The Man of Her Dreams

The Ashthorns, a wealthy family of noble origins, are desperate, as their daughter Melissa seems to have succumbed to a mental illness:

She refuses to sleep, trying everything to stay awake, from coffee over cold baths to physically hurting herself, with needles, blunt objects etc. If she finally falls asleep, she’s tossing and turning around for a while, before she seems to wake up, acting in a very different manner to her usually gentle personality, which she later denies.

Ask upon these events, the frightened Melissa explains, that sometime before, she encountered a man in her dreams, who claims to be from the dreamlands. The man has become aware of the real world and wants to break through to it, a goal, which in exchange would probably kill Melissa.

Possibilities

1 Melissa is suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia, which derives from being abused by her father and her older brother in younger years. Her ‘other Self’, who is confirming ‘her’ version, has the personality of a lewd, uncaring man, who insults and hits other people, smokes cigarettes and drinks whiskey and shows a deep hatred against the Ashthorne family, even trying to kill the other family members. So far, the personality switch has only lasted a few minutes, but is steadily becoming longer.

2 Melissas story is true, the man from the Dreamlands exists. He is slowly overpowering Melissa, and has now reached the point, where parts of him can physically manifest, resulting in the scene, where an entire forearm comes out of the unconscious, twisting girls mouth! Physical damage to the arm will make him retreat for now, but if nothing is done, he will sooner or later burst out of the poor girls body.

3 Things aren’t quite, what they seems to be: the man from Melissa’s ‘dreams’ is in fact a magician, and he’s not from the Dreamlands, but from the waking world, trying to save the investigators, who themselves are trapped in the Dreamlands. He uses the dream figure of Melissa as a portal to make contact with them, but unfortunately his words turn into gibberish and written contact is not possible. If the magician loses contact, the investigators might be forever trapped in the Dreamlands.

© Philipp Mählmann

The Ghost of Easter Past

The town is awash with breathless reports: Jesus Christ has returned. The faithful flock to town in the hope of catching a glimpse of their saviour, and all who have seen him preach agree that this man, bearing all the signs of recent crucifixion, cannot be other than the genuine Son of God.

Possibilities

1 Jesus Vasquez, a carpenter from Silver Springs, Fl., has been imbued with an otherworldly spirit, giving him supernatural endurance and magnetism, at the cost of his sanity. He now believes himself to be the manifestation of Jesus Christ. He preaches based on his recollections from Sunday School and his personal prejudices, and his words are given weight by the spirit which is bound to him. The stigmata were self-inflicted with a nail gun. Analysis of recordings of his teachings shows them to be simplistic and contradictory, but it is almost impossible to remain unconvinced when hearing them from Vasquez himself.

2 Although thousands claim convincingly to have seen Jesus in person, he proves remarkably difficult for the sceptical to track down. It emerges that the faithful have met Jesus, not on this plane, but in waking dreams. A creature of the Dreamlands is seeking to open a way through to the waking world. By calling upon the Christian faithful, who willingly synchronise their dreams and mobilise their mental energies for the promised second coming, it is building considerable power.

3 What we know as “God” is actually the shattered remnants of a Great Old One, forced by its enemies to take on a fragile human form, which was crucified and its essence all but destroyed. Over two millennia, it has regained sufficient psychic energy to manifest again as Jesus. While, to some ways of thinking, it is the second coming, this Jesus represents only the death throes of his “father”. The activity of the shade of an Old One will summon others to feed on it. The world will likely not survive such an occurrence.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

The Competition

Mr. Henry Paget Lowe has been arrested on a charge of sequestration of person and, maybe, of murder. The victim is Roger Curtney and, the last time that someone saw him, he was entering Mr. Lowe’s office.

Roger Curtney answered an advertisement published in national newspapers in which, the society led by Mr. Lowe, invited “American dreamers to write a short fantastic story”. The prize of the competition was a trip to a fantastic “Dream Land”. Entry was free.

Roger Curtney, among 6000 candidates, was elected “the best American dreamer.” The newspapers reported a lot about him and about the competition, until they discovered Mr. Curtney didn’t return from his trip. “The trip hasn’t finished, he will be back when he wants to be back.” said Mr. Lowe when he was arrested.

Possibilities

1 Mr. Lowe knows the way to go to the Dreamlands and he has led Mr. Curtney to the Cavern of Flame.

2 Mr. Lowe is a kidnapper. He wants one million dollars from Curtney’s father.

3 Mr. Lowe doesn’t exist. Behind all of this is the FBI chief, Edgar Hoover, who wants to detect American subversives and communists. Curtney wrote a story entitled “Red days”. Including Mr Lowe, the FBI arrested 756 people.

© Simone Bartesaghi

Oblivion Circle

One peaceful night the investigator goes to sleep normally in her own bed. Hearing a noise in the night, the investigator wakes to find the world outside her bedroom totally changed. Odd, many-legged chairs and tables and weirdly organic trinkets now furnish her home. Other residents sleep soundly but if awakened, see nothing wrong. They seem well disposed toward the investigator, yet their speech sounds ominously strange; for instance, they swear by the names of unknown gods.

The night world outside the investigator’s house has also changed. She sees dreamily twisted houses, new bends in once-familiar roads, and inexplicable advertisements. (“Play Canton-Prefecture Super Lotto and win up to three years of life!”) Newspapers bear enigmatic headlines such as “Kaiser denies cranching out of control.” The victim detects no single obvious branch from her previous reality.

Fellow investigators, too, have changed and now pursue surreally distorted goals. Where the victim might remember a journalist ally as a zealous seeker of truth, the changed reporter now just as zealously casts horoscopes of target politicians, divining their future misdeeds. Though friendly toward the victim, changed investigators recognize nothing wrong with the world, instead believing the victim herself mad.

The victim may explore this nightmare world until dawn. Then she awakens in her bed, with the world outside back to normal. Yet she holds physical evidence that proves her “dream” actually happened, and an unbroken circle of white dust surrounds her bed.

Possibilities

1 An enemy sorcerer has magically transported the investigator into a carefully prepared section of the Dreamlands. Eavesdropping on the victim’s movements, the magician hopes to learn the whereabouts of incriminating evidence or a vital object the investigator owns. After the sorcerer learns the desired information, he dissolves the enchantment, returning the victim to the waking world.

2 In a previous adventure, the investigator offended a Cthulhoid cult. Cultists have projected her into a nightmare world of their communal imagining. They forge the physical evidence to make the illusion convincing. Though the spell cannot work in daylight, the cult intends to torment the investigator nightly until she goes mad.

3 The investigator has gone mad and created a submerged, split personality. This personality creates the nightly dream vision, a projection of the world she would prefer to live in. The mad investigator hallucinates the “physical evidence” and dust circle. Because some sane part of her still dwells on current investigations, the subconscious intuitions revealed in her nightmares may prompt genuine real-world leads.

© Allen Varney

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.

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 Horror of Fang Rock

Five nights ago, the three man crew of a lighthouse twenty miles off the south Dyfed coast vanished without trace. The St-Davids lifeboat went to see what was wrong with the light, but they never returned Just what has happened the lighthouse men of Fang Rock? The wives of the missing people seek the help of a number of experienced investigators to answer this question.

Possibilities

1 Fang Rock, which is built on a sea mount has been over-run with deep-ones who are using it as the focal point for a ceremony designed to bring about the return of dread R’leyh.

2 After a particularly violent storm, a strange ancient glass container was fished from the ocean. Inside this container, which was of elder design, was a Shoggoth. When the lighthouse keepers opened the container the Shoggoth was released and has been prowling the lighthouse ever since.

3 The lighthouse stands at the point where the Dreamlands and the waking world overlap. Five nights ago, the way was opened and a raiding party took possession of the lighthouse so as to ship wreck the ship carrying Randolph Carter. By stopping these raiders, the investigators will trap themselves in the dreamlands.

© Rik Kershaw

Lost City Found!

An archaeological research team has found what appear to be the remains of an ancient city - in a relatively recently developed town just off a major highway. Upon examination, it appears that the ruins are just below the surface, such that it is highly unlikely that they would have not been noticed when the towns’ foundations were laid, or, for that matter, when the highway was built. The building records and surveyors’ reports are all completely silent on the matter.

Image created using Wombo

Possibilities

1 Developers don’t like pesky inconveniences like sacred sites, endangered animals or archaeological digs showing up in their surveyor’s reports or impact assessment statements. Consultants know this, and some are quite willing to tailor their reports accordingly. The ruins are a marvellous find, but have always been there.

2 The ruins are the remnants of a city which - thousands of years ago - was cursed, and sealed in a remote part of the Dreamlands. Isolated, the civilisation turned in upon itself, and became corrupt and wicked. The stars are now right for its sorcerers to try and return the city to the waking world. As the spells gather power, more of the city will manifest, and the apparent ruins will become more substantial, displacing the town’s buildings. Before long, the degenerate inhabitants of the city will be able to cross over into the town at will, seeking human sacrifices to complete their magics.

3 The ruins are of an immense, city-sized temple dedicated to Yog-Sothoth. A cataclysm destroyed the temple and scattered the remnants throughout space and time, and fragments of the foundations have appeared here and now. The pieces are still metaphysically bound, and the connection might allow a strong (or fractured) mind to travel the universe. It would certainly allow the sorcerer-priests of Yog-Sothoth to travel here.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

Under A Blood Red Sky

After sleeping for a while, the characters awaken in a forest. Their first impression is that the light is extraordinary. Indeed it is, for in the twilight, all colors are shades of red. It looks like an old black-and-white film filmed with a red filter lens. After walking for an hour, the characters come to the edge of the wood. This opens an even stranger vista to them.

They look at a valley where a stream of blood-red water flows gently. On the horizon, a dark red light, which must be the sun, glows unnervingly. Everything is shaded in red: the clouds, the grass, even the sheep herded by a little boy. Down in the valley at the blood river lies a small city. Farther away, on the hill that the river springs from, rises a tower, glowing unholy red in the eerie light.

Possibilities

1     Do vampires dream? Yes they do! This is the domain of a strange vampire lord. (For an example, see Brain Lumley’s Necroscope.)

In the vampire’s long unlife, he has had more than enough time to dream, shaping a whole nightmare realm in the Dreamlands. It lies in the Stony Desert on a high plateau. He is a counterpart to King Kuranes, having created an entire realm out of nothing. The vampire has made himself a retreat in the unlikely case that vampire hunters should kill his body. In his domain he is a god-king. His seat is the Citadel of Blood, the unholy red tower on the hill. He is a ruthless ruler.

The characters have been drawn to this plateau because a good wizard has seen how the vampire lord’s subjects suffer. But, the vampire is a mighty foe, and the wizard cannot face him alone. Therefore, he has summoned helping hands. On the outskirts of the city he looks for the saviours.

2     The characters are not in the Earth’s dreamlands but in those of an alien world. They are archaeologists or geologists and in the waking world have discovered a strange meteor. This meteor is of a stony material in varying shades of red. Everyone touching the stone will dream of the planet from which the meteor comes. How is the curse broken?

3     After watching a horror film named The Mad Butcher, with much blood-spilling and then eating lots of pizza, the characters have a simple nightmare. But why do they all have the same nightmare?

© Mathias Braun

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

Ailurophobia

For the past week, cats have been showing up outside the investigator’s house. At first it was only one or two cats, but as time went on more and more began to arrive until they presented a bizarre and almost alarming spectacle which has caused much comment among the neighbours. Dozens of cats of all colours and sizes sit outside the house waiting… for something.

Possibilities

1 Many thousands of years ago in a previous incarnation, the investigator was a favoured priest of the cat goddess Bast. Now some new threat has arisen against all of cat-kind, and she needs his aid once again. The cats are her way of getting the investigator’s attention; she will also send dreams that gradually reveal details of his past life.

2 Shortly before the cats began to arrive, the investigator accidentally killed a small, black kitten by running it over with his car. Ordinarily this would be nothing to worry about, but due to an unusual collection of occult circumstances, the area where the investigator lives has begun to intersect with certain regions of the Dreamlands. Some of the Cats of Ulthar have crossed the divide and are preparing to enact the terrible vengeance which is the just due of any human who dares to kill a cat. The investigator may get a hint of his coming fate when he reads a newspaper article about some other cat-killers, whose skeletons had been found curiously gnawed and licked free of any trace of flesh.

3 The cats are not supernatural, just hungry. For some time now, the reclusive old lady across the street has been feeding dozens of stray cats in her back yard. A few days ago she fell and broke her hip, and in the absence of her handouts the cats have been searching for sustenance in the rest of the neighbourhood. The injured woman remains trapped on her floor, helpless and dehydrated but still alive (at least for the time being).

© Emily Johnsen

Pest Trouble

An investigator visits an archaeologist of long acquaintance, Professor Andrew Dutton Long, at Long’s small but well-kept home. The yard is groomed, the house clean and neat, but every room is infested with vermin. Spiders and slugs crawl the walls, fleas infest the carpet, and houseflies swarm so thick the investigator can hardly breathe. No neighboring houses have the problem. Long is friendly and seems completely sane, yet oblivious to the vermin. He does not see them, and he casually deflects all comments. “This is a nice neighborhood,” he says as earwigs crawl over his forehead. “No problems here with bugs or the like.”

Possibilities

1 Long has procured or devised a talisman to summon Atlach-Nacha. The talisman does not work, but it has the side effect of attracting vermin. The necessary research into the talisman snapped Long’s sanity. A strongbox in his basement, covered thickly with ants and wasps, holds the talisman.

2 A serpent man, Haus-saris-sith, has killed Long and assumed his identity. The pests have been drawn by the serpent’s repellent heaps of carrion hidden around the house. As the investigator continues speaking with “Long,” Haus-saris-sith extends its illusion to conceal the vermin, then attempts Cloud Memory. If the investigator succumbs, the serpent plants a post-hypnotic suggestion that compels the investigator to learn Mythos spells and convey them to Haus-saris-sith

3 Dholes spread to new worlds from the Dreamlands by implanting larvae in the dream forms of victims. Eating a dreamer from within, the larvae gradually materialize in the dreamer’s waking world. Exploring the Dreamlands, Long was trapped by a dhole and received a single larva; it now grows in his material body. The manifestation attracts vermin as a side effect. Now mad, Long has blocked all memories of his ongoing nightmare, and refuses to perceive the pests. To stop the manifestation, investigators can kill Long and fight the emerging larva, or enter the Dreamlands, locate Long in the Vale of Pnath, and extract the larva before Long’s dream form dies.

© Allen Varney

The Hungry Woods

A small community housing project has recently been completed on the edge of a large wood just outside of town. The project’s aim is to create a safe, pleasant environment for parents and young children. Families move in at the start of summer. Once the school holidays arrive the children begin exploring the wood, climbing trees and going wild out of sight of their parents.

A few weeks into the holidays Annie McElroy notices that food is missing from the cupboards and fridge. At first, she thinks it is her husband, snacking during the night. She doesn’t mention it to him but drops it into casual conversation with the neighbours. It seems everyone has been victim of the mysterious food thief – and nobody has admitted to it.

Possibilities

1 Children are stealing the food. Whilst playing in the heart of the wood they encountered a place where the barrier between the Dreamlands and the Waking World is very thin. The Dreamlands point of contact is the Enchanted Wood, where the Zoogs live. These sweet-looking creatures have befriended the children, who are bring food to the creatures. The children will never tell the grown-ups about their new, special friends, The Zoogs are doing their best to entice the children into the Dreamlands proper, and it is only a matter of time before they succeed.

2 The community’s adult males have been subjected to the dream-sendings of a dead witch. She has been persuading them to bring food to her grave in the woods. The food rots rapidly into the ground and nourishes her body, strengthening it and putting flesh back upon the bones. The men have been obeying her instructions in their sleep and have no memories of their actions.

3 Early in the housing project’s construction a body was found in the woods. The body, that of a homeless man judging by the clothes, was badly mangled and parts looked as if they had burst open. To avoid bad publicity the site foreman had the body buried in one house’s foundations and bribed the workers to keep quiet.

The body belonged to a man who had fallen into a narrow hole in the woods and found himself in an underground labyrinth. There he encountered the Great Old One Eihort who offered him the usual choice: death or become host for Eihort’s brood. The man chose the latter and died when the brood erupted from his body.

The Brood have lived in the wood since then, but some have migrated into the houses, hiding in cracks and the shadows of cupboards. It is the brood that has been eating the food.

© Robin Low

The City in the Skull

It is a most peculiar object. A human skull, beautifully engraved in a curiously ragged script and with its eye sockets filled with emeralds. A perfectly circular hole has been drilled in its top.

If the skull is placed over a candle, the light shining through the jewelled eyes throws a strange vista of a fantastic cyclopean city across nearby walls. As the candle flickers, it almost seems as if there is movement.

Possibilities

1 The city glimpsed in the flickering candlelight is the ruined city of Sarkomand in the Dreamlands. The skull helps dreamers find their way to the city and from there to the rest of the dreamlands. Careful research eventually reveals that the engraved script is a simple incantation. Washing the skull and reciting the incantation activates the skull. Upon falling asleep, the character's dream self is safely transported to the dreamlands.

Unfortunately, Sarkomand is close to the Plateau of Leng, whose inhabitants are known to be hostile to casual intruders. Worse, the skull is cursed, and upon activation summons the vengeful spirit of the person who was killed to make it.

2 The image of the city is an optical illusion caused by flaws in the jewels. There is nothing magical about the skull at all; it is merely priceless.

Investigators researching the history of the skull will find that it was stolen from an Aztec treasury by unknown conquistadors. It was stolen again upon its arrival in Spain, and next appeared in 1612 in the treasury of a monastery in Alsace. The monastery was destroyed in 1650 and the skull vanished.

The skull later appears in France, among the treasures of Louis XV. During the French Revolution, it disappeared, and was believed to have been destroyed by the revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, the skull brings bad luck and disaster - as well as attracting thieves from afar. If the investigators hang on to the skull, something bad will happen - soon.

3 The city is Mu. It really does exist, and it is actually inside the skull. When mad Zhoras, the immortal God-King of Mu, realised his land was doomed, he placed it within his skull using his powerful magic. Because of its magical nature, Zhoras' skull is virtually indestructible, and Mu has survived for untold millenia.

The writing on the skull is in the language of the serpent people, added at a much later date. Once translated, it proves to be a gate-spell to the city. However, getting from the city back to the real world is much harder. Furthermore, Zhoras still rules within the skull, and exacts a fearsome toll on trespassers.

© Matthew Grossman

Sylvia

The investigator finds a little girl on his doorstep quite late one evening, lost. She is very pretty with long curly blonde hair and dressed in an expensive dress.

Circumstances are such that the Investigator should have little choice but to allow her in and put her to bed for the night, in anticipation of sorting the problem out in the morning.

An hour after she is put to bed, the girl gets up and strips herself naked. She then proceeds to mutilate and torture herself, scattering blood around the Investigator’s home. Examples include: pulling her fingernails out, setting fire to her hair and burning herself, smashing her teeth and bones, tearing her face and ears off, putting fish-hooks into her flesh, and blinding herself or putting out an eye.

During the procedure, which is undertaken in complete silence, she is careful about the forensic evidence, trying to ensure that this is as incriminating as possible: for example, she may cut and slash (especially around the genitals), and eviscerate, herself using the Investigator’s kitchen knives, but being careful about fingerprints; similarly, she may hang herself by the heels, or even crucify herself (if she can do this without waking the Investigator) but being careful about the blood patterns.

Early the following morning, she leaves the Investigator’s house and staggers to a neighbour. She gasps out a story of torture at the Investigator’s hands and dies. The police soon arrive . . .

Possibilities

1 The little girl is a zombie, programmed and sent by an enemy of the Investigator. When she first arrives, she appears slightly cold and pale and, of course, has no pulse, although none of this is readily apparent (especially in poor light). The girl has swallowed two pints of blood which she later vomits out to provide a more horrific scene on discovery. This may not be the little girl’s blood group. (Note that there would be nothing logically wrong with the autopsy finding blood in the stomach if the girl tore or cut her tongue out.)

Inconsistencies would include a greater amount of blood than would be expected, anomalous blood-splatter patterns, and the fact that she appears actually to have been dead for four days prior to her ‘death’. However, with such an open-and -shut and disgusting case, the police are unlikely to pursue other leads unduly.

The Investigator’s previous career is suddenly under intense police scrutiny, which may well bring up previous offences and implicate other Investigators.

2 The girl really was lost and was everything she appeared to be. As she
slept, she was the victim of a spell directed at the Investigator.

Unfortunately, the Investigator is still a target.

3 The girl is a dreamer, and blundered into the dreamlands. There she attracted the attention of a minor dreamlands deity, Priebe (a god of suffering and pain), who followed her back to the waking world and, while she was still asleep, forced her to mutilate and kill herself. Her sacrifice provided enough psychic energy for the god to remain 24 hours - unless he can force someone else to do the same thing.

Following the Investigator to the police station, the god enters one of the officer’s dreams and kills him. (He may make the jailer unlock the Investigator’s cell - remember that this will be at night - and the Investigator, if he is awake, may or may not attempt to intervene or escape.)

On the third night, another officer is chosen. After five deaths, the god is strong enough to enter a conscious mind. At this stage, with complete control of a human, the killings increase rapidly as Priebe grows careless of his activities.

© Charles Ross

Little Death

Prayers are said, vigilance kept, but still it is not enough. Still they die. Some body is mutilating children. Naked, nails through both feet and one hand, heavily mutilated and wildly contorted, at least one tiny corpse is discovered per week. It is a terrible way to die, and the police are doing their utmost to catch the perpetrator. So far they have had no luck.

Possibilities

1 The children are murdered by a gaunt, white haired man. They are found in cheap hotels and derelict buildings, and enough eye-witnesses have appeared to give the police an accurate picture of the killer. However, they have yet to apprehend him, he seems to be able to stay one step ahead of them.

The man is a fortune-teller, selling his services to the highest bidder - often the underworld. He kidnaps the children, drugs and nails them to the floor. The child then dances a self-mutilating dance, and in it the man can see the future. His clients pay well for the service, which is unerringly accurate, and are able to line up further clients. Within the dance, the man can see his adversaries (including the police), and where they are due to strike next. Thus forewarned, he is able to flee.

2 The children were Dreamers, sacrificed in their sleep by a cult in Dylath-Leen. They are found dead in their bedrooms with no sign of a break-in, having mutilated themselves. The police have no leads at all, and there is nothing obvious to link the children.

The investigating authorities will soon discover that the killings are worldwide. The cult is making sacrifices at a rate estimated at one a night.

The sacrifices continue until the cult is somehow disbanded.

3 The police know the killings are ritual, but have yet to identify it. All the children have been dark haired and brown skinned, and the police have narrowed their search to the cults of ancient Polynesia.

The killings are the work of one man, the sole survivor of an expedition to an unchartered Polynesian island - home to a blasphemous temple, an ancient cult, and unimaginable horror. He stayed far too long, the experience emptying his mind of any lasting reason and sanity. In their place insatiable red demons took up residence.

He returned to civilization some months ago, barely able to function in society. He kills regularly in a vain effort to satisfy the bottomless hunger within his skull.

© Steve Hatherley

Cats

Over the last few days, cats have been vanishing. Then, a (human) corpse is found, apparently having been clawed to death, followed by several more deaths all carried out in the same grisly way. The papers quickly seize on a sensationalist piece of news - that bodies of skinned cats were sent to the victims shortly before their untimely demise.

Possibilities

1 Marty Cartwright believes that taking on an animal’s skin allows him to shape-shift into the form of that animal. Cartwright, an intense young man with an interest in black magic, lost his family in a fire. The fire was no accident and Cartwright has traced the arsonists, a group of thugs calling themselves “The Panthers.”

Cartwright researched a ritual to allow him to exact revenge in a most appropriate form, by becoming a black panther. Now he is slowly killing the gang members one by one, sending each a warning in the form of the body of a skinned cat.

2 All the victims were at some time patrons of an occult book shop and have all authored monographs for the book shop on the subject of myth and magic. They have unfortunately become the victims of a deranged killer who recently escaped from an asylum.

The woman, Catherine (known as Cat), believes she is tormented by a huge feline demon. The authors of the monographs mock the great cat-spirit and it is making her kill them all. To give them an opportunity to repent, the demon makes Cat send skinned cats to the victims. None of them have yet repented. In Cat’s lair the skins are fastened to a wall, with a picture of each victim underneath them.

Several of the authors are still alive and very scared. Should they all die, then Cat finds new victims, with no rhyme or reason this time.

3 The victims are all Dreamers, killed by moonbeasts. Several days ago, three moonbeasts crept into the Waking World, causing the cats to flee and vanish. The first few victims were deliberately chosen, but the moonbeasts have continued because it is so much fun.

Whenever they catch a cat they skin it and send the body to their next victim, shortly before attacking en masse. This continues until the moonbeasts become bored with this sport and leave.

© Lynne Wilson

Empty Streets

Ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the coastal town of Safehaven, New Jersey has had a sizeable number of homeless people. This situation became especially aggravated in the Reagan years, to the point where the traditionally liberal populace of Safehaven showed signs of animosity towards the homeless. A few beatings were reported, and local aid was drastically reduced. Despite all this, the homeless remained.

Now, they are gone.

Overnight, every last hobo, drifter, and bag-lady vanished without a trace. At first, no one seemed to notice. Then a social worker voiced concern. The mayor conjectured the homeless had moved to Pennsylvania with its higher welfare benefits. The police chief argued they had probably moved to warmer climates. Most people were relieved; the streets were so much cleaner, nicer, and safer now. The streets were empty.

Possibilities

1 After the disaster in Innsmouth, the Deep Ones of the Atlantic seaboard scattered. They found fertile new breeding grounds in those impoverished by the Great Depression. They did not have to worry about another government attack: nobody cared. They have been replenishing their numbers for 60 years.

But now, they have called all their kin to a reef off the coast of New Jersey, for the stars are right, and Dagon awaits.

2 Zaka’rn, a man of Leng and a sorcerer, has opened a physical gate between the Dreamlands and the waking world. He has given a special potion (via the soup kitchens) to the homeless of Safehaven, and has led them sleepwalking to the gate, which is located in the side of a cliff on Safehaven beach. In the Dreamlands, he intends to sell the homeless to his masters, the Moonbeasts, who savour the taste of living flesh. His reward will be great.

3 A secret government weapons and pharmaceuticals research laboratory is at work near Safehaven. With the help of the mayor and the police chief, they have captured the homeless to conduct terrible experiments on them. Everybody is happy: the scientists can progress, the police chief’s work is now much easier, and the mayor’s chances for re-election are excellent.

© Markus Huenemoerder

A Family's Heritage

A close friend’s family has, for hundreds of years, owned a homestead in a sylvan mountainscape. However, their neighbours watch carefully because there is supposed to be a curse on the family.

It is said, that every 40 – 50 years one family-member suffers from an extreme change in personality.

There is also a story of an ancient hideout in a cave nearby. Is there an association?

Possibilities

1 The family has always bred strong dreamers, and a long time ago they created an access to the dreamlands in the cave. This door leads to the enchanted wood, wherein family-members are welcomed by the Zoog. This secret is passed on from one door-keeper to another. (The ability to physically enter the dreamlands is a closely guarded secret.)

The change in personality occurs when the door-keeper hands over to a new keeper. The new door-keeper, upon experiencing the dreamlands, becomes more filial, is happier, lets loose of covenants, but gains friends, and has wonderful fairy tales to tell.

2 The family was once genetically altered by the mi-go (the cave is an entrance to one of their mines). It is written in the family’s genetic constitution, that one family member guards the cave.

When the existing guard dies (normally of old age), then the genetic manipulation kicks in, affecting one of the existing family members who then retreat to a cabin near the cave where they remain on guard for the rest of their life.

3 One of the ancestors made a contract with Yog-Sothoth, he refused to bring the appropriate victim and so the Key and the Gate cursed the family. Every fifty years he absorbs one of the family.

Every fifty years one of the family dies of an unknown disease, which leaves their body mummified glistening like mother of pearls.

In a secret corner of the family’s hideout is the heritage, which provides the means to the end of this horror.

© Jochen Koltermann

Cult Classic

Andrew Garesford, an acquaintance of the characters that lives in a college town, describes an unusual film he has heard is carried at a video store catering to serious cinephiles. The film, called “Christwhore,” is a blasphemous underground work filmed in grainy black-and-white film stock and is about an hour-and-a-half long.

The film chronicles the misadventures of a deformed being of indeterminate gender that wanders through a deserted wasteland populated by shanty towns of unhealthy-looking people. The creature is raped, abused and generally mistreated during a variety of repellent episodes scattered throughout the film. At one point, a miscreant prostitutes the creature to a horde of Commanchero-like bandits. The creature is eventually crucified and pelted with faeces by relatively normal people.

Garesford rents the film out for his friends to watch. The film is located in a dark corner of the store’s basement, which houses the bulk of its shelf space.

After everyone watches the film, Garesford casually mentions an employee at the store that spoke with him. The employee, who has an interest in the occult, seemed to take an interest in his choice of rental.

Garesford later disappears. A casual investigation of the store reveals that “Christwhore” is no longer on the shelf. The store has no record of having ever owned it.

Possibilities

1 “Christwhore” is actually a documentary produced in the future by a time traveller who wants to make a martyr of its “star” and build a religious faith around him. The filmmaker and his accomplices are covertly circulating the film in the present day to build an environment favouring their eventual plans. Regardless of the outcome of any investigation, the characters will lose all memory of the events (other than the disappearance of Garesford) as the result of covert meddling with the flow of time.

2 Garesford has entered an uncharted realm in the Dreamlands. The tape is something he accidentally brought back with him while it was in the form of a book. The viewing of the tape, which does not actually exist in the waking world, occurred in a dream inside the collective unconsciousness of Garesford and the characters.

3 Garesford has met foul play at the hands of a ‘cult’ (actually just a couple of deluded people) who has read a deeper meaning into the film and have stolen it. The film’s disappearance is the work of the odd employee at the store, who used his professional relationship with the store owner to acquire a copy of the rare film and then steal it. The film’s director, who is harmless, has since made it to mainstream Hollywood and directed a big screen thriller that flopped with critics and audiences.

© Brian Woodman