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