The Miracle

A weird character in the news has come to the attention of an investigator. It will most likely be a sceptical and cynic investigator, or one compelled to believe that kind of news.

The news, it turns out, deals with a person that seems to have stigmata that match those suffered by Jesus Christ on the cross, according to Catholic Mythology. The man, one Jacobo Lewis from Haiti, seems to have injuries on his hands, feet and side that match those famous wounds. These wounds keep bleeding, but apparently never get infected. People are told to have healed after he touches them, especially those with blood diseases, although none have been documented. Also weird is the fact that Jacobo is 30 years old, the same age Jesus was when he started preaching.

What has the religious community in an uproar is that Jacobo is black, and definitely not a Christian but a practicer of voodoo. He says the wounds were inflicted on him by the Loa of his tribe, as a reminder of his human frailty, and so he could spread the word.

Possibilities

1 Jacobo is, of course, a fake. The people he has been said to heal are healed by their own faith, just as a lot of people get sick when they believe they are. Most likely, those people weren’t even sick.

2 The man from Nazareth was an avatar of the Crawling Chaos. The reason why we don’t know anything about his life from his early years until his 30, is because at that point, he hadn’t been contacted by the Nyarlathotep, and therefore wasn’t important. The Black Man tried to recruit him when he is said to have been tempted in the desert, but he went mad and believed he was the Messiah. Given his newly found powers, that wasn’t hard to do. Now, more than 1900 years after that, Nyarlathotep is willing to try again with the son of a mortal woman. Jacobo might dream about “past lives”, which are previous avatars, and by those means, the players can find out the truth.

3 The Loa did contact Jacobo and inflicted the wounds. Unfortunately for him, the alleged Loa is a vampire, too weak to fully return from his resting place. He was in life a sorcerer and is trying to attract a cult to the place. Then he will control Jacobo to slaughter them all, so with the strength given by their blood he may return.

© Ricardo J. Mendez

The Hellfire Club

The Hellfire Club dominates the summit of Montpelier Hill ten miles south of Dublin city. This substantial ruin was originally built in 1720 as a hunting lodge by William Conolly, the speaker of the Irish parliament. After his death, it passed into the hands of the eponymous “Hellfire Club”. The club, based on a suppressed English antecedent, was founded in Athy, Co. Kildare, in the 1730s by Richard Parsons (a.k.a. Jack St Leger), the first Earl of Rosse, and a humorous painter called Worsdale. The members of the Hellfire Club were rakes and rowdy fops. They met in the Eagle Tavern on Dames Street in the city centre. As their name suggests they were rumoured to practice black magic. Reputable historians acknowledge that these stories have a basis in fact.

Possibilities

1 The Hellfire Club did indeed carry out black masses and orgies on Montpelier Hill. However they had no mythos knowledge and merely used satanic regalia to spice up their bawdy drinking sessions.

2 The Hellfire Club worshipped ancient Cthugha. When Conolly built the lodge a ‘fairy cairn’ was broken. It was actually a huge Elder Sign placed there thousands of years before to trap a swarm of Fire Vampires. When the Hellfire Club (which was at that time a bunch of drunken fakers) encountered these horrific beings they were seduced to the worship of Cthugha.

On one famous visit to Montpelier Hill the clubsmen set fire to the lodge whilst carousing within! Tradition claims that this was a wager to see who could survive the flames of Hell longest. This is incorrect. The fire occured when the cult summoned their master inside the stone-vaulted lodge.

Though the club disappeared in the 1740s the Fire Vampires are still alive, and hungry.

3 The club was a branch of a suppressed English Nyarlathotep cult. Several times, locals gained small hints of the club’s dark deeds. On one occasion, a wandering priest stumbled upon the Club during a macabre Bacchanalia and was forced to look on. The centre of attention was a huge black cat. Breaking free from his captors the cleric grabbed the cat and uttered an exorcism which tore the beast apart. A demon shot up from its corpse. Hurtling through the roof it brought down the ceiling and scattered the assembly. On another occasion, Tom Conolly of Castletown is said to have met the devil in the form of a ‘black man’ in the lodge’s dinning room.

After the death of its founder in 1741 the club became inactive but the cult continued, with the 2nd Earl of Rosse as its leader. It was with Nyarlathotep’s help that William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse built ‘the Parsonstown Leviathan’ in 1845. This huge telescope (which was dismantled in 1908) was the largest of its kind until 1917. Though the Irish climate is completely unsuitable for serious astronomy Rosse discovered the spiral nature of other galaxies, the Crab Nebula and the greater nebula in Orion with this miraculous instrument. It’s unknown whether his sons: Laurence, the 4th Earl (an astronomer) and Charles (a British inventor who died in 1931) were involved in the cult, which has today spread throughout the English speaking world.

© Andrew Behan

The Gift

An investigator quite unexpectedly gains super-human abilities: his muscles grow, thicken and strengthen, he becomes a speed-reader, he finds all his five senses enhanced, and he can perform incredible feats of skill. If he has a chance to find out, he is also very difficult to injure, as his body seems to easily absorb many types of kinetic energy.

Possibilities

1 Nyarlathotep is meddling again. Instead of sending one of his many forms to spread mayhem, he decided to literally play god by enhancing several individuals’ abilities beyond human ken. He means serious fun though - he has also bestowed upon several religious cults the divine message that his saints walk the Earth once again. If the character shows off in public any of his amazing skills, he will be sought out by one of these groups, who will appropriate him as their Divine Messenger. At the same time, more Divine Messengers will appear, and inevitably some will go public. A clash of cults is imminent.

2 It is a gift - of sorts. Some stars are right, and a race of beings from a distant star has opened a gate to Earth - their seasonal hunting ground. As they find that human beings are generally frail and not that challenging to hunt, each hunter picks one target to be enhanced. These beings are normally invisible - but the enhanced character will now be able to see them. The alien appears after a few days and then gives chase.

3 It is a delusion. The character is not stronger, not smarter, and cannot suddenly read Braille or distinguish five brands of Root Beer by taste. His sudden overconfidence is entirely misplaced, and if he persists in this belief, he will get into major trouble. This might be an effect of lasting sanity loss, or a curse by a fiendish sorcerer. This condition, when noticed, is very disturbing to everybody else. “Look at me fly!”

© Felix Girke

The Dinner Party

Kenneth Marsh is an eccentric traveller, writer, critic and dilettante whose frequent dinner parties are the talk of the town. Avaricious socialites shamelessly pursue invitations to these cosmopolitan events. Guests come from all social backgrounds and are chosen by Marsh for their idiosyncrasies and entertainment potential. Madonna Scarlatti, a stage actress, and Samuel Waldeberg, a would-be movie star, are among the guests this evening.

After a starter of superb herb and garlic pate, the main course appears, an ‘unusual fish dish’. The guests joke nervously, hoping that it is not calamari; a previous guest had an attack upon learning that she had eaten sauteed baby octopus. “One simply couldn’t live with the thought of eating tentacles!”

Marsh tucks in and everyone slowly follows his example. The main course is excellent. A rich chocolate and coffee pudding is the sweet, to be followed by coffee, brandy and cigars. Marsh, a radical, does not expect the ladies to retire whilst the men smoke.

Conversation turns to the host’s recent travels. Marsh returned recently from the Orient with, amongst other curios, a number of live specimens of a rare genus of venomous catfish. Marsh maintains extensive salt and freshwater aquaria. These catfish have bred extensively in the last few months; the guests have just eaten a few of them.

The Lung-Hung catfish are found only in the precincts of a Cantonese temple to a many-armed female ‘Bhudda’, referred to as The Bloated Woman. The fish are considered sacred as, reputedly, they can heal dermatitis sufferers who bathe in their pool. Marsh does not elaborate on how he obtained live specimens although there was a Reuters article on a riot in Shanghai a few months ago.

Suddenly, Marsh begins to choke. His eyes bulge, he turns purple, and he slumps face-down into his coffee.

Possibilities

1   The cook, Jules Severin, didn’t know how to prepare the fish. He sought the advice of a kindly yellow-robed Chinese herbalist monk who was collecting donations door-to-door. The monk’s recipe deliberately didn’t account for the poison sacs within the fish. Marsh sampled the dish yesterday and ate it again tonight. He has died first. Within 24 hours, all the guests will be dead.

Marsh has an extensive collection of journals in which he relates the tales of the Lung-Hung Catfish as learned from a ‘flower girl’ in Shanghai. There is a small temple in Chinatown, guarded closely by the Order of The Bloated Woman. The monks know of the antidote. It only remains for someone to fetch it in time.

2 Shelby the butler checks Marsh and declares him alive. Then Waldeberg collapses theatrically to the floor with severe cramps; he daringly had two helpings of the main course.

In normal humans the catfish venom causes cramps and fever which may kill those with a weak constitution. On Deep One hybrids the venom speeds the transformation process dramatically. The catfish can feed on dead flesh of humans, and are kept specifically for useon the moulting flesh of such hybrids. This is the background to the tales concerning their healing properties.

Marsh, unknowingly, can trace his family history to Innsmouth. He is in a coma from which he will awake in a few days, a good way through the transformation to a Deep One. Grinning Orientals hide in the bushes outside the window. They await the incapacitation of the guests. They will take Marsh to his true people and kidnap then sacrifice the defilers of the sacred fish.

3 Marsh was poisoned by Madonna Scarlatti, who sits to his left. She used an antique Italian poison ring to slip a lethal dose of cyanide into his dessert.

Marsh and Scarlatti are ex-lovers. He savaged her recent appearance as Lady Macbeth but invited her as a way of apologising for being too harsh. Hell hath no fury...

© Peter Devlin

The Anachronomicon

A sensational find has been announced in a leading bibliographical journal - a book was discovered in the archives of a German family by one Professor Hasburg of the University of Munich. The book has been reliably dated using physical methods to the early 11th century. It is written in three languages - Latin, Arabic and Akkadian, the language of the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian Empires, which was thought to have died out in the 1st Millennium BCE and was not rediscovered until the late 19th century. While the find is largely denounced as a hoax, the scientific support for its veracity is considerable.

Possibilities

1 The human race will not dominate the earth forever. Humankind will be succeeded by an alien race that we would find horrific to behold; a race far more accomplished than our own. Their remote ancestors in our own time have not yet discovered Earth, but our planet presents a rare opportunity for them, as it can be transformed with relative ease to the conditions they require. The Anachronomicon has been sent from the future by their descendents to help them to realise this destiny. It contains rituals that will alert the present members of the race to the presence of humanity and grant them passage across the cosmos. They have used their limited knowledge of human history to prepare the manuscript in the three human languages of which most knowledge has survived into the far future. The anachronistic dating is a result of the stress of time-travel on the material of the book, and small inconsistencies between the results of available dating methods are apparent upon closer examination.

2 From the Latin text, the tome appears to have been written by Giordano Nola, an 11th century Benedictine monk. In the seventh century, a pious young girl called Dymphna was possessed by a Yithian, one of a race of creatures from the distant past who send their minds travelling through time by taking possession of human minds. Usually, they erase all memories of this possession from the minds of their victims, but this particular Yithian was careless. The memories were enough to drive Dymphna mad. For her trials and the strange events surrounding her life, she was later recognised by the Catholic Church as a saint, patron of the insane. Some hundreds of years later, the fingerbone of St Dymphna was held as a sacred relic in the monastery in the care of Giordano Nola. This connection drew him to the attention of the Yithian that had caused St Dymphna’s legendary insanity in the first place. Nola was able to record some of the creature’s memories before being overwhelmed like Dymphna before him.

3 The book is a hoax. Hasburg, a disciple of Nyarlothotep, had found a mainly empty book from the 11th century and created the Anachronomicon from it using his specialist knowledge. His intent is to disseminate the Akkadian writings - Hasburg feels that a controversial tome will receive more attention than a simple discovery, hence the Anachronomicon. The writings contain a hypnotic image, which is being used to recruit experts in ancient languages in order to perform a ritual which will summon Nyarlothotep in his pure form.

Copyright (c) 2001 Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

Sage Advice

At some point in their lives, investigators will have to look to a reputed scholar of arcane lore for advice on their current predicament. Jean Le Strange is one such man. But how do you approach such a man for assistance? And what will be the price for that assistance?

Born in Paris (or Alsace Lorraine, or Cairo), reputedly during the Revolution, Jean Le Strange is a figure of some notoriety, due mainly to his outre religious and philosophical beliefs. He is said to have inspired works such as “La Bas”, has given guest lectures to the Golden Dawn, made an enemy of Dietrich Eckhart, has been denounced by the Vatican, and has been studied and debunked by the Society for Psychical Research. Independently wealthy, he maintains elegant homes in a number of cities across the globe, furnished with many rare curios and pieces of art. He is a combination of scholarly recluse and Gallic playboy.

Apparent age 37. Height 6’1”. Weight 178 pounds. Slim athletic physique, narrow hips, wide shoulders. Tanned. Short dark hair oiled and combed back. Gallic nose and strong chin. Dresses in dark, rich, sombre, classic, fashionable suits made of silk or wool, white cotton or silk shirts, crimson silk ties, patent leather or suede Chelsea boots, and a dark fedora. Carries an ebony cane concealing a rapier. Speaks many languages with a soft, educated French accent. Smokes Turkish cigarettes and drinks only rich red wines.

Possibilities

1 Le Strange is a sorcerer of considerable power, knowledgeable in the ways of the Mythos and its creatures. He is on intimate terms with The Black Man (Nyarlathotep), who has granted him much of his power, and his position on the ruling council of the Illuminati (or whichever organization is appropriate for your campaign). He acts as a lethal lure for those who have enough knowledge to be dangerous. His great age is attributable to both his dark sorceries and his skill as a deceiver and manipulator.

When the investigators contact him he becomes a mysterious, reserved patron, and will aid them for some months. At some point he will unexpectedly enter a scenario to which he is ostensibly unrelated (e.g. as confidant of a certain high priest of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh) and reveal the investigators to the bad guys. He is always guarded by a permanently bound Star Vampire (or two), which has had many years of feedings on foolish investigators during which to wax powerful and become difficult to dismiss.

2 Le Strange is a sorcerer of considerable power who has yet to be seduced totally by the Mythos. When PCs contact him (after establishing a relationship), he is evasive and distant. He is suffering from a severe and odd form of somnambulence. During his “attacks” he cruises the city streets in a large black saloon, engages an escort for the evening, returns to his home, kills her horribly, then dumps the body. He remembers only short fragments which he attributes to nightmares induced by his studies. Astute investigators should stumble across the pattern of slain prostitutes in the world’s fashionable cities, e.g. Paris, Venice, London, New York. This is the secret of his great age as his victims’ life force feeds both him and his personal demon. Those who can help him will make a useful friend, but he will then begin to age normally. Those who follow him at night will bite off more than they can comfortably chew.

3 Le Strange is a well-preserved scholar with more than a passing knowledge of the Mythos. His background is a combination of rumour, a pinch of truth, and a lot of fantasy. However, his occult collection is real. His latest acquisition during his travels is an ornate blue crystal bottle (9 inches tall, 4-inch diameter base, fluted and stoppered, sealed with lead), purchased at an exorbitant price at Sothebys in London.

It is reputed to have once been the possession of John Dee. When investigators visit Le Strange, his extensive house will be empty. In the large parquet floored study is the expected library, with a paper-littered desk and comfy chairs. There is also a wooden pedestal similar to a flat lectern but with nothing on it. On the floor is a fine sand which will crunch under the investigator’s foot. Looking closely will show that it is very fine powdered blue glass. Looking even closer will reveal the “burst” pattern which it appears to have. The floor beneath the wooden pedestal is mainly sand-free. What exactly was in that bottle? Where is the owner? What’s that noise?

(Thanks to David Drake, author of the novel Dagger, published by Ace, for option 3.)

© Peter Devlin

Return of the King

A minibus carrying tourists picks up a hitch-hiker late in the evening on the road to Las Vegas. The tourists aren’t able to get a good look at the stranger , but they are left with the impression of a tall, dark and handsome middle-aged man.

Image by artflow.ai

Over the following days the tourists start seeing glimpses of this man at the casinos, shopping outlets, wedding chapels, and Hoover Dam. It is as if he is shadowing them. The tourists grow increasingly nervous particularly after one of them goes missing while trying to chase after this mysterious figure.

Possibilities

1 The stranger is Elvis. Plagued by health problems he struck a bargain with Nyarlathotep and in exchange for some terrible deed he was given immortality. However, he needs to periodically feed from the life force of humans in order to live. He usually takes his victims from the Las Vegas area, but often ventures to other parts of the US and the world, thus causing the numerous Elvis sightings in the last 20 years. The tourists are being stalked and drained of their energy and this will eventually result in death.

2 The stranger is an Elvis impersonator. There is an unpublicised Elvis convention in town and the tourists are glimpsing Elvis impersonators and are growing paranoid for no good reason. The missing tourist is merely lost, and turns up eventually.

3 The stranger is a harmless wraith-like figure that bears a striking resemblance to Elvis. It keeps hitching rides into the city with strangers and then follows them around, but always at a distance.

© Paulo Rech

Latin Course

This takes place after the investigators have found a book written in Latin - a language they don’t already master. Therefore they need to learn Latin before they can read the ancient book. As luck would have it, there’s a Latin course held at the local university. The course is taken by Professor Donald Brown, an elderly man with a strange accent.

Image by artflow.ai

Possibilities

1 Donald Brown is a sorcerer from Hungary. The locals discovered his Mythos activities and poisoned him. He survived but was partly paralyzed and managed to escaped to the USA. As a professor of Latin, it was easy for him to get a job at the university. The class also gives him opportunity to meet young people with healthy bodies. He now plans on finding someone with a weak mind and perform a mind transfer to get a new healthy young body.

2 One of the other students is Timothy Lyman, a young dilettante. He is taking the course to improve his Latin, as his present skill in the language was not sufficient to read a newly-bought book. The book, however, is written by Nyarlathotep and contains a spell that will summon Azathoth. Once someone has begun reading the book, they are compelled to complete it and cast the spell. If they does not do this then Nyarlathotep sends dreams to the reader, forcing him to finish the task. The dreams describe how anyone casting the spell will be greatly rewarded by the Deamon Sultan. Unknown to Lyman, however, summoning Azathoth resembles detonating a nuclear bomb.

3 The investigators feel unwelcome. It is as if the rest of the class (including the professor) is keeping a secret from them. The truth is that the whole class is a cult, and the lecturer is the high priest. Nobody actually learns Latin during the lectures (instead Latin cult phrases are repeated and learned by rote). The investigators have been placed in this class by mistake - will they discover the mistake before they are abducted and sacrificed at the next sabbath?

© Nicolai E Lassen

I see a bird. No, wait . . . a byakhee!

An alienist from central Europe has recently moved into town. His reputation among the well-to-do profits from the developments of European psychoanalysis (Jung, Adler, Freud), and his references are spotless. Many successful treatments of upper-class patients spread the word, and soon he becomes known only as Doctor Blue, for his therapy of choice is the inkblot test.

After half a year, though, many former patients start to exhibit homicidal and suicidal behaviour, and disappear. These apparently unrelated incidents are mostly covered up. Any suspicions take a while to emerge. Has an investigator been treated?

Possibilities

1 It’s in the shapes of the inkblots. He doesn’t use random shapes; his base set was designed by his Egyptian assistant (Nyarlathotep), who worked for him back in Europe. Checking for this person reveals that he disappeared near Gizeh three years ago. The homicides and suicides committed by the former patients all relate to clichéd Egyptian motives: Buried alive, suffocated in cloth, bitten by an asp, ritual sacrifice...

2 It’s in the ink. The doctor once found a strange squid-like creature while beachcombing, felt compelled to take it home, and has been using it to produce ink ever since. Handling the ink, and working with the inkblots can spread the Innsmouth taint. The doctor has escaped the taint so far, but his doom is inevitable. When he finally disappears, what happens with the sea spawn?

3 Doctor Blue is a cultist and a “Revanchist”. He feels that Americans (or whoever) must be punished for their role in the great war. His carefully designed inkblots contain fractal images of Daoloth. Their full effect only manifests after several months, affording the illusion of successful cure. Several months, that is, unless someone expands them into full images of Daoloth - in which case the full effect takes place in seconds.

© Felix Girke

Highway to Hell

A car has been causing some problems for its drivers. It drives normally until out public view, then breaks through dimensional barriers and into other universes. So far each of its owners has driven stubbornly onward through the universes in shock and terror until they revert back to Earth after one mile. Then they leave it by the roadside. It always ends back in the city.

Image by artflow.ai

Possibilities

1 A cultist owned the car, and used a spell that allowed him to phase in and out of reality. He disappeared after an unfortunate run-in with an otherworldly entity.

2 Through choice or force, a dimensional shambler is bound to the car and has been unable to break free of its magical bonds. It keeps trying, though.

3 Nyarlathotep has been having some fun with his new mask, driving insane its various owners.

© Sterling Olson

The Vase of Sands

The investigators are approached by an elderly Egyptian Gentleman who says that a very valuable vase containing the ashes of his father have been stolen from his home in Bristol. The man himself is a silk merchant and his shipping business uses Bristol as a port to import his wares. He will pay handsomely for the return of the vase. But he will warn them not to look into the vase, for that would allow evil spirits to pollute the sanctity of his ancestors ashes. To retrieve it, the investigators will have to do a bit of classic investigation to find the vase.

Image from Artflow.ai

Possibilities

1 The elderly man is none other than Nyarlathotep, and the vase contains the Key of Sands, the only way to unlock the secrets of the lost city of Leng. If Nyarlathotep recovers this key then he will be able to return to Leng, and bring the Earth on step closer to being under the thrall of the Great Old Ones. He himself cannot retrieve the vase since it is protected from his and the eyes of his servants. Only a good person may see the Vase of Sands.

2 Well it is a vase with ashes. Ok. But instead of holding the ashes of the mans ancestors, it holds the essential salts of the evil magical Kneph-Ra. If the elderly man, who is none other than the magicians Great-Great Grandson, gets the ashes he will attempt to bring Kneph-Ra back to life, but will require a blood sacrifice to do it.

3 The vase contains not ashes at all, but diamonds. The man is a diamond smuggler and will be perfectly capable of killing those who have looked into the vase.

© Rik Kershaw

WHEL

A local radio station has just changed its format from country and western to hard rock. They have been wildly successful. Shirts bearing the WHEL logo have spread across town and investigators can hear the station blaring from cars city-wide. During this same period, acts of random violence have increased dramatically during the hours from 1am to 4am.

Incidents of beatings, muggings and rape have taken an unbelievable upswing. The police force has been placed on city-wide alert and the media has been in an uproar.

Possibilities

1 The two phenomena are unrelated. The radio station is just a radio station, the acts of violence are being committed by a gang operating out of the seedier side of town.

2 The radio station is a front for a sinister experiment in mind control. A local psychologist and physicist got together to conduct a simple experiment in auditory stimulation and mood elevation. Their results were staggering and attracted government attention. Now under the control of a government organization involved with black operations, these two men are being forced to experiment on a larger scale, the populace of a city. From 11pm to midnight, the station sends out a low modulated tone underneath their regular broadcast. This tone increases the propensity for violent actions in individuals with violent tendencies. The government will continue this experiment for another two weeks before moving to a different station elsewhere to experiment with a different series of tones.

3 The station has been acquired by the leader of a cult of Nyarlathotep. This large cult is scattered across the town, throughout the social strata. They have been waiting for a sign for years to begin a concentrated assault against the city, believing that if they can cause riots and mass panic, then their god will appear. Due to certain worldwide events, the cult leader believes the time is now. He is using the station to send coded messages to his followers between 11pm and midnight. The cultists then go out and sow the seeds of discord. The number and level of the atrocities will increase over time, culminating in daylight bombings of several public buildings and civic leaders' assassinations on the same day.

© Matt Cowger

The Lion Kills Tonight

The zoo has a new attraction: a rare specimen of an African mountain lion. The lion was the pet of the deceased Mayor Templeton, who brought him back from Africa and, since he had no heirs, has been donated to the zoo.

The terror starts one morning when, after opening its gates, the zoo's visitors make a shocking discovery: the lion gnaws on a human forearm, covered in blood!

 Possibilities

1 After the first shock it seems that someone has played a terrible joke: the forearm isn't real. Instead it belongs to a window dummy and it's covered in ketchup. It seems that the lion likes ketchup.

2 The lion is more than just an ordinary lion - trapped in its body is the spirit of an evil witch doctor. During his time in Africa, the Mayor saw how (and was horrified by) the witch doctor would take possession of younger men to lengthen his (the witch doctor's) life. The Mayor tried to kill the witch doctor by shooting his new body, but the witch doctor escaped death by possessing the body of the nearest living creature, a lion pup.

Realizing, that the witch doctor's spirit was trapped, but that it was impossible to kill by conventional methods, the mayor took the pup with him and searched for occult ways to end the foul magic. The mayor never succeeded, and when the lion was left to the zoo they did not realise quite how dangerous it was. Now a keeper has been killed. Worse, putting the lion down might set the witch doctor's spirit free again.

3 The animal keeper accidentally left the the door open, so the lion could go hunting for its favourite meal - human flesh. The mayor himself fed it to the lion from an early age, mostly remnants of the victims of his circle of the African Cult of the Bloody Tongue, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. An autopsy of the lion will reveal a silver signet ring in its stomach. The ring belonged to one of the mayor's rivals, a rival who vanished under mysterious circumstances.

© Philipp Mählmann

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.

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

Bump in the Night

Mr. Harold Winfield was driving home after a long day of hard work. It was dark and the road to his home in the little town of Biltstone was badly lit, only by the full moon. As he was dozing off behind the wheel he didn’t notice the dark shape crossing the road. Mr. Winfield tried to avoid hitting the figure, to no avail. The humanoid form crashed into the screeching car and flew over it. Harold got out, thoroughly shocked he saw the victim (an old man) lying on the road, unconscious and bleeding heavily. He put the poor man in his car and raced towards the village. There, the old man was put under the care of Doctor White. After surviving the night, the man is now in a coma.

Yet, strange things are happening in Biltstone. Mr. Winfield went insane shortly after a visit to the old man at the hospital. Nurses and doctors often perform their surgeries and other tasks imperfectly, with horrible consequences. Patients are scarred for life because of incisions that weren’t even needed. Babies are born with sickening deformities...

Still the old man lies there, no relatives, only under the care of Doctor White, still in a coma. Dr. White becomes more and more reclusive and secretive.

Possibilities

1 The old man is a rare form of Nyarlathotep. It lets itself become wounded or hurt and then starts to terrorize the people who take care of it. Meanwhile, the caretakers are slowly becoming completely devoted to it, dedicating their whole lives to it. At the peak of this dedication (which even surpasses the greatest love), the old man dies, devastating the minds of the caretakers. Should anyone guess at its nature (for example asking him, while in coma: “Hey are you Nyarlathotep?”) he’ll slap them around a bit, when nobody’s watching, scream and moan, spit blood at them, and die.

2 The old man is a witch. He popped out of a gate and was hit by Mr. Winfield. Physically incapacitated, he cursed him and all his relatives (among them Dr. White and some other hospital employees, after all, Biltstone IS a small village).

3 Doctor White is a mad man. After finding some of Herbert West’s notes in the Miskatonic Library he decided to carry on with West’s experiments. With great success: Some of the employees of the hospital are living dead (hence the accidents during surgery and so forth). White intends to make the old man his Opus Magnum, during several operations (including some rituals) the old man will be enhanced with metal parts. He will then be resurrected and herald the coming of a new human race.

© Kars Alfrink

Bloody Mary

The investigation begins when a number of teenage girls are found to have been horribly murdered during a sleepover. Their bodies are found in a circle on the floor, around an old, circular mirror. Only one survived, and she has gone insane, endlessly repeating the words ‘Bloody Mary’.

Possibilities

1     The mirror is enchanted, and forms a gate to a distant world. It was enchanted by the distant ancestor of one of the girls and has remained in their family ever since. The weird visions occasionally glimpsed through it have given it a reputation for being haunted. When the girls performed the famous ‘Bloody Mary’ ritual game at the sleepover using the mirror, it attracted the attention of one of the planet’s inhabitants, who burst through and killed them, and has now taken a liking to Earth and developed a taste for its inhabitants...

2     The girls were performing a ritual from an internet site to contact a ‘spirit’. Unfortunately, this spirit was Nyarlathotep and when he appeared in the mirror several of the girls went insane and killed their friends and each other with kitchen knives.

3     The murders were committed by a psychopath who later strikes again, in each case recreating a well known urban legend with his killing. But witnesses descriptions suggest that a different man commits each crime, and this suggests paranormal involvement.

© James David Beard

New Guinea Football

In the mountains of New Guinea a number of violent tribes have been fighting a ritualistic war that has lasted for hundreds of years. The war consists mostly of skirmishes leading to injuries rather than fatalities (which are rare).

When anthropologists encountered the tribes they taught them European football to minimize the bloodshed. The skirmishes now only take place on the pitch, and each year the tribes gather for their football tournament.

Possibilities

1 The victims of the skirmishes were all ceremoniously thrown into a nearby lake that was home to a Dark Young. With the skirmishes replaced by a football tournament, the Dark Young is now hungry...

2 The ritualistic approach that the tribes took to the war meant that the fatalities that did occur were enough to keep a Servitor of the Outer Gods bound and imprisoned. With no more fatalities, the Servitor will soon be freed...

3 One of the anthropologists is using the tribes’ emotions, captured as part of the football tournament to summon the Outer God Nyarlathothep.

© Jochen Koltermann

BURN

The growth in information technology has made the dissemination of information very easy. However there is a price to pay for such easy access to information.

On the internet, there are a growing number of computer users falling prey to a new computer virus called BURN. This virus is so new that most anti-virus software companies do not yet know of it. It is also unlikely that anyone will survive to tell the story of its most unusual effects.

Astute students of Fortean lore may note an increasing unusual death rate amongst Net surfers, and there are always going to be upset parents. Media types, always hungry for a new angle on the Internet, will also make much of the rising tide of bodies, linking them to Internet pornography. 

Eventually the BURN virus can be traced (via assembly language code headers) to a compiler belonging to the Arkham Sanitarium. 

Howard Barker is a deranged hebephrenic psychology postgraduate from Miskatonic Uni who works as a ward assistant. Lately he has been spending a lot of time with the computers in the building.

Possibilities

1 The two variants of the BURN virus target Windows or Apple computers.

BURN is a Trojan virus which hides itself inside other applications then attaches itself to video card drivers. The next time the computer is booted up the virus causes the screen to pulse and strobe at a rate which hypnotises unfortunate onlookers or causes epileptic seizures.

Embedded into the strobing is the subliminal text message KILL - ENJOY. After 15 seconds the virus shuts down and is deleted the next time the computer is booted. Victims immediately become mindless killing machines and end up dead, either shot by police as they stroll through a shopping mall armed to the teeth, or take their own lives after cheerily slaughtering their family and friends.

Howard Barker is currently preparing his doctorial thesis on human psychological impulses and is testing a few of his assumptions before he submits his final paper.

2 The two BURN variants target sound card drivers, not video drivers. It causes the computer to produce an odd agglutinous chanting from the attached speakers. If the timing is correct (i.e. night and Fomalhaut is visible) the user will suddenly feel cold and tired, and a glowing ball will appear from the smoking remains of the computer.

The chant is a summoning spell for a Fire Vampire and the user has just lost the requisite magical energy to summon the beast. There are a large number of recent cases of people burnt to a cinder alongside their melted computers, causing the major PC companies to suspect hardware faults; none have been found so far.

The Fire Vampires, being balls of plasma, then run around the electrical circuits in the building causing major fires. In big computer installations the sprinklers/halon/CO2 extinguishers go off and the Fire Vampires usually get snuffed. Surviving security video footage from a nearby college campus may prove illuminating.

Howard Barker is a mad genius who got a number of such spells piecemeal from one of the inmates. Said inmate is John Doe #23 and has an unusual case history.

3 The BURN virus is slow and insidious. It subliminally flashes unpronouncable text messages on screen, essentially a Contact Nyarlathotep spell. It also adds a bookmark to web browsers. The address is that of the home page of the Starry Wisdom Brotherhood, a quasi-religious group who hold all kinds of odd beliefs. 

Nyarlathotep contacts the unfortunate victim via dreams or e-mail messages from an apparently non-existent mail address. The net result is that the victim is seduced by the Mythos and joins the Brotherhood. Eventually the sendings (dream or electronic) command the victim to prepare for a journey to the throne of the Ruler of the Universe and to prepare offerings. 

Howard Barker maintains the website and there is much circumstantial evidence pointing to him as the leader of the Brotherhood. Actually he is a front man and scapegoat for Dr. Eloise Whateley, a recent addition to the staff roster at the Sanitarium.

© Peter Devlin

Best-selling necktie

Philosophy major Andrew Cyrus Galbraith penned a runaway best-seller that made him internationally known. Too bad he’s not around to enjoy it.

An earlier collection of his essays had garnered critical acclaim for his striking new perspectives on old philosophical problems. However, Galbraith’s latest paper asked whether life had any meaning, and if not, then should you continue to live? His powerful thirty-page answer was no, life has no meaning outside of what we project on it, and no, we should not live through this absurdity. It was the most intelligent, convincing, solid argument ever written in favor of suicide. Simply titled You Should Do It, the paper also served as his own suicide note. Andrew tightened his necktie, secured the thick end of it to the cross-braces on his dorm window, and flung himself out.

His death was a minor news story the next day. It only drew world-wide attention two days later, after someone circulated the paper on the internet, and thousands of readers agreed with Galbraith’s tightly reasoned arguments, and began taking their own lives...

Possibilities

1 The paper is cursed. Galbraith undertook the Unspeakable Oath to accomplish this. Weak-willed people can be susceptible to suicide attempts if they read it. The curse can be cancelled, making all copies powerless, but only by seeking Galbraith’s ghost and allowing it to rest in peace by completing “unfinished business”. Whatever that may be.

2 The paper isn’t convincing. It’s actually a signal for members of a particular cult to sacrifice themselves en masse around the world, or killing many people in ways that look like suicide. The cult is using the sacrifices to summon something powerful - but what?

3 Galbraith’s paper really is that convincing. Shortly before the paper is published, a psychic has a vision of thousands of readers inspired to kill themselves if the paper becomes widely read. It can only be a matter of time before a priest of Nyarlathotep or other fiend publishes it on the internet.

© Rob Northrup

A Grave Situation

After going to bed one night in the hotel of a sleepy rural town, one of the investigators wakes up to find himself lying inside a padded coffin with air running out!

Possibilities

1 The investigator has been contacted by a Great Old One or Outer God (Nyarlathotep would work well), who has constructed a dream-trap for him in order to extract a service. As the investigator’s last gasps shudder through his body, he hears a whispering in his mind: ‘Serve me or die.’ If the investigator agrees, he awakens in his bed, covered in sweat, with a mind-numbing certainty that he will be contacted soon, and he won’t be able to refuse. If the investigator declines, he awakens in a similar manner, but certain that he has been marked for death by the god’s cult.

Either way, it is time to prepare for a brush with a god.

2 The investigator was drugged and kidnapped by a degenerate cult that worships ghouls. As an offering to the flesh-eaters, they have buried the investigator as a meal for their ‘underground gods.’ As the investigator begins to suffocate, a scratching noise occurs and great claws rend through the wood of the coffin and drag him down into a faintly lit cavern where he is surrounded by six hungry ghouls. Hopefully, his fellow investigators have figured out what is going on and are on their way.

3 The investigator died during the night from natural (or were they?) causes and has been resurrected by a local sorcerer to serve as his undead servant. Within moments after awakening, the coffin lid is pried open by the sorcerer. At first, the investigator is unable to do much except obey the sorcerer’s commands, but over time, when the sorcerer’s mind is on other things, the investigator can act on his own. He needs to break free soon, because the sorcerer is laying a deadly trap for the rest of the investigators, and his new servant is the bait.

© C C Chamberlin