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