Game Over – For Good!

Recently, a couple of teenagers have disappeared in the town. Research leads to a video arcade.

Further investigation reveals that all the victims were hooked on a new video arcade machine installed a few weeks ago. All were last seen in the hall playing the game.

Possibilities

1 The arcade machine is home to a flying polyp. These semi-solid creatures have, in modern times, learnt to shatter their bodies and send themselves via viruses and even live in digital form on the Internet and in computers.

This polyp uses the game as bait.

2 The machine is connected to the Great Old One, Gog-Hoor via a dimensional rift concealed inside. If the machine is pulled from the wall, one of Gog-Hoor’s multi-eyed tentacles reaches out from the rift. The vanished kids have all been sucked into the rift and are now with Gog-Hoor...

3 The game was designed by a man with considerable knowledge of the Cthulhu mythos. He went insane shortly after finishing it and is now in an asylum.

He poured much of his knowledge into the game - too much perhaps. At certain points in the game players can combine symbols and (seemingly) random letters and risk forming an invocation. The invocation summons something – a dimensional shambler, a nightgaunt, a star vampire or similar. Each time this has happened, the entity has arrived to carry off the hapless player...

© Stefan Jonsson

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

A Turn of Fate

A dreidel is a four-sided top. It’s a harmless toy played with by children at Hanukkah, a Jewish festival celebrating the rededicating of the Temple at Jerusalem. This one, however, is different.

It is always cold to the touch, though a thermometer gives normal readings. Animals, especially cats, seem wary of it or its bearer. Cats will scratch anyone carrying it who tries to pet them. Even the baby who tries to put everything he can in his mouth won’t touch it, and tries to crawl away.

The top itself is solid lead, and weighs about 150 grams, as it should. The four square faces are about 2 cm on a side. The first four Hebrew letters, aleph, beth, gimel, and dan, protrude slightly from each face on the top’s body, one letter to a face. When spun, this dreidel makes an eerie whistling sound, not at all like a normal dreidel. The whistling is due to air rushing through small holes where the raised letters attach to the top’s body, If the investigator pries off these letters, he finds odd carvings underneath.

Possibilities

1 The carvings are Aklo letters representing magic, death, power, and knowledge. The top was once owned by the serpent man Ynarak, who used it to locate strong necromantic regions, such as burial mounds, murder sites, or terrible accidents. The range of this device is about four miles. If there are no places within range, then repeated uses of the dreidel creates one. (Astute investigators may notice an increase in killings coinciding with increased use of the top.) If an appropriate spot is located, the letters glow, and the top acts as a gyroscope with the stem always pointing toward the centre of the region.

2 The top is one of four, and the carvings are mystic symbols which spell the last syllable of Azathoth’s secret name. Investigators knowing the spell Curse of Azathoth will know this. The other three tops spell the rest of the name. If the tops are used in ceremonies praising Azathoth, there is a chance He or one of his servitors will ‘reward’ the celebrants.

Unfortunately, spinning the top becomes addictive and eventually the poor owner is dragged away by Azathoth. At first the owner hears strange piping sounds all the time. Doctors consider this hysteria. Then he begins dreaming about the Outer God. Finally, the owner (and possibly a chunk of the surrounding countryside) disappears.

3 Even with the outer faces removed the top still whistles. It was a gift from Nyarlathotep to the now dead sorcerer Karlon Angor, which increases the chance to summon and control a flying polyp. Unfortunately, each time the top is spun there is a cumulative chance of summoning an uncontrolled polyp. Eibon writes of such devices, though this one is not mentioned specifically. Some experimentation may be necessary to discover the top’s secret.

© Joe Louderback

Small Things Forgotten

Following the death of his two children about 30 years ago, and his wife to pneumonia about five years ago, Hiram Dretts has lead a quiet, solitary existence deep in the hills, working his farm. He is well known and liked by the folk of the nearby town, and is known for a sharp mind.

Hiram’s farm does not have the modern conveniences of electricity or gas, but does have a coal burning furnace. While stoking the furnace one evening, a lump of coal broke apart to reveal an object: a worked triangular piece of green stone. The two long sides measured approximately two inches long, and the piece was about a quarter of an inch thick. The base of the triangle was unfinished and appeared to have broken off from a larger piece. Strange marks were along the two finished edges, giving the impression of some kind of writing or symbols.

Hiram has never had a formal education beyond the third grade, but he knew that what he found was very old. Hiram placed it on his mantle with the intention of sending it to a museum next time he was in town.

Possibilities

1 The fragment is a piece of an elder sign used by serpent people in the late Carboniferous period. The whole elder sign had been originally used to seal a gate but has been destroyed and fragmented for over 275 million years. The gate is no longer active, but if the serpent people learn of the fragment, they may make attempts to recover it and discover if more fragments exist.

2 The fragment belonged to a powerful serpent people sorcerer priest called Tthast-smmun. The fragment contains part of Tthast-smmun’s essence, and as the days progress, the sorcerer begins to take possession of Hiram. Hiram begins experiencing dreams of the long past times of the serpent people’s glory, and his sanity begins to crumble. Over a few weeks, Hirem starts worshipping Yig.

Through rituals taught via dream, Hiram begins a physical transformation into a serpent people-hybrid. Tthast-smmun plans to inhabit Hiram’s body as soon as he is completed. Hiram will be no more.

3 The fragment originally comes from an elder Sign used by the Great Race of Yith to trap and contain a flying polyp. The seals holding the polyp have been destroyed over time, but the polyp has long since been trapped in a pocket in the rock. It is only a matter of time before miners discover more of the fragments, then the pocket itself . . .

© Bill Dietze