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