The Face of God

A religious revival has struck a small town that lies far away from the rest of human civilization. Many people there claim to have seen the true face of God. Unfortunately, seeing the true face of God seems to be a traumatic experience; everyone who has undergone this ecstatic experience has emerged blind, some with their faces terribly scarred.

The investigators may be led to the town by any of a number of forces. Perhaps strange omens point them in that direction. Townspeople may beg for their assistance, or an investigator’s relative may be one of the blinded victims of this harsh god. For proactive investigators, a simple newspaper clipping may be sufficient. By whatever means, the investigators will arrive, and soon see that something is distinctively wrong.

That old time religion has caught on in a big way in the town, but some of the rites that the people practice seem distinctly odd. After they have been in the town for a night, investigators will very quickly realize that this revival is supernatural in nature. They begin to have strange dreams of the past, imparting ancient knowledge upon them that Man should not know.

Unless they are very careful, investigators will find themselves mindless minions of the town’s new god, themselves seeking new followers to bring into the fold.

Possibilities

1 The Great Old One, Nyogtha, has come to be trapped beneath this town. It was accidently contacted by innocent townsfolk, who soon found themselves practicing its dark rituals in order to preserve their lives. The reluctant cultists are blinded by Nyogtha so that they may better understand The Thing That Should Not Be. At least once a month, they also bring Nyogtha a sacrifice, to sate its dark hunger.

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Although most of Nyogtha’s worshipers are reluctant, they are too fearful to make any move against the Great Old One. Some townsfolk, however, have grown to love the power that Nyogtha offers, and have thus joined into the Cult whole-heartedly. They know secret spells to control the living darkness, and will gleefully use them.

Investigators who enter Nyogtha’s town are likely to be inducted into the Cult by force, or offered up as a sacrifice.

2 A small band of cultists reside in the small town. They practice secret rites that allow them to look deep into the past, and have been using them for months to rediscover ancient sorcerous powers.

Sometimes, their dreams of the past cross into the consciousness of others. The cultists know when this happens, and they kidnap the unfortunate innocent, and force them to participate in a magical ritual. This ritual causes the victim to forget what they saw, leaving only vague impressions of a brush with divinity. The eyes of the victim must be put out during this ritual. When the investigators arrive in town, and begin dreaming of the past, they have accidently crossed paths with the cultist’s rituals, and are thus marked as the next victims.

These cultists have learned many spells from the past, and should be fearsome adverseries. They can manipulate time and space in many exotic fashions.

3 The people of the town have indeed seen the True Face of a God. It is Hypnos, an Elder God. Although certain legends say that the Elder Gods are benevolent, in truth, they do not care; men are less than fleas to them. Through cosmic accident, Hypnos’ true presence lies across this place on the earth. Those who see it have their eyes seared out, and are sometimes reduced to madness.

Still, due to the basic perversity of the human race, a great cult has sprung up around this god. If an investigator shows the least vestige of interest in the face of god, he will be preached to extensively. Many of Hypnos’ followers are great orators. Some have been changed by their nearness to their god, and have gained supernatural means to convince people of their rightness.

If the investigators do not fall prey to the beckoning of Hypnos, they must decide what to do with this situation. If they do not evacuate the town, and mark it forever uninhabitable, it is likely that a trip to the Dreamlands will be required, to somehow cause Hypnos to be moved from his current resting place.

© Shannon Appel

The Eve of Oov

The mentally unstable in town are claiming that a great disaster is forthcoming. Some of these reports involve references to “darkness” or “day becoming night” or “night everlasting”.

Then, one day the sunrise simply doesn’t come. No one can provide an explanation. The common threads amidst the inevitable chaos are the sightings of a menacing figure in black tattered robes, the presence of a variety of strange creatures attacking people in most despicable ways, and their general avoidance of children.

The figure in black robes calls himself Oov.

Possibilities

1 The “strange creatures” attacking people are in fact, the Dark Fae (evil faeries). Oov is their leader, a particularly powerful and wicked Dark Faerie who brought them here to change the local balance between good and evil. They avoid children because of their “innocence”, which causes them excruciating pain. Night goes on until they are stopped and they can only be stopped by a certain spell that exists in the recent dreams of the local children.

2 Oov and the strange creatures are fugitives from the Dreamlands who are trying to break into the waking world. Victims in the dream don’t wake up in the waking world and so become hosts for the fugitives to “wake up in”. They can only be stopped by realizing the dream state and waking up the entire town.

3 There was an eclipse and much like full moon “lunatics” Oov and these monsters are nothing more than crazy people gone wild.

© Jim Sliney Jr

The Elderly Man

Outraged and astounded witnesses have no idea why he didn’t report it to the local police, when an elderly man gets verbally humiliated by a band of local teenage punks.

But when some of the offending punks are found brutally murdered, the suspicion quickly falls upon the elderly man. That is, until it is verified, that the elderly man has watertight alibi.

Besides, how could a man of his age ever manage to assault and murder several young and strong teenage boys?

Possibilities

1 The elderly man dabbles in the occultic powers of the Mythos. After the humiliating incident, the elderly man swore a gruesome vengeance. He summoned a Byakhee and ordered it to track down and kill the offending punks. When the Byakhee takes off, hunting for the punks, the elderly man went to eat his supper at a restaurant nearby, comforted by the fact that the humiliation will be avenged.

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2 The elderly man is the head of a criminal syndicate. But he is hiding from the authorities, which have forced him to resume a fake identity. After the humiliation, the elderly man contacted some of his goons and ordered them to track down and teach the offending punks not to be so disrespectful. Knowing all too well about the power of a strong alibi, the elderly man chose to eat his supper at a local restaurant, comforted by the fact that the humiliation will be avenged.

3 The elderly man is just a normal elderly man, that dare not face the offending punks, knowing that he can’t stand up against them. The real killer is a local vigilante-wannabe, who witnessed the humiliating incident. Deciding that enough is enough, the vigilante armed himself, tracked down, fought and murdered the punks. All that happened while the elderly man ate his supper at a local restaurant.

© Tim Deer

Odontalgia

Searing pain aches through your body, you want to scream . . . but you manage to contain yourself, there are still other patients in the dentist’s waiting room. Finally, it’s your turn. The dentist examines your aching tooth, then comes to the result, that he must remove it with the root. His assistant prepares the anaesthesia, and soon you fall asleep. Just before you completely slip away, you have a really weird vision: the dentist’s head is replaced by a monstrous visage, with wrinkled skin, a bundle of tentacles instead of a mouth and a dozen eyes with pitch-black irises...

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Possibilities

1 You wake up and everything went well. The assistant gives you an appointment for the new implant. This dentist is really okay! Still, there are rumours of some deaths in his practice: one man reportedly died because his fear of the dentist gave him a cardiac infarction, and another one died of an unrecognized allergy to his new fillings. And then the assistant also vanishes without a trace. Strange...

2 You wake up and everything went well, it was just a dream. However, the dentist has one more surprise for you: the pulled tooth was hollow, and inside it contained a small electronic device. It’s a small transmitter with which somebody can determine the carrier’s location...

3 You don’t wake up. Instead, you’re trapped in a dreamworld – and you’ve already met the owner of this place...

© Philipp Mählmann

Pathogen

A microbiologist, a friend of the investigators, is found dead. Officials rule the death a suicide, but those who knew the scientist are baffled. He was respected in his field and had no family or financial troubles. Adding to the mystery and his loved ones’ grief, federal authorities are subjecting the scientist’s friends and family to intense interrogations, giving them stern warnings to keep their suspicions to themselves. Investigators find that at least a dozen other microbiologists across the globe have died, committed suicide, or disappeared under suspicious circumstances in the past month.

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Possibilities

1 The microbiologists were part of a project focused on finding a vaccine for black pox, a form of hemorrhagic smallpox, 100% fatal if contracted. An ecological-based cult stole a weaponized-strain developed by the Soviets during the Cold War. Believing the human population needs to be reduced from billions to just a few thousand to save the planet, the cult plans on releasing the virus. Anyone who may prove a threat to this plan, such as the microbiologists, is targeted for assassination. The federal authorities are trying to track down the cult before the virus is released, and covering-up the plot to stave off a panic.

2 An alien race known as the Colony, an intelligent virus, is invading the planet. While it can survive outside of a host-body for centuries, the Colony requires warm-blooded animals to reproduce, finding humanity to be an inviting host. While humans are capable of fighting off the disease, children, elderly, and the sick are highly susceptible to infection. Those infected develop flu-like symptoms for a week while their body tries to fight off the disease; those losing the fight are controlled mind, body, and soul by the Colony. Terrified of being discovered and losing its favorite new hosts, the Colony is assassinating microbiologists.

3 A group within the federal government is behind the assassinations. A cult known as the Elite, made up of leaders from the worlds of politics, business, religion, and the military, hired the microbiologists to develop a doomsday virus as well as the cure. The Elite plan on releasing the virus, reducing the human population to a controllable level, while they themselves are immune from infection. Knowing the Elite are above the law due to their positions of influence, the group within the federal government is waging a secret war against the cult in a desperate attempt to foil the plot. The investigators discover their friend planned on introducing them to the Elite and inoculating them against the doomsday virus; now the investigators may be targets of both the cult and the government group.

© Bruce Priddy

On the road to nowhere

You are making an urgent journey across the UK from west to east. It is an overcast autumn afternoon, with a slight drizzle falling from the sky at that annoying rate where windscreen wipers can’t keep the road ahead in sight when set on ‘intermittent’, and squeal against the dry screen when running constantly. The journey is tiring for the driver, and atmospherics are messing up the radio, leaving a single worn audio cassette to entertain you all. There’s a distinct feeling that you should have taken the train, no matter how erratic or costly the journey would have been.

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After dusk, beyond Coventry, the M6 motorway merges with the M1, heavy with London-bound traffic. Here you turn off, moving onto a relatively empty A14. As the gloom becomes night the odometer records the rising mileage as you head into the black, flat emptiness of East Anglia on the rumbling concrete road. After an hour the signs are proclaiming the approach of the dreamy spires of Cambridge as the next city. You sweep around a bend, to see amber lights flashing in a wall of cones. The A14 eastbound carriageway is closed, with Police Warning signs and temporary diversion signs pointing a route towards Bedford in the south. You turn and follow these, which soon lead into narrow country lanes with high hedges winding through the darkness of the damp, overcast night...

Possibilities

1 There has been a fatal accident on A14 and both carriageways have been blocked. This is a diversion thrown together quickly by the Police. After 50 miles of winding, poorly signposted roads ,the investigators will rejoin the A14 at Cambridge.

2 Once the investigators are diverted into the wilds of the Cambridgeshire fens, the diversion signs disappear. The road has been closed as an over-enthusiastic student fresher’s week prank using traffic cones and signs appropriated from the spires. The biggest risk the investigators are threatened with is getting lost.

3 The investigators are diverted off the road and, after a wrong turn or two, find themselves on a country estate on what looks like a minor road. The estate belongs to cultists, who invite the investigators in for a coffee and to show them where they are. If the investigators try to leave, the cultists ram the investigator’s car with a Land Rover. Once they are out of the car the, preparations for a ritual and summoning begin - the cultist making good use of this fine bounty that has fallen unexpectedly into their laps.

© Dominic Mooney

Music from the Stars

A group of radio astronomers working in a secluded desert observatory have died. Investigation suggests that they all killed each other in a kind of frenzied bloodlust. Detailed investigation reveals that the astronomers were picking up a strange signal from a distant star - a strange kind of music with high-pitched wails and deep groaning moans.

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Possibilities

1 The song is the Song of Shoggoth and is transmitted from a star in a far-distant galaxy. The song is a prayer that causes madness in weak-willed humans. Cults in certain areas of South America have duplicated the song in their own way over the years but none of them has ever brought the madness that the true Song of Shoggoth brings upon those who hear it.

2 The astronomers picked up a communication from another galaxy that is being sent by a highly advanced civilization as a message of peace. However, the message is too complex for human minds to comprehend, and those that try are stricken with madness.

3 The music is made by the mi-go as they travel across the vastness of space. It is filled with subliminal signals that are meant to convey an attitude of peace and solitude, but human minds cannot process the complexity of the music and they go insane from listening to it for too long.

© Paul Comeau

Mrs Whathernam

Mrs Wathernam is a nice old lady living down the street in a small but cozy home with a little garden. Mrs Whathernam adores children; many parents, who can’t afford a place in the kindergarden, send their children to her. There, they can play in her garden, Mrs Whaternam knows lots of games to play, never gets angry and bakes wonderful cakes.

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Possibilities

1 Mrs Whathernam is really just a nice lady - with a tragic past: her husband returned from the war, but body and spirit broken. One night, he couldn’t stand it any longer, took a gun and turned on his family before killing himself. Mrs Whathernam survived, but her husband murdered their child.

By day, some of the children claim to have played with an unknown young boy; by night, people tell of a dark figure in a uniform staring out of the windows.

2 Mrs Whathernam has a dark secret: she is a murderer. Years ago, she and her husband were members of a dark cult and sacrificed people in their occult rituals. The cult was infiltrated by the authorities, and the cultists were arrested. Some were hanged, some committed suicide. Mrs Whathernam (not her real name) escaped...

3 Mrs Whathernam really, REALLY likes children - especially served with honey orange marinade and added spice...

© Philipp Mählmann

Mr Sebastien

Mr Sebastien was a strange man. He was noted for holding conversations with himself, even going as far as answering. He professed to be a stage magician, a conjurer and a master of prestidigitation, but he wasn’t terribly good. Even small children went unimpressed.

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However, his latest trick proved to be his finest, if last. He was found dead in a dingy hotel room. The trick of it, however, was that the door was securely locked from the inside. Sebastien had the only key, and the windows, previously painted shut, were sealed tight. All that the room contained, other than its cheap furniture, were the corpse and a pack of ordinary playing cards scattered around the room in a haphazard manner.

Possibilities

1 Mr Sebastien believed himself capable of great things, so tried his hand at a little demonic conjuration. Taking a room in a hotel, he carefully locked the door. Then making sure the windows were sealed and using his only aid, a pack of ordinary playing cards, set about conjuring a demon.

Of course, Mr Sebastien was not very good at magic and forgot to take basic protective measures. The conjuration was a success, he managed to manifest a rather nasty demon. However, having no protection, its first victim was Mr Sebastien. It now lurks within the deck of cards.

2 Mr Sebastien, tired of all the jibes over his lack of talent, conceived a brilliant trick. A small hotel room was hired, he locked himself in, he took a rare slow-acting poison and while dying, cast his cards around the room. His final trick then was to leave a mystery.

3 An autopsy is conducted only to discover that the corpse is nothing more than an empty husk. Mr Sebastien, whoever or whatever he was, entered that hotel room that evening and did not emerge alive. At least not ‘alive’ in any sense that we might know it.

©Andrew Parfitt

Figure in Black

Whispers are circulating through a small town about sightings of a mysterious figure along the river dressed in black. The figure is reported to leave burnt black footprints on the ground wherever he walks, and anything liquid that he touches turns to steam.

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Possibilities

1 The mysterious figure on the river is the Devil, transported to earth in human form. He challenges all those who come near him to a battle of wits, a battle that he has rigged to win at the cost of the soul of any who challenge him.

2 The mystery man is an actor being paid by a developer to scare the people out of the area so that they can buy up the land to build a casino on the river. All of his scare tactics are a bag of harmless special effects meant to scare away the curious and the simple minded.

3 The figure is an alien from the planet Venus. His coat protects his skin from the sun’s radiation which would be deadly to him, and he sweats acid which burns the ground where he steps.

© Paul Comeau

Gloomy Sunday

‘Gloomy Sunday’ is a mournful song about a young man deciding to follow the woman he loves into death, written and recorded in Hungary in 1933. A composer named Reszo Seress wrote it shortly after breaking up with a long-time girlfriend, and it quickly became popular, but also began to develop an odd reputation as the ‘Hungarian Suicide Song’. A number of deaths were linked to Gloomy Sunday, with suicides following a playing of the song, or lyrics from it appearing in suicide notes. Shortly after he approached her seeking a reconciliation, the composer’s girlfriend killed herself, leaving a note reading only “Szomorú Vasárnap” -- ‘Gloomy Sunday’.

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An English language version was recorded, and Gloomy Sunday’s reputation as the suicide song spread across Europe and America, to a lesser degree than in Hungary, but still worrying authorities to the point of banning it from radio in several places.

(This is all true. There are websites that detail the song’s history or debunk the ‘suicide song’ legend, and various recordings available for download.)

Now, a dusty and rather scratchy original recording of the song being played by its composer has been restored and duplicated with a clarity never heard before, and the original Hungarian version of Gloomy Sunday is regaining popularity -- but this version of the song seems to have a power over its listeners that none of the previously mass-marketed recordings came close to matching. Listeners find themselves babbling snatches of Hungarian they don’t understand, experiencing terrible and sourceless fears, seeing strange visions they can’t explain, and killing themselves at a frightening rate.

Possibilities

1 Seress was a cultist, and quite mad. Along with the strange and troubling music he composed, there were rituals venerating forgotten gods. He forced his fiancee to join him, and at first she went along with it willingly, humouring a man she loved and believed could be brought back to sanity with patience and quiet surroundings. But soon the forbidden knowledge she was learning through their descent into the mythos began to horrify her. When she protested, Seress threatened to kill her if she backed out or if she told anyone of what they were doing.

His efforts were building towards a final rite he was reluctant to tell her about, but her own researches gave her an idea of what he was planning, and the sick fear of it became too much for her: she killed herself. Seress was furious at her betrayal, but continued his preparations for the rite as though he believed there would still be a second participant.

Now, the specially-prepared Gloomy Sunday recording acts as a kind of trap for the woman’s spirit, periodically forcing her to inhabit and possess a listener’s body against her will. It also calls to Seress, who immediately gives chase, armed with magical methods to force her to join him in the final ritual. The repeated suicides are the unfortunate ghost’s only way to free herself from the trap.

If nobody intervenes, the deaths continue until Seress finally captures his late fiancee and goes ahead with the ritual.

2 Seress wasn’t much of a composer, but he was a charming man with a wide range of acquaintances, and an accomplished plagiarist. One of his friends was a German-Hungarian scientist experimenting with brainwave transference using salvaged mi-go technology and money provided by Hitler’s Reichstag. He was exploring a promising method of transferring thoughts and memories from one mind to another encoded in repeating tones like the melody of a song. Seress liked the ‘music’ he heard in the scientist’s home one night, and left with the recording hidden under his coat, eventually publishing an adapted version of it with lyrics written by another acquaintance, as Gloomy Sunday.

Now listeners are experiencing some of the scientist’s recorded thoughts as they listen to his brainwave-duplicating sounds, including his growing doubt and guilt over accepting money from nazis, and increasingly paranoid fear of what can only be mi-go attempts at intimidation in order to reclaim their equipment.

If nobody intervenes, the Gloomy Sunday reputation continues to grow and the recording’s publisher quietly takes that version off the market. Isolated suicides continue, as private copies still exist.

3 Gloomy Sunday is simply a sad, regretful song with nothing supernatural about it. The wax the recording is pressed from is contaminated with toxic chemicals that fill the air with poisonous fumes when played. The hallucinations and deep depression listeners experience are symptoms of exposure.

In time, the recording company will switch to a safer material and try to hush up the deaths, leaving thousands of potentially deadly records in the hands of the public.

© Chris Kerr

Glossolalia

In a small town, located in the foothills of larger mountains, are more and more cases of people speaking in tongues (glossolalia). It started some weeks ago and it grows. Every day there are more people who are affected.

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Possibilities

1 The outbreak of glossolalia can be tracked to an itinerant preacher, who entered the town just a few days before the first cases were noticed. He has always a round slice with him, which is the source.

The slice is an alien artifact, containing a parasite that powers the preacher’s sermons (which are now highly addictive). The parasite drains energy from the listeners to fuel the slice. Once it has enough energy it will return to space. The tongue-speaking is a adverse reaction, but people stop after several days.

The parasite’s energy-drain is harmless, it just lets the people speak in tongues and gives them a little fatigue.

The preacher himself has no idea what is going on, but won’t let the slice be taken.

2 The town is built above a source of raw minerals that the Mi-Go want to mine. They have placed emitters around the town that are affecting human brains and causing them to become disturbed. This leads to the tongue-speaking and incapacitates the people. They won’t eat, drink or sleep until they leave the area (or the emitters are deactivated).

Some of the officials who have come to the town are Mi-Go henchmen and are here evacuate the town. They will also resist any attempt to interfere with the Mi-Go’s plans.

3 The glossolalia is caused by a Serpent Person. A few decades ago one of the ancient serpent-scientists awoke from his hibernation and started to explore a way to overthrow humanity and restore the ancient kingdom. He invented a disease which weakens the human mind sufficient to allow the scientists mental suggestion. The disease has three different stages:

First the victims loses consciousness for some hours, then it awakes.

In the second stage the victim has loses the ability to speak, and only speaks in tongues. This stage is very dangerous, because everybody who listens more than four hours to the victim’s glossolalia will be affected too.

Finally, after some days the victim regains the ability to speak, but is then a viral carrier, spreading the disease via sexual intercourse and obeying the Serpent’s mental instructions.

© Jochen Koltermann

Fiends on Film

The characters visit a video store containing obscure films on VHS and DVD. The VHS films are of particular interest because they are bootlegs of unreleased films, director’s cuts, work prints and documentaries. One film, called “Document of the Damned,” stands out.

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The film, which is the unreleased director’s cut of a film released in campus theaters and art houses during the 1970s’, contains footage shot in the mid 20s’ and late 60s’. It is a sensationalistic documentary about witchcraft and the occult containing lots of nudity and exaggeration.

One detailed scene depicts a ritual for summoning demons. It includes a bizarre and convincing monster.

Possibilities

1 The scene is an accurate simulation of the rituals required to summon and bind a dimensional shambler. Anyone studying the film carefully can learn the spells over time.

2 The scene is actual footage of the rituals required to summon and bind a dimensional shambler being performed, although the spells can’t be learned through viewing the film due to its editing.

3 The film contains no actual content related to the Cthulhu mythos. The film’s value to general occultists is also questionable.

© Brian Woodman

Fallen Grace

It’s been happening for three days now. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, or that I was short of sleep.

If only.

I see her in mirrors, in windows, in puddles of dirty rain-water. Sometimes she’s alone; sometimes, there are others, behind her. Waiting, watching.

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Her name is Grace. I don’t know how I know that, but I do.

I also know I’ll be seeing her soon.

Grace appears to be a young girl with long, straggly blonde hair and guarded blue eyes. She’s dressed in rags, and looks like she’s been surviving on her own for some time now. She can be seen in any reflective surface; at first she appears infrequently, but as time passes and her urgency increases, she begins to haunt her target.

Possibilities

1 Grace’s father, Professor Henry Avebury, worships something ancient and nameless. Centuries ago the creature’s body was destroyed, and now its mind roams free, seeking a way back to the world. A month ago, Professor Avebury performed a ritual on Grace to draw the beast’s essence into her body. Unfortunately for Henry, the ritual backfired; Grace was left with limited telepathic abilities, but was otherwise unharmed, and the beast was drawn into Henry’s mind instead.

The beast isn’t shy about calling forth servitors to do its dirty work. Grace is desperate for help, and is calling for it, although she doesn’t know it.

2 In life, Grace was a powerful witch. Six years ago her cottage burnt to the ground; she was trapped inside, and her body was reduced to ash. Her soul, however, survived, and now it’s looking for a way back.

Grace can manifest physically in a shape of her choosing for up to a minute at a time, but must rest between manifestations. She needs to persuade someone to carry out a ritual to bind her to a new body if she is to have any meaningful existence.

She tells the investigators about an invisible hunter which can shift in and out of reality; she claims that this beast is what killed her, and that the ritual she wants the investigators to perform will banish it. 

If necessary, Grace is prepared to kill to provide evidence of her claims.

3 A shape-shifting creature is hungry, and has found that victims are easiest to take when alone and desperate. Who can ignore a helpless child in terrible danger? And who’s going to tell people about someone they can only see in mirrors? The creature preys on the minds of its victims, hounding them until they no longer dare to look in a mirror, until they hide alone, afraid, in the darkness -- and then it strikes. 

© Matt Harvey