The Heist

A violent robbery has occurred at the local bank. After killing 4 staff and 1 policeman, the robbers evaded the police and seemingly disappeared. They escaped with £950,000 in cash and also emptied several safe deposit boxes. Among the objects stolen was a small bluish crystal, said to have occult significance. It was owned by Harold Darlington, the wealthy head of a local Masonic order, who is offering a reward for its return.

n interesting fact is that the robbers were reported not to have faces! The police have not been able to trace the robbers’ identities, but are organising a huge search to find the criminals. Due to the robbery’s violence, it is nationwide news, and is a popular point of gossip.

Possibilities

1 The robbery was carried out by a group of hardened gangsters. The robbery was the result of weeks of careful planning, but came apart when one of the staff attempted to wrestle a gun off one of the robbers. The bank clerk was shot in the head and killed instantly, and the robber freaked out and started killing people at random. The robbers fled, and have likely already left the country. However, the robber who started shooting has escaped and is hiding in the sewers, and has been left paranoid and violently insane after his group abandoned him.

The theft of the crystal is coincidental. It has no magic properties. The reports of the men having no faces are the results of the robbers wearing masks over their faces, to hide their identity.

2 The robbery was planned by a cabal of sorcerers, who heard about the crystal, and believed it to have magical powers. To carry out the robbery, they summoned a group of demons to act as muscle while they took the crystal. They also decided to take the money for the sheer hell of it. However, the policeman started firing at the demons and the demons began massacring the people in the bank. Realising what happened, the sorcerers teleported out of the bank and banished the demons.

The police are saying the victims were shot, to hide the fact they were all torn apart and bitten to pieces. The description of the men as faceless is the attempt of the only surviving clerk to mentally block out the image of the demons.

3 The robbery was carried out by the Faceless Men, the modern day cult of the Great Old One Yegg-Ha, the faceless one. In Roman times, Yegg-Ha threatened ancient Britain until he was destroyed by a band of Roman Legionaries. They broke him into pieces and scattered him across the countryside. The bluish crystal is a fragment of Yegg-Ha, and his cult hope to use it to revive their god.

Harold Darlington is a descendant of the Roman soldiers who fought Yegg-Ha, and is charged with protecting the crystal. The Faceless Ones specialise in violent crime to fund their activities, and took the money to invest in various criminal enterprises. They are violent by nature, and executed people out of habit. The faceless appearance is the result of a spell called “Mask of Yegg-Ha” that makes the face featureless, and both obscures their identity and acts as a form of worship to Yegg-Ha.

© Paul Hebron

The Delivery

Home shopping, customer credit and home delivery have been with us for many years now. Harrods of London and J C Penney have both had such a facility for many years.

Early one morning, there is a ring at the doorbell (or possibly thetradesman’s entrance). Once answered it proves to be James Sheridan, the regular delivery driver for Harrods. He has a large wicker basket full of goodies as ordered earlier that week. However, the wrong items seem to have been delivered.

Possibilities

1 The basket contains the expected groceries and a severed human finger (lleft-handring finger, female, with engagement ring included). It is neatly wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, in a manner similar to a small parcel of butcher meat. It has only recently been separated from its owner, not with surgical precision but with skill nonetheless.

There is a letter inside a sealed envelope. Composed of letters cut from the Times, it says Bring the 1000 to the train station in time for the 19.45 express train to Dover.

The hallmark and inscription inside the ring allow it to be traced via Herzberg Jewellers to its purchaser Basil Milton, a minor aristocrat living in Belgravia. Basils intended, Miss Mary Sheldon, was kidnapped two days ago during a walk on Hampstead Heath.

The identity of the kidappers is a mystery. They have an unwitting accomplice who works for Harrods and it is he who accidentally put the kidnappers’ demand in the wrong basket. If apprehende,d he did not even know the contents of the parcel or about the kidnapping, he was simply bribed to add a package to a delivery.

2 The wrong basket has been delivered. It contains a picnic meal for two (including a fine bottle of claret) and the first sealed clue for a forthcoming weekend treasure hunt. The intended recipient is Clytemnestra Poppelwell, a scatty heiress-to-be. If the baskets are swapped back, Clytemnestra will be keen to have her rescuers join the treasure hunt with her.

The treasure hunt has been arranged by Bertrand Fortescue, a simply charming London socialite. He is the bastard son of Arglye Poppelwell, Clytemnestra's father. He plans to bump off Clytemnestra during the treasure hunt, faking an accident. Then, when old man Poppelwell finally dies of terminal gout, he will inherit the family estates and fortune. He sees little trouble in doing so as all of Clytemnestras friends are airheads just like she is.

3 The basket contains a polished mahogany presentation box 4 x 4 x 4. The inside is green velvet lined and contains an odd grey/blue spherical rock formation just slightly larger than a billiards ball. A handwritten card describes it as An unusually hard opaque silicate formation, highly decorative and resistant to accidental damage. The ideal paperweight.

The rock is a Cthonian egg, discovered by Ms. Erma Smits, a moderately well-known sculptor. She has been supplying small original sculptures to the more exclusive stores for sale as gifts and curios. Erma lives in Yorkshire, where she finds natural rock formations to be the ideal starting point for her pieces. She unwittingly found the egg in the effluvium of a flash flood which caused her local river to burst its banks. Some distance upriver from her home is a tributary fed by The Spout, a fast-flowing stream that emerges from the base of a large cliff face.

Someone has chosen the paperweight as a birthday gift for the scholarly recluse in their life. It now represents a good financial investment as the morning papers all contain the tragic news that Ms. Erma Smitts, a respected sculptor, was killed just

yesterday when her ramshackle cottage collapsed during a minor earthquake. Other articles tell of small aftershocks which have been occurring in the last 24 hours.

© Peter Devlin

The Convention

The annual International Mystical and Paranormal Society Convention is to be held soon. This year the special guest is Dr Janos Voerlocke, a well-known and often-maligned occult scholar, who has not failed to please convention audiences in the past. Dr Voerlocke claims that he has discovered something that will change the world and intends to reveal his secret at the convention. 

Possibilities

1 Dr Voerlocke reveals a strange black polygonal-shaped object about the size of a human head. He explains that he found the object sealed in a block of lead covered with dire warnings in hieroglyphs while in Egypt. After he melted the lead, he discovered the block contained the artifact in question. The artifact is not just a piece of carved black rock, but a prison for a demon. At this point, Voerlocke pushes the polygon open and a Hound of Tindalos screams forth. The Hound is in a foul temper and eager to take revenge on those who imprisoned it.

2 Voerlocke has captured a deep one, whom he summoned with a spell from the Ponape Scripture. The deep one is covered and croaking loudly as the cage is wheeled onto the stage. Voelocke makes a short speech and pulls the sheet off. Moments later, five men rush the stage, brandishing guns. The men are deep ones who haven't fully changed and are here to rescue their kin.

3 Dr Voerlocke has run up large debts to some shady characters - and they have persuaded him to act as a decoy to pay off some of the debt. After a long speech, Voerlocke reveals what he claims to be a unicorn skull. The skull is merely a doctored horse skull - a fact obvious to anyone studying it for more than a moment. While the long speech was going on, Voerlocke's shady compatriots were robbing the guests' rooms, holding up the hotel manager and clearing out the safe.

© Kevin Kaier

Stop, Thief!

The character is caught up in a bank robbery. (S)he was walking down the street when shots were fired. The robbers then came dashing out of the bank, and one, mortally wounded, collapsed in the character’s arms. Yet, only seconds later, nothing seems to have happened at all; there was no robbery, no dead man, and nobody but the character remembers anything at all about the incident.

Image by artflow.ai

Possibilities

1 Precognition. The events that the character saw will take place, but a week from now, at exactly the same time and in the same place. Before then, the character will see the ‘dead’ robber in the street, going about his business; what will the character do?.

2 Mental instability. The character recently survived a near-fatal incident. (S)he is dwelling on it, and is also suffering from delayed shock. The ‘death’ was an illusion, brought on by an overwrought mind. There will be more just like it - and each dead soul wears the character’s face.

3 Postcognition. The events that the character witnessed happened some time ago (years, potentially decades), at exactly the same time and place. However, now the dead robber has something to latch on to - the character - and his ghost will linger.

© Adam Gauntlett

Floating

An investigator wakes late one night to discover that he and everything else in his bedroom are floating several inches in the air. As soon as he realises this, there is a loud crash from below the floor and everything settles back into place, leaving him alarmed and confused. Cracks in the foundations and knocked over items show that whatever happened was a real event.

Possibilities

1 A Yithian time traveller tracking down a mythos tome has heard that the investigator has a copy of it. In true Yithian style, it decided to make the search easier by inventing a combination anti-gravity device and sleep ray to transport the entire building to a spot where it could examine the house at its leisure. However, thanks to a gap in its knowledge of human physiology, the sleep ray failed to work as planned, and the Yithian aborted the effort when it realised the investigator was awake.

The Yithian will try again, as soon as it manages to perfect the sleep ray. A number of people in the neighbourhood will find themselves falling asleep at the strangest times and places over the next few days as they become ‘volunteers’ in its testing.

2 A dying lloigor is trying to exact revenge against people with mythos knowledge, using the last of its failing strength. The floating effect was an unsuccessful use of its implosion power. A series of implosions during the night radiate out in a spiral over several miles from the point where the lloigor is trapped, too weak to move or solidify, but planning further acts of vengeance after resting for a while.

3 Subsiding foundations caused the investigator’s house to drop several inches, and he was woken by the commotion as the building settled. The foundations are being undermined by a gang of criminals tunnelling into the cellar from the basement of a nearby home. The collapse filled in their tunnel, but they’re determined to get into the investigator’s cellar one way or another.

© Chris Kerr

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

Word from On High

The 21st Day Redemptionist Church is a large and popular religious organization. Led by the charismatic “Dr. James”, the Church’s radio ministry and large tent revivals have attracted national media attention. The revivals are especially popular, featuring the usual speaking in tongues, faith healing, and testimonials, as well as singing and prayer. Dr. James (who claims to have a doctorate in divinity) then concludes his tent revivals with what he calls his “Two Minutes of Meditation on the Word” where he and the flock share two minutes of silence to, ostensibly, meditate on the word of God.

Dr. James’ sermons have taken a different tone of late and his followers have been becoming more insular. The Doctor’s sermons have become more apocalyptic and full of fire and brimstone then they used to be and his revivals have become angry affairs, full of shouting about doomsday and disparaging of those who have not accepted The Word. Popular opinion has turned against the 21st Day’ers because of this, which has only added fuel to the already smoldering Redemptionist pyre.

Possibilities

1 Dr. James is a two-bit hustler with a criminal record. He is dodging the law and ripping off his followers. The doomsday bit is an attempt on his part to bolster flagging attendance and bring in some additional revenue. His whole goal is to accumulate enough money to leave the country for South America, a goal he is close to realizing. He has one small problem: his Armageddon sermons have particularly inflamed Walter Simms, one of the good doctor’s long-time followers. Simms suffers from occasional psychotic breaks and during his next episode he will decide to leave for heaven a little early, taking his beloved spiritual adviser with him.

2 Dr. James has slipped off of the edge of sanity. He believes that the last days are coming and that he and his followers need to make a bold move to proclaim their devotion to God. During his next sermon at the 21st, the parishioners may notice some odd odors inside the tent.

The whole structure will have a strong chemical smell. This is because the good doctor and his right-hand man, Walter Simms, have doused the entire structure, as well as the ground underneath the plastic tarps on the floor, with a powerful chemical accelerant. People entering the tent may notice the ground feels a bit muddy, though it didn’t rain the night before. Walter will stand at the back of the tent, closing and tying the flaps after the last attendee enters.

The sermon will be particularly inspired, espousing the congregation to exultations of love and devotion to God. Then, during the final two-minute meditation, Dr. James will signal Simms. They will then push the candleholders near them into the highly flammable tent walls. the interior of the tent will become a riot of flames and flailing, panicked bodies. People caught inside will only have seconds to get out before being crushed in the press of bodies, overcome by fumes, or burned alive.

3 Dr. James has fallen under the influence of a diabolic avatar of Nyarlathotep masquerading as Walter Simms, an unemployed auto worker. The Outer God has been slowly turning the 21st Day Redemptionists to the worship of the Old Ones. Simms’ sway over Dr. James isn’t complete and if he can be removed from his position of influence for at least two weeks the doctor will regain his senses. Simms is pushing the Doctor toward more and more violent and angry sermons. His end goal is known only to him. Perhaps he wishes to start another cult, to push this church to a violent Waco-style end, or to lead the Doctor into performing abhorrent ceremonies that will summon an elder power?

© Matt Cowger

A Discarded Parcel

An employee of the local post office, a young man by the name of Michael Stavros, has been found by his colleagues slumped over his workbench – dead! Scattered over and around him was a thin layer of grey dust. A small broken package lies discarded on the floor. The grey dust comes from here, from a smashed jar inside.

The package is addressed to Iain Coussell – a man currently under house-arrest pending trial for multiple cases of ritual murder and witchcraft. His house is surrounded both day and night and he is permitted no visitors. Twice a day an officer visits to confirm his presence. If he leaves his house he is followed by both uniformed and plain-clothed policemen. This escort is more for Iain’s protection than the general publics’, many of whom feel that he should not be permitted a mockery of a trial since the outcome is so obvious.

Possibilities

1 Iain is innocent. He has a passing interest in the occult and was once seen unloading a large number of old-looking books from his car. The claim of his involvement with witchcraft came from an anonymous tip-off, from a genuine cult member.

The real coven leader wants Iain dead so that the authorities will believe the cult is leaderless and therefore less of a threat. He realises that Iain will be cleared of all charges if the case ever comes to trial. Therefore his actions are an attempt to eliminate the risk; he was responsible for sending the dust which should have killed Iain.

The dust is the residue of a compound poison that needs to be inhaled. It breaks down quickly and is now harmless. Unfortunately, the jar accidently broke open while being handled by Michael.

2 Iain is an evil cult leader, he knows that should his case ever come to trial he would be found guilty. After several failed attempts to covertly leave his home or organise rescue from his outside sympathisers he has adopted a new scheme. A number of loyal cultists have been reduced to “essential saltes” and posted to the mansion. They will then be reformed upon arrival by Iain. The plan is to wait until Iain commands a substantial force before launching an assault, both from within and without, on the unsuspecting police.

Unfortunately, one of the jars accidently broke open and the “essential saltes” fell upon Michael Stavros. The cultist was exceptionally strong-willed, even in his inert dust form, and tried to possess Michael. Michael resisted, and the two minds destroyed one another.

3 Iain is a nefarious cult-leader and proficient sorcerer. Michael Stavros, however, was a police investigator and was ordered to find out as much as possible about Iain’s activities.

After pursuing conventional avenues of investigation, he eventually managed (by “pulling a few strings”) to be employed as a mail clerk. This gave him access to Iain’s personal communications. After Iain was placed under house-arrest he used scrying magic to discover the means by which the police had determined his guilt. Iain, realising Michael’s involvement, sent the package to himself knowing it would be intercepted. Michael opened the package, examined the contents of the jar and succumbed to the effects of its contents: poison.

© Hadley Connor

Voyage of the Empress

Booking cheap passage across the Atlantic has drawn the investigators to the converted cargo liner the Dragon Empress. Own by the mysterious but influential Chang Wei Saisong, the ship makes money moving bulk cargo, low cost no questions asked guest accommodations, and some customs personnel suspect more than that.

The ship hosts several shady characters, ranging from desperate aristocrats fallen on hard times and looking to start anew to criminals running from the authorities. Cabin doors are seldom left unlocked aboard the Empress. Early in the voyage, Saisong’s second in command, a half Dutch half Chinaman named Abelard suffers a violent episode, convulsions, speaking in tongues, and the like.

Midways through the trip Abelard suffers a second bout of convulsions, this time the fit ends with Abelard grabbing Saisong’s sidearm and organizing a mutiny aboard the ship.

Possibilities

1 Abelard is simply an undiagnosed epileptic and his fits have no real pattern or meaning behind them. Saisong has been short changing and underpaying his crewmen and this has created a large deal of hostility between the crew and captain. If the Investigators don’t try to defuse the situation, Saisong with try through force and instigate a shoot-out on the bridge in which several people are wounded and Saisong himself killed.

2 Abelard is a drug addict, and Saisong has been making a large fortune by moving Asian opium into Europe by smuggling it across the US and then aboard the Dragon Empress. The confrontation is Abelard’s play for power to gain control of the lucrative Dragon Road, the opium highway across America. Abelard’s fits are caused by his reckless use of more than one drug.

3 Saisong has been moving highly questionable items aboard his ship, many of which connected with the mythos. Unbeknownst to Saisong, Abelard has been spending too much time around these artifacts and has been reading the books that come across on the ship before they are sold in Europe. Thoroughly insane, Abelard plans to hijack the Dragon Empress and enact a ritual that allow his to take the ship to dreaded R’leyh.

© Jared Lain

Footsteps

You are staying in a small rural hotel. You awaken at night to a strange sound, slow, even footsteps. Bright moonlight streams in through the partially open window. Bright enough to penetrate the thin curtains and illuminate the face of the alarm clock. It reads three o’clock, you rise and peer through a gap in the curtains. Below you, crossing the cobbled yard at a slow, almost funereal, pace are two men.

Both men are dressed in dark clothing, their faces muffled. They carry what appears to be a coffin, and for several heart-stopping moments you watch them as they make their slow way across the hard surface. They stop, their backs to you, as if aware of prying eyes, then their heads turn towards you. Still unable to see their faces, you feel a cold wave of fear run down your spine as one of them points in your direction then motions toward the coffin.

Possibilities

1 You are seeing a premonition of your death. How and when? There is no clue.

2 The two figures are smugglers moving a wooden crate of illegal goods. They are unaware of you and are merely gesturing to an accomplice at a window further along.

3 The ‘coffin’ contains the gagged and bound body of an investigative journalist who got too nosey. The ‘gesture’ is a warning that you have been seen, and that if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go back to bed and forget what you’ve seen. The ‘coffin’ is being transported, with its cargo, to the small cliffside cemetery where it will be disposed of.

© Andrew Parfitt

Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight

While on holiday in the Balkans the investigators find that their well-earned rest is not meant to be. As they leave their hotel they are greeted by a detachment of the local militia who ask them in no uncertain terms (despite the language barrier) to accompany them to the station.

The conditions in the jail are inhuman and they are forced to stay in a rancid, overcrowded, cell with cut-throats and murderers for two days. Eventually they are questioned by the regional prosecutor regarding the disappearance of a local girl on the night they arrived in the area.

Instructed not to leave the Balkans, the investigators are released without charge. However, during the ‘interview’ the following facts emerge:

There have been several disappearances of young ladies in the Balkan area. The names and descriptions change, but the circumstances are familiar. Two girls have gone missing in Bulgaria, two in Serbia, three in Albania and five in Romania. Each time the girl is beautiful and disappears at night without trace.

The more superstitious locals are talking of supernatural goings on and the prosecutor is anxious to put an end to these rumours by making a quick arrest and conviction. As the investigators are the only foreigners in the area (and therefore easy scapegoats) he makes it plain that they are at the top of his list.

Should the investigators look into the disappearances they will discover that the common denominator is a Turkish Circus on the return leg of a European Tour.

Possibilities

1 The Turks are using the girls as catalysts for a spell. The circus hypnotist turns their will to Hastur the Unspeakable and they form the coven of witches needed to call Him to the Nameless City.

2 The girls are sold as part of the white slave trade in Turkey. They are kidnapped in the closest countries to Turkey on the return journey so that minimum of care is needed. They are hypnotised and hidden in false compartments in the lion cages to prevent both their escape and discovery by inquisitive officials.

3 The circus has a freak show in which is featured a cannibal from Africa. His twisted keeper lets out his charge who has a taste for young female flesh.

© Garrie Hall