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

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

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

Possibilities

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

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

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

© Felix Girke

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

The Elderly Man

Outraged and astounded witnesses have no idea why he didn’t report it to the local police, when an elderly man gets verbally humiliated by a band of local teenage punks.

But when some of the offending punks are found brutally murdered, the suspicion quickly falls upon the elderly man. That is, until it is verified, that the elderly man has watertight alibi.

Besides, how could a man of his age ever manage to assault and murder several young and strong teenage boys?

Possibilities

1 The elderly man dabbles in the occultic powers of the Mythos. After the humiliating incident, the elderly man swore a gruesome vengeance. He summoned a Byakhee and ordered it to track down and kill the offending punks. When the Byakhee takes off, hunting for the punks, the elderly man went to eat his supper at a restaurant nearby, comforted by the fact that the humiliation will be avenged.

2 The elderly man is the head of a criminal syndicate. But he is hiding from the authorities, which have forced him to resume a fake identity. After the humiliation, the elderly man contacted some of his goons and ordered them to track down and teach the offending punks not to be so disrespectful. Knowing all too well about the power of a strong alibi, the elderly man chose to eat his supper at a local restaurant, comforted by the fact that the humiliation will be avenged.

3 The elderly man is just a normal elderly man, that dare not face the offending punks, knowing that he can’t stand up against them. The real killer is a local vigilante-wannabe, who witnessed the humiliating incident. Deciding that enough is enough, the vigilante armed himself, tracked down, fought and murdered the punks. All that happened while the elderly man ate his supper at a local restaurant.

© Tim Deer

The Key

The investigators are asked to look into the strange goings on at a local mansion. Their friend, a struggling real estate agent, informs them that no one will buy the house due to its dark history of murder, insanity and disappearances. He gives them the address and a huge ornate key to the place, telling them that the last eight owners have either been murdered, gone insane or vanished inside its walls.

Possibilities

1 The key is not just for the mechanical locks on the doors. It serves as the critical component in the summoning of byahkee: it is a summoning whistle.

2 The house is actually a giant conduit for wind to be channelled through its bizarre architecture. When the “key” is placed in the correct position, well hidden in the wall, the wind will blow through the key like a whistle, causing random summoning and horror.

3 The house sits upon a witch’s burial place. Her disturbed and violent spirit has been driving all occupants insane leading to murders and mayhem.

© Matt MacAdams

Woman in a Robe

When locale police officers enter an abandoned office building, they stumble upon the gruesome mutilated corpses of three men and a woman.

Also found at the crime scene is a smashed camcorder, and when checking what it may have recorded, the following can be seen: An unidentified woman, not the same woman found dead, is seated on a chair, clad in a monk’s robe. It’s dark outside, indicating that it happened in the evening, or at night. Then one of the men found murdered, steps into view as he walks behind the sitting woman. He asks the woman about her name, but before she’s able to answer the question, all goes black, followed by horrifying screams. Then the recording ends, as the camcorder is smashed.

The question is now; why was the robed woman not found at the crime scene? Where is she now? And who, and why, murdered the others?

Possibilities

1 The murderer is a heavily armed and mentally unstable bible-thumper. He goes around striking against anything that he finds morally depraved and sinful. When he learns that someone was making low budget porn movies in his town; he chose to deliver God’s punishment on those impure filth-peddling bastards.

As soon as he found the location of the porn-movie set, he donned a night vision goggle, cut off the power and then went on a killing spree, targeting everyone involved in the filthy porn movie.

The reason why the roped woman isn’t found at the crime scene is that she was severely wounded and was thus able to flee the bloody carnage. But the crazed bible-thumper sees her escaping, and he chases after her. Her corpse is never found.

2 The robed woman, now missing, is the oldest daughter to the murdered woman and one of the men. But she had been lured by an esoteric and very religious cult, much to her parent’s dismay.

After several futile attempts to make the locale law intervene, the parents chose to hire a renowned private investigator that’s specialized in deprogramming brainwashed members of religious cults.

He, and his assistant, snatched the daughter and brought her to the abandoned office building, rented by the investigator, as a place to initiate the deprogramming, monitored by the girl’s parents, and recorded on camcorder.

But when the cult leader, a deeply religious Vietnam veteran, realizes that one of his favourite cult members have been taken away, he immediately summons a byakhee, which he, in his sick mind, actually believes is one of God’s glorious angels, and orders it to track down, punish those who took his favourite cult member, the daughter, and then bring her back to his waiting arms.

The deprogramming was just beginning, when the byakhee found them. But as the byakhee flies off with the daughter, she sees it, and her mind bends out of shape.

3 The missing robed woman is the murderer, or one of them. She is in fact a vampire, who has been terrorizing humans for several decades, along with a group of fellow vampires.

While stalking a prey, she failed to realize that it was a trap, orchestrated by a team of skilled vampire hunters. They quickly managed to subdue and bring her into the abandoned office building, where they were planning to interrogate, and then destroy, her. All recorded on cam recorder that has been custom made to allow vampires to be filmed.

But the interrogation had barely begun, when the fellow vampires located their imprisoned friend and moved in to save her. They all then attacked and killed the entire team of vampire hunters.

© Tim Deer

Mysterious Death

A resort town on the East Coast is supplied with water by a large tank at the top of a hill. The body of rich old Mr Marchmount is been found there one night, his throat horribly crushed. The wet mud around the tank bears no footprints.

Dr. Tointon, the local physcian, examines the tank and finds it full to within a few inches of the top. He also finds traces of slime on the railing. Despite this, the police investigator, Inspector Slago, suspect Dufirst, the tank-keeper. Dufirst is found to have Marchmont’s watch but claims he took it from the already dead body. The police begin to believe him when a second body is found....

Possibilities

1 The tank is home to a large snake which strangled Marchmount, then returned to the darkness of the reservoir. The tank has not been cleaned on a regular basis and strange chemicals in the water has affected the reptile. The slime was left by the snake as it passed back and forth into the tank.

2 Marchmount is a cultist and has been using the tank at night as a landing pad for his experiments with Byakhees. His spell failed this one time and the flying horror strangled him then dropped his body. The slime is supernatural ooze excreted by the Byakhee. A mystical whistle was dropped at the site but picked up by a child, the second victim.

3 The tank holds the remains of Sidney Belton, a man who has been missing for four years. Belton’s ghost haunts the reservoir, waiting for the three men who murdered him and hid his body. Marchmount was one of them, as was the second victim. The ghost will remain hoping to kill the third man. The marks on the dead men's neck is made by the ghost’s deadly grip.

Inspired by William Hope Hodgson’s The Terror From the Water-Tank (1907)

© G W Thomas (illustration © Sam DeGraff)

Band of Gold

It’s a murky pawn shop with smears on the glass and a stale smell coming from inside. But the ring in the window is eye-catching for all of that. It’s a ring, like a wedding ring made from greenish gold with an inscription running around the inside.

Possibilities

1     The inscription is simply the same three-armed symbol repeated: the Yellow Sign. The ring is strangely heavy, and is referred to in a few texts as Hastur’s Bridal Ring. Wearing the ring for any length of time results in two events. The first is that the ring contracts and cannot be removed, and the other is the arrival of a byakhee. The byakhee, summoned by the ring, takes the wearer of the ring (Hastur’s Bride) back to Hali. The byahkee only appears when Aldebaran is in the sky, and if somehow dismissed another replaces it on a following night.

At Hali, Hastur’s Bride commands all of the Great Old One’s attention. When the wedding-night activities are over, Hastur discards the remains of his bride and the ring is eventually returned to the pawn shop and its devoted owner.

2     The insciption is written in Hyperborean and says "Sleep Well, Dream Well." Wearing the ring whilst sleeping allows the wearer automatic entry (barring other effects prohibiting entry) to the Dreamlands via the Cavern of Flame. The ring is otherwise unremarkable.

The ring was sold to the pawn shop by John Montego who used it for some years before his Dream-self was killed, preventing him from returning to the Dreamlands. Through the shop’s records, Montego can be contacted. He knows much about the Dreamlands, but knows nothing of the horrors threatening the Waking World.

Perhaps he would make a good ally.

3     The ring is slimy and cold, and if worn will not come off - at least not without the finger. The inscription, if translated before the ring is first worn, says “Welcome friend, join us,” in the language of ghouls.

If the ring is not removed (with the finger) then the poor soul’s flesh slowly starts rotting and her appetite turns to rotten meat. She is turning into a ghoul. The ring falls off when the transformation is complete.

The ring was sold to the pawnshop after Laura Black vanished from her lonely city garret. Her family have no idea what happened to her, and found the ring among her belongings. Now, whoever buys the ring may soon be in a position to find out exactly what happened to Laura . . .

© Steve Hatherley