Who do voodoo?

A string of ritual murders is rocking a small town, and the people are starting to panic. The victims have no obvious connection. The police have enlisted the investigators for help in identifying some strange items found at the scene, and research reveals that they are items related to voodoo magic. This leads the investigators to believe that someone is practising voodoo rites somewhere in town. But what is puzzling is that voodoo isn’t a religion that condones multiple bloody murders like these - voodoo may be strange, but it is not murderous. Something is amiss.

Image credit

Possibilities

1 The victims were all attending a small fundraiser at a picnic ground on the same day an important voodoo ritual that was being performed in the nearby woods. The town’s mayor is involved in the voodoo group, and would be thrown out of office if people knew he cut the heads off chickens and drank their blood in strange, secret ceremonies. (Voters can be so picky!) Someone witnessed the ritual and is trying to blackmail the mayor. After obtaining a list of the donors at the fundraiser, he is now systematically killing off people who were at the picnic ground that day in an attempt to silence his would-be blackmailer. If the blackmailer is still alive, he is too afraid to go to the police, and rightly so; the police keep the mayor well informed on the progress of the case.

2 The murders are being performed by an insane preacher whose church’s attendance has waned considerably since his hellfire-and-brimstone sermons have gotten a bit too graphic and vitriolic. In an attempt to rekindle a god-fearing attitude in the town, he is murdering people at random and making it look like ritualistic voodoo murders, thinking it will scare people back into the pews. When it doesn’t work, he gets more frustrated and kills again. Checking up on him will reveal that he has a book on voodoo checked out of the library, which he is using as a reference to decorate the murder scenes. If there is any pattern to the slayings, it is that all the victims are either his rival clergy or his vocal critics.

3 The leader of a group of voodoo practitioners has stumbled upon a dread tome of magic written by a madman from the jungles of Brazil, and doesn’t realize that it describes rites that aren’t a part of voodoo (they’re actually Mythos rites). Since finding it, he has tried to incorporate what he has learned from the book into his teachings, and the result is a cultish cross between voodoo and the worship of a Great Old One. While on the surface, the murders and trappings of the cult are reminiscent of voodoo, a darker secret lies within: the Great Old One is demanding sacrifices, and the leader is providing them. Investigators are likely to be quietly helped by the voodoo practitioners who realize that something is wrong, but cannot show themselves for fear of being implicated in the murders.

© C C Chamberlin

Who you gonna call?

Recently, apparently supernatural entities have been terrorizing the area. Fortunately, almost immediately after that started, a group called The Hadja showed up to deal with said supernatural problems. Their success rate is phenomenal, as are their rates. They like to be flashy when they take out gibbering monstrosities, and everyone knows about them now. They even have TV commercials.

Image credit

There is also the distinct possibility that they aren’t what they say they are; at least three people investigating them have vanished. No one can get close to The Hadja, but then, they seem to be doing a very good job.

Possibilities

1 The Hadja are exactly what they say they are. They’re a group of hunters of the supernatural. They’re very good at what they do. The people who vanished were killed by the monsters they didn’t believe in before The Hadja could prevent it. The group might prove to be great allies of the investigators, if only for their experience in dealing with the supernatural. They have no Mythos experience, though.

2 The Hadja are merely an experienced group of con artists. All of the “supernatural enemies” were just created by sleight-of-hand, smoke and mirrors, and a lot of very expensive equipment. They just make up their own monsters to con the gullible out of their money. The people who vanished were either bribed or threatened into leaving The Hadja alone. If left alone, The Hadja will eventually bleed all they can out of the area and move on, taking their “monsters” with them.

3 Con men The Hadja may be, but they’re also a cult devoted to Nyarlothotep. They summon mythos entities as part of their ceremonies, then let them run amok and “destroy” them. The activities of The Hadja are two-fold: hide their own occult activities and make an ungodly amount of money. The people who vanished were caught snooping around their headquarters and were promptly sacrificed to Nyarlothotep.

(Inspired by Phantom Quest Corp.: Lover Come Back to Me)

© Megan McKnight

I am not dead yet!

The investigators are approached by the police to identify a body. The officers are strangely reticent about who it is they are about to show in the morgue, and why the investigators specifically have been approached.

Image credit

This small mystery is quickly resolved as the coroner throws back the white linen sheet from the body - it is one of the investigators. Fingerprints are near identical, as would be DNA if technology allows. The character knows nothing about having a twin.

Possibilities

1 The person is the character’s identical twin, separated at birth, who recently found out about his sibling. He (or she) was on his way to visit when he met his murderers - cultists, who thought they had caught one of their old enemies. They killed him (or her) in their traditional and easily recognizable way, and will be more than a little surprised to find that the person they thought dead is still walking.

2 Strange markings on the body, that are only be identified by consulting obscure books, reveal that the dead person was attempting a shape-changing spell. Presumably they intended to impersonate the investigator, when something went wrong. But why?

3 Upon closer inspection it becomes obvious that the dead person has marks and scars only recently acquired by the character. Upon even closer inspection, the characters realize that the still-living version, their friend and fellow investigator, does not have them. Obviously, the original investigator really is dead and lying in front of them - and whatever is standing with them is some kind of impersonation!

© Felix Girke