The Winged Cat

Peter McIntyre, a young academic studying the history of witchcraft, visits his fiancée one night and never returns. Until this point, it seemed that everything was going his way – his recently established contracting business was a success and his fiancée, Amanda, is beautiful and adoring. He had made no preparations for departure and had mentioned nothing amiss to his friends. A winged black cat appears at his house and mews to be let in.

Possibilities

1 McIntyre has become involved in a cult of Tsathoggua. His business is really a cover to launder ill-gotten wealth from his occult dabbling, and his fiancé is the victim of a love spell. His recent activities, however, brought him to the attention of the Hounds of Tindalos. They tracked him through time and space and found him just as he arrived home after visiting Amanda but, through a quick deal with Tsathoggua, he escaped to a parallel dimension. His familiar, a black cat, went with him, but was replaced with its counterpart from the dimension to which he escaped.

2 Amanda is not as young as young as she appears, or as innocent. She is in fact a witch over ninety years old, maintaining her youthful appearance by sacrificing virgin youths (such as Peter) to the Old Ones. The sacrificial spell involves considerable preparation of the victim, which explains why she has become so closely associated with him. The cat is a fey creature, attracted by the stench of magic in the wake of the spell.

3 Amanda has recently returned from a holiday in the Middle East and brought back a souvenir as a token of her love. Knowing Peter’s fascination with things ancient and occult, Amanda chose a small stone statuette said to have been taken from an ancient tomb. The statuette is a figure of the cat goddess, Bast.  Amanda cannot read Arabic, but Peter can, and on his way home, read aloud the inscription in the base of the carving. This activated an ancient curse, which transformed him into a winged cat.

© Barbara Robson

Ailurophobia

For the past week, cats have been showing up outside the investigator’s house. At first it was only one or two cats, but as time went on more and more began to arrive until they presented a bizarre and almost alarming spectacle which has caused much comment among the neighbours. Dozens of cats of all colours and sizes sit outside the house waiting… for something.

Possibilities

1 Many thousands of years ago in a previous incarnation, the investigator was a favoured priest of the cat goddess Bast. Now some new threat has arisen against all of cat-kind, and she needs his aid once again. The cats are her way of getting the investigator’s attention; she will also send dreams that gradually reveal details of his past life.

2 Shortly before the cats began to arrive, the investigator accidentally killed a small, black kitten by running it over with his car. Ordinarily this would be nothing to worry about, but due to an unusual collection of occult circumstances, the area where the investigator lives has begun to intersect with certain regions of the Dreamlands. Some of the Cats of Ulthar have crossed the divide and are preparing to enact the terrible vengeance which is the just due of any human who dares to kill a cat. The investigator may get a hint of his coming fate when he reads a newspaper article about some other cat-killers, whose skeletons had been found curiously gnawed and licked free of any trace of flesh.

3 The cats are not supernatural, just hungry. For some time now, the reclusive old lady across the street has been feeding dozens of stray cats in her back yard. A few days ago she fell and broke her hip, and in the absence of her handouts the cats have been searching for sustenance in the rest of the neighbourhood. The injured woman remains trapped on her floor, helpless and dehydrated but still alive (at least for the time being).

© Emily Johnsen

Cats

Over the last few days, cats have been vanishing. Then, a (human) corpse is found, apparently having been clawed to death, followed by several more deaths all carried out in the same grisly way. The papers quickly seize on a sensationalist piece of news - that bodies of skinned cats were sent to the victims shortly before their untimely demise.

Possibilities

1 Marty Cartwright believes that taking on an animal’s skin allows him to shape-shift into the form of that animal. Cartwright, an intense young man with an interest in black magic, lost his family in a fire. The fire was no accident and Cartwright has traced the arsonists, a group of thugs calling themselves “The Panthers.”

Cartwright researched a ritual to allow him to exact revenge in a most appropriate form, by becoming a black panther. Now he is slowly killing the gang members one by one, sending each a warning in the form of the body of a skinned cat.

2 All the victims were at some time patrons of an occult book shop and have all authored monographs for the book shop on the subject of myth and magic. They have unfortunately become the victims of a deranged killer who recently escaped from an asylum.

The woman, Catherine (known as Cat), believes she is tormented by a huge feline demon. The authors of the monographs mock the great cat-spirit and it is making her kill them all. To give them an opportunity to repent, the demon makes Cat send skinned cats to the victims. None of them have yet repented. In Cat’s lair the skins are fastened to a wall, with a picture of each victim underneath them.

Several of the authors are still alive and very scared. Should they all die, then Cat finds new victims, with no rhyme or reason this time.

3 The victims are all Dreamers, killed by moonbeasts. Several days ago, three moonbeasts crept into the Waking World, causing the cats to flee and vanish. The first few victims were deliberately chosen, but the moonbeasts have continued because it is so much fun.

Whenever they catch a cat they skin it and send the body to their next victim, shortly before attacking en masse. This continues until the moonbeasts become bored with this sport and leave.

© Lynne Wilson

Stray Cat Strut

As the clock strikes midnight one of the investigators is awoken from deep sleep by the meowing of a huge, battle-scarred ginger tom cat outside the window. It is raining heavily and the bedraggled moggy stares pathetically through its one good eye, pawing at the window pane. He wants in.

On granting the tom admittance the investigator gains a companion, especially if he is fed well. In return for food he rids the house of vermin, often leaving its prey as ‘gifts’ on the doorstep.

Possibilities

1 The cat has a sixth sense for danger and the supernatural. He is also an excellent judge of character. If the investigator can learn to interpret the body language of the cat he has a potentially life-saving advantage.

2 A sorcerer has 'mind swapped' with the cat, mistakenly believing that the body of the cat allows it to travel between the waking world and the land of dreams. Unfortunately for him this ability transferred to his body with the cat - and before he could swap back the terrified cat had fled to the Dreamlands, taking his body with it. He wants the help of the investigators to help him regain his body. However before this can happen he must find a way to communicate with them. The tom will be behaving very strangely until the investigators figure out what is happening.

3 Among the mice and rats that it leaves on the doorstep is a creature from the Dreamlands: an infant Moon Beast. The enraged mother-beast tracks the unfortunate cat through the secret highways between the waking world and the Dreamlands and kills it, leaving the mutilated body on the investigator's doorstep. Soon there are other killings, and cat corpses begin to appear around the neighbourhood with alarming regularity. Then, humans begin disappearing in the night. The Moon Beasts have found a way into the waking world and having killed the hated cats are kidnapping humans for slavery...

© Garrie Hall