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

Jars

In a remote corner of Laos, on a hard-to-reach plateau, are hundreds of massive stone jars. They cover an area of 30 square miles and are scattered through the thin forest with varying density. In places they seem to cover the ground, with barely space to walk between them.

The jars themselves are huge, typically three feet tall and carved from granite. Many of them appear to have been moved to the plateau, for reasons unknown. Some of the jars have lids - perhaps all of the jars once had lids, and a few are sealed. Others have strange markings carved in their sides.

The plateau is sparsely populated, and the natives have no more idea of what the jars are for than anyone else. They use handy jars for storage, or as water butts. Most of them, however, are just left.

Possibilities

1 The jars are stone-age artefacts and were carved 3-4000 years old. They appear to have been used by the stone age tribes of the area for storage - as some of them have been found to contain pots and shards of bamboo. The jars also seem to have some kind of religious significance, as several of the sealed jars have been found to contain skeletons.

2 The jars had originally been brought across from the dreamlands. They had been used by the Men of Leng centuries ago to transport moonbeasts into the waking world. The jars have since been left scattered, debris of an ancient scheme. They have since been used by the local people for storage.

The jars are not entirely benign, however. In the original scheme some of the moonbeasts were missed. Some have died, and strange twisted bones can be found in a few of the jars. In one or two of the sealed pots, however, hibernating moonbeasts wait for the unsealing. They are unlikely to be pleased when they finally awake.

3 The jars are ancient artefacts of worship. Long ago, the people of Laos worshipped an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the Bloated Woman. She would visit annually, and would be most displeased with her people if the offering had not been properly prepared. They were therefore always most eager to prepare it properly.

The offering, a vile mixture of rotting herbs, pustulent body parts and live sacrifices would be prepared over the course of several months and poured into a hand-carved stone jar. The lid would then be sealed and the concoction left to turn in the sun for several weeks. At the time of the Great Coming, the jar’s lid would be removed and, upon smelling the fragrant aroma belching forth, the Bloated Woman would arrive to bless the people of Laos.

© Steve Hatherley