The Cardiss Tapes

Shortly after the invention of film reels, land developer Donald Cardiss shot a series of homemade pornographic reels featuring his friends and his own wife. The films were made in Cardiss’ home for distribution among a close-knit circle of ‘cinema enthusiasts’, in semi-open defiance of the authorities while he was awaiting trial on an obscenity charge.

The contents wouldn’t be considered particularly racy by today’s standards, being spliced together from scenes of unattractive naked people staring at the camera in drink or opium-befuddled complacency or having unenthusiastic sex in twos and threes. The most interesting moment is when one woman who’s sampled too much of Cardiss’ inducements over-balances and slides right off her partner, knocking herself unconscious on a coffee table.

However, anyone who watches the reels and doesn’t get distracted by the bumping and grinding in the foreground will notice that set up behind the participants and carefully framed in every shot are a series of canvas dropcloths crudely painted with erotic symbols and other, less recognisable (and faintly disturbing) marks.

The making of the tapes contributed to Cardiss’ conviction on the obscenity charge, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. During his time behind bars, there were a series of unexplained deaths among his friends who watched the tapes. Cardiss himself seems to have had a change of heart during his time in prison -- upon his release he made a frantic effort to re-acquire and destroy all copies of the reels. However, he died of a heart attack before completing the job, and the Cardiss tapes are still out there.

Possibilities

1 The Cardiss home was situated in an area where another reality is close to intersecting with our own. The frequent use of drink, opium, and other perception-altering chemicals made the household’s members receptive to outside influences. The weird symbols on the backdrops in the reels are concepts and ideas from outside our universe.

The senders are so alien to our way of life that there’s no knowing what their intentions were, but in our world their message, when completely assembled by watching all the tapes, takes on actual physical shape -- it hatches in the form of a worm in the viewer’s brain, which slowly eats the surrounding flesh, driving the victim mad and eventually killing them.

Cardiss felt the worm hatch in his own brain, and spent his time in prison in the horrified knowledge that a parasite was slowly destroying his faculties. The re-acquisition of the tapes was an attempt to find a cure for himself, and stop the malady from spreading, but in the end, there wasn’t enough time left to him. Anyone who watches the complete series of tapes is in danger of suffering the same fate.

2 The symbols in the backdrops are just a distraction. Anyone who studies the tapes carefully will notice that there are occasional frames spliced into the reels which have nothing to do with pornography -- they’re texts copied from a magical tome venerating Y’Golonac and laying out the materials and method of casting spells peculiar to Y’Golonac’s cult.

However, one of the viewers who was a quicker study than the others transcribed the tome and began using its spells to murder his fellow cultists and potential rivals. Cardiss was unable to do anything about this while behind bars, but when released, he tracked down and confronted the killer. Three years without practicing had made his skills rusty enough to lose the fight, though. The other cultist and the remaining tomes-on-tape are still at large.

3 There is nothing unusual about the tapes, the weird symbols are just Cardiss’ idea of good cinema.

When his corrosive influence was removed, his wife Dorothea (who fell pregnant during the shoot) set about reinventing herself. She moved away with her infant son, concocted a fictitious background to protect her reputation, and married well. The destruction of the tapes was a peace offering made by Cardiss in an attempt at reconciliation, and the deaths were just Cardiss’ friends falling victim to their other vices.

However, Dorothea’s family can still be hurt if her past comes out. Their money is in a complicated series of legal trusts set up by a conservative religious ancestor, and the bulk of it will revert to another branch of the family if the line is revealed to include an illegitimate birth. If evidence of the her activities on film is made public, the trust’s executors will strip them of their rights as beneficiaries.

© Chris Kerr

The Mythos Collector

It is a stormy night. In an attempt to find shelter, the investigators enter an antique shop by the name of Bradshaw’s Curios. Bradshaw’s Curios is owned by Marshal Bradshaw, a withered old man. (In reality, Bradshaw is only 36 but he has experienced things that have agee him.) Bradshaw is obviously kind but if asked about the weather, he says, “Nice, is it not?” His mind is obviously shattered, and this only a hint of it.

The interior of Bradshaw’s Curios is filled with objects, artefacts and curios of the past and present. There is a flight of stairs at the far end of the shop leading up to a door.

Upon one wall there are five clay bas-reliefs. One is of a pulpy octopus head surmounting a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings (Great Cthulhu). Another shows a monstrous ever-shifting mass of protoplasm (a shoggoth).A third  is of a bloated, grotesque and headless human-like body, completely naked with orifices upon the palm of its hands (Y’Golanac).

One bas-relief is clearly different to the others, as it is more detailed and appears to be more recent. It shows a worm-like entity with tentacles upon its head that has been pierced by an odd crystal. The sides of the crystal are covered various symbols (among them the the Elder sign, the yellow sign, Y’Golonac’s symbols and others).

This bas-relief was carved by Bradshaw himself and shows a trapped and bound Cthonian - a scene Bradshaw saw in life. Due to the realistic like of said bas-relief the sanity loss is much more severe then any of the other statues.

One wall is covered with book shelves that are crammed with books and pamphlets. The collection includes a number of forbidden books: Necronomicon in Latin, Al-Azif in Arabic, the Book of Eibon in English, The Cthäat Aquadingen in German and more.

Possibilities

1 Using sorcery contained within one of the forbidden books, Bradshaw is able to create an illusion that brings the bas-reliefs to life.  Bradshaw does this to entertain himself - he doesn’t have a television or radio.

2 If Bradshaw perceives the investigators as a threat, he will excuse himself and retire upstairs. There he tries to summon a byhakee - but unfortunately the summoning goes wrong. The byahkee arrives, but is merely angered. It lashes out and kills Bradshaw before turning on the investigators.

3 The stairs are a powerful magical illusion. If anyone tries to climb them they fall through the seemingly solid “wall” and into caverns below the shop. The caverns are deep and almost endless - and somewhere down there is a Cthonian, trapped by a giant symbol-covered crystal... 

© Daniel Dunn

A Well-Respected Man

Newton Palmer is a pleasant and charming man who finds it easy to make friends no matter where he goes. Newton has gone from a sad and pitiable condition in his youth to a successful and well-regarded businessman. Through shrewd investing he has made a comfortable life for himself and his family and lives a life of luxury few could dream of.

Everybody likes Newton, and he personally knows many celebrities, and makes donations to many small charities. Newton is not famous himself and has built a built a wall of privacy around himself and his wife and young children. The only people who don’t really like Newton are the people who remember him as a sad and bitter wage worker, who Newton has snubbed off every time they have tried to contact him.

Possibilities

1 The real Newton Palmer is now dead. Palmer was once a down on his luck manic depressive. He had a thankless job at the offices of Rand, Webb and Sturgeon, a highly successful publishing firm run by the wealthy Patrick S Sturgeon. Sturgeon inherited the business, but it was insufficiently challenging for him. Sturgeon is a talented businessman, and a fantasist with a major ego problem and a determination to build a business on his own and away from the shadow of his father.

To this end, he decided to take on a new identity – that of a social misfit nobody would miss; Newton Palmer. After a faked helicopter accident, costly plastic surgery and a detailed study of Palmer’s life, Sturgeon killed Palmer and took over, quitting his job and using his skills to quickly rise in status, severing ties with Palmer’s family to avoid speculation.

2 Palmer worked for Rand, Webb and Sturgeon, a shell of a publishing company that had once been successful in the 50s but has been steadily declining ever since. Eventually Palmer’s job was cut, and the company went into liquidation, and Palmer drifted from one job to another. When he hit his lowest, he decided to take out his problems on the closed building of his old company. He broke in, using his position as a former security manager there, and started rooting around for things to steal but instead found a secret collection of books in the basement. Thinking them valuable, he took them home with him and started to read through them to assess their value.

Palmer had found a complete set of the Revelations of Glaaki, and he read of mysterious knowledge and dangerous rituals. However, upon reading Volume 12, he has contacted by the god Y’Golonac. The corpse god offered Palmer a choice; allow him to take over Palmer at certain times and he would have great fortune or be consumed alive. Palmer accepted, and found his fortunes increasing rapidly. However, Palmer is occasionally taken over by Y’Golonac without his knowledge, and the corpse god inflicts unspeakable things on his family. If he weren’t addicted to the thrill of power and control, he would have stopped himself long ago.

3 Palmer is a great success story but has relied on the all-too-human lure of crime to carry him to the top. He owes large amounts of money to various criminal organisations and is now struggling to pay off his debts. Out of frustration, a criminal named Robert Kime, who Palmer owes large amounts of money, has kidnapped Palmer’s wife and children. Palmer would do anything to get his family back, except of course, call the police.

© Paul Hebron

Images of Doom

An investigator is in an unfamiliar shopping district. The usual hubbub of shoppers seems slightly more restrained than one would expect. It is then that the investigator sees an old woman approach a young lady with a pram. The old woman coos delightedly at the baby in the pram. The mothers proprietary grin changes to a look of shock, then horror as the old woman reaches inside the pram, grabs the baby by its foot and swings it out of the pram dashing its brains open on a lamppost.

Stunned silence is followed by havoc as people rush to restrain the old lady. The mother is crouched on the floor with the remains of her baby cradled in her arms, humming a lullaby to herself as she rocks to and fro. The crowd loses all restraint as it rips the old woman apart, literally limb from limb. After this the crowd dissipates leaving the young mother swathed in blood and still singing quietly to her dead child. Of the mutilated old woman there is no sign except for masses of blood.

Possibilities

1 The investigator is experiencing horrific nightmares. It’s all a dream. As the week continues the investigator dreams of the old woman time and time again. Every time he sees her, she is committing an atrocity: mutilating animals, setting fire to people, torturing children, sexual perversions, and so on.

There seems to be no way out of this ever-deepening spiral of depravity – Is this the first sign of madness?

2 A worshipper of Nyarlathotep, Jackson Richards, has been having problems with a local woman with great experience of fighting cultists. Aware of the investigator’s previous experiences with cults, he has inflicted him with horrific images of this woman’s “activities”.

None of the events are real – they are all in the investigator’s mind. That doesn’t make them any less disturbing. When the investigator bumps into the old woman he “saw” earlier, his fear and repulsion should propel him into precipitous action against her.

To push him further along that path, Richards sends further images: the mint she pops into her mouth is a human eyeball; the sly looks she throws the investigator’s way; the strangely shaped, almost cloven, foot she hides beneath her dress. All these images should convince the investigator that action is required against this woman immediately.

If the woman is dealt with, Richards puts the second phase of his plan into action . . .

3 A nerve toxin has been released into the air by followers of Y’golonac. This toxin removes peoples’ inhibitions against violence. It takes some time to take effect and was released over a week ago in the town. The investigator, having only just arrived, is so far unaffected. The toxic effects get stronger and stronger until the town becomes a war zone.

Even if the investigator leaves town he will feel the effects of the toxin pretty soon.

© Simon Taylor

Period Pains

The investigator is used to occasional period pains, but never this bad. She is in absolute agony, feeling as though her insides are on fire. It started yesterday and the pain is just increasing and increasing. Intense bursts of pain alternate with incessant sharp, stabbing sensations. Unable to concentrate for any length of time and, at its worst, even unable to walk, she is finding it increasingly difficult to work. Sleep is possible (but only for short periods of time) but reading or anything that requires concentration is almost impossible. Her doctor has dismissed her complaints of higher levels of pain than usual as “Just a bit more severe than usual” and has prescribed painkillers that have no effect whatsoever.

Possibilities

1 The investigator is the victim of a devious cultist. Utilising ancient spells, she has created a non-physical manifestation of pain in the investigator which she is then tapping for her own means. She uses the psychic waves of agony to drive her attempts to summon Y’Golonac. The cessation of pain that precedes Y’Golonac’s arrival probably give the investigator great relief – until she realises what it portends.

2 The investigator has been impregnated by Shub Niggurath in its guise as the Ram of the Thousand Ewes. Nightmares soon begin, letting the investigator relive the moment of impregnation. If this doesn’t drive her to suicide, then she will soon give birth to a chitinous creature consisting of claws and fangs and little else. This creature burrows its way through the investigator’s abdomen, bursting out into the world in a spray of blood. After eviscerating the investigator, it flees to dank woodland where it grows to become a form of Dark Young.

3 During the few snatched moments of sleep the investigator’s dreams are filled with horrific images of blood and pain and unborn creatures mewling. Always waking in a cold sweat the feverous heat of her pain soon takes over. This constant swing of delirium takes its toll and the investigator finally collapses.

Rushed to hospital, she is diagnosed as suffering from a rare tropical disease extant only in certain jungles in South America. How on earth did she catch the disease?

Everything seems fine now that her malady is cured, but four weeks later the disease resurfaces and continues to do so every month. Her dreams are now tormented not only by the cries of unborns but also by a pox-marked figure dressed in a tattered robe and bearing a tattooed symbol on his forehead. Who is it and what further horror does it presage?

© Simon Taylor