The Dinner Party

Kenneth Marsh is an eccentric traveller, writer, critic and dilettante whose frequent dinner parties are the talk of the town. Avaricious socialites shamelessly pursue invitations to these cosmopolitan events. Guests come from all social backgrounds and are chosen by Marsh for their idiosyncrasies and entertainment potential. Madonna Scarlatti, a stage actress, and Samuel Waldeberg, a would-be movie star, are among the guests this evening.

After a starter of superb herb and garlic pate, the main course appears, an ‘unusual fish dish’. The guests joke nervously, hoping that it is not calamari; a previous guest had an attack upon learning that she had eaten sauteed baby octopus. “One simply couldn’t live with the thought of eating tentacles!”

Marsh tucks in and everyone slowly follows his example. The main course is excellent. A rich chocolate and coffee pudding is the sweet, to be followed by coffee, brandy and cigars. Marsh, a radical, does not expect the ladies to retire whilst the men smoke.

Conversation turns to the host’s recent travels. Marsh returned recently from the Orient with, amongst other curios, a number of live specimens of a rare genus of venomous catfish. Marsh maintains extensive salt and freshwater aquaria. These catfish have bred extensively in the last few months; the guests have just eaten a few of them.

The Lung-Hung catfish are found only in the precincts of a Cantonese temple to a many-armed female ‘Bhudda’, referred to as The Bloated Woman. The fish are considered sacred as, reputedly, they can heal dermatitis sufferers who bathe in their pool. Marsh does not elaborate on how he obtained live specimens although there was a Reuters article on a riot in Shanghai a few months ago.

Suddenly, Marsh begins to choke. His eyes bulge, he turns purple, and he slumps face-down into his coffee.

Possibilities

1   The cook, Jules Severin, didn’t know how to prepare the fish. He sought the advice of a kindly yellow-robed Chinese herbalist monk who was collecting donations door-to-door. The monk’s recipe deliberately didn’t account for the poison sacs within the fish. Marsh sampled the dish yesterday and ate it again tonight. He has died first. Within 24 hours, all the guests will be dead.

Marsh has an extensive collection of journals in which he relates the tales of the Lung-Hung Catfish as learned from a ‘flower girl’ in Shanghai. There is a small temple in Chinatown, guarded closely by the Order of The Bloated Woman. The monks know of the antidote. It only remains for someone to fetch it in time.

2 Shelby the butler checks Marsh and declares him alive. Then Waldeberg collapses theatrically to the floor with severe cramps; he daringly had two helpings of the main course.

In normal humans the catfish venom causes cramps and fever which may kill those with a weak constitution. On Deep One hybrids the venom speeds the transformation process dramatically. The catfish can feed on dead flesh of humans, and are kept specifically for useon the moulting flesh of such hybrids. This is the background to the tales concerning their healing properties.

Marsh, unknowingly, can trace his family history to Innsmouth. He is in a coma from which he will awake in a few days, a good way through the transformation to a Deep One. Grinning Orientals hide in the bushes outside the window. They await the incapacitation of the guests. They will take Marsh to his true people and kidnap then sacrifice the defilers of the sacred fish.

3 Marsh was poisoned by Madonna Scarlatti, who sits to his left. She used an antique Italian poison ring to slip a lethal dose of cyanide into his dessert.

Marsh and Scarlatti are ex-lovers. He savaged her recent appearance as Lady Macbeth but invited her as a way of apologising for being too harsh. Hell hath no fury...

© 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

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 Forgotten Army

The recent discovery of a mass grave has sparked a furore in the archaeological community. Builders digging foundations have unearthed hundreds of skeletons, apparently battle-dead. When archaeologists came to examine the site, they had quite a shock!

Image by Artflow.ai

Possibilities

1 Some of the remains aren’t human. Roughly half the skeletons found are clearly deep one skeletons, and the excited archaeologists are preparing to make their discovery public. Deep one hybrids living locally have got wind of this. They plan to murder the archaeologists and destroy the evidence of their existence.

2 One of the bodies discovered was perfectly preserved as if the man had died only yesterday. The body was moved to the mortuary in preparation for an autopsy, but when the freezer was opened to retrieve the body, it was gone.

The man was a sorcerer who had been unable to avoid being drafted into the army. To escape the battle, he used magic to feign death and was buried with all the other dead. Now revived, he is roaming abroad with unknown intent.

3 At the centre of the grave, the archaeologists found a stone box. The box is being stored at the university, and hasn’t been opened yet. This is fortunate, as it contains something extremely nasty: something that killed hundreds of soldiers the last time it was imprisoned.

© Rob Illing

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 Missing Body

It’s been a big topic of conversation for three days now. Renowned anthropologist Marvin Reardon was found dead in his home with a knife in his chest. At the morgue, his body disappeared without a trace. However the investigators get involved, a few things come out. Reardon’s lover Cordelia Loomis was the last person to see him. Her story is she had an argument with him but left him alive. Loomis is a rich girl, and there are many rumors about her past and source of money, including criminal activities. She often vacations at seaside resorts.

The coroner Jackson Walters has been acting nervous since the body went missing. He took a week off and has rarely left his house. Friends are mystified at his odd behavior.

Possibilities

1 An alien worshipper of the Outer Gods is hiding in Jackson Walters’ attic. Walters has been feeding it dead animals, but it has demanding more so Walters stole a body from the morgue. As the thing tells him about the mythos Walters loses more of his sanity. It won’t be long before he steals another body or worse.

2 Cordelia Loomis is a deep one cultist. When Reardon was drunk she took him to a cult ceremony where he drank the blood of a deep one while the cultists chanted. The blood and the ritual turned him into a deep one hybrid. When Reardon found out he didn’t take it well and threatened to stop the cult forcing her to kill him. Later the body was stolen to keep the secret. Jackson Walters found evidence of Reardon’s transformation and was shaken up.

3 Loomis was mad at Reardon and summoned a star vampire to kill him. When it was done she stuck a knife in him to make it look less suspicious. Jackson Walters found him drained of blood and received a threatening note in the mail to get rid of the body or be killed. He did what it said and this is the reason for his nervousness.

© Randi Drysdale

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

Trouble on the Tracks

It is sometime in the 1920s when, during one of the worst winters in memory, an overnight sleeper train meets with a terrible accident. Amid a fierce gale, the express jumps the tracks and plunges into the icy waters beside the railroad. A dozen bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, but 20 people are still missing, including the engine-driver and stoker. Survivors and bodies have been taken by road to the nearest town. The police and railroad company engineers are looking into the causes of the accident.

Possibilities

1 Degenerate Serpent People from a decaying colony in caves near the railway have struck a blow against the hated humans who, with their noisy, polluting machines, have usurped the rightful position of the reptilians as masters of the Earth. The Serpent People have tunnelled beneath the rail-tracks to cause the accident. They are only interested in killing humans: the missing people are dead.

2 Deep Ones from an undersea colony off the coast are experiencing breeding problems. Fertility rates are dropping, and almost every child born to the colony for the last hundred years has been male, so the male/female ratio has become grossly unbalanced.

Desperate to find females to breed with, but aware that raiding another Deep One settlement or attacking a local community would cause more problems than they could deal with, the Deep Ones launched an assault on the overnight sleeper to steal human brides.

Of the people missing from the train, 16 are female. Of the bodies recovered, ten are male. Most of the missing females have been taken to the hybrid settlement.

3 One of the passengers on the train has interfered once too often in the affairs of a particular cult. Enraged by the investigator’s troublemaking, the cultists have summoned a hunting horror to wreak vengeance on the meddler. The Hunting Horror attacks while the investigator is travelling on the train, terrorising the engine crew and causing the driver to take a bend at an unsafe speed.

©  Tony Hickie

The Horror of Fang Rock

Five nights ago, the three man crew of a lighthouse twenty miles off the south Dyfed coast vanished without trace. The St-Davids lifeboat went to see what was wrong with the light, but they never returned Just what has happened the lighthouse men of Fang Rock? The wives of the missing people seek the help of a number of experienced investigators to answer this question.

Possibilities

1 Fang Rock, which is built on a sea mount has been over-run with deep-ones who are using it as the focal point for a ceremony designed to bring about the return of dread R’leyh.

2 After a particularly violent storm, a strange ancient glass container was fished from the ocean. Inside this container, which was of elder design, was a Shoggoth. When the lighthouse keepers opened the container the Shoggoth was released and has been prowling the lighthouse ever since.

3 The lighthouse stands at the point where the Dreamlands and the waking world overlap. Five nights ago, the way was opened and a raiding party took possession of the lighthouse so as to ship wreck the ship carrying Randolph Carter. By stopping these raiders, the investigators will trap themselves in the dreamlands.

© Rik Kershaw

Kindergarten Kult

All is not well at the Arkham Day-Care Center. The children who attend seem to have fun at the Centre, but recently they complained of nightmares. The nightmares vary, but they all seem to be about Mrs Mollse, the Center’s nurse.

Possibilities

1 Mrs Mollse is a member of the Arkham Witch-Cult. She has recently been given a mind-control spell by the Outer God Yitllicn, the Alterer of Thoughts. She is using it on the children under her care. Whilst under the spell’s influence, they think all is normal, not knowing that they are carrying out unspeakable tasks in the name of Yitllicn. However, when they sleep, the memories of what really happened seep through.

2     About a month ago, Cthulhu visited Mrs Mollse in her dreams, "requesting" that she become one of her priests. Foolishly, Mrs Mollse refused. The Dreamer in R’lyeh is now trying to incriminate Mrs Mollse in a child-abuse case (deep ones are really carrying out the abuse).

3     The nightmares are of Mrs Mollse being torn up by awful dog-like beasts (experienced investigators will realize that these are the Hounds of Tindalos). Before she came to the Center, Mrs Mollse was a New Age Traveller. Experimenting with a certain drug, she encountered the Hounds. She fled the New Age camp and became a kindergarten nurse, which she thought would be enough to give the Hounds the slip. The Hounds have not caught up with her yet, as she went quite far in time. The dreams are warnings sent by arrival species of angular time.

© Arthur Boff

Breaking New Grounds

Shock and grief spreads like a wildfire through Boston, when the mutilated corpse of renowned construction entrepreneur Richard Walker is found sprawled on top of the thrashed scale model of his recent building project, covered in a rancid smelling fluid.

When questioning the family, friends, neighbors and employees of the deceased construction entrepreneur, they all seem to have noticed a man, who seemed to have stalked the victim. But when asked, no one seems to be able to describe the strange stalker.

Possibilities

1 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is not the murderer, but he is a spy for the true murderers – a group of ghouls. Ghouls, who felt, that the victim was about to threaten their existence.

The construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker, was about to turn an unoccupied spot of real estate into several apartment complexes. But the same real estate already housed the underground warrens of the ghouls.

Knowing that the imminent construction of the apartment complexes would inevitably reveal the existence of the ghouls, they quickly plotted to track down and stop the entrepreneur from putting his plans in motion.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon, represented what was planned to be constructed on the abovementioned real estate. The rancid fluid is from the ghouls, who snuck in and murdered the entrepreneur.

2 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is the murderer – a hired killer, sent by a locale gangster, in order to shut up the victim for good, as he was about to alert the authorities.

The construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker, planning to construct several expensive luxury apartments, had bought the real estate from a local gangster. But when the entrepreneur learned that the gangster had used the real estate as a dumping ground for several barrels containing dangerous chemical waste, he chose to gather more evidence, and then alert the proper authorities of his findings.

When told about the entrepreneur’s suspicions, and his successful attempt to gather irrefutable evidence, the gangster hired a professional killer to seek out and silent the entrepreneur for good.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon, represented what was planned to be constructed on the abovementioned real estate. The rancid fluid was the samples that the victim had collected to present to the authorities.

3 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is the murderer – sent from the remnant Esoteric Order of Dagon, hiding in the ruined remains of dreaded Innsmouth, in order to thwart the entrepreneur’s newest building project.

As a highly skilled and recognized construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker was hired by the US government to turn the dilapidated Innsmouth into a new and thriving coastal town, hoping it would bring new life and blood to the dread and forgotten town. A huge project worth billions of dollars, all funded by the government, and destined to take several years.

But when the remnants of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, who had be hiding within the ruined remains of bombed Innsmouth, learned about the plans to rebuild and renovate Innsmouth, they chose to act against the project immediately, and thus they sent one of their agents, who hasn’t yet made the change into a deep one, fully.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon represented how the new and renovated Innsmouth would look like, when finished. The rancid fluid comes from the murderer - a human/deep one hybrid.

© Tim Deer

Flask of Curses

A series of disappearances are occurring in a single area of Arkham, in and around a large house which was once home to a famous alchemist. This man displayed unnatural long life and local legend has it that he had discovered the Elixir of Life - the fabled target of alchemical research.

Recently, workmen in the house found a mysterious silver flask concealed behind oak panelling. Its contents are unknown, and both the bottle and its discoverer have now vanished.

Possibilities

1 The theory of the Elixir of Life was that it would transfer the incorruptible properties of solid gold to the body of its creator, making him immortal – in theory, once transmutation of lead into gold was achieved, this achievement was only a matter of time. However, the Elixir in the bottle is flawed. If drunk, it will slowly transform the body of the drinker into solid gold. The workman who found it has drunk it and been driven mad as he slowly transforms into a golden – and almost indestructible – monster.

2 The bottle did not hold the Elixir of Life – instead it contained a mythos being like that in The Lurker in the Attic, conjured and imprisoned by the alchemist-sorcerer hundreds of years ago. The being hates other living things and has been murdering humans around the house. Fortunately, it can be forced back into its bottle with the proper ritual.

3 The bottle indeed holds the key to immortality. If the potion inside is drunk, the drinker will be slowly transformed, one part of their anatomy at a time, into a Deep One, therefore gaining eternal life. This knowledge was a gift from the Deep Ones, in order to create hybrids without breeding with humans. The workman who drunk it is now insane and has been murdering people - and the group of Deep Ones spying on their new offspring aren’t helping either.

© James David Beard

Pharos

Talon Rock – a small island barely a mile across, seemingly untouched by the defiling hand of humanity. The islet serves as an example of the purity of nature; birds wheel in the clear sky while the land is covered by a rampant growth of lush, tropical plant-life and a series of natural peaks. The island is also responsible for sending hundreds to their doom. Talon Rock is known to sailors as “Mariner’s Bane” on account of the many vessels that have been forcibly split apart by the keenly-pointed reefs that border its coastline.

Two months ago – in an attempt to prevent any further loss of life – a lighthouse was built atop one of the island’s peaks; a final warning of Talon Rock’s proximity. A crew of four men were selected to live in the lighthouse and be responsible for its maintenance and continued operation.

Recently, a vessel was sent to Talon Rock to replenish the lighthouse’s supplies. However, upon approaching the lighthouse the crew saw that some unknown force had wrought considerable damage to the exterior. Advancing to the interior, they found evidence of further devastation: papers had been torn to shreds; machinery disassembled; crockery smashed; and drawers thrown open, their contents strewn throughout the lighthouse. No trace could be found of the brave men who had chosen to live upon the rock in almost complete isolation from the rest of humanity.

A careful investigation yields no clue as to the crew’s eventual fate but one item of interest is discovered stuffed beneath a mattress - the senior keeper’s logbook. It contains only seven entries - the first week on Talon Rock. The last entry mentions a great storm approaching the Rock and the keeper’s feeling that they were being scrutinised by a nameless observer.

Possibilities

1 Legend has it that the dead walk on Talon Rock. This is not true; the bodies of the dead have been relentlessly broken upon the crag-like reefs by the unceasing tide. Their minds, however, live on. Talon Rock is now home to a gestalt entity - the amalgamation of all those who met violent ends beneath the islands savage waters.

The insubstantial entity is usually content to roam the island serenely, its presence unnoticed by the living creatures that also dwell there. Even the arrival of the lighthouse keepers went unregarded. Only one thing causes the pooled minds to act in unison - turbulent waters. During the storm the waters became incredibly violent, reminding many of the merged personalities of their own demise. The entity was envious of the lighthouse’s illuminating presence since such a beacon could have prevented the passing of so many previous victims. It struck at the lighthouse, tearing it apart with its wraith-like claws. The crew, believing their foe to be some form of poltergeist, fled the lighthouse and tried to leave the island in the emergency lifeboat. Like so many before them, they were claimed by the murky depths.

2 For countless generations, mariners have sought to steer clear of Talon Rock for fear of losing control of their vessels to the tempestuous waters and being mercilessly driven against the harshly-angled rocks. In reality, very few ships have been destroyed in this way. The actual cause lies far beneath the ever-shifting currents.

A small community of deep-ones inhabit the waters surrounding Talon Rock. They rarely frequent the world above except when performing rituals of devotion to Great Cthulhu or when raiding the ships that pass too close to the island for trinkets or victims for sacrifice.

The deep-ones initially assaulted the lighthouse simply to destroy the beacon which they believed would discourage shipping. However, while within the structure they plundered it for anything of the slightest interest. The four lighthouse keepers were dragged from their home and ritually sacrificed.

The deep-ones seek to keep Talon Rock free of human influence. Any attempt to repair the lighthouse will be met with aggression.

3 At the dawn of time, numerous wars occurred between varying interstellar races for the domination of the planet Earth. One such conflict was between the technologically superior, but less aggressive Yithians and the rapacious conquerors known simply as flying polyps. The Great Race forced their adversaries underground and built great cities atop all the exits - leaving their foes trapped within the Earth. Eventually the polypoids escaped and renewed their assault upon their conical foes. Their vengeance exacted, the polyps returned to their former prison and constructed vast underground cities.

An entrance to one of the polyps’ subterranean cities is located at the base of Talon Rock’s peaks. Even now that ageless elder-race still lurks deep within the Earth, far from the inquisitive eyes of humanity. The polyps viewed the lighthouse as an outpost of an enemy species. Such an outpost could not be permitted so close to their city’s entrance. Under the cover of the storm, the polyps annihilated their enemies.

The polyps also began to destroy the lighthouse until they ascertained its function. Human engineers from the supply vessel now marvel at the amendments made to the lighthouse’s internal components, the lamp now projects a narrow ray of light - more powerful than that of any Terran mechanism. However, the engineers are perplexed as to why the lamp no longer rotates but is instead mounted in a fixed direction. The impossibly dazzling ray now blazes through an aperture in the apex of the tower - and beyond into the uncharted tracts of space. What sinister powers could this beacon be signalling?

© Hadley Connor

High Fashion

It’s been happening for several months now. Mannequins in stores are a little less thin and aristocratic, their feature’s rougher, their mouths wider. In advertising the same thing is happening: shorter, wider, coarser. The tall, thin look that has been the western ideal for years is finally going out of fashion.

Of course, there are opponents to the style, remaining faithful to the old concept of beauty. However, most work in the business is going to those models, actresses and actors that have the “new look.”

Possibilities

1 The change is due to deep one agents infiltrating the fashion and beauty industry with human-looking hybrids. These agents are attempting to change perception of what is beautiful, thus making it easier for human-deep one hybrids to infiltrate human society.

2 A lone, once beautiful, deep one hybrid is beginning to change. Terrified by her warping body, she frantically tries to change the human idea of beauty to fit her own image. To do this she is promoting her own look and through the strategic use of magic is winning industry over to her side.

Tragically she takes her own life before the change is complete. Without her driving force behind the movement, the style dies out and the old concept of beauty is reinstated.

3 It is just another fad, which will be forgotten within the year. In later days people look back on the “short ‘n’ pug-ugly” period with some amazement. Any resemblance that the models have to deep ones is entirely coincidental.

© Eamon Honan

Empty Streets

Ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the coastal town of Safehaven, New Jersey has had a sizeable number of homeless people. This situation became especially aggravated in the Reagan years, to the point where the traditionally liberal populace of Safehaven showed signs of animosity towards the homeless. A few beatings were reported, and local aid was drastically reduced. Despite all this, the homeless remained.

Now, they are gone.

Overnight, every last hobo, drifter, and bag-lady vanished without a trace. At first, no one seemed to notice. Then a social worker voiced concern. The mayor conjectured the homeless had moved to Pennsylvania with its higher welfare benefits. The police chief argued they had probably moved to warmer climates. Most people were relieved; the streets were so much cleaner, nicer, and safer now. The streets were empty.

Possibilities

1 After the disaster in Innsmouth, the Deep Ones of the Atlantic seaboard scattered. They found fertile new breeding grounds in those impoverished by the Great Depression. They did not have to worry about another government attack: nobody cared. They have been replenishing their numbers for 60 years.

But now, they have called all their kin to a reef off the coast of New Jersey, for the stars are right, and Dagon awaits.

2 Zaka’rn, a man of Leng and a sorcerer, has opened a physical gate between the Dreamlands and the waking world. He has given a special potion (via the soup kitchens) to the homeless of Safehaven, and has led them sleepwalking to the gate, which is located in the side of a cliff on Safehaven beach. In the Dreamlands, he intends to sell the homeless to his masters, the Moonbeasts, who savour the taste of living flesh. His reward will be great.

3 A secret government weapons and pharmaceuticals research laboratory is at work near Safehaven. With the help of the mayor and the police chief, they have captured the homeless to conduct terrible experiments on them. Everybody is happy: the scientists can progress, the police chief’s work is now much easier, and the mayor’s chances for re-election are excellent.

© Markus Huenemoerder

Blown Glass

A small package marked FRAGILE arrives at an investigator’s home. Picking up the parcel immediately reveals that the contents have been smashed. Opening the box reveals a short letter and shards of green glass.

The package has been sent by Bartholomew J Perkins (an acquaintance or colleague) from Hokkaido, Japan. As the note reveals, the box contained a glass float used by fishermen to anchor their nets. Perkins hopes that the gift has arrives intact.

Possibilities

1 The ball is the product of the deep ones, constructed during an ancient war with the fire vampires. The globe was discovered by Japanese fishermen and used innocently for years.

The globe contained a special powder which retards open flame – such as that required for heating and cooking. The powder is released when the investigator opens the box. The phenomena is unusual, but not too alarming – until the fire vampires arrive. They have been drawn by the ancient weapon, and are spoiling for a fight.

Only the complete immersion of the box in water and thorough cleaning of the house prevents the fire vampires from returning.

2 The globe is a teleportation device. If the globe is reconstructed (it fits together like a jigsaw) it begins to glow. All those in the room are caught in a stunning blast of energy.

The investigators find themselves in another room, one with wooden floors and paper walls. They are on the island of Hokkaido, the globe is in shards again. Perkins is waiting for them, along with several black-robed figures. They smile, draw long knives and move forward . . .

3 The globe is the broken prison of an oriental demon. Assembling it causes it to expand and open like a shell. From the shell emerges a strange Asian woman. She is tall, green-eyed and dressed in silks. Then she disappears.

The woman is a cat demon named Hosatsu. She knows much about the occult and torments male investigators in their sleep. If she can be befriended, Hosatsu proves to be a powerful ally. Unfortunately. Hosatsu’s affections are very tiring, and although the investigator goes to bed earlier and earlier, he never gets enough sleep.

If Hosatsu is spurned she becomes hateful and dangerous, attacking the investigator while he is dreaming. Hosatsu can only be destroyed by an enchanted jade dagger, which research reveals must be held by the sleeper. Learning this, and then finding a suitable dagger, may not be an easy task. Battle with Hosatsu takes place in dream state, but the wounds she inflicts are all too real.

© G W Thomas

Bloody Red Tape

An acquaintance, a clerk at a government department, has been missing for a couple of weeks. While the clerk’s co-workers acknowledge that it is rather odd that he hasn’t turned up for work, nobody seems to have tried to contact him.

He is still being issued with a pay check, and everything appears normal at his office – except for his unexplained and barely acknowledged absence.

Possibilities

1 It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. In the eyes of his co-workers, the office is more efficient and life is a lot more pleasant without him. They don’t know where he has gone but no-one is asking too many questions because they don’t want him back. No-one has bothered to inform personnel.

So what really did happen?

After a hard night on the booze in an unfamiliar area, he was followed out onto the street and violently mugged. His wallet was stolen, so no identification was found when they picked his comatose body off the pavement. He is still in hospital, in a coma.

2 When asked directly about the clerk, the co-workers can answer simple questions, but appear unable to concentrate. He seems to slide from their consciousness. Although they complain about being understaffed, none of his co-workers really notice his absence, or think about him when jobs that would normally have been assigned to him come up.

One woman, however, shows signs of anxiety when questioned, despite not having any firm recollections. The clerk had become fixated on the woman, and she had eventually complained about his unwanted attentions to the section manager.

The clerk was a dabbler in the black arts.  He had come across what he had thought was an invisibility spell, which he had cast to better observe the object of his desire. However, the spell was far more powerful than he’d realised, and he was removed from the perceptions of the world and the minds of his colleagues.

He is presently trapped in limbo, observing the world but unable to interact with it.

3 There’s something not quite right about the co-workers. Astute investigators will notice similarities in the features of the other clerks, and will begin to feel uneasy in their presence. Closer inspection shows that most of the workers in the department have the same unsettling disfigurements in the form of patches of blanched skin and slightly malformed ears.

The workers are, like the Innsmouth folk, the offspring of humans and an evil, non-human race. They have been slowly taken over this department through prejudicial hiring practices, in order to further the malevolent purposes of their dark sires.

The clerk was hired, ironically enough, as the result of a filing error, and was discreetly disposed of when he found out too much about the department’s personnel.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

The Poisoned Sailor

A doctor is awakened in the middle of a rainy night by furious banging at his front door. If opened, a desperate, haggard-looking sailor will storm in, pleading for help. He rolls up his shirt’s sleeve, offering his horridly bulging arm for examination. Swelled and blackened, it appears to be affected by necrosis. The man begs for help, claiming he was poisoned by a rival.

“Duh bastar’ hates me guts cos my business runs strong, an’ he’s a lazy, warty ol’drunkar’ who can’t keep ep. He’s poison’ me drinks! Help me please, ain’t wanna die, oh Gawd!”

The arm responds to no medical treatment the doctor can come up with. Hospitals have no more success. The necrosis worsens by the hour.

Possibilities

1 The sailor is telling a half truth. The ‘rival’ isn’t simply jealous because of business competition, he’s seeking something the sailor has: an old trophy from a shipwreck, looking like a copper bracelet with intricate designs. The rival, actually a follower of Dagon, knows that it’s a piece of deep one jewellery, and badly wants it. Since the sailor refuses to part with it, the cultist has cursed the sailor, and will later contact the sailor for a bargain.

2 The sailor has tainted deep one blood, but is also cursed. His now-dead (human) mother found the strength of will to break free of the bonds imposed by her monstrous consort.

Furious by such unprecedent behaviour, the deep one asked Dagon to curse both she and any offspring she might have in the future. Any descendant would come to the world doomed to end his life, transformed into a ravenous human-eating monster, one far more horrible than the most degenerate deep one hybrid. Unfortunately for the sailor, the onset time for the transformation is over... but perhaps there is a way to reverse it.

3 The sailor really is poisoned, but it is incredibly potent. A creation of a serpent man sorcerer that the sailor had wronged. But how?

© Ricardo Christe

Smuggler's Cove

An investigator, an author of weird supernatural tales, is approached by a shifty and suspicious looking man wearing a heavy overcoat and a fur hat. He has a mass of tangled beard and the voice which booms through it is deep and powerful, and Russian.

His English is good but tainted with accent. He explains his predicament - he is a stowaway and a communist. He is also a vampire hunter. Since the revolution his group have found it difficult to pursue their quarry outside of Russian territory due to the attitude of neighbouring countries.

His group had been tracing a vampire, an ex-smuggler, but had lost him across the Baltic. Two of his men had been sent to Wismar in Germany, the known destination of the vampire. There has been no contact with them in over a month.

Now he is a stranger in a strange land, devoid of friends and allies. He has tracked down this author of strange tales to implore him to go to Wismar and find his men, if he can. He backs his plea with a small down payment in Czarist gold, with the hint of more to follow.

The house is now in a state of great neglect. It is structurally unsafe and has been threatening to fall down for many years now. The combination of the legend and its isolated location has prevented anyone from developing the site further. At the bottom of the cliff are several caves which were used for smuggling. A quite extensive cave network runs through the rock including one passage which leads up to the house.

Possibilities

1 Von Mannheim was, and still is, an active vampire. He now lives in a boat, shuttered from the harsh sunlight during the day and free to prey at night. The tunnel from the house is blocked off so that the only access to the caverns is by sea.

Von Mannheim returns periodically and the caves are filled with all manner of stolen items from his victims. Von Mannheim is alone except for a normal human aide - the captain of the boat. The captain is not a servant or slave, he is von Mannheim’s friend.

The two vampire hunters had come too close for comfort. Since his earlier discovery von Mannheim has become much more cautious, wary of the strength of his prey.

2 Von Mannheim worshipped Dagon and sacrificed trespassers to a colony of Deep Ones who live in the deepest part of the Baltic Sea. In return for the sacrifices the Deep Ones protected his ship and sometimes destroyed his competitors.

Deep in the cave network, in a cavern with direct access to the sea via submerged tunnels he erected a statue of his ancient god. Here he held his sacrifices and worshipped Dagon with the Deep Ones.

Von Mannheim is now a Deep One himself and now only rarely returns to Smuggler’s Cove. The two vampire hunters stumbled in on a ceremony. They found their cloves of garlic a most inadequate protection!

3 The legend has been used as a cover by White Russians in the years since the revolution. Russian nobility are smuggled through Estonia, Latavia and Lithuania and then to Wismar across the Baltic. The house on Vampyre Cove is a safe house and armoury for weaponry smuggled back up the route.

The Bolsheviks have narrowed their search to Wismar and their agents, the two so-called vampire hunters, tracked the White Russians to Vampyre Cove. Unfortunately for them they were caught and added to the Cove’s victims, as will anyone else discovering their secret.

© Garrie Hall

Who is the murderer?

Miss Sarah Spencer is convinced that someone is going to murder her but does not know who or why. She needs help and is willing to pay. Two days ago she received a letter with a local postmark. The letter was typed on a typewriter with a missing ‘e’.

She was going to leave it at that but yesterday found a message in the personal column in the newspaper.

There is another message today.

She has left her job and has booked into a hotel.

The messages were telephoned to the paper and paid for by a man giving his name as Robert Cook. Tomorrow’s note in the paper is to read:

Possibilities

1 Miss Spencer is dangerously schizophrenic and quite insane. She is usually Miss Spencer, but at times of stress becomes Robert Cook. Cook is gradually exerting more control and believes that by killing Miss Spencer he will be completely free. He will, but not the way he thinks.

One room in Miss Spencer’s fastidiously neat house is messy and unkempt. This is Cook’s, and pride of place is an antique typewriter with a missing ‘e’.

2 The letter was written by Miss Jane Marsh, jealous ex-lover of Robert Cook. Miss Spencer is now seeing Cook, and Miss Marsh has sworn to kill her and frame him. She knows where Miss Spencer is staying and has posted an invitation to Cook to visit her there. There he will find the mutilated body of Miss Spencer just as the police arrive.

3 Miss Spencer is a deep one before the ‘change’ and is luring the investigators to their death. They have been getting too close. The cliff top hotel she says that she is staying in is old and dilapidated and smells of fish.

© Graham Theobalds