The Box of G’Hyr

Adventurer and mystic, Ambrose DeBerry returned from an archeological expedition to Jerusalem, where he stumbled upon an ancient tomb buried deep within the hills under the city. Inside this tomb, he found a small 3”x 3” box.

The sides of the box are made from some kind of exotic hardwood covered with strange Arabic carvings. Whilst the top and bottom are made from obsidian and pottery. There is no obvious way to open the box. A box such as this was mentioned briefly in the Al Azif, being the box in which the soul of a powerful demon was kept imprisoned.

Possibilities

1 Ambrose DeBerry, in taking the box, awoke the guardian spirit of the tomb of G’Hyr. This amorphous black creature will seek out and kill all those who have touched the box. Once it has recovered the box, it will return the box to the tomb.

2 The box is taken from DeBerry shortly after he has translated the strange writings. The inscription reveals that the box contains a spirit of great evil, and if opened when Xoth is in conjunction with Mercury a great evil will descend. An evil that will last for all of eternity.

3 Ambrose DeBerry has taken away with him, a box containing not the spirit of a powerful demon but instead it holds the sangrail (Holy Grail). This will make the box extremely valuable to those who wish to exploit it for their own ends.

© Rik Kershaw

The Blackbird

A team of English students has recently released a documentary surrounding the myth of the Blackbird, a ghost ship which has featured in nautical legend for years around the North Atlantic.

According to the story, the Blackbird was engaged by an unknown figure in Southampton to carry a secret but valuable cargo to New York. All information concerning the voyage was subsequently lost in a fire a few days after the ship left Southampton. The Blackbird took over a month to cross the ocean, and was found sitting silently at anchor in New York. When she did not respond to any signals the harbour master boarded her but was violently repelled by someone, or something, aboard the ship. One of the harbour master’s guards was killed and left on board, and two others were mortally wounded.

When a group of government investigators arrived the next morning the Blackbird had vanished. A covert search found no trace of her and a few subsequent operations have also failed.

Since then, the Blackbird has been sighted many times and in many places. None have boarded her and returned, and legend speculates wildly at what lies in the hold. Some stories claim that unearthly howls and strange lights emanate from her.

Now the Blackbird at last lies caught, somewhere in the ice near Baffin Island. Her exact location is a closely guarded secret, but one well-connected and generous benefactor has engaged the Investigators to find the truth through research and eventually boarding the Blackbird itself.

Possibilities

1 The Blackbird carried canisters of gas, developed by the Germans shortly before the end of the Great War. A few canisters were captured by the British army and the rest were destroyed. Some of these were to be sent to the United States for scientists there to investigate; they were the Blackbird’s cargo. The gas induces psychotic behaviour, along with physiological changes. Muscles swell and become much stronger, and metabolism is slowed, forcing victims into hibernation until disturbed. Eventually, victims become little more than killing machines clinging to only the deepest of drives. One of the canisters aboard the ship leaked, affecting the crew. They killed one another off until only one-the captain-was left. It was he who attacked the harbour master and it is he who still hibernates within the ship, still occasionally steering it and guarding its precious cargo.

2 A rich American collector bought at auction in England a set of rare and powerful mythos tomes including the Necronomicon and Unausprechlichen Kulten. This information came into the hands of a cult, which decided to steal the books for themselves. To ensure the safety of his purchase the collector hired the Blackbird to secretly convey them across the Atlantic. However, one crewmember was also a cultist, and as soon as the ship was underway he opened the crates. His already-weak mind was rent asunder by the awful truths within the books, and he used the books’ terrible magicks summon strange beings. These attacked first the crew and then the harbour master and, even now infest the ship. The cultist, bound eternally by the dark magic he called down, continues to steer the damned vessel.

3 The Blackbird contained oddly-inscribed tablets uncovered at Avebury and apparently older than human civilisation. The tablets were being sent to experts in America for expert opinion. However, the artefacts radiate a powerful magical aura which was felt by the Deep Ones off Cornwall as the Blackbird passed by. They sent their agents to destroy the records in Southampton, then killed or enslaved the ship’s crew and opened the cargo.

The Blackbird was later sunk off Innsmouth. Stories of its later appearances are just that - stories.

© Rory Naismith

The Big Lie

This week, a small team of researchers have mapped the largest and most complex known mathematical object: the E8 Lie Group. A method of modeling E8 has eluded mathematicians since Norwegian Sophus Lie theorized the existence of this eponymous continuous group 120 years ago.

Surface and symmetry are two defining features of Lie Groups. In the simplest family of Lie Groups, a sphere has two surface dimensions, thus any place on its surface is defined by just two numbers. On its surface, a sphere has locations described in terms of longitude and the latitude, but its symmetry is described in three dimensions along its three axes. In the most bedeviling family, E8’s “surface” has 57 dimensions- that is, it takes 57 coordinates to define a point on it, and it has 248 axes of symmetry.

For mathematicians to map E8, they needed 453,060 points and express how each of these points relates to another. That meant they had to devise a matrix with 453,060 rows and the same number of columns for a total of 205 billion entries. Resolving the matrix is beyond raw, state-of-the-art computational power, so the researchers resorted to a combination of clever strategy and supercomputers to map E8.

Possibilities

1 Since it’s cheaper than building a particle accelerator with a track along Pluto’s orbit, particle physicists could use this map of an incredibly complex multi-dimensional object to advance String theory. However, resolving the mystery of E8’s structure has attracted the unwanted attention of alien intelligences, such as the Great Race, who wish to limit humankind’s understanding of outer dimensions. If ambitious investigators can stifle this attempted suppression, they might unlock a new technology, opening up another means of inter-dimensional travel or a novel portal for eldritch horrors to enter our world.

2 While Sophus Lie developed his theory of continuous groups in the winter of 1973, it wasn’t until 1884 that a young German mathematician, Friedrich Engel, came to work with Lie on a systematic treatise for publication beyond obscure Norwegian mathematics journals. The resulting collaboration was printed in three volumes of Theorie der Transformationsgruppen, which shipped in 1888, 1890, and 1893. Engel, however, authored an unpublished fourth manuscript. As it turns out, he was a rather powerful sorcerer and the last text reveals a means of creating doppelgangers of one’s self across all of the dimensions described by E8. Investigators could use this text to summon clones of themselves, yet they might bring back, for better or worse, some form of Freidrich Engel created decades ago and left to the sanity-wracking outer dimensions for any sum of relative time.

3 Dyscalculia, or the difficulty in learning or comprehending mathematics, occurs across the whole range of human intelligence. This affliction may also cause trouble with concepts of time, measurement, and spatial reasoning. Investigators attempting to discover arcane significance to the mapping of E8 may just, through a series of odd effects, ravage their own mental health and develop an acute case of dyscalculia.

© Jasen Johns

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

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

Late Night Out

While relaxing at a local watering hole in the town of Arkham, the investigators are approached by a patrolman to whom they have some familiarity. After a few cautionary glances around the room, the officer furtively explains a strange situation he has been dealing with.

For at least six months, a peculiar number of post-revelers have been found staggering around in the early morning; often stumbling over themselves as they shelter their eyes from the fingers of dawn’s light. The officer soon clarifies that it is not so much the amount of over-indulgers he has been rounding up in the mornings, but their identities that concerns him. Unlike the expected round up of recovering college students and forlorn recent lay-offs; the officer has been collecting men and women from the city’s upper classes.

At first, there was nothing too unusual about finding the leftover attendees from late night society parties. However, the patrolman now finds himself dealing with four or five of these types each weekend morning, an unusual number for a small conservative New England town. Moreover, these wealthy drunkards have all demonstrated unusually potent symptoms of recovering inebriation; none have any memories of the evening before. This has caused a distressing situation for the officer since the duty of returning embarrassed society folk to their homes is immeasurably more delicate and time consuming than dealing with recovering students. Lastly, one characteristic peculiar to all of these late night partygoers both unifies them and disturbs the police officer. They all have dark stains around their mouths and have halitosis that reeks of purification and decay.

Possibilities

1 Over the past year, a most popular, and expensive, wine has been introduced to some of the finer restaurants in Arkham. One of the alluring traits of the vineyard that produces this drink is its unusual origin, the hills of central Maine. Although most people believed this region to be too cold, too rocky, and too mountainous to produce fine grapes, a local farmer has been successfully growing several varieties of unusual wine grapes and producing wine. However, this unexpected agricultural prosperity derives from an abyssal horror beneath the vineyard.

Several years previous, an earthquake opened up fissures in the ground near a farm in rural Maine. These fissures extended far below the earth to the dwelling place of the Great Old One, Ghatanothoa. Since then, this being’s tentacles have been slowly winding their way upwards, and in the process, they have contaminated and enchanted the soil. The tainted produce from the farm has slowly been driving the farmer and his family mad, and in the process allowed the Ghatanothoa to implant vile suggestions in their minds. Acting on these suggestions, the family began producing vile wine derived from the essence of the ancient evil being.

The imbibers of the beverage will soon too become enthralled by Ghatanothoa’s influence and carry out his plans to free himself from the depths.

2 It is strange that the police officer is so concerned with the multiplication of wandering drunken socialites when a more distressing phenomenon has been taking place. Coinciding with the appearance of wealthy hung-over partygoers has been a staggering rise in missing homeless persons.

A wealthy, though insane, dilettante who had acquired a copy of the forbidden German text, Unausprechlichen Kulten, was the initial assailant of these unfortunate street people. The blood of his victims was used in a strange recipe deciphered from the blasphemous tome. This recipe produces a magical and blissful cocktail that sends the imbiber’s mind to a dimension of wonders for several hours, leaving their body in a mindless state for the duration. He has now enthralled several other socialites by throwing lavish parties where he serves the intoxicating cocktail. After these parties, several of the attendees have stumbled into the streets drunk on the magical potion, only to be found by disgruntled police officers.

The upper classes have now developed a desire for more of the forbidden potion, a desire that drives them to kidnap lost souls for more blood to brew the magical draught.

3. A new resident to the country has recently moved to Arkham from somewhere in the ancient Zargos mountains of modern-day Iraq. With him, he has brought dark and powerful secrets that his family has carried though the centuries. These antediluvian secrets can be used to fulfill many modern-day desires, and the immigrant has made use of this by teaching them to local families in exchange for certain sacrifices. Many of these families made quick use of the powerful lore to increase their social status and wealth. The sacrifice demanded of them by the immigrant-wizard is the nightly servitude of a close family member. More specifically, the unfortunate family member must submit their soul in an unholy ritual; thereby becoming a mindless zombie controlled by the wizard.

No one yet knows what the magically bonded family members do, or where they go, each night. However, with such a large number of zombie-workers, the wizard’s schemes are likely to be considerable and terrifying, and may involve restoring his homeland to its former Mesopotamian splendor.

© Joel Karwatsky

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

Division Hexe

After winning his position in early 1933, Hitler cemented both his own position and that of the Aryan master race through military conquest and genocide. But there are other, infinitely older forms of power that he also tried to tap...

The interest in the occult held by Hitler, Himmler and many other leading Nazis is well documented, and during their reign of terror, expeditions were despatched to all corners of the globe, searching for lost and potentially war-winning lore. Several, in the 1930s, were sent by Hitler to Tibet in order to seek out Agharti-a secret underworld populated by enlightened immortals. Unfortunately for the Reich, Agharti was little more than a fairy tale, dreamt up in 1871 by English Occultist Edward Bulwar-Lytton. But these were not the only expeditions sent out by Hitler; some, in pursuit of more definite and real goals, may have been a lot more successful.

After the war, much of the knowledge was either lost or buried in infinite national archives (which is much the same thing). These days, no one knows for sure where these expeditions went, nor what they sought - nor whether they were successful or not. Only occasional, tantalising rumours loom out of the mists of time, perhaps best left hidden.

Recently, however, a series of documents have surfaced and are currently being posted around the internet by an anonymous source claiming to be in Moscow. The documents appear to be a series of intriguing typewritten sheets from towards the end of the war, detailing the activities of the ‘Division Hexe’; an elite development group made up of leading SS officers and occultists. It makes for interesting and dangerous reading.

Possibilities

1 The documents detail a range of biological experiments carried out upon unfortunate Jewish and Gypsy children in Auschwitz, on behalf of Dr Josef Mengele. It appears that they grafted the skin of a Deep One, retrieved by U-boat crews in the Pacific, onto a living human. Photographs and some convincing scientific details add an element of realism, and no evidence of tampering can be found. Unfortunately for the Auschwitz researchers of Division Hexe, the war ended before the results could be fully described or used-although their purpose still remains unknown (the final sections of this information, according to the anonymous source, were destroyed by disgusted Soviet officials – or so he claims). According to the unnamed source, the last sheet is stained with blood and even now smells suspiciously of fish.

2 According to these pages, Hitler called in the services of a team of top Gestapo spies to track down books and other sources of power and evil from across the world so that their secrets could save the Third Reich. Their research and discoveries from all corners of the globe are carefully listed, and include such titles as the ‘Necronomicon’ and ‘Unausprechlichen Kulten’. The pages describe the results of experiments using what was found in these texts, together with some interesting photographs showing the preparations and-occasionally-the results of various magical ‘experiments’.

3 In January 1945, a desperate Hitler sent a team of experimental researchers, ‘Division Hexe’, together with all their materials to a secret location, from where they would continue to develop further eldritch methods of defeating the Allies. According to the text, they departed Germany on a U-boat in late March 1945 and were never heard from again. The documents make it clear that they were well prepared, and that all were not expecting to regain contact with the Reich for many years. Strangely, it appears that no food rations were sent with them, and most of what they did take was in top secret, sealed boxes, some apparently marked with pentagrams and crosses. Where did they go? Why didn’t they need any food? What was in the sealed boxes? Are they still wherever they went? Most importantly, what have they been doing for the last 55 years?

© Rory Naismith

Dangerous Play

Wilfred Higgs is an author. A brilliant one. And he’s also a madman.

He’s written a new play, “The Coming of the Master” and is currently rehearsing it with a troupe of actors. A relative of one of the investigators was part of the cast, until he was committed to an asylum a few days ago, totally insane. Now all he says is: “They’re there! I know that now, I saw them! They know, they wait, and they’re coming!”. If the investigators decide to ask around, they will find out that several actors went insane in the last few months. Surprisingly, no one seems to have noticed that. There’s no mention about them working for Wilfred Higgs, either. Contacting relatives of these actors may reveal that they were trying to get a role in Higgs new play.

Higgs is very cautious in the approach of his candidates, conducting private tests and lectures. All the candidates are interviewed on an individual basis. It’s not the usual procedure, but no one really pays much attention to that. Every director has their quirks, after all. All the actors currently on the cast are normal people, without any discernible mental problem.

An investigation about Higgs will turn up that he, himself, had been committed to a mental institution many years ago, but was considered cured a couple of years later.

Possibilities

1 Wilfred has made a deal with a powerful entity he contacted many years ago, just before he went mad from the sight of it. The creature spared him, because it knew Higgs could be useful in the future. Higgs incorporated the spell needed to bring it to our world in his play, and intends to sacrifice the entire cast to complete the spell, poisoning the wine they are supposed to drink during a toast in a certain scene.

2 Wilfred always wanted to present “The King in Yellow” to the public, but the general rejection of the book on the part of the producers proved that impossible. He doesn’t understand why; a book that opened his mind to the truth shouldn’t be repressed like that. So, he tried another approach. He cleverly disguised that play within his own creation. The story changed, but the awful truths he saw are still there, so this new play is as dangerous as the previous one. The sanity of the cast hasn’t been affected too much, as Higgs is presenting the story little by little. But as the work continues, they will probably become more and more disturbed. Higgs hopes that this gradual exposure will make them see the “truth” and join him in his quest.

3 Wilfred is only a madman, and considers his madness to be true freedom. He thrives in “freeing” other people too. To that end, during the interviews he chooses persons who are already unstable, and reproduces the accident that gave him his liberty (he was once trapped inside a mausoleum for several days); he traps the victim inside a cellar full of dead bodies, without food or water, until their sanity snaps. Sometimes the victims kill themselves, sometimes they survive, eating the bodies. Either way, they’re now free from their bonds.

© Mauro Reis

March Madness

Miskatonic University has never been known for its team athletics, that is until recently. This year began differently, as 7’4” Seth Whateley strolled onto the campus and was almost immediately given a full basketball scholarship.

There was initially some trouble with Seth because he couldn’t produce any health or school records and he refused to submit to a physical. Miskatonic U’s basketball coach soon cleared these obstacles with some help from some basketball-loving administrators. Seth was able to pass the universities most stringent entrance exams and his refusal to take a physical was waived on religious grounds.

Since then Seth (#44) has broken nearly every single season scoring and defensive record in Cephalopod and conference history. As the big college championship tournament approaches, many people have lots of questions about Seth and several interested parties are willing to find out more about this strange giant out of Dunwich County. Seth refuses to be interviewed and has no friends on campus. Anyone who has tried to find out more about him has come up against strong resistance from family and university officials alike. That’s where the investigators come in – they’ve been asked or hired to find out what exactly Seth Whateley has to hide.

Possibilities

1 Seth is kin to Wilbur Whateley who tried to steal the Necronomicon for his own evil purposes. Seth, like Wilbur, is not totally human. He plans to continue his cousin Wilbur’s work by becoming a college athletic superstar. With free reign as far as the universities restricted books shelves are concerned, he plans to steal the Necronomicon and free the Great Old Ones from their exile.

2 Abraham, Seth’s father came upon an old Whateley grimoire and with a little study he came up with an arcane method to grow his young son Seth to his current size. Money, not the Necronomicon, is the motivation for Seth’s fathers plans. He will do anything to protect his son and his secret, even murder. Abraham has some grasp of what the Whateley grimoire contains, so investigators should beware of spells and other mythos horrors if they should dig too deep or pry to hard.

3 Seth is totally free of any evil ulterior motives. He just wants to get an education and leave the backwoods of Dunwich behind. He is deeply religious and wants to be left alone.

© Kevin Kaier

An Old Friend

Late Friday evening an old army buddy contacted me. I hadn’t heard from him in years, and now he seemed desperate to meet with me. In secret. He wouldn’t say exactly why, so with an uneasy feeling, and an address scribbled down, I set out to meet with him.

The old rendering plant was smelly, dark, and had apparently been unused in some years. I found a loading door slightly ajar, with an old, but apparently serviceable, truck sitting outside. Inside I overhear a horse whisper, and after a moment I can associate that voice with a dark form accented by the minute glow of a lit cigarette. Even close to him, I can’t see him very well, but I can clearly make out the distinct scent of the cologne that was his signature.

“Here.” He thrust a small leather-bound volume into my hands. It wasn’t any bigger than a paperback novel, but so much heavier. The cover felt rough in my hands, and even though I couldn’t make it out, there felt to be some form of symbol in the leather.

After examining the little tome as much as I could in the minimal light, I was about to ask him what it was, or where he’s been all this time, but he was gone. Simply gone. Not a footstep did I hear. Just the smell of cigarette smoke and cologne.

Possibilities

1 The old friend has been dead for many years. Murdered during his army days and framed for a vile crime he didn’t commit. The journal is that of his murder, also dead. The ghost of the old friend has returned with the journal, hoping that the investigator will find the truth of his murder and set the record straight.

2 The old friend was a combat photographer in the army and has since moved onto independent journalism. The volume is a handwritten manual written by the head of a cannibal cult. It includes graphic depictions of ritual murders, and sketches on how best to prepare the human body for consumption. Inside the back cover is a complex symbol. It is the focus for a magical ritual allowing the creator of the book to summon the volume, and its thief back to the creator.

This time the ritual botched, bringing just the thief back for punishment.

3 The volume itself is not connected to the disappearance, even if that is not immediately apparent. The rendering plant itself is haunted. The invisible beast that makes its residence here enjoys quietly taking its victims deep below the building and torturing them for its entertainment.

© Eric R Provost

This Old House

It’s strange… The Petersons always seemed like a nice family, even if their house was so old and rickety. But they’ve started to keep to themselves lately, and now their neighbours are complaining of strange visitors late at night, foul odours, and lights in the windows at odd hours.

Has the family gone eccentric all of a sudden, or is something more sinister involved?

Possibilities

1 Having been originally built by members of a local ghoul cult, the Petersons’ house is conveniently located with respect to a network of tunnels beneath the nearby cemetery. The cult was eradicated several decades ago, but the ghouls are still alive and well, and several of their number have killed the Petersons and replaced them using a Consume Likeness spell. They are now using the house as a base to infiltrate human society, and trying to re-establish their cult.

If the investigators explore the house, they will find an entrance in the cellar leading to a maze of dank tunnels, culminating in the ghoul warren. There are quite a lot of ghouls there, so let’s hope the investigators brought a shotgun.

2 While cleaning the attic about a year ago, Mr. Peterson discovered an old journal behind a loose board in the wall. This book contained the notes of a previous owner of the house, who also happened to be a powerful sorcerer. Mr. Peterson was intrigued by the descriptions of arcane rituals, but when he tried one he unwittingly opened a passageway for the dead sorcerer to possess his body.

The sorcerer has since killed off the other members of Peterson’s family, which is why they haven’t been seen lately, and is continuing his occult research while trying to keep a low profile. He is also re-establishing connections with other wizards and cultists, some of whom he knew in his previous life. A sinister plan may be afoot…

3 The Petersons’ house is haunted by an entity which gradually drains life force from the house’s inhabitants. It has been causing the strange effects, and the odd people who have been showing up in the neighbourhood are psychic sensitives attracted to its presence, or perhaps exorcists hired by the family.

Over time the Petersons will become more and more withdrawn, and as their will is sapped, they will be unable to leave the house even if they can realize what is happening. If this continues for much longer, the Petersons will die and the entity will become strong enough to move to other, surrounding houses.

© Emily Johnsen

The Odin Disc

The Odin Disc is a monohedron; it has only one side. It can be felt, and if moved glistens slightly – but is otherwise invisible (although the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi will make it apparent).

Compounding the problem of actually finding the disc is its size – typically no greater than a large coin. A sorcerer can spend Magic Points to enlarge the disc, which has a maximum size (for humans, anyway) of about 10 feet.

The disc is actually a portable Gate spell. Anyone standing on the disc (which needs to be of a suitable size) will be transported to whatever location they have in mind (with the usual penalties). The disc follows the (last) traveller, ready for the return trip. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find once through the gate, as it invariably returns to its natural size.

As well as mere travel, the Odin Disc has another effect. Each time the disc is used,
Yog-Sothoth is summoned to the location that the traveller just left. Yog-Sothoth’s mood on arrival seems to be directly related to the distance travelled through the disc; the further afield the traveller journeys, the greater the number of sacrifices Yog-Sothoth helps itself to. (It should be said that a rigorous, scientific study has not been made, given the obvious limitations.)

Worse, as there is a time-lag before Yog-Sothoth appears, travellers may not realise that it is their operation of the disc that causes the Outer God’s appearance.

Possibilities

1 A cryptic reference to the disc can be found in the handwritten marginalia of a section in a mythos tome dealing with ‘The Opener of the Way’. It ambiguously states that not only the traveller can use the disc, and that the disc is ‘at hand’. The disc is bound into the cover of the book (one side is raised, the other has no apparent rise or depression), and the cover of the book must be destroyed to retrieve it. Pulling the cover to pieces activates a fire-warding spell which destroys the book and may burn the house down. Of course, the disc will be very hard to find in the cinders.

2 The investigators find a brief description of the Odin Disc and details of how to create one. The spell requires a 3” gold disc, about ten pints of fresh blood, and the sacrifice of a baby. While the investigators may not create a disc, if the spell falls into the hands of cultists they will not be so squeamish.

The spell description forgets to mention that this spell also acts to summon Yog-Sothoth.

3 The investigators return home one night to find a sorcerer (one they have encountered before) stealing their mythos-related bits-and-pieces. Realising he has been spotted, the sorcerer activates the disc and escapes; quick investigators may be able to follow him.

Meanwhile, Yog-Sothoth will be paying a visit.

© Charles Ross

Book of Bones

Weeks or months after a brush with the Mythos, the modern-day investigator notices an irregular bruise spontaneously forming on one arm. Though painless, the bruise appears to resemble illegible writing. Over days, despite all efforts, the bruise spreads and grows legible. An X-ray or CAT scan shows that the investigator’s bones are engraved with small, precise letters in an alien script, which the growing bruise duplicates.

Possibilities

1 In the earlier Mythos encounter, Nyarlathotep noticed and cursed the investigator. The alien words, when fully formed in a week, transform the investigator into a Living Bruise, an invalid who lives in continual agony. Certain tattoos cure the curse (without conferring other protection), but the only qualified tattoo artist lives in Burma. Alternately, the victim can call Nyarlathotep, who grants a year’s relief from the curse in return for a service, such as destroying an Elder Sign in a distant ruin.

2 Decades ago the investigator’s grandfather, a secret worshipper of Yog-Sothoth, performed a ritual on his unconscious daughter that marked all her descendants. The investigator’s siblings are also forming bruises, which describe the spell Call Yog-Sothoth. Each victim experiences dreams that translate the alien script. The investigator’s attempts to inform his siblings may heal or create family breaches. The bruises fade normally, but will reappear in the next generation.

3 Despite the victim’s entreaties, the doctor who performed the CAT scan can’t resist sharing the peculiar case with fellow physicians. Word reaches a Brother of the Yellow Sign in a nearby hospital, who identifies the investigator as a sacrificial victim chosen by Hastur. A group of cultists posing as doctors capture the investigator and friends and read the bruises aloud. The resulting spell transports the investigators to the underground world of K’n-Yan, where Brothers wait to flense the flesh from the victim’s bones and inter them in a sacred library. If the victim escapes, the bruises fade.

© Allen Varney

The Bibliophile

He just loved books. He always had. They were his passion. His life.

He could remember the first book his parents had given him. A huge collection of Menchen (fairy tales). It was bound in a dark burgundy leather, with gold-embossed ridges of the spine. And the insides were full of wondrous illustrations. Fairies and goblins and fell monsters galore.

He still had that book of Menchen. He had all the books he had ever been given or had bought. Lovingly organized and shelved upon tall, dark wood bookcases scattered all over his house. He would never give up a book. Never. Not on his life.

His love for books grew and grew. It was natural that at university he study history & languages. All those tomes full of words & pictures. Those gorgeous books, bound in leather and cloth. He got to the point where he did not care what the books actually said, he just loved the look and feel of books. And the smell... But the best of all was the satisfaction of ownership when he added a book to his collection.

Some friends of his at university had become investigators of sorts. They had learned of a certain dark cult who prayed to dark gods inimical to mankind. In the course of their investigations, they stumbled across an ancient grimoire. They brought it to him to translate. When he saw that book, his soul became inflamed.

The book was bound in a leather he could not identify at first. It was human skin. He was seized with a lust for that book beyond any lust he had ever felt before. He had to wholly possess that book, but he knew his friends would demand the return of the book.

However, his friends never returned to claim the book. Misfortune took them in the night and left only pieces of them behind. He took this a sign that his passion was condoned by higher powers. He began to seek out more books like the grimoire.

He did not want the books for the secret lore or spells they contained. He never really read the books. He would carefully handle the books, but reading might damage the books, so he did not. He wanted the books, because he could then own them. Possess them. Caress them. And shelve them away.

He sought out other investigators of the unknown. He befriended them and wooed them with his knowledge and vast mundane library. They brought him these forbidden book for him to translate and comment on. He then engineered their demise, often by carefully sent messages to the very dark cults from which they had liberated the books.

His collection grew. His secret collection. His lovely books. Tomes not only bound in leather, but in skins: human, exotic animals and skins of unknown species. Tomes with jewels incrusted upon them, or covered in barnacles, or blackened from fires. Books printed upon paper, painted upon vellum, or etched in iridescent metals. Scrolls and papyrus leaves and wax tablets. He collected them all and lovingly placed them on shelves hidden from sight. His, all his.

But he is always looking to increase his collection...

Possibilities

1 You have heard of a reclusive scholar who has a collection of books with just the exact tome you need. You go and talk to him, but he will not even let you touch the book. To stop the evil cultists, you must have that book. So, you sneak back and steal the book. You remove a book from his collection. He pursues with a vengeance, possibly alerting the cultists about your plans.

2 In a small, hidden bookstore you purchase the first edition of a rare volume. The owner sells it to you, but mentions that another gentleman had called about the book. He did not have the funds but mentioned he would be back. The owner just wants to sell the book and you have cash in hand. You don’t give it any more thought until you hear about the bookseller’s murder. The bibliophile punished the book dealer and he is after you now. You took “his” book and he is coming to reclaim it.

3 During a raid on a cultists’ stronghold, you run across some disturbing letters. An anonymous source is telling the cult about activities, names & addresses of investigators. Investigators whom you knew and who have just been murdered. Someone is informing on your friends and getting them killed. There is an informant somewhere, you just need to identify who it is. You start questioning the murdered investigators’ associates for the culprit. Eventually you will come across the innocent-seeming bibliophile.

© Brent Heustess

The Terrible Old Bookshop

The Terrible Old Bookshop is situated on Darker Street. The once green (or perhaps grey) paintwork is peeling, the windows are filthy. Inside, the shelves are stacked high with dusty books, more are in heaps on the floor and in rotting cardboard boxes. It will take several hours of careful searching to realise that there is nothing of interest to investigators. There are, however, plenty of novels by Ethel M Dell and Marie Corelli, school texts on geometry, Latin grammar, and other such.

The proprietor sits on a high stool behind a small counter, bent over a large leather covered volume. He appears to be in his thirties and is strikingly handsome in a Saturnine way. He has a neat goatee beard and if he was an actor he could make a career out of playing the devil.

As strangers approach he hurriedly stuffs his book under the counter. He will answer no questions about the book and will refuse to let investigators see it.

Breaking into the shop is quite easy and is the only way to gain access to the books. Behind the counter are two books, Magna Mysteriis and Mysteriis Mundi. They are handwritten in an unrecognisable script. Also behind the counter is a cupboard with a good, strong, lock.

The proprietor is very furtive when he leaves the shop, taking a devious and tortuous route that doubles back several times. A careful investigator will be able to tail the man until he lets himself into a house on Coven Lane.

Possibilities

1 The two books are written in English using an alphabet of the shopkeepers own devising. Given time, it can be cracked. One is a racy, partially fictitious novel, the other a diary and ideas book. The house on Coven Lane belongs to a married lady who supplies him with practical experience to write his novel.

2 The locked cupboard contains hard-core pornography. The books are ledgers containing accounts and the house on Coven Lane is a place where young children are kept after being abducted. The children are sold to various unsavoury individuals throughout the country. They are never seen again.

3 The books are occult tomes, rare, original copies. The proprietor is compiling several lesser works (kept in the cupboard) into one big volume. The house on Coven Lane is a meeting for a group of black magicians. Currently they are harmless, with only the proprietor knowing of the power of the occult. That might change, in time.

© Peter F Jeffery

The Disappearance

A pretty woman approaches a Private Investigator to track down her missing husband. She gives the investigator a thorough description of her husband, Phillip Wainwright, and a key to his study. She has contacted the police, but after their initial interest they do not seem to be very cooperative.

Phillip vanished during the night after working late in his study, a week ago. She found him missing in the morning and he has not been seen since.

His study reveals little. There is evidence that Phillip was engaged in much research - lots of cryptic references and what appears to be several attempts to crack a code. However, there is nothing concrete to follow up.

At his place of work, the library, his colleagues display no surprise. A policeman was snooping around several days ago. Phillip had been spending much too much time in the Restricted Access reading room. A check of its contents reveals that one of the books is missing.

Possibilities

1 The missing book was the original Al-Azif by Abd al-Azrad. This same copy is possessed by the soul of the author and Phillip, through deciphering sections best left alone, opened his mind to the ancient Arab.

Currently Phillip, under the influence of Abd al-Azrad, is working his way towards The City Without A Name in the Arabian peninsula in search of the Arab’s last remains.

2 The book is an ancient sorcerer’s diary, and Phillip decoded a spell from it to summon Nodens, the Outer God. He foolishly cast the spell and after a few moments Nodens appeared. Phillip bargained badly and the God dropped him and the diary upon Yuggoth where the Mi-Go have preserved his brain.

3 The book is a hypnotist’s workbook and has been taken from his study by the police as possible evidence. They will return it soon, when the case is closed. When Phillip decoded and recited the chants he fainted. Upon returning to consciousness he found his memory had vanished. He wandered out of the house, into the streets and onto the knife of a murderer. His corpse has yet to be discovered.

© Steve Hatherley

The Old Straight Track

Watkins’ The Old Straight Track was first published in 1925.

While ley lines are now commonly known about, they were a new theory in 1925, and someone in 1925 might want to follow them up as a way of identifying mystical or occult locations. Besides, a newspaper might pay handsomely for proof of other lines not mentioned in The Old Straight Track.

By careful use of a map, a compass, ruler and pencil one may eventually conclude that the small village of Todberry in Dorset is the meeting point of three such lines.

By visiting the village, and carefully working out angles with a compass the exact point of intersection can be found. It is in St Mary’s churchyard, and a stone cross has been erected at the exact point. The cross may look Christian, but closer examination reveals that carved into it is something altogether different – a protective ward.

The rest of the ward is formed by several old stones forming an circle. All are hidden; built into the church, hidden in the graveyard, used in the wall, toppled in a field, submerged in the stream.

Possibilities

1 The stone circle is protection against an ancient demon which will return should it be tampered with. A legend of strangers coming to disturb ‘He That Sleeps’ is handed down by word of mouth and strangers are closely watched.

2 The circle is an ancient place of worship, but has no other significance.

3 An ancient sorcerer is trying to remove the ward so that he may reawaken ‘He That Sleeps.’ The sorcerer has had little success so far...

© Steve Hatherley

Type Case

Some months ago a type case (a wooden tray divided into sections to hold the various metal letters of a typeface used for printing) was sold in an auction. According to legend, the typeface was used to print an occult book.

Possibilities

1 The type case was sold to a collector, and one day the collector decides to print a book (a short treatise on astronomy) using the typeface and an old printing press.

Everything is normal until the book is finished. Then a buzzing is heard in the whole house and the collector (and any guests) start suffering nightmares...

The typeface is evil...

2 A printer bought the case to publish profane books. As soon as the first page is printed the bad luck begins.

First, the printer loses two fingers to the printing machine, Then his assistant injures himself. And then the office cat dies...

Eventually the printer is found dead, having committed suicide by putting his head into the printing press.

3 A poet buys the type case to print his works at home. He publishes a limited collection of his poems and sells them through libraries and exhibitions.

Although his poems are about spring, summer and love, readers of the collection experience depression, hate and fear. They also suffer from an inordinate number of paper cuts - for some reason the little book of poetry inflicts paper cuts. It is as if it needs feeding...

© Jochen Koltermann 

Black Book of the East

The Black Book is eventually sold, after much hard bidding, for over £1000 to an unknown bidder operating through an agent. The book was originally written in French, although that has been largely annotated in a number of languages since.

Possibilities

1 The book is a fake. Kirby was known for his practical jokes, and this was his last. He wrote largely nonsense inside, much of it made up. Despite this, the book contains several passages which appear to be uncomfortably prophetic.

2  The book is not the Black Book, but is an original version of the Bible. However, the Bible has changed much since this was written and its tone is completely different. It tells of the Lord being defeated by Satan and cast to earth in the form of Jesus, only to be crucified by the Romans. It is a blasphemous work, but it is so horribly plausible.

3 The Black Book of the East was written by the French sorcerer, but when he died his soul was imprisoned in the tome. The book can only be opened by satisfying his hunger and spilling human blood across the covers which is quickly absorbed into the material.

© Steve Hatherley