jones...

© Philipp Mählmann

The Party

A character receives, quite unexpectedly, an invitation to a soirée at the home of one of their old school-friends. The individual, one Humphrey Anderson-Boyd, is known as an international traveller and has something of a reputation as a dilettante and playboy. He is wealthy, handsome, elegant, and an eminently eligible bachelor. The society journals are quick to match him with any woman in whose company he is seen. His parties are said to be wild and debauched.

Humphrey lives in a large and airy house designed by a radical modern architect and located on the fringes of the fashionable city suburbs. The interior is exquisitely furnished and the grand windows overlook the extensive wooded and landscaped grounds. By day the dramatic skies and excellent views make it an idyllic spot, but at night it can feel very lonely and isolated. The house has been designed to be self-sufficient and has its own generator located in the cellars.

Jones, the cadaverous butler, is the only westerner in the domestic staff. The others are all dark skinned, slightly built Orientals who actively shun contact with the guests. They seem under the sway of the cook, an ancient and grossly fat woman who seems to do little except sit in a rocking chair and give orders. All of the Orientals carry slender knives and have a dragon tattoo on their necks. Jones is able to communicate in their tongue and appears to inspire either respect or fear.

Humphrey retains a number of gamekeepers and groundsmen, local men who maintain the gardens, keep down the wildlife, and patrol the grounds against poachers and trespassers. They consider Humphrey and his staff to be ‘queer folk’, but their wages are rather good, they receive a rather generous holiday allowance and Christmas bonus, and as such they are loyal and tight-lipped. The gamekeepers have well trained dogs and carry shotguns, and will see off anyone who tries anything funny. They and their dogs shun the woods, however.

Humphrey’s little bash, which includes among its guest-list writers, musicians, judges, a gangster, and at least one starlet of the silver screen, begins rather more formally than one might expect. The gramophone music is dull and repetitive and the conversation is terrible: this is hardly going to make the best shindig list of ‘Gentleman’ magazine. That is, until Jones fetches the “special” drink. The liquid is contained in a large bronze bowl worked with Chinese characters and intricate skull-and-claw designs, and appears to be luminous green in the dim light. The other guests have no qualms about drinking.

Possibilities

1 The characters have received an invite to the wrong party - the one they were supposed to attend isn’t until next week. The “special” drink is a powerful aphrodisiac made by the cook: it causes the drinker to lose all of their inhibitions - the affair becomes an orgiastic sex romp. If the characters have drunk the potion they will, in all probability, become willing participants in the carnal activities, though they probably won’t remember much of what went on. A number of prostitutes (both male and female) have been hired to ‘start things going’. Anyone with professional employment or a position of trust would be very badly affected if their participation in such activities became public knowledge.

2 The “special” drink is a potion that causes the drinker to fall into a waking trance. Humphrey is a newly created undead, Jones is his sire and mentor, and the Orientals are trusted henchmen. When everyone has succumbed to the effects of the potion Humphrey and Jones move among the guests and tap just a little blood from each, drinking enough during the course of the evening to satisfy their unholy needs. Both are immune to most forms of damage (although fire, electricity, and enchanted weapons work) and are exceedingly violent if they are interrupted: they are lethally fast and highly skilled creatures. Those who have drunk the potion remember little of the evening, but uniformly recall having had an excellent time.

3 Humphrey and Jones, both permanently insane, are the leaders of a small cult that worships Shub Niggurath. The “special” drink is a potion, made by the cook, with two main effects. First, it allows the cultists access to the guests’ psychic energy. Second, it induces a dream-like state that cushions their minds against the horrors they witness (they recall a wild party but can’t remember any details). Humphrey and Jones begin a ceremony that involves everyone performing complex chanting and dancing. At the penultimate moment a sacrifice is brought forth (a suitable victim has been secured and is being held in the cellars until required), and ultimately one or more Dark Young of Shub Niggurath are summoned. The horrifying entities consume the sacrifice (and anyone who hasn’t drunk the potion) then vanish into the wooded grounds.

© Adie Stewart

The Organ Donor

A series of bizarre murders are occurring in Arkham. Unusually, each victim has received donations of organs from the body of a Catholic man – and every single murder victim has the relevant body parts extracted – eyes, heart, bone marrow, whatever they received from the dead man. It may be that this man is not as dead as he seems, and is seeking a complete body, in order to enter heaven.

Possibilities

1 The murders are committed by the dead man himself, who has returned as a zombie-like revenant who seeks to reconstruct his own body after his wife went against his wishes by donating his organs.

2 The donor was not as good a Catholic as was suggested. He was a sorcerer, and his knowledge is much desired by another sorcerer who can resurrect the dead, as in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. However, to avoid getting “the liveliest awfulness” of his victim, he requires all his body parts and has set out to regain every single one.

3 The murders are committed by the donor’s wife. A medium has contacted the victim in the spirit world, where his ghost is trapped because he lacks his complete body. To reassemble the corpse, his wife is stealing the organs from their recipients.

Inspired by the story Donor, from the X-Files comics.

© James David Beard

The Wreck

Dr. Harold Rathborne has been locked away in an asylum. Otherwise a prominent medical examiner for the police department, Rathborne lost his mind after examining the corpses from a recent train wreck. In related news, someone removed an as-yet unidentified corpse from the morgue in which Rathborne worked the night he went mad. Police are investigating the case, but the real evidence is in Rathborne’s private journal, not his work one.

The new examiner has learned that many of the victims were dead prior to the crash. The police have suddenly stopped sharing information.

Possibilities

1 The Fungi from Yuggoth have stolen back the corpse of the Reginald Bernby whom they impregnated with eggs prior to the train’s departure. Controlled by the Fungi to travel to a specific location, he boarded the train. When he began to germinate in the train car he flipped out and started attacking people with whatever weapons were on hand insisting he be killed. The Fungi, realizing their eggs were suddenly in danger, swept in and caused the chaos that led to the wreck.

Rathborne examined poor Reginald Bernby and discovered the eggs in his abdomen, ready to hatch. Rathborne went mad and later Bernby continued on his quest to the hatching grounds, easily discovered by plotting out the path of the wrecked train.

2 Rathborne’s notes reveal the source of his insanity. One of the bodies he examined (the one that has gone missing) had crawled off the examining table using its skin - not unlike a slug. Rathborne went mad, but not before he concluded that the body was host to an inexplicable organism whose plastic nature seems, to those that know, much like that of a shoggoth.

As it happens, train wreck victim Alexander Marcus shares his body with a shoggoth. The shoggoth gives him unusual strength and durability, enough strength in fact to have ripped an axle off of the train car he was on, and enough supernatural constitution to have regenerated his body sufficiently to walk out of the morgue. His goal was the scientist on board the train who had learned of his unique condition. Rathborne will be next.

3 After seeing one too many bodies broken apart in this horrible wreck doctor Harold Rathborne went stark raving mad. In the comfort of his asylum cell he hears the screams of the dozens of mutilated passengers and the whispers of one victim in particular, a powerful wizard seeking a new, working body.

© Jim Sliney Jr

The Wayang Theatre

A new exhibition is planned in the ethnologic faculty of the local university. It is about the history of Java and Malaysia, especially the Islamic time which started about 600 years ago. There are also exhibits from earlier ages, the Hindu-culture coming from the Chinese-Indian trading routes and times before, when the local religion was kind of animism.

Between the craftworks is an odd set of wayang-puppets, made during the eighth-hundred A.D., the figures resembling humans with disturbing deformities. They were found some decades ago with Sanskrit-written palm tree leaves, yet not translated.

Soon after opening of the exhibition the puppets and the written leaves are stolen. The thief is easily found, he is a burglar, well-known to police, who is specialized in stealing from museums.

Possibilities

1 Shortly after the thief is identified, he is stabbed to death by his accomplice who wants all the profits from the crime for himself. He sells it on the international black-market shortly afterwards.

2 The burglar is found dead, apparently from a heart attack. The thief stole to order - and was then poisoned by his client.

(Before 1942 the client is a native-Indonesian group working against the foreign government. In modern times the client is an Islamic terror-group.)

The client wants the puppets for two purposes. They were once a holy set of puppets in the client’s home region and they can be used in the conjuration of Shuggoran and his childer. They want the puppets back to let these demons loose on their enemies.

3 The thief is acting on behalf of a rich collector. He pays the burglar well and is now translating the texts so that actors can perform the original wayang. He will take the main role and perform the act in front of his art-loving friend.

Unfortunately, this is the play of shadows and the songs will render the veil between dimensions. The collector is sacrificing himself to become a spectral hunter, to haunt the place of his self-sacrifice.

© Jochen Koltermann

Three Point Landing

A small aircraft lands at an airfield. The landing would be unremarkable except that the pilot and all three passengers are dead.

There is no sign of damage to the aircraft - nor is there any indication of what happened: there is no sign of a struggle nor any injury to anyone on board. However, all the bodies are old to the point of decrepitude; one of the corpses is almost skeletal. It seems that the pilot managed to land with his last breath. Documents carried by the passengers establish their identities and their ages: the pilot is 28 and his passengers 35, 41 and 52. The aircraft was in the air for approximately three hours, yet autopsies suggest that everyone on board the aircraft died of old-age or of age-related illnesses.

Possibilities

1 The people on board the aircraft have been attacked by an incorporeal creature (similar to a Colour Out of Space) that drains the life force from its victims. Those on board the aircraft failed to realise what was happening until it was too late. Now the creature lurks somewhere in the vicinity of the airfield.

2 The aircraft encountered a discontinuity in space-time. Anything passing through the discontinuity has its ageing process accelerated by a factor of about 200,000 (although this cannot be measured accurately). Inspecting the aircraft reveals that it has also aged, much like its occupants.

The discontinuity is stationary, but it is increasing in area and when it intersects with the ground things will really start happening...

3 The pilot and his passengers have died as the result of a peculiar disease that rapidly ages its victims. The pilot and passengers were part of an archaeological expedition and have recently returned from a remote part of the world. During the excavation of an ancient tomb, disease spores were released from a stone sarcophagus, infecting the entire expedition.

The disease has an incubation period during which the infected person is not contagious, but thereafter it progresses rapidly. It is likely that all those remaining back at the expedition are also dead.

© Tony Hickie

This Old House

It’s strange… The Petersons always seemed like a nice family, even if their house was so old and rickety. But they’ve started to keep to themselves lately, and now their neighbours are complaining of strange visitors late at night, foul odours, and lights in the windows at odd hours.

Has the family gone eccentric all of a sudden, or is something more sinister involved?

Possibilities

1 Having been originally built by members of a local ghoul cult, the Petersons’ house is conveniently located with respect to a network of tunnels beneath the nearby cemetery. The cult was eradicated several decades ago, but the ghouls are still alive and well, and several of their number have killed the Petersons and replaced them using a Consume Likeness spell. They are now using the house as a base to infiltrate human society, and trying to re-establish their cult.

If the investigators explore the house, they will find an entrance in the cellar leading to a maze of dank tunnels, culminating in the ghoul warren. There are quite a lot of ghouls there, so let’s hope the investigators brought a shotgun.

2 While cleaning the attic about a year ago, Mr. Peterson discovered an old journal behind a loose board in the wall. This book contained the notes of a previous owner of the house, who also happened to be a powerful sorcerer. Mr. Peterson was intrigued by the descriptions of arcane rituals, but when he tried one he unwittingly opened a passageway for the dead sorcerer to possess his body.

The sorcerer has since killed off the other members of Peterson’s family, which is why they haven’t been seen lately, and is continuing his occult research while trying to keep a low profile. He is also re-establishing connections with other wizards and cultists, some of whom he knew in his previous life. A sinister plan may be afoot…

3 The Petersons’ house is haunted by an entity which gradually drains life force from the house’s inhabitants. It has been causing the strange effects, and the odd people who have been showing up in the neighbourhood are psychic sensitives attracted to its presence, or perhaps exorcists hired by the family.

Over time the Petersons will become more and more withdrawn, and as their will is sapped, they will be unable to leave the house even if they can realize what is happening. If this continues for much longer, the Petersons will die and the entity will become strong enough to move to other, surrounding houses.

© Emily Johnsen

Flask of Curses

A series of disappearances are occurring in a single area of Arkham, in and around a large house which was once home to a famous alchemist. This man displayed unnatural long life and local legend has it that he had discovered the Elixir of Life - the fabled target of alchemical research.

Recently, workmen in the house found a mysterious silver flask concealed behind oak panelling. Its contents are unknown, and both the bottle and its discoverer have now vanished.

Possibilities

1 The theory of the Elixir of Life was that it would transfer the incorruptible properties of solid gold to the body of its creator, making him immortal – in theory, once transmutation of lead into gold was achieved, this achievement was only a matter of time. However, the Elixir in the bottle is flawed. If drunk, it will slowly transform the body of the drinker into solid gold. The workman who found it has drunk it and been driven mad as he slowly transforms into a golden – and almost indestructible – monster.

2 The bottle did not hold the Elixir of Life – instead it contained a mythos being like that in The Lurker in the Attic, conjured and imprisoned by the alchemist-sorcerer hundreds of years ago. The being hates other living things and has been murdering humans around the house. Fortunately, it can be forced back into its bottle with the proper ritual.

3 The bottle indeed holds the key to immortality. If the potion inside is drunk, the drinker will be slowly transformed, one part of their anatomy at a time, into a Deep One, therefore gaining eternal life. This knowledge was a gift from the Deep Ones, in order to create hybrids without breeding with humans. The workman who drunk it is now insane and has been murdering people - and the group of Deep Ones spying on their new offspring aren’t helping either.

© James David Beard

Flightscare

The passengers on the red-eye from New York to Los Angeles are slowly waking up. The stewards are busy making coffee and breakfast, while the dawn light shines through.

Suddenly, the passenger on seat 21A starts to scream and flail violently with their arms and legs. The startled stewards and fellow passengers are having a hard time calming the screaming passenger.

Possibilities

1 The screaming passenger, a Mr. James Carlson, is a businessman bound for a business dinner in Los Angeles. He took a glance out the window to check the horizon, and, in a brief moment, spotted a small swarm of Mi-Go passing. A sight no human normally witnesses, but the dawn light - and the fact that James witnessed it from a plane window several thousand feet up in the air - made it possible.

Mr. Carlson’s mind shattered when he saw the alien Mi-Go, and although stewards and fellow passengers managed to calm down the screaming Mr. Carlson, he’s still as mad as a hatter and must spend some time in a mental hospital.

2 Mr. James Carlson, who’s visiting family in Los Angeles, is a first-time flyer. He’s been afraid of flying since he was born. Up until his first flight, he has always gone by train. But this time a good friend suggested that he could seek help to get rid of his flightscare. He did, and it seemed to help. But it didn’t last.

3 Mr. James Carlson had a nightmarish dream, that resulted in his involuntary screams and flailing. A calmed, and extremely embarrassed, James Carlson apologizes and keeps a low profile on the rest of the flight.

© Tim Deer

Floating

An investigator wakes late one night to discover that he and everything else in his bedroom are floating several inches in the air. As soon as he realises this, there is a loud crash from below the floor and everything settles back into place, leaving him alarmed and confused. Cracks in the foundations and knocked over items show that whatever happened was a real event.

Possibilities

1 A Yithian time traveller tracking down a mythos tome has heard that the investigator has a copy of it. In true Yithian style, it decided to make the search easier by inventing a combination anti-gravity device and sleep ray to transport the entire building to a spot where it could examine the house at its leisure. However, thanks to a gap in its knowledge of human physiology, the sleep ray failed to work as planned, and the Yithian aborted the effort when it realised the investigator was awake.

The Yithian will try again, as soon as it manages to perfect the sleep ray. A number of people in the neighbourhood will find themselves falling asleep at the strangest times and places over the next few days as they become ‘volunteers’ in its testing.

2 A dying lloigor is trying to exact revenge against people with mythos knowledge, using the last of its failing strength. The floating effect was an unsuccessful use of its implosion power. A series of implosions during the night radiate out in a spiral over several miles from the point where the lloigor is trapped, too weak to move or solidify, but planning further acts of vengeance after resting for a while.

3 Subsiding foundations caused the investigator’s house to drop several inches, and he was woken by the commotion as the building settled. The foundations are being undermined by a gang of criminals tunnelling into the cellar from the basement of a nearby home. The collapse filled in their tunnel, but they’re determined to get into the investigator’s cellar one way or another.

© Chris Kerr

Ghost Train

Over the past few weeks people have spotted an antique subway train going through the underground. It is always seen in the dead hours of the night and it never seems to stop at any of the stations it is sighted at. Witnesses have described it as having three cars and have also seen strange lights moving around inside it. The transit authority has no information on the train.

Possibilities

1 The antique subway train is being used in a film. It is on loan from a museum and is travelling to various underground stations for filming. It is only seen at night since that is the easier to transport it during the non-peak hours. The strange lights are from the film crew setting up lighting for various interior shots. The Transit Authority knows what is going on but has been asked to keep quite by the movie company.

2 It really is a ghost train. Back in the early 1900 a novice driver took a wrong turn and barrelled into a dead-end tunnel filled with fuel. Everyone on board was burned to death in a gruesome fashion. Now years later the site of the wreck is being excavated and it has disturbed the ghosts. The ghosts, in their hate for the living have used their powers to recreate the subway train and lure victims to a similar fate.

3 The train belongs to an undead sorcerer who was alive at the turn of the century. Feeling nostalgic it has returned to the old stomping grounds of its life. The train has been created by means of magic most foul and populated with rotting and monstrous servants. The sorcerer takes on passengers for the purpose of needing food or experiment subjects.

© David Kapsos

Game Over – For Good!

Recently, a couple of teenagers have disappeared in the town. Research leads to a video arcade.

Further investigation reveals that all the victims were hooked on a new video arcade machine installed a few weeks ago. All were last seen in the hall playing the game.

Possibilities

1 The arcade machine is home to a flying polyp. These semi-solid creatures have, in modern times, learnt to shatter their bodies and send themselves via viruses and even live in digital form on the Internet and in computers.

This polyp uses the game as bait.

2 The machine is connected to the Great Old One, Gog-Hoor via a dimensional rift concealed inside. If the machine is pulled from the wall, one of Gog-Hoor’s multi-eyed tentacles reaches out from the rift. The vanished kids have all been sucked into the rift and are now with Gog-Hoor...

3 The game was designed by a man with considerable knowledge of the Cthulhu mythos. He went insane shortly after finishing it and is now in an asylum.

He poured much of his knowledge into the game - too much perhaps. At certain points in the game players can combine symbols and (seemingly) random letters and risk forming an invocation. The invocation summons something – a dimensional shambler, a nightgaunt, a star vampire or similar. Each time this has happened, the entity has arrived to carry off the hapless player...

© Stefan Jonsson

A Well-Respected Man

Newton Palmer is a pleasant and charming man who finds it easy to make friends no matter where he goes. Newton has gone from a sad and pitiable condition in his youth to a successful and well-regarded businessman. Through shrewd investing he has made a comfortable life for himself and his family and lives a life of luxury few could dream of.

Everybody likes Newton, and he personally knows many celebrities, and makes donations to many small charities. Newton is not famous himself and has built a built a wall of privacy around himself and his wife and young children. The only people who don’t really like Newton are the people who remember him as a sad and bitter wage worker, who Newton has snubbed off every time they have tried to contact him.

Possibilities

1 The real Newton Palmer is now dead. Palmer was once a down on his luck manic depressive. He had a thankless job at the offices of Rand, Webb and Sturgeon, a highly successful publishing firm run by the wealthy Patrick S Sturgeon. Sturgeon inherited the business, but it was insufficiently challenging for him. Sturgeon is a talented businessman, and a fantasist with a major ego problem and a determination to build a business on his own and away from the shadow of his father.

To this end, he decided to take on a new identity – that of a social misfit nobody would miss; Newton Palmer. After a faked helicopter accident, costly plastic surgery and a detailed study of Palmer’s life, Sturgeon killed Palmer and took over, quitting his job and using his skills to quickly rise in status, severing ties with Palmer’s family to avoid speculation.

2 Palmer worked for Rand, Webb and Sturgeon, a shell of a publishing company that had once been successful in the 50s but has been steadily declining ever since. Eventually Palmer’s job was cut, and the company went into liquidation, and Palmer drifted from one job to another. When he hit his lowest, he decided to take out his problems on the closed building of his old company. He broke in, using his position as a former security manager there, and started rooting around for things to steal but instead found a secret collection of books in the basement. Thinking them valuable, he took them home with him and started to read through them to assess their value.

Palmer had found a complete set of the Revelations of Glaaki, and he read of mysterious knowledge and dangerous rituals. However, upon reading Volume 12, he has contacted by the god Y’Golonac. The corpse god offered Palmer a choice; allow him to take over Palmer at certain times and he would have great fortune or be consumed alive. Palmer accepted, and found his fortunes increasing rapidly. However, Palmer is occasionally taken over by Y’Golonac without his knowledge, and the corpse god inflicts unspeakable things on his family. If he weren’t addicted to the thrill of power and control, he would have stopped himself long ago.

3 Palmer is a great success story but has relied on the all-too-human lure of crime to carry him to the top. He owes large amounts of money to various criminal organisations and is now struggling to pay off his debts. Out of frustration, a criminal named Robert Kime, who Palmer owes large amounts of money, has kidnapped Palmer’s wife and children. Palmer would do anything to get his family back, except of course, call the police.

© Paul Hebron

After the Funeral

One of the investigators is attending the funeral of an old friend with other investigators. After the funeral, they have drinks together and talk about their lost friend. Suddenly one of the investigators look through the window and sees the dead friend staring back.

Possibilities

1 At first, the investigator thins it’s just a trick of the mind... until he sees his friends staring at through the window too. Is it a ghost? Is their dead friend trying to send a message from the other side?

2 The dead friend is now a vampire and wants to see his acquaintances one last time before leaving for somewhere else.

3 After blinking the dead friend disappears. It was just a trick of the investigator’s imagination. But why are there footprints below the window?

© Nicolas Dao Phan

Ashes

On an island, an old volcano has erupted again for the first time in centuries. While there is no imminent danger for the few settlements on the island, big clouds of ashes are spreading over a wide area and the near continent.

Possibilities

1 In the areas where the ashes sink down, the deceased rise from their graves and start spreading terror, eating the flesh of the living...

2 In a night after a larger eruption, witnesses claim that amidst the ash cloud a big shadow was seen, as if a gigantic creature had emerged from the volcano, before disappearing into the night - and the volcano still hasn’t come to rest...

3 In the areas where the ashes sink down, certain people – artists, poets and other daydreamers – start having nightmares in which they claim to have seen an ancient city of strange and twisted proportions, as if not made for humans. As the nightmares continue, more and more of these people are driven by an overwhelming desire to go to the volcano and look for the city there, finally even climbing down to its centre, never to be seen again...

© Philipp Mählmann

A Matter of Taste

Mrs Jane Crispin lives in a little detached house on the edge of town. Although in her 60s, she is still hale and hearty despite the handicap of her blindness (exceptionally near sighted, she only sees blurred colours through her milk-bottle lensed glasses). She makes a modest living selling the product of her labours in her well-equipped kitchen. Across town her pies are famous for their wonderful pastry and delicately herb-flavoured meats.

However, horror stalks the town at night. Senior citizens are slain in their beds or disappear in the night, never to be seen again. The bodies left at the crime scene are mutilated horribly, missing limbs and organs. The authorities have been unable to keep the murders from public knowledge, but they have been able to conceal the fact that they have been occurring sporadically for over a year.

The glare of the media spotlight has forced the police to institute a manhunt, and they have no manpower to spare to chase a new (although very slim) lead. Their lead comes from Mrs Crispin, who has reported a strange man hanging around her herb garden. Under normal circumstances such a report from a blind old lady would receive little attention, but with a maniac on the loose, things are different. Independent, discrete and trusted persons may be able to assist the police by looking into the matter.

Talking to Mrs Crispin brings unexpected results. She is very sorry to have disturbed the police, but she is fine really. The stranger is no longer a stranger, but a new friend whom, at first, she mistook for a potential thief. Her friend George is a shy type not easily traced. She doesn’t know where he lives, but he helps her around the house and garden, and does errands for her.

Possibilities

1 Mrs Crispin is being stalked by George the homicidal odd-job man. His modus operandi involves befriending his victims to lull them into a false sense of security. He also gets a thrill from the stalking. George is a genuine gardener (or social worker), real name Henry George Baird. He lives out his twisted dark fantasies by killing the pathetic senior citizens upon whom he depends for his living.

George lives with his innocent Christian wife Mary, an organiser of church fetes and charities. Mary provides many of his initial contacts. George and Mary are childless due to George’s impotence, one of the factors which has sent him over the edge. George has an extensive collection of tools such as scythes, hammers, axes, saws, a furnace, a nondescript van, and a good-sized garage next to his rose garden.

2 Mrs Crispin’s new friend George is a ghoul who moved to town in the last year or so. He has been unable to let go of the world of man and can often be seen raking through garbage bins and scrounging. Unless scrutinised carefully he appears to be just another homeless person. Naturally he is quite sneaky and very good at moving around unobserved. George and Mrs Crispin met by accident when George was attracted to the smell of her cooking. As Mrs Crispin couldn’t see him, George found it easy to make friends with her. George has started running small errands, but he keeps the money that he should spend on butcher meat and substitutes the best cuts from his victims. Forensic examination of remains has identified odd partly-human bite wounds on the victims, but this has not been made public and will only be divulged after much bureaucratic manoeuvring.

Mrs Crispin’s usual butcher Andrew Cross drops the clue that the amount of meat he supplies her has decreased in recent weeks (as the rate of murders has increased). The distributor of her pies, Norman Kent, is most pleased at how well Mrs Crispins’ pies are selling and is due to call on her to ask if she can increase her output.

Norman may unwittingly become the ingredient for her next batch!

3 Mrs Crispin is a homicidal cannibal who has been doing a nice line in long pig pies for over a year. She is inhumanly strong due to her unnatural diet and, although blind, has the senses of a bat. She is very adept with her old-fashioned razor-sharp butchers knives. The offal from her victims helps her herbs and vegetables to grow rapidly. Mrs Crispin selects her victims during her bi-weekly visits to the Women’s Guild and senior citizens outings. George is a relative of one of her victims who met her just before his own mother Eleanor Trent was killed. He feels sorry for the blind old lady and is working out his grief (and suppressed guilt at having left his mother alone to be killed) by looking after Mrs Crispin.

He should be looking after himself.

© Peter Devlin

A Grave Situation

After going to bed one night in the hotel of a sleepy rural town, one of the investigators wakes up to find himself lying inside a padded coffin with air running out!

Possibilities

1 The investigator has been contacted by a Great Old One or Outer God (Nyarlathotep would work well), who has constructed a dream-trap for him in order to extract a service. As the investigator’s last gasps shudder through his body, he hears a whispering in his mind: ‘Serve me or die.’ If the investigator agrees, he awakens in his bed, covered in sweat, with a mind-numbing certainty that he will be contacted soon, and he won’t be able to refuse. If the investigator declines, he awakens in a similar manner, but certain that he has been marked for death by the god’s cult.

Either way, it is time to prepare for a brush with a god.

2 The investigator was drugged and kidnapped by a degenerate cult that worships ghouls. As an offering to the flesh-eaters, they have buried the investigator as a meal for their ‘underground gods.’ As the investigator begins to suffocate, a scratching noise occurs and great claws rend through the wood of the coffin and drag him down into a faintly lit cavern where he is surrounded by six hungry ghouls. Hopefully, his fellow investigators have figured out what is going on and are on their way.

3 The investigator died during the night from natural (or were they?) causes and has been resurrected by a local sorcerer to serve as his undead servant. Within moments after awakening, the coffin lid is pried open by the sorcerer. At first, the investigator is unable to do much except obey the sorcerer’s commands, but over time, when the sorcerer’s mind is on other things, the investigator can act on his own. He needs to break free soon, because the sorcerer is laying a deadly trap for the rest of the investigators, and his new servant is the bait.

© C C Chamberlin

Artsy Fartsy

The sun slowly sets over the metropolis of Paris as you arrive at the home of your friend, a wealthy art-collector, who has invited you to a dinner and the unveiling of a new piece of art that he’s just purchased.

But when you enter the house, the sight of a bloody massacre knocks the wind out of you. It seems that the art-collector, your friend, and his household-staff have mercilessly butchered each other. Soon after, the citizens of Paris are abuzz with fearful gossip and shocking speculations as to what happened.

And when another massacre occurs, one very similar to the first, panic is ripe in Paris.

Possibilities

1 The reason behind the bloody massacres is the artwork that the victims recently acquired. They’re created using a strange material that has a dreadful influence on any sentient being that stays too long a time within its vicinity.

The material is many millennia old and, most strangely, quite alive. Its lifeforce affects sentient beings and makes them feel extremely paranoid and thus quite murderous.

The artist who made the pieces has already fallen to its influence, but many items have already been sold...

2 The reason for the bloody massacres is the artwork that the victims recently acquired. They are a portal to a strange world inhabited by incorporeal and sinister creatures. The artist behind the dastardly creations is quite mad and dabbles in the occult. The artist bound a gateway in some of his art that triggers when the new owner looks too long a time at it. When the gate opened, the incorporeal creatures passed through and possessed the owner and some of his household-staff, making them turn on each other.

The same happened to the victims at the second massacre, who had also bought one of the artist’s chaotic creations.

3 The reason behind the bloody massacres is not the piece of art – It’s the artist.

Paint fumes combined with his rather fragile mind and destroyed his sanity. He began to believe that the buyers of his creations planned to kill him.

So he hunted down and massacred two of the buyers, their family and their household-staff. Then the artist arranged the victims so it appeared that they’ve killed each other. He is now after the others.

© Tim Deer

The Stars Are Right

Chad Sylvester has been a patient at a mental institution in Arkham for nearly 80 years. In a catatonic state, Sylvester only awakens from this state for one night every thirty years. On each of these nights he acts in a very bizarre manner and bizarre things happen in the surrounding countryside. Sylvester’s condition developed after he got lost in the woods on a hunting trip and was stricken with fear and hysteria over something that he had witnessed in the woods but did not dare speak of.

Possibilities

1 Chad Sylvester was the first and only human being to ever see the great Hastur the unspeakable in his true form. Permanently stricken with catatonia, Sylvester only returns to his senses every thirty years when the great Hastur visits earth in his true form.

2 For unspeakable reasons of their own, the mi-go took Sylvester’s brain to Yuggoth. They replaced it with an artificial brain and the body was placed in an institution staffed by allies of the mi-go. Every thirty years the mi-go return his brain to his true body for a short period of time.

3 Sylvester accidently breached the barriers between the dream world and the waking world. This gateway is only open every thirty years and he is forced to return to his body for one night every thirty years or he risks becoming ungrounded from the laws of reality and drifting forever in limbo between our world and the dream world.

© Paul Comeau

The Second Wave

“Would you care to make a donation? All are welcome at our Temple.”

A group of Oriental monks is chanting, singing, and politely accosting passers-by. They have shaven heads and wear brightly coloured loose robes and yellow headbands. The monks are collecting donations for their “church”, The Second Wave of Serenity. The only English-speaking monk explains that they are Buddhists who seek the ultimate serenity of Nirvana.

Anyone who places money in the bronze collection plate receives a blessing. They will also notice that the monk holding the collection plate has a deformity. He has web-like ridges of skin growing between his fingers!

Possibilities

1 The brass necklace worn by each monk is a circle containing the Chinese ideogram for “bloated woman”. The monks are seducing occult-minded Westerners to the worship of the Bloated Woman (Chinese Nyarlathotep) and hence Cthulhu. The blessing psychically “marks” the recipient, allowing the cultists to recognise a potential recruit.

“The Second Wave” refers to the second coming of the goddess and her peers. According to the monks and their prophecies the second coming is imminent, and believers will see her in visions or dreams. The marked unfortunate will be the subject of both dream sendings and terrestrial recruitment visits from the monks.

The monks collect in their current location as it is close to the offices of Aryan Chemicals. This is a petrochemical conglomerate that is researching the potential of pitchblende derivatives as a fuel source. The value of their stock is rising, fuelled by speculation that they are close to a major breakthrough. The high priest of the Order of The Bloated Woman plans to ensnare a few susceptible employees to assist with the second coming.

2  The Second Wave of Serenity is an innocent Buddhist sect. It is in the process of being infiltrated by Bloated Woman cultists who hope to use the sect as a cover for their own plans. The Buddhists have fled war-torn China to set up temples in a few Western cities. The Order of The Bloated Woman is making good use of this unfortunate circumstance to spread its tentacles.

The Mythos cultists initially play dumb in response to probing questions. Anyone who appears liable to expose them receives a visit at home from a group of staring-eyed hairless monks. They collect arms not alms!

3 The Second Wave of Serenity is a Tibetan cult dedicated to eradication of Mythos influence so that Man may achieve his rightful place on the sacred wheel. The collector is a Chinese male who has (so far) successfully resisted his transformation with the help of the Llama who leads the Second Wave.

The “blessing” detects and marks those tainted by the Mythos (spell users, those who have delved deeply, i.e. player characters). Anyone who fits that category will occasionally notice Oriental monks collecting on a nearby street corner. The monks will choose an appropriate time and location to capture, interrogate, and possibly kill these Mythos worshipping degenerates.

© Peter Devlin

The Whitaker House

The Bradley Whitaker House has earned a reputation for being haunted. The last owner, Harvey Osbourne, purchased the house from the Whitaker family. Osbourne was killed by Frank Whitaker, who escaped from a mental institution to return to his ancestral home. Police never apprehended Whitaker who, according to rumor, still lurks in the general area.

The last person to enter the house was a college student named Jack Wadson who was preparing a Halloween feature story for a local newspaper. He entered the house during an October evening and was found the next morning at the bottom of a nearby cliff after fleeing.

Any investigation into Wadson’s past reveals he was investigating the deaths of fellow college students Claudia Jenning and Russ Mayer, who were both found dead in a forest near the house. Jenning died from heart failure and Mayer from a blunt trauma to the head. The students, who were dating, had planned on an illicit party in the abandoned house.

Anyone searching the house will find white sheets suspended from wires, hidden projectors that create “apparitions” on the wall and hidden speakers. Once these discoveries are made, investigators will find themselves locked in the house, away from each other if they are in separate rooms. They will also discover hidden passages throughout the house.

Possibilities

1 During any investigation, a fellow college student named Artemus Dane reluctantly provides some of the information on Wadson’s activities. Dane, who is a theater major, was smitten by Jenning and decided to punish her for spurning him. He used his knowledge of theatrical props to create a “haunted house,” not realizing that Jenning had a heart condition. Mayer attacked Artemus and was struck by a blunt instrument. Artemus hid the bodies in the woods, and later went after Wadson to discourage his investigation.

2 Frank Whitaker never left. He has secretly made a home in the house, which is riddled with secret passages. He will not let the investigators leave alive. A secret chamber in the home contains the bodies of a few wanderers that made the mistake of staying in the house for too long.

3 A gang of local criminals have established a hideout in the house. They use the “haunting” as a cover for their activities.

© Brian Woodman

Word from On High

The 21st Day Redemptionist Church is a large and popular religious organization. Led by the charismatic “Dr. James”, the Church’s radio ministry and large tent revivals have attracted national media attention. The revivals are especially popular, featuring the usual speaking in tongues, faith healing, and testimonials, as well as singing and prayer. Dr. James (who claims to have a doctorate in divinity) then concludes his tent revivals with what he calls his “Two Minutes of Meditation on the Word” where he and the flock share two minutes of silence to, ostensibly, meditate on the word of God.

Dr. James’ sermons have taken a different tone of late and his followers have been becoming more insular. The Doctor’s sermons have become more apocalyptic and full of fire and brimstone then they used to be and his revivals have become angry affairs, full of shouting about doomsday and disparaging of those who have not accepted The Word. Popular opinion has turned against the 21st Day’ers because of this, which has only added fuel to the already smoldering Redemptionist pyre.

Possibilities

1 Dr. James is a two-bit hustler with a criminal record. He is dodging the law and ripping off his followers. The doomsday bit is an attempt on his part to bolster flagging attendance and bring in some additional revenue. His whole goal is to accumulate enough money to leave the country for South America, a goal he is close to realizing. He has one small problem: his Armageddon sermons have particularly inflamed Walter Simms, one of the good doctor’s long-time followers. Simms suffers from occasional psychotic breaks and during his next episode he will decide to leave for heaven a little early, taking his beloved spiritual adviser with him.

2 Dr. James has slipped off of the edge of sanity. He believes that the last days are coming and that he and his followers need to make a bold move to proclaim their devotion to God. During his next sermon at the 21st, the parishioners may notice some odd odors inside the tent.

The whole structure will have a strong chemical smell. This is because the good doctor and his right-hand man, Walter Simms, have doused the entire structure, as well as the ground underneath the plastic tarps on the floor, with a powerful chemical accelerant. People entering the tent may notice the ground feels a bit muddy, though it didn’t rain the night before. Walter will stand at the back of the tent, closing and tying the flaps after the last attendee enters.

The sermon will be particularly inspired, espousing the congregation to exultations of love and devotion to God. Then, during the final two-minute meditation, Dr. James will signal Simms. They will then push the candleholders near them into the highly flammable tent walls. the interior of the tent will become a riot of flames and flailing, panicked bodies. People caught inside will only have seconds to get out before being crushed in the press of bodies, overcome by fumes, or burned alive.

3 Dr. James has fallen under the influence of a diabolic avatar of Nyarlathotep masquerading as Walter Simms, an unemployed auto worker. The Outer God has been slowly turning the 21st Day Redemptionists to the worship of the Old Ones. Simms’ sway over Dr. James isn’t complete and if he can be removed from his position of influence for at least two weeks the doctor will regain his senses. Simms is pushing the Doctor toward more and more violent and angry sermons. His end goal is known only to him. Perhaps he wishes to start another cult, to push this church to a violent Waco-style end, or to lead the Doctor into performing abhorrent ceremonies that will summon an elder power?

© Matt Cowger

The Winged Cat

Peter McIntyre, a young academic studying the history of witchcraft, visits his fiancée one night and never returns. Until this point, it seemed that everything was going his way – his recently established contracting business was a success and his fiancée, Amanda, is beautiful and adoring. He had made no preparations for departure and had mentioned nothing amiss to his friends. A winged black cat appears at his house and mews to be let in.

Possibilities

1 McIntyre has become involved in a cult of Tsathoggua. His business is really a cover to launder ill-gotten wealth from his occult dabbling, and his fiancé is the victim of a love spell. His recent activities, however, brought him to the attention of the Hounds of Tindalos. They tracked him through time and space and found him just as he arrived home after visiting Amanda but, through a quick deal with Tsathoggua, he escaped to a parallel dimension. His familiar, a black cat, went with him, but was replaced with its counterpart from the dimension to which he escaped.

2 Amanda is not as young as young as she appears, or as innocent. She is in fact a witch over ninety years old, maintaining her youthful appearance by sacrificing virgin youths (such as Peter) to the Old Ones. The sacrificial spell involves considerable preparation of the victim, which explains why she has become so closely associated with him. The cat is a fey creature, attracted by the stench of magic in the wake of the spell.

3 Amanda has recently returned from a holiday in the Middle East and brought back a souvenir as a token of her love. Knowing Peter’s fascination with things ancient and occult, Amanda chose a small stone statuette said to have been taken from an ancient tomb. The statuette is a figure of the cat goddess, Bast.  Amanda cannot read Arabic, but Peter can, and on his way home, read aloud the inscription in the base of the carving. This activated an ancient curse, which transformed him into a winged cat.

© Barbara Robson

Written in Stone

Bill Gunther didn’t know much about how to track Bigfoot, but he knew enough to tell people that his hobby was called “cryptozoology.” As a full-time landscaper, Bill knew rocks. He knew that the big boulders you see pushed to the sides of yards and farm fields in Michigan and other Northern states had been pushed down by Canadian glaciers and deposited at the end of the last ice age. So when he studied the residential areas where dark, leathery-winged beings had been seen, Bill quickly noticed what all the sites had in common: 4 ft boulders in the flower beds, 3 ft boulders propping up bird-baths, 5 ft boulders at the edge of a property line.

What are these winged figures? What message is hidden in the stones? And what happened to Bill Gunther?

Possibilities

1 Using stones of a certain size and type, cultists marked the routes where some nightgaunts are known to travel, in hopes of finding and trapping the creatures more easily. These nightgaunts are rather harmless and neutral if left alone. The cultists killed Gunther to stop his meddling.

2 Plant-based creatures similar to nightgaunts hatch from these boulders. It may be difficult to find any of the creatures after they hatch, since they have no reason to return to their eggs. Fortunately Gunther left notes detailing what the egg-boulders look like.

3 The winged figures were erroneous reports, but what other blasphemies did the glaciers deposit? By bringing together enough of these empowered stones, cultists plan to raise the young god hiding beneath Kettle Lake (which was formed by a melting glacier).

© Rob Northrup

Wrong Side of the Tracks

In the northwestern part of the city lies the old freight yard. Box wagons, wrecked buildings and huge amounts of rubble create an image of total abandonment. And then there are stories of strange noises, creepy shadows and disappearing citizens related to the site... People are advised not to trespass.

Possibilities

1 It is just a ‘normal’ abandoned freight yard – but it attracts all kind of strangers: vagabonds and wild animals, criminals and youth gangs. Plus, plus the site isn’t really the safest place with all the rust, debris and what’s left of cargo in the wagons – It is believed that some still contain coal and/or gunpowder.

2 At least three ghostly beings are associated with haunting the freight yard: Daniel o’Toole, train robber and three times murder, who unfortunately hid and finally died in a cargo train, that was sealed and placed to rest on the freight yard, Manni Olsen, a track worker, who went crazy when ‘his’ freight yard was closed down and repeatedly returned, killing two wardens before being shot by the police, and Rachel Hunnigan, ‘the Hungarian witch’, whose cottage was levelled for the freight yard and died shortly afterwards in an asylum.

The three ghosts are fighting over control of the site – for whatever purpose.

3 The freight yard is still used – as a gateway to other planets. During certain nights people might see ghostly wagons arriving and unspeakable phantoms carrying undefinable goods to the wagons – and sometimes human bodies as well...

© Philipp Mählmann

Bubbles

In the back of a local exotic pet store there is a small, dusty, forgotten fishbowl. The water is perpetually murky but something definitely bobs and undulates within the fetid water.

Closer inspection of the water reveals that there is an odd, vaguely fish-like creature in the bowl. It has bulbous eyes that seem to orbit independently. A toothless sucker mouth is the only other feature on its “face”. It possesses fins sprouting in all angles as well as a cluster of tendrils and two small, almost lame-looking forelimbs ending and fragile digits.

The thing in the bowl seems quite aware of those looking in on it though it does little to interact with them. It will simply watch them, follow them, sometimes with an eerie intensity.

Asking the aged shopkeeper anything about will bring only the vaguest of answers. The thing was brought into the shop by his grandfather and has been there through three generations of his family. It rarely leaves the shop and always seems to be returned – usually in a hurry and often left on the doorstep.

The old man will also caution against feeding it. Though it seems to sustain itself well enough through consuming the filth in its bowl, the thing grows rapidly if it eats anything else. It was the size of a pea when his grandfather brought it to the shop and has grown, through various happenstance, to the size of a grapefruit over the years.

The creature has a name too. It is named “Bubbles”.

Possibilities

1 Bubbles is little more than a deformity. Possibly a fish or amphibian that has managed to survive. Any suggestion of it having something more than dull awareness of its surroundings is merely the projection of struck onlookers.

2 Bubbles is the embryonic phase of some greater creature. The shopkeepers grandfather found it while seeking exotic creatures bringing it home as a mere curiosity.

The creature has been sustaining itself through some unknown means, its growth kept in check by the lack of flesh in its diet.

3 The creature is a prisoner. The shopkeeper’s grandfather had found it and subdued it, weakening it from some greater beast and withering it in the process. Placing it in the bowl in his own shop and entrusting it to his family, he had hoped to keep it imprisoned.

Fate and time have blurred the origins of the creature and the reasons for its addition to the shop and it has slowly gained in power as it has been sold and let out into the world. Fortune and its buyers’ low tolerance for its oddity have been the only things to have kept it in check for all these years.

© Eli Arndt

Casual Meeting

It’s a mild, quiet evening - a perfect time for a little walk...

While walking and chatting, suddenly a man crosses the character’s way: he’s clothed in a dark robe, ornamented with strange symbols and soiled with blood. In one hand he holds a long bloody knife, in the other a long stick with a goat head on top. His voice constantly changes between insane laughing and loud cries, while constantly shouting: “Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!”

Possibilities

1 The man is just a ‘normal’ guy who has just come from a Cthulhu-Con, where he won the first price for his costume. He’s so happy, drunk and probably on drugs, that he’s totally into his role now.

2 The man is a worshiper of Shub-Niggurath. During the cult’s current ritual something went wrong and a portal opened, transporting the worshipper from to this place. He’s still a bit disoriented, and it takes a few more minutes, before he clearly acknowledges, where he is. The portal is probably still open…

3 The man is not a cultist – but nearby is a sorcerer’s apprentice who is trying out hallucination and fear spells. The apprentice still has a lot of ideas of other hallucinations he can create...

© 2008 Philipp Mählmann

Headcutter Jack

In the bayou country there is a tale about a spirit of vengeance known as Headcutter Jack. They say that if you really want it bad enough and you are willing to let yourself be ridden, that Jack will come calling and grant you the vengeance you desire. However, those who take on Jack can never hope to return to their lives unchanged. Most go mad and still others find themselves drawn to the twisted deeds they carried out under Jack’s influence only to become the very thing they sought vengeance against.

But that’s if you believe in Headcutter Jack.

Most folks these days dismiss him like they do the Voodoo ways or the Old Religions – wives’ tales and hoodoo stories to keep little kids in line. That was until recently. That was until Sally Mercury...

Sally Mercury was found in her home in a near-catatonic state, her hands rubbed raw, supposedly trying to remove the blood that covered her otherwise. The home, a modest Victorian-style affair was a veritable charnel house strewn with the parts of what most figure were her family who had been reported missing for several days now - mother, father, two sisters, all gone with only bloody gobbets and unidentifiable tissues to mark their passing.

Possibilities

1 Sally has always been a bit of a troubled child. Discussions with her school councillors and a delving into the local juvenile police records will show a long history of petty crime and acting out. Several calls to Child Protective Services have all been found to be the machinations of a vindictive pre-teen who cares little for her family. However, nobody predicted that Sally would be pushed over the edge and murder her family, all in the name of Headcutter Jack.

2 Sally claims that her house was attacked by a strange woman in a patchwork outfit. The woman was hooded and cackled the whole time she mutilated Sally’s family, but Sally never saw her face. When the woman came after Sally, she hid in an old coal shoot until she was gone. The woman, Sally claims, called herself “Jack”.

3 The remains are not those of Sally’s family. Forensics will show that most of the tissue is not human though it defies classification as anything else in particular. Sally claims that she “they” took her parents and that Jack saved her from “them”. The girl insists that her family is still at her home if not in it. She claims that they, whoever, they are, took her family to where they live. Sally cannot say much more, not knowing who they are or exactly where they took her family.

© Eli Arndt

Ailurophobia

For the past week, cats have been showing up outside the investigator’s house. At first it was only one or two cats, but as time went on more and more began to arrive until they presented a bizarre and almost alarming spectacle which has caused much comment among the neighbours. Dozens of cats of all colours and sizes sit outside the house waiting… for something.

Possibilities

1 Many thousands of years ago in a previous incarnation, the investigator was a favoured priest of the cat goddess Bast. Now some new threat has arisen against all of cat-kind, and she needs his aid once again. The cats are her way of getting the investigator’s attention; she will also send dreams that gradually reveal details of his past life.

2 Shortly before the cats began to arrive, the investigator accidentally killed a small, black kitten by running it over with his car. Ordinarily this would be nothing to worry about, but due to an unusual collection of occult circumstances, the area where the investigator lives has begun to intersect with certain regions of the Dreamlands. Some of the Cats of Ulthar have crossed the divide and are preparing to enact the terrible vengeance which is the just due of any human who dares to kill a cat. The investigator may get a hint of his coming fate when he reads a newspaper article about some other cat-killers, whose skeletons had been found curiously gnawed and licked free of any trace of flesh.

3 The cats are not supernatural, just hungry. For some time now, the reclusive old lady across the street has been feeding dozens of stray cats in her back yard. A few days ago she fell and broke her hip, and in the absence of her handouts the cats have been searching for sustenance in the rest of the neighbourhood. The injured woman remains trapped on her floor, helpless and dehydrated but still alive (at least for the time being).

© Emily Johnsen

Tales of Terror 1996 - contents

An Apology

Blown Glass G W Thomas
The Wall of Bones Helen Rich
Images of Doom Simon Taylor
A Discarded Parcel Hadley Connor
Grave Tidings Shannon Appel
The Book of Sand Charles Ross
The Tattoo Steve Hatherley
Dirty Curtain Ric Norton
High Fashion Eamon Honan
Suitable For Framing Bill Dietze
The Grainger Street Plates Lynne Wilson
Pest Trouble Allen Varney
The Scarecrow Hadley Connor
A Turn of Fate Joe Louderback
Buzzing Simon Taylor
The Hungry Woods Robin Low
The Mirror of Blood Charles Ross
Empty Streets Markus Huenemoerder
Birthday Presence Pete Wright
Cats Lynne Wilson
Pussy's in the Well Jon Freeman
The Desecration Hadley Connor
Unnatural Behaviour Steve Hatherley
Cop Killers Vince Vatter
City Fear Simon Taylor
Spaceman Eamon Honan
Mr Feste's Old Curiosity Shop Garrie Hall
The Last Carriage Robin Low
Strategic Industries M J Aylor
Virus Steve Hatherley
The City in the Skull Matthew Grossman
Safely Behind Bars Hadley Connor
The Odin Disc Charles Ross
Little Death Steve Hatherley
End of the World M J Aylor
The Fatted Calf Simon Taylor
Small Things Forgotten Bill Dietze
Man's Best Friend Pete Wright
The Weeping Madonna Ric Norton
Fear and Amnesia Matthew Grossman
Peverill Manor Steve Hatherley
Sylvia Charles Ross
Pharos Hadley Connor
Ghost Train G W Thomas
The Phennor Fragments Robin Low
Spare Some Change? Jon Freeman
Loving Spoonful Ric Norton
Fluke Charles Ross
Jenny Beckett's Ghost Lynne Wilson
From the (Spaces Between) Stars Hadley Connor
The Carpet Steve Hatherley
Ghost in the Machine Markus Huenemoerder
Period Pains Simon Taylor
Stray Cat Strut Garrie Hall
Drinking in the Blues Eamon Honan
Book of Bones Allen Varney