Petrification

The authorities are baffled, the press speculating and people are frightened by people, from all walks of life, turning to stone both in their homes and in public.

Possibilities

1 The petrifications are occurring worldwide. All the victims were found in front of their computers or with a cell phone crushed in one hand or lying nearby. All had an expression of horror on their face and seem to be trying to cover their eyes...

In a small town exists a small and declining cult worshipping Ghatanothoa - not for their own benefit, but to keep humanity safe from his menace. They have, for generations, sacrificed to him so he shall remain under the ocean floor and not seep up to crawl around in the world of men to satisfy his need for nourishment.

But in modern times the cult has had difficulty getting new members, continuing the sacrifices, and making anyone believe in Ghathanothoa.

The leader is old and worried since his cult will most likely die with him. But he knows that Ghatanothoa is not only satisfied by sacrifices, but from the tormented minds of his petrified victims. The leader just needed to find a way to create more and more victims for Ghathanothoa to petrify.

The leader invented a modern solution to hold humanity safe even after his and the cult’s death. One night he summoned Ghatanothoa to a deserted beach (he was protected by “T-yogs formula” to avoid petrification) and photograped the Great Old One. The photo of Ghatanothoa he put into a computer-virus which he released onto the Internet.

The virus is not very active or aggressive. Mostly it only hides inside computers, slowly spreading itself via email and like. But on very rare occasions it flashes the Ghatanothoa-photo on the computer screen for a few seconds -which causes petrification for all who see it...

2 The petrifications are occurring only in a certain city, where there also exists a witch-cult worshipping Yig. The serpent-god visits the cult from time to time to claim sacrifices and have sex with the witches. This has resulted in a two immortal snake-human hybrids that are kept in the basement under the cult’s temple.

The latest offspring, however, was extra-ordinary: A Medusa, a snake-women hybrid. The Medusa is just like the Greek legends - except that it’s not Medusa’s gaze that turns victims to stone, but her poison.

The young Medusa escaped and now hides in the sewers. She hunts for food by night and is highly aggresive-which has resulted in a couple of petrified humans and animals so far.

The cult is furious over losing their “holy child” and is searching for her. They are mortally afraid that the petrifications will draw Yig’s wrath and that he will make them pay for their negligence.

3. The petrifications are limited to a single city and aren’t confined to people. Other creatures have been found petrified too.

The city’s sewer-system was recently expanded. The work has run into difficulties (the first petrifications), and has been temporarily aborted. Something that has never been made public is that the tunnel-diggers hit a natural but apparently bottomless shaft. Soon after the workers became the first petrification victims.

The shaft leads down to red-lit Yoth and from there a vapour of Yoth has emerged. The vapour is a huge gas cloud, which smells strongly and unpleasantly.

The cloud is highly flammable and posses a rudimentary conciousness. It needs to regularly replenish itself with certain chemicals found in living organisms - but this feeding also reults in petrification of the organism.

© Stefan Jonsson

Small Things Forgotten

Following the death of his two children about 30 years ago, and his wife to pneumonia about five years ago, Hiram Dretts has lead a quiet, solitary existence deep in the hills, working his farm. He is well known and liked by the folk of the nearby town, and is known for a sharp mind.

Hiram’s farm does not have the modern conveniences of electricity or gas, but does have a coal burning furnace. While stoking the furnace one evening, a lump of coal broke apart to reveal an object: a worked triangular piece of green stone. The two long sides measured approximately two inches long, and the piece was about a quarter of an inch thick. The base of the triangle was unfinished and appeared to have broken off from a larger piece. Strange marks were along the two finished edges, giving the impression of some kind of writing or symbols.

Hiram has never had a formal education beyond the third grade, but he knew that what he found was very old. Hiram placed it on his mantle with the intention of sending it to a museum next time he was in town.

Possibilities

1 The fragment is a piece of an elder sign used by serpent people in the late Carboniferous period. The whole elder sign had been originally used to seal a gate but has been destroyed and fragmented for over 275 million years. The gate is no longer active, but if the serpent people learn of the fragment, they may make attempts to recover it and discover if more fragments exist.

2 The fragment belonged to a powerful serpent people sorcerer priest called Tthast-smmun. The fragment contains part of Tthast-smmun’s essence, and as the days progress, the sorcerer begins to take possession of Hiram. Hiram begins experiencing dreams of the long past times of the serpent people’s glory, and his sanity begins to crumble. Over a few weeks, Hirem starts worshipping Yig.

Through rituals taught via dream, Hiram begins a physical transformation into a serpent people-hybrid. Tthast-smmun plans to inhabit Hiram’s body as soon as he is completed. Hiram will be no more.

3 The fragment originally comes from an elder Sign used by the Great Race of Yith to trap and contain a flying polyp. The seals holding the polyp have been destroyed over time, but the polyp has long since been trapped in a pocket in the rock. It is only a matter of time before miners discover more of the fragments, then the pocket itself . . .

© Bill Dietze

The Iron Crib

Surrounded by old graves, a cast iron cradle appears one night in the middle of the churchyard of the small, coastal village of Hammon. Upon investigation, the crib is found to be deeply rooted in the soil, with iron reaching down into the bedrock. Yet there are no signs of digging or the machinery that must have been needed to install it, and no explanation for its presence.

Possibilities

1 The crib is an avatar of Yig, and is claiming the souls of children. In the town, a statistically significant increase in pregnancies, stillbirths and birth defects may be observed, and snakes begin to plague the town.  A distraught parent of a dead child reports seeing him in the crib, crying and reaching out. In some cases, post-natal depression leads to hysteria and even episodes of psychosis.

One of the graves near the crib contains the corpse of Augustus Prior, who was alleged to have committed unspeakable acts against children early in the previous century. Although nothing was ever proven, the allegations were all true. Prior was buried in the churchyard under protest, and wards were inscribed on the coffin and tombstone. A recent act of vandalism broke the ward on the tombstone, allowing Prior’s spirit to draw his master to the churchyard.

2 A baby, apparently abandoned, is found inside the cradle on the third morning after its discovery.  A local couple agree care for the child while the police investigate her origins. As the days stretch into weeks with no results from the investigation, the new foster parents find their sleep increasingly disturbed by strange nightmares. Friends and acquaintances find them unnaturally and violently over-protective of the child. If the child is not removed from their care, the couple will go insane.

3 An anti-abortion activist group installed the cradle late at night, intending to reveal its involvement only after media speculation had everyone curious. It was initially intended as a gimmick, metaphorically representing the spirits of the unborn. However, the situation has become more sinister - one of the group’s more militant and literal-minded members (and an occultist) performed a ritual on the night of the crib’s installation to invoke a vengeful Demon-Spirit of the Unborn. The ritual required the mutilation of a stillborn infant. Other members of the group are sickened and angered, but are deeply afraid that their own involvement will be revealed if the story comes to light.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow