Tales of Terror 1996 - contents

An Apology

Blown Glass G W Thomas
The Wall of Bones Helen Rich
Images of Doom Simon Taylor
A Discarded Parcel Hadley Connor
Grave Tidings Shannon Appel
The Book of Sand Charles Ross
The Tattoo Steve Hatherley
Dirty Curtain Ric Norton
High Fashion Eamon Honan
Suitable For Framing Bill Dietze
The Grainger Street Plates Lynne Wilson
Pest Trouble Allen Varney
The Scarecrow Hadley Connor
A Turn of Fate Joe Louderback
Buzzing Simon Taylor
The Hungry Woods Robin Low
The Mirror of Blood Charles Ross
Empty Streets Markus Huenemoerder
Birthday Presence Pete Wright
Cats Lynne Wilson
Pussy's in the Well Jon Freeman
The Desecration Hadley Connor
Unnatural Behaviour Steve Hatherley
Cop Killers Vince Vatter
City Fear Simon Taylor
Spaceman Eamon Honan
Mr Feste's Old Curiosity Shop Garrie Hall
The Last Carriage Robin Low
Strategic Industries M J Aylor
Virus Steve Hatherley
The City in the Skull Matthew Grossman
Safely Behind Bars Hadley Connor
The Odin Disc Charles Ross
Little Death Steve Hatherley
End of the World M J Aylor
The Fatted Calf Simon Taylor
Small Things Forgotten Bill Dietze
Man's Best Friend Pete Wright
The Weeping Madonna Ric Norton
Fear and Amnesia Matthew Grossman
Peverill Manor Steve Hatherley
Sylvia Charles Ross
Pharos Hadley Connor
Ghost Train G W Thomas
The Phennor Fragments Robin Low
Spare Some Change? Jon Freeman
Loving Spoonful Ric Norton
Fluke Charles Ross
Jenny Beckett's Ghost Lynne Wilson
From the (Spaces Between) Stars Hadley Connor
The Carpet Steve Hatherley
Ghost in the Machine Markus Huenemoerder
Period Pains Simon Taylor
Stray Cat Strut Garrie Hall
Drinking in the Blues Eamon Honan
Book of Bones Allen Varney

Introduction to Tales of Terror 1996

An Apology

The constant demands of inventive investigators can strain even experienced Keepers to breaking point. Strange avenues of research, odd characters to follow, distractions and red herrings; investigators are always going where no Keeper ever expected them to. It's no surprise to see harassed Keepers plundering published scenarios, hunting for ideas and titbits to be cannibalised and converted.

Tales of Terror was created to fill this niche; a showcase of ideas, thoughts and flashes of inspiration - ready for use. Each Tale is a scenario idea stripped clean of dead meat, rotting statistics and wretched prose.

Well, that was the original idea. That was (I think) going through my head seven years ago, when I edited the first Tales of Terror collection. That was a long time ago and I vowed never to do another.

But the monster will not die. Tales of Terror currently lives on in the pages of The Unspeakable Oath and has now spawned a second edition, the book you are reading.

While I am not sure if Tales of Terror succeeds in its original brief, it has produced an interesting effect. While many scenarios (and this is especially true of campaigns) are Earth-shattering romps of cosmic significance, most Tales tend to be quite the opposite, concentrating on the personal horror and quieter weirdness encountered by our poor heroes.

If scenarios are analogous to horror novels (and campaigns to multi-book epics), that makes the humble Tale of Terror a short story. And while I enjoy horror novels, it has always been short stories that send shivers down my spine. Hopefully, when you drop these Tales on your poor unsuspecting players, they will feel equally unsettled.

Above all, this collection is yours to do what you will. Adapt them, twist them, steal them. But most of all, please use them.

Steve Hatherley

(This is the introduction to the 1996 Tales of Terror collection.) 

Suitable for Framing

Danielle Cartwright has recently inherited a portrait from the estate of her grandmother’s brother. Cartwright was not close and thought it rather odd to be remembered by the deceased. The portrait is of a nondescript man and is set in a large, ornate frame. It is dated nearly 70 years ago, but there is no author’s signature. While the painting is no Rembrandt, it is not a bad work of art either.

Pleased with the picture, Cartwright hangs it in an out of the way place in her home. As the days pass, however, she begins to feel uncomfortable and gets the impression that the painting is watching her. As the days pass, this feeling becomes more and more oppressive; the feeling remains even when she is not in the same room at the painting.

Finally, one night, there is a crash in the room where the picture is hanging. Rushing into the room, Cartwright finds the painting undamaged and lying on the floor. The screw holding the hanging wire to the back of the painting has come undone, causing the heavy painting to fall. Cartwright is now convinced that there is something unusual about the painting.

Preliminary research concerning her deceased relative reveals little that might be construed as unusual or occult in nature. However, Cartwright discovers that she was not specifically listed in the inheritance. Instead, its original inheritor passed it off to another family member after only a few days, who then passed it to another, until the painting came to her. The other family members cannot give a clear reason for passing the painting on, other than they did not like it.

Possibilities

1 There is nothing wrong with the painting. The portrait’s eyes have been superbly rendered, and the rest is Cartwright’s imagination. Unfortunately, she is now obsessed with the painting and refuses to believe that it is normal.

2 During Pickman’s early years he was forced to paint over finished works when there was not enough money to purchase more canvas. The portrait is one which was commissioned by Danielle Cartwright’s great-great-great uncle during Pickman’s early period. While the present portrait has no unique qualities of its own, what lies beneath is an original, and truly horrifying, Pickman masterpiece.

Careful examination of the portrait reveals a painting beneath it, and careful restoration reveals the original in its full, cruel and grisly glory.

3 The painting is similar to the portrait in Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray,’ and absorbs any physical damage done to the owner of the painting. As weeks progress, the portrait slowly changes to take on the likeness of the new owner. Once this is completed (in about a year’s time), Cartwright realizes the painting’s true nature. Old age and any damage is reflected in the painting, while Cartwright remains unharmed. The portrait displays injuries very graphically - and seeing it slowly causes Cartwright to lose grip on her sanity. Destroying the portrait returns all damage to Cartwright, probably killing her.

© Bill Dietze

Spaceman

There are strange lights in the hills near the investigators home, strange pulsing beams reflecting off the clouds and casting ghostly images on the sky above.

Strangers, hippies and other weirdos begin to appear in town, driving through in flower-painted Volkswagen buses to pick up groceries before setting off again. There are never many of them, no more than half-a-dozen at a time, but more seem to be coming every day.

In the hills is a cluttered campsite accommodating about fifty people. The inhabitants are friendly, but strangely reticent about what has brought them here, only saying that something of importance will be happening in a few days.

They all seem perfectly happy and mentally healthy. At night they set up a large strobe-light machine and gather around it wearing masks (these masks are large card constructions like the heads of the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Most of them partake of hallucinogens to “enhance” the feeling of standing around the strobe light.

Possibilities

1 Mi-Go, through their human slaves, have spread rumours among the “alternative” community that aliens are going to land nearby and are to be greeted by “Enlightened Ones.” The Mi-Go wish to acquire several brains from that part of human society, for strange and alien purposes.

The Mi-Go leave behind them fifty corpses; men, women and children. The tops of their skulls have been removed and their brains are missing. A few are untouched and one drug-crazed survivor remains to tell his tale to the world.

2 The hippies are destined to wait in vain, until complaints from local people about littering and strange noises at night cause the police to move in and make several arrests. The group, dispirited and more than a little disappointed, moves on. All except for Mad Eddy, a solitary dope smoker who claims to have seen “the Great Ones”. He becomes a hermit and lives in the hills for several years.

3 One night the hills are lit by a very bright light – the following morning the hippies have gone. All that remains are scorch marks and crop circles.

© Eamon Honan

Strategic Industries

Plattsmouth: A small rural town not too far from a city and military base. Plattsmouth has been growing lately because of its proximity to the “big city.” Because of this, some dark secrets are starting to come to light. Strange rumors, odd news articles, unusual happenings, and details of missing people have started to emerge. The unfriendly (if not downright hostile) townsfolk are silent and have done everything possible to keep newcomers out.

Enter Strategic Industries, a company founded by retired Army and Air Force personnel. Due to reductions in military spending, many people opted for retirement rather than moving. Some of the more enterprising retirees founded Strategic Industries and hired displaced civil servants and former military personnel. The company develops what it expects will be the “strategic” technologies of the future. It is a think-tank rather than an actual manufacturer. The company performs research and development, then sells the designs and plans to other companies.

Strategic Industries is looking to build a new office in Plattsmouth. The inhabitants are fighting it for the unwelcome attention it would bring to the town. The company views the development as bringing commerce to a town that has otherwise stagnated.

This initially appears to be a company versus town conflict, but there is something else going on underneath: missing people and strange unexplained events.

Possibilities

1 Plattsmouth is dominated by cultists performing blasphemous rituals in the hills and woods around town. They are the inbred descendants of Mi-Go experiments that have crossbred with human settlers. The investigators must pick apart the company-town conflict which hides Plattsmouth’s real secret.

Complicating matters are a number of people in Plattsmouth who know nothing about the cult but are against Strategic Industries’ expansion on principle.

2 The problem is actually Strategic Industries. They have created the incidences in Plattsmouth for a number of reasons: to draw attention from themselves, to drive property values down, to make themselves look like victims and strengthen their case to open a new office.

There is nothing supernatural happening at all, it is merely a clever sham perpetrated by faceless corporate suits.

3 Strategic Industries is actually controlled by cultists trying to reach the Great Old Ones and their minions at Hades. They have been researching the magical technology of the elder things in hope of bringing them back.

Cult-dominated Plattsmouth is located near several important sites - temples and the like. Strategic Industries want access to these sites to further their research. Unfortunately, the cult presently occupying Plattsmouth resents the intrusions and a cult war is developing.

© M J Aylor

Pussy's in the Well

Sasha Oldman is an attractive young woman, although she looks older and sadder than 15, her actual age. She has wild, dark hair and her left forearm, where it rests on the bed covers, bears many parallel scars.

“She did that with a drinking glass last time she got out of her room,” explains the nurse on seeing your eyes linger. “The doctor lost his eye. But don’t worry, she’s heavily sedated now.”

Sasha’s eyes are deep hazel in colour, but are dead, staring at the wall. Her face is immobile. You know she killed her family a year ago. She was found in the street with a kitchen knife in each hand, spattered with blood. There was more in the house, a lot more. Mother, father, and brother. All stabbed and slashed repeatedly.

You talk to her, she makes no response. If you discuss her family she hums Bohemian Rhapsody and avoids your eyes. The more insistent you are, the louder she hums, and jerks against her waist restraint. If you show a picture of her family she goes wild, screaming lots of gibberish, “They made me do it, bad fucking fuckers! Ding Dong Dell! Fuck fuck! Bad lights in the dark down below! Can’t run! Not me now. Jack and Jill all fall DOWN!”

By the last sentence her voice is inhuman. Spittle flies from her lips and her face becomes a mask of hatred.

Possibilities

1 Sasha and her family were cultists, who practiced foul rites and disposed of human remains in their basement well. Sasha was driven over the edge by what she witnessed and in a subconscious attempt to escape the cult and her memories, slaughtered her own family. She knows that the rest of the cult still exists and that someone will try to silence her. The investigators, in attempting to help Sasha or uncover the cult’s activities, themselves become the target of supernatural and mundane attacks.

2 Sasha’s home lies on top of an ancient well used by an old cult. Spirits infest the place and Sasha’s brother accidentally released their malevolence when he discovered the well. Sasha was possessed (and still is) when her brother showed her the “cool stuff” he found in the basement.

Exorcism is Sasha’s only hope, but to perform it the investigators must battle the institution authorities, cultists and the possessed Sasha herself.

3 Below Sasha’s home, below their basement well, lies some kind of subterranean cavern or extra-dimensional realm. Sasha’s brother inadvertently destroyed the elder sign sealing the entrance and whatever was trapped entered the house and quickly tore everything and everyone apart. Sasha defended herself and family as best she could, losing her mind in the process.

So what happened to whatever Sasha’s brother released? And where is it now?

© Jon Freeman

Pharos

Talon Rock – a small island barely a mile across, seemingly untouched by the defiling hand of humanity. The islet serves as an example of the purity of nature; birds wheel in the clear sky while the land is covered by a rampant growth of lush, tropical plant-life and a series of natural peaks. The island is also responsible for sending hundreds to their doom. Talon Rock is known to sailors as “Mariner’s Bane” on account of the many vessels that have been forcibly split apart by the keenly-pointed reefs that border its coastline.

Two months ago – in an attempt to prevent any further loss of life – a lighthouse was built atop one of the island’s peaks; a final warning of Talon Rock’s proximity. A crew of four men were selected to live in the lighthouse and be responsible for its maintenance and continued operation.

Recently, a vessel was sent to Talon Rock to replenish the lighthouse’s supplies. However, upon approaching the lighthouse the crew saw that some unknown force had wrought considerable damage to the exterior. Advancing to the interior, they found evidence of further devastation: papers had been torn to shreds; machinery disassembled; crockery smashed; and drawers thrown open, their contents strewn throughout the lighthouse. No trace could be found of the brave men who had chosen to live upon the rock in almost complete isolation from the rest of humanity.

A careful investigation yields no clue as to the crew’s eventual fate but one item of interest is discovered stuffed beneath a mattress - the senior keeper’s logbook. It contains only seven entries - the first week on Talon Rock. The last entry mentions a great storm approaching the Rock and the keeper’s feeling that they were being scrutinised by a nameless observer.

Possibilities

1 Legend has it that the dead walk on Talon Rock. This is not true; the bodies of the dead have been relentlessly broken upon the crag-like reefs by the unceasing tide. Their minds, however, live on. Talon Rock is now home to a gestalt entity - the amalgamation of all those who met violent ends beneath the islands savage waters.

The insubstantial entity is usually content to roam the island serenely, its presence unnoticed by the living creatures that also dwell there. Even the arrival of the lighthouse keepers went unregarded. Only one thing causes the pooled minds to act in unison - turbulent waters. During the storm the waters became incredibly violent, reminding many of the merged personalities of their own demise. The entity was envious of the lighthouse’s illuminating presence since such a beacon could have prevented the passing of so many previous victims. It struck at the lighthouse, tearing it apart with its wraith-like claws. The crew, believing their foe to be some form of poltergeist, fled the lighthouse and tried to leave the island in the emergency lifeboat. Like so many before them, they were claimed by the murky depths.

2 For countless generations, mariners have sought to steer clear of Talon Rock for fear of losing control of their vessels to the tempestuous waters and being mercilessly driven against the harshly-angled rocks. In reality, very few ships have been destroyed in this way. The actual cause lies far beneath the ever-shifting currents.

A small community of deep-ones inhabit the waters surrounding Talon Rock. They rarely frequent the world above except when performing rituals of devotion to Great Cthulhu or when raiding the ships that pass too close to the island for trinkets or victims for sacrifice.

The deep-ones initially assaulted the lighthouse simply to destroy the beacon which they believed would discourage shipping. However, while within the structure they plundered it for anything of the slightest interest. The four lighthouse keepers were dragged from their home and ritually sacrificed.

The deep-ones seek to keep Talon Rock free of human influence. Any attempt to repair the lighthouse will be met with aggression.

3 At the dawn of time, numerous wars occurred between varying interstellar races for the domination of the planet Earth. One such conflict was between the technologically superior, but less aggressive Yithians and the rapacious conquerors known simply as flying polyps. The Great Race forced their adversaries underground and built great cities atop all the exits - leaving their foes trapped within the Earth. Eventually the polypoids escaped and renewed their assault upon their conical foes. Their vengeance exacted, the polyps returned to their former prison and constructed vast underground cities.

An entrance to one of the polyps’ subterranean cities is located at the base of Talon Rock’s peaks. Even now that ageless elder-race still lurks deep within the Earth, far from the inquisitive eyes of humanity. The polyps viewed the lighthouse as an outpost of an enemy species. Such an outpost could not be permitted so close to their city’s entrance. Under the cover of the storm, the polyps annihilated their enemies.

The polyps also began to destroy the lighthouse until they ascertained its function. Human engineers from the supply vessel now marvel at the amendments made to the lighthouse’s internal components, the lamp now projects a narrow ray of light - more powerful than that of any Terran mechanism. However, the engineers are perplexed as to why the lamp no longer rotates but is instead mounted in a fixed direction. The impossibly dazzling ray now blazes through an aperture in the apex of the tower - and beyond into the uncharted tracts of space. What sinister powers could this beacon be signalling?

© Hadley Connor

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

Man's Best Friend

A dog can be a loyal companion in trying times. One of the investigators has a dog – as a faithful guardian, a reliable tracker, and someone he can always trust. Today, however, there appears to be something wrong - as the investigator comes downstairs, it stands in the hall, growling up at him. It doesn’t seem to want to come upstairs, but won’t let him go down.

Possibilities

1 The dog was scratching around in nearby woods a few days ago when it unearthed a Traveller larva, swallowed it and was possessed. The alien’s ship fell to Earth in an asteroid shower a centuries ago and this entity has only recently been disturbed by the dog’s digging.

The Traveller now seeks a more suitable host and wants to trap the human upstairs until it can attack more effectively - though it has control of the dog and could reanimate it if killed, it cannot yet make the special filament attacks typical of mature Travellers.

Meanwhile, the investigator might recall that the dog has been acting peculiar since going for a run in the woods a few days ago.

2 A sadistic serial-killer attacked the investigator last night and died, but the shans that controlled him simply flew into the investigator’s brain. It made him dump the body and then blanked his memory of the event. The dog can detect the creature, but does not wish to hurt its master.

By day, when the alien sleeps, the investigator notices gaps in his memory (such as not recalling anything in the papers about a serial-killer before, though it has been a lead story for weeks) and small clues that the shans has not yet had time to twist. By night, the alien is active, editing memories and making him kill sadistically, starting with the dog. It even adds memories from previous homicidal hosts, although the investigator’s friends have ready alibis for him in most of those cases.

3 The dog is trying to warn its master to stay upstairs – the centre of the kitchen floor is starting to subside, and the faint scrapings and slippages have distressed the animal all night. A little weight or a little more decay reveals that this part of the house was built over an old well. After many years, dampness in the shaft has decayed the capstone, resulting in subsidence.

On examination this shaft is found to be quite dry – the capstone has been chipped away from beneath until it collapsed. At the bottom of the well are piles of bones. Most are those of children, but those at the top of the pile belong to an adult. Research discovers that the local landowner was thrown into this well after it was discovered that he cast children into it as sacrifices to his dark god. By night, the sorcerer’s skeleton scales the walls to chip away at the stone used to seal him in.

© Pete Wright

High Fashion

It’s been happening for several months now. Mannequins in stores are a little less thin and aristocratic, their feature’s rougher, their mouths wider. In advertising the same thing is happening: shorter, wider, coarser. The tall, thin look that has been the western ideal for years is finally going out of fashion.

Of course, there are opponents to the style, remaining faithful to the old concept of beauty. However, most work in the business is going to those models, actresses and actors that have the “new look.”

Possibilities

1 The change is due to deep one agents infiltrating the fashion and beauty industry with human-looking hybrids. These agents are attempting to change perception of what is beautiful, thus making it easier for human-deep one hybrids to infiltrate human society.

2 A lone, once beautiful, deep one hybrid is beginning to change. Terrified by her warping body, she frantically tries to change the human idea of beauty to fit her own image. To do this she is promoting her own look and through the strategic use of magic is winning industry over to her side.

Tragically she takes her own life before the change is complete. Without her driving force behind the movement, the style dies out and the old concept of beauty is reinstated.

3 It is just another fad, which will be forgotten within the year. In later days people look back on the “short ‘n’ pug-ugly” period with some amazement. Any resemblance that the models have to deep ones is entirely coincidental.

© Eamon Honan

Grave Tidings

The investigators are begged to come to a small, isolated, backwater town by a native of the area, who relates an intriguing tale of dark forces.

He explains that for the last year a ghostly gravedigger has haunted his town. The gravedigger’s presence is mainly known by the freshly dug graves which are discovered in the town graveyard every few months. However, on two occasions, residents of the town have seen some manner of ghostly apparition working through the night in the graveyard. Neither resident stayed long enough to take a close look.

Whenever a new grave appears in the graveyard, someone dies in the town within a week. Thus, the ominous appearance of a new grave terrifies the townsfolk. One person at a time, the town is being destroyed.

The investigators won’t be told the townspeople’s unfortunate reaction to these occult events. At first, they remained within their houses whenever a new grave appeared, each hoping to hide from fate. However, recently, things have taken a more violent turn. The last few times a new grave appeared, the townsfolk began to murder each other, in order to ensure that the grave has an occupant.

The night that the investigators arrive in town, a new grave appears, forcing the investigators to deal with murderous townspeople as well as the force at the centre of the mystery.

Possibilities

1 The ghostly gravedigger is truly a restless spirit. In life, he was Robert Took, who was the mortician for the town half-a-century ago. However, he did not respect his job, or the clients that he cared for, and thus he frequently buried several people in the same grave, to save time, and often omitted gravestones and coffins because it seemed financially sound to do so. After he died, Took’s wrongdoing gnawed away at him, and so he has returned to do a proper job, digging a new grave whenever someone is destined to die.

Took is not malicious, but his presence has affected the town itself. He only digs a grave when he senses that a death is to occur, but recently his digging graves has become the impetus for those deaths.

If Robert Took’s wrongs can be undone, he will finally be able to rest. This will require finding out about Took, perhaps by consulting records or speaking with the ghost itself, and then repairing them. This will likely result in the grisly task of digging up most of the graveyard, and reburying the corpses properly.

2 The ghostly gravedigger is a spirit, but it has been purposefully raised by a group of malicious cultists. A group naming itself the Black Circle operates out of an abandoned house near to the graveyard. When they began to worship the Black Man, they found a need for sacrifices. They raised the spirit of a dead mortician, and whenever they needed a sacrifice for the Black Man, they would dig a fresh grave, and then make sure that someone died before week’s end.

So far, the cultist’s plan has gone perfectly. Several people have seen the ghostly gravedigger, and thus added credence to the existence of a genuine supernatural phenomena. The recent, murderous actions of the townspeople have pleased the cultists immensely, for the townspeople are now doing half their work for them.

If the cultists are dealt with, the ghostly gravedigger returns to his just rest, for it is only their necromantic rituals which tie him to this world.

3 The ghostly gravedigger is a holographic projection placed by the mi-go. Last year, the unearthly insects discovered an immensely valuable vein of minerals beneath the town. Unfortunately, its location made it impossible for the mi-go to mine it in secret. They were afraid to destroy the town because they knew that such an action would not go unnoticed, and that they would be driven away before they could mine more than the smallest fraction of the minerals.

So, the mi-go began a campaign of terror to force the humans to abandon the town. Every few months, they would dig a grave, and then ensure that there was a body to fill it within the next week. Twice, they used alien holographic techniques to allow townspeople to see the ghostly gravedigger. They understood the superstitious mindset of the townspeople well, and very soon, the legends of the ghostly gravedigger had taken on a life of their own.

If the mi-go can be driven away, the appearances of the apparition will end, and, perhaps, the town will return to normal.

© Shannon Appel

Fear and Amnesia

You think you are being haunted. Small objects are not where you left them, and you feel like you are being watched. You even dread stepping around corners and looking in mirrors. This is disturbing enough, but there is more.

You think you are suffering from amnesia. You cannot remember conversations that your friends say took place. You have been seen doing things that you have no memory of and would certainly not ordinarily do. Handwritten notes turn up, which you are certain you never wrote.

Are you haunted or are you losing your mind?

Possibilities

1 The peculiar events all have mythos links. Case notes are tampered with, artefacts moved. Sometimes clues appear, sometimes evidence vanishes. It does not make sense.

You are haunted by the ghost of a recently deceased investigator. This ghost does not possess any consciousness; it is merely “psychic residue” trying to fight the never-ending fight. In order to continue the battle against the mythos it occasionally
possesses your body to manipulate events, thus causing your periods of amnesia.

The ghost is occasionally helpful in an investigation, sometimes providing an important clue. However, it is equally likely to draw wrong conclusions and chase red herrings.

2 Meddling in strange magics, unknowable entities and alien intelligences can have unpredictable effects. You are being gradually displaced from reality by a doppelganger, or double. Two copies of you are trying to exist at the same place and time.

As time has passed, the doppelganger has grown strong, and has created a material body. This materialises from time to time - and when it does, you cease to exist. Eventually the double tires and its body dissipates (so you and your double are never seen together).

You obviously have no memory of the doppelganger’s deeds, because you didn’t do them. Unless you get help the doppelganger will eventually replace you completely. Oddly the doppelganger is equally confused and believes itself to be haunted . . .

3 You really are mad. Pushed to the limit one time too many, your mental defences have collapsed, releasing your evil thoughts and desires. Worse, due to the unearthly energies you have been exposed to, these have been given an independent existence, creating a mental entity composed of malice.

While you continue with your life, this “shadow” tries to destroy those people and things that you care the most about. Although unable to exert much physical strength (moving a small object such as a pen is about its limit), the shadow influences people’s memories, thus manipulating others to further your destruction.

© Matthew Grossman

From the (Spaces Between) Stars

Two-thirty a.m. is a time when town is quiet, save only for the quick footfalls of a stray wanderer, swiftly heading for home. The investigators have just rounded off a successful evening of cards and are bidding their host a good morning.

Suddenly, the peace is broken by an ear-piercing roar as a crepuscular shape hurtles through the sky leaving a phosphorescent haze trailing behind it. The object’s path of descent sends it hurtling into the clouded depths of the town’s lake. Residents stagger from their houses and before long a crowd has gathered at the lake’s edge. Onlookers can discern a nebulous, viridian glow spreading beneath the surface of the water; it pulses regularly like the rhythmic pounding of a giant heartbeat.

The following morning, the meteor (the most accepted explanation) has become the focus of all conversations. One man speculates that perhaps H.G.Wells’ Martians were not purely the work of fiction. Another speaks of a terrible discovery made by the town fishermen. The lake’s aquatic denizens are dead. The corpses drift across the surface of the water yet bear no mark of injury. If tested, the lake now registers radioactivity.

Possibilities

1 Many of the townsfolk have made frenzied calls to the authorities, eliciting an unexpected response; that evening a full military task force mobilises on the edge of town. The lake and surrounding area is cordoned off, the guards equipped with firearms. The military begin a systematic evacuation of the town; complaints are ignored. The inhabitants are warned not to speak to anyone about their memory of the preceding night. All photographs pertaining to the object (even those of the glowing lake or dead fish) are confiscated. A full news blackout of the event has been imposed upon news stations. The military has threatened to revoke their licences if any details of the event are transmitted.

Depending upon who they approach, the investigators receive contradictory information. The object could be described as any of the following: a simple meteorite, an advertisement balloon, a parachutist or a foreign explosive device (or any other equally implausible explanation).

Just what are the military hiding? How does it involve the “meteorite”?

2 The lake now houses an invader, a being that feeds upon life itself, a Colour Out of Space.

The Colour, like so many of its race, has crossed the cosmos in search of a world capable of sustaining its near-insatiable appetite. After countless years of wandering it finally discovered the Earth. In order to avoid the sun’s impeding rays, the creature made its descent under the cover of darkness. It now resides on the lake’s bed, hidden from the sun’s rays by a murky, liquid shroud.

The creature hunts by night. Since the lake has now been drained of food it will leave the water’s protection and seek sustenance beyond. While quite content to feed on the abundant undergrowth, it will attack any humans who approach it or try to harm it. The Colour spends the daylight hours drilling into the lake’s bed forming a narrow tunnel, when this is complete it will create the embryonic spheres in which to house its young.

3 At some point in humanity’s recent history the Earth became home to a small group of the parasitic Shan (aka The Insects from Shaggai). The Shan race had already colonised many worlds, both throughout and beyond our solar system. Their next target was to be the Earth. They were instead trapped upon it, unable to teleport away due to a mysterious element in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The “meteor” is a Shan scout-vessel. The Shan have deduced that their teleportation-temples will not function and have sent a spacecraft (powered by the pilot’s psychokinetic capability).

The pilot has two objectives: firstly, it must reclaim one of the indestructible teleportation-temples that lies abandoned and forgotten at the base of the lake; secondly, it must assess the Earth’s potential for invasion. The first night will be spent loading the pyramid aboard its vessel, subsequent nights will find the creature leaving the lake and assessing humanity’s strength.

If the creature believes that the Earth would be a suitable target for invasion it will activate a beacon. That night, the sky will be filled with the falling "meteors", that blaze one-by-one into the lake’s irradiated waters.

© Hadley Connor

The Book of Sand

Very little is known about this volume, but what is known has been reconstructed from fragmentary notes left behind by Dr Anthony Walker (Curator of Sanskrit Manuscripts at the British Museum). Dr Walker vanished from his London home, with the book, a month after his return from India. He had bought the book from an illiterate untouchable for a handful of rupees and a Bible, on the outskirts of Bikaner at the edge of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan.

The book is of octavo size, thick, and bound in cloth. The book has been heavily handled, and the cover and pages are worn and stained. On the spine are the words ‘Holy Writ’ and, underneath, ‘Bombay’. The book is unusually heavy.

The pages are laid out in double columns, as in a Bible, with a tightly printed but typographically crude text ordered by verses. The pages are numbered in the upper corners and out of sequence. The language is unfamiliar.

The Book of Sand is so titled because its pages, like sand grains, are infinite. It is impossible to find the first or last page, for example. Similarly, it is impossible to try to find the same page twice (even with a bookmark) despite the, albeit arbitrary, page numbering.

Possibilities

1 The Book of Sand contains the cursed soul of a sorcerer; the more you read, the more of your personality is absorbed by the book. Worse, the more you read, the more addictive it becomes, until your soul and mind are trapped within the book. When this happens, the sorcerer takes control of your body - providing The Book of Sand remains nearby.

The sorcerer is depraved and immediately plunges into an orgy of sensual pleasure. Eventually, the host dies and the sorcerer is trapped once more in the book.

Several months after Dr Walker’s disappearance he is discovered dead, with the book lying nearby.

2 The book was taken from the Great Library of Celaeno by a philosopher-yogin from a Tibetan monastery at Chamdo, at the head of the Mekong River. From there it was taken to the Cave of Scorpions at the Potala in Lhasa, where it remained for 200 years until it was looted by a Sepoy in the 1903-1904 Younghusband expedition to Tibet. From him, it was stolen by an Indian fakir who, driven mad by the book, eventually sold it to Dr Walker.

The book contains references assembled by the Great Race of Yith concerning the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the information can only be accessed by Yithian mental command, otherwise only random pages are accessed. The pages are, of course, still valuable – once you can read Yithian.

The Great Race want the book back. In an attempt to retrieve it, one of the Great Race possessed Dr Walker and is now constructing a time machine to return the book to its owners.

3 The book is one of Nyarlathotep’s avatars. Most of the time it is inert, simply a book - albeit one with peculiar properties. The knowledge it contains is terrible indeed: Nyarlathotep’s perception of reality. Translating it is a perilous course. Descriptions of many of Nyarlathotep’s 1,000 avatars are included in the text.

Occasionally, Nyarlathotep occupies his avatar. The book lurches madly, savagely biting the fingers of anyone holding it, and erupting in a mass of wildly flailing tentacles. The thing then leaps into the air and vanishes, leaving behind only a few torn pages.

This was the fate of Dr Walker - he was unfortunate enough to be holding the book when Nyarlathotep appeared, and was dragged with the Outer God when it vanished. The book, meanwhile, turns up later . . .

Inspired by The Book of Sand, by Jorge Luis Borges.

© Charles Ross

The Desecration

Two weeks ago Mr Andrew O’Vel died of a heart-attack. He was buried soon after in his town’s churchyard. Twelve days later Mr O’Vel’s relatives issued orders for the body to be exhumed and transported to their private cemetery. However, during transit an accident caused Mr O’Vel’s coffin to break open. To the driver’s horror the corpse was missing its head!

The resulting investigation reveals that Mr O’Vel’s grave was not the only one to have been desecrated. A total of thirty-seven decapitated bodies have been uncovered, all having been buried during the last two years. The undertaker claims that the bodies were intact when they were placed within their caskets, and this is confirmed by the parish minister.

Police believe that the heads were severed after their burial, but can offer no motive for the brutal and inhumane acts.

Possibilities

1 For the last two years the churchyard has regularly received unwelcome nocturnal visitors. On each occasion the four intruders - equipped with spades, knives and chains - have unearthed a coffin, dragged it free of its resting place and cleft the head free of the unresisting corpse.

Those responsible believe that their work will eventually benefit mankind. They are scientists who - having mastered the reanimation of the body (with the help of the notes of Dr Herbert West) - now seek to reanimate the brain. Their foul experiments are conducted in a small laboratory located in the basement of their accommodation.

2 From an early age no-one understood James Miller, but this was only natural since he didn’t understand himself. At the age of seven he was placed into a rehabilitation institution. He remained there for twenty-two years, taking no interest in the world around him.

Then, three years ago, he received his first visitor – a tall, lean, black-skinned man. The two talked for many hours and the stranger finally left upon the insistence of the asylum’s senior director, but not before promising James that he would return.

James in the meantime, began to show an unprecedented change in his attitude. The following week at exactly the same time, the black man again visited. This continued for many months during which time James’ condition showed obvious signs of improvement. Finally he was considered fit to rejoin society and discharged. The evening before James was due to leave, the Black man visited one final time. The staff were surprised that he only stayed for five minutes; just long enough, he claimed, to offer a “parting gift”.

The following day James went to live in a small town and examined his gift - a fine parchment scroll. The scroll contained instructions for a ritual which allows the caster to “transcend his mortal form”. In order for the spell to be successful the caster must have ingested a total of forty human brains.

Over the last two years, James has dug up thirty-seven corpses, removed the head and - in the comfort of his own home - digested the brain. He only needs to consume three more brains before the metamorphosis occurs. If he succeeds a Hunting Horror bursts from the now-useless human shell; only then will James Miller become a true servant of Nyarlathotep.

3 The police are mistaken; the bodies had already been beheaded prior to their burial. Reverend Matthew Thompson is responsible. Almost two years ago he received a visit from a group of Mi-Go who requested his aid to help obtain dead human brain-tissue for experimental surgery. He refused.

The Mi-Go retaliated by connecting him to a machine that planted false experiences into his mind - experiences that he believed had really occurred. Consequently, the reverend now remembers receiving a divine visitation telling him to aid the Mi-Go. The Mi-Go have retained their control by implanting the experience of further visitations whenever his resolve weakened.

The reverend was unnerved by the recent discovery, and subsequent investigation, of the decollated corpses. He pleaded with the Mi-Go to cease their relentless demands, at least until the current investigation was closed. They refused. The reverend is now suspicious and has begun to doubt the nature of his “visitations”. The Mi-Go are aware that they can no longer rely on him and the next beheaded corpse may be wearing a clergyman’s habit.

© Hadley Connor

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

The Mirror of Blood

The Mirror of Blood is a spell; the basic ingredients are an ounce of benzoin (an aromatic gum), coriander seeds, and some fresh human blood. It requires two people to cast it. The viewer cups his hand, upon which the caster cuts a glyph, enough to draw blood, and the hollow then fills with blood. As the viewer looks at his reflection, the benzoin and seeds are burnt and the reflection turns into a scrying window. The viewer can nominate whatever he wishes to see, which he need not have direct experience of. To maintain the image requires more blood.

The mirror shows broad vistas rather than details, and it becomes blurred
if the focus is too narrow.

If the mirror is used too often, the viewer suddenly sees ‘the Man with the Mask’. He may previously have been half-glimpsed in the background, and although his dress changes according to locality, he is always masked. This time, he is at the front of the scene, staring straight at the viewer.

The masked man is Hastur, summoned by the use of the spell; as he takes off his mask, the effect on the viewer is horrific: skin bubbles and festers, as do internal organs, until the body swells up and bursts. So die all who presume upon the King.

Possibilities

1 The players find quite detailed instructions on how to cast the spell in a modern, quasi-mystical, book. While the rest of the book is obscure rubbish, this dangerous spell obviously works.

2 The Stars are Right, and the time of Hastur’s permanent release from Carcosa draws near. Over the coming months his worshippers will become more active, and portents of Hastur will multiply; the effect of this spell, though terrifying and strange, is merely an indication of things to come.

3 If the spell is used at night and Aldebaran is over the horizon, then after the horrific death of the viewer, something more horrific yet happens; the corpse rapidly begins to distend and become scaly, while the limbs become tentacular, and the face distorts into pseudopods; Hastur has come to occupy his avatar. In his own way, he is grateful to the caster of the spell for allowing his return to Earth; grateful enough, if the caster is still present, to take him back to the Lake of Hali. Eventually.

Inspired by The Mirror of Ink by Jorge Luis Borges.

© Charles Ross

The Last Carriage

During an overnight rail journey the train unexpectedly slows and stops at a small station shortly after midnight. Passengers who are still awake are politely informed that supplies are being collected. Although it is dark, the station looks to be old and in a state of disrepair. A damaged sign reveals only part of the station’s name. Nobody is seen outside the train, but passengers in the penultimate carriage hear clanking noises towards the end of the train, followed by a slight jolt. After about 15 minutes the train resumes its journey.

The next day when the train reaches its destination, observant passengers note that nobody leaves the last carriage.

Possibilities

1 The railway staff are part of a cult serving a small tribe of ghouls using the disused station as a base. The train stops at night and the final carriage is replaced with an empty one. The guards are brutally efficient in silencing non-sleeping passengers in the final carriage. Most passengers are destined for the ghouls’ dinner table, but a few are to become ghouls themselves.

2 The occupants of the last carriage were taken over by the Great Race of Yith who, when fleeing the Flying Polyps, chose to spend time in the present. Rather than move directly among mankind, they have chosen to hide themselves away for a short time and learn about the world. They are currently living in the abandoned station, aided by human allies.

3 The unfortunate occupants of the last carriage have become the victims of a cult obsessed with youth and beauty. Gas rendered them unconscious and they are now prisoners at the station. During the next full moon, the cult sacrifices the prisoners, using Steal Life to regain their lost youth.

© Robin Low

Jenny Beckett’s Ghost

Whilst travelling late one night by car, the investigators spot a shadowy figure by the side of the road as it enters a wood. A young woman paces backwards and forwards and looking in their direction. She seems to be wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather. Should the investigators stop to help, the young woman vanishes before their eyes.

If the investigators are in such a rush that they drive right past, at the last moment the woman steps in front of the car, seemingly unaware. There is no impact, no crash, no body bouncing across the windscreen. When the investigators’ skid to a halt they find no body, nor any evidence of one.

Instead, all they find is a small stone dedicated to the memory of Jenny Beckett sitting in the verge.

Further investigation reveals that Jenny Beckett was murdered at the roadside on the night of June 21st, 1826. The killer, Arthur Langton, was caught and hung, but reports of Jenny’s ghost soon became common. A local gypsy pronounced that unless a special inscribed stone was set to remember her death, then Jenny would continue to haunt that stretch of road.

Once the stone was put in place, the ghost vanished. The stone was blessed by the gypsy and inscribed thus: “To the memory of Jenny Backett, that her soul may rest in peace and she need wander no more”.

Now, however, it seems that Jenny Beckett is haunting the road once more, and it is not long before she causes a fatal accident.

Possibilities

1 Recently, road repairs have been carried out, and the road widened. The stone was taken up during the repairs and then replaced. Unfortunately, to be truly effective it needs to be blessed by a gypsy again.

2 Jenny’s ghost is waiting still for the man she was meant to meet at that spot – Thomas Longstock, her sweetheart. Jenny’s ghost appears sporadically in the area of her death and always around the time of the murder.

The gypsy was only partly right about the stone, which in itself is not enough to lay the ghost to rest. That can only be done by placing something that belonged to Thomas Longstock beneath the stone, no easy task considering he’s been dead for many years.

3 Michael L. Withers is the great-grandson of the man hanged for Jenny’s murder. His family has always maintained that Arthur did not commit the crime, but the Langton family were forced to leave the area after the hanging. Michael was always an impressionable boy and his grandmother’s stories have sent him to the scene of the crime.

© Lynne Wilson