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

Lost at Sea

The disappearence of Andrew Grayson, the wealthy young Canadian businessman, devastated his friends and family. Grayson was enjoying a Pacific cruise with his family on board the S.S. Arcadia. One evening, he told his wife he was going to take a stroll on deck, but he never returned. The alarm was raised, but Grayson was never found, and was eventually presumed dead, lost overboard.

Possibilities

1 Grayson did fall overboard, and he was washed up on an island. He spent several days surviving off the land before falling foul of the Dzygan. The Dzygan is a flesh-eating monstrosity that was imprisoned on the island centuries ago. It obtains the memories of anything it devours, and can imitate them almost perfectly. With a human form and memories, it can now escape the island.

2 This is not the first disappearance aboard the Arcadia, but the cruise line have managed to cover them up until now. The ship’s captain and a number of the crew are worshippers of Dagon. They sacrifice passengers in return for wealth and fair sailing. Unfortunately for them, this high-profile death has roused suspicions.

3 Grayson, bored of his wealth and his family, turned to ever more exotic experiences to sate his remarkable brain. Eventually he fell in with Angelo Botticelli, an ageing sorcerer who offered him unlimited power in return for sacrificing all his worldly ties. Grayson faked his own death and has become Botticelli’s apprentice. However, a prominent and wealthy businessman like Andrew Grayson can’t easily go unnoticed, and reported sightings of him in Fiji are proving hard to ignore.

© Rob Illing

The Freighter

The citizens of a small coastal town in northern Florida quickly mobilize a rescue mission when a derelict freighter runs into trouble at some cliffs, and is in danger of tipping over and go under.

When the rescuers board the freighter, they’re met with a horrible sight: the crew and passengers have been brutally slain.

The only person left alive is an insanely mumbling sailor, drenched in blood and armed with a bloody weapon. Being unable to question the mad sailor about the brutal murders, the local police charge him for the murders and incarcerates him in a mental hospital.

But before long, a series of strange and brutal murders starts to haunt the coastal town.

Possibilities

1 The mad sailor is not the killer. He’s the only survivor of a desperate battle against a being of monstrous nature. The being was brought aboard the ship as part of the cargo - ancient artefacts recovered by an archaeological excavation in East Africa.

When a nosy sailor searched the cargo for some valuable trinkets to steal, he released the monstrous creature. Then the murders started.

Moments before the ship ran afoul of the cliffs, the surviving sailor successfully fought the being to a retreat. Unfortunately his mind was destroyed by the horrible ordeal. The monster fled when the resuers arrived and went into hiding, gathering strength.

Now, at full strength, the monster terrorizes the coastal town.

2 The mad sailor murdered the crew and passengers, but an outside source drove him to do it.

The freighter’s cargo contained rare and expensive lumber - which was also the home of a species of arachnid unknown to science. The arachnids’ bite contains a poison that kills small prey but has a hallucinating effect on humans. The hallucinations drives the bitten person to become highly paranoid, and later, permanently insane.

Once onboard the freighter, it was inevitable that someone would be bitten. That someone then went on to butcher everyone else on board, and is the only survivor.

As the rescuers salvage the cargo of rare lumbar and dangerous arachnids, they unknowingly endanger the coastal town.

3 The mad sailor is not the killer. The real killer is a serpent-man sorcerer who infiltrated the freighter, disguising himself as one of the crew. The sorcerer is after an ancient artefact that the passengers, a team of archaeologists, have brought along with them.

The archaeologists were returning home after an expedition in southern Egypt where they located and excavated an ancient temple of mysterious design. The temple, which was actually a remnant of the serpent-people’s civilization, contained a lone, surviving sorcerer kept alive in hibernation.

As the archaeologists entered the temple, they woke the sorcerer. He watched from the shadows until they left, but when he discovered that they had stolen sacred artefacts, the sorcerer followed the archaeologists to the freighter. The sorcerer’s plan was to kill theoffenders and the crew, and then sail the freighter back to Africa.

Things didn’t go according to plan, and there was a fight. Moments before the ship ran aground, the surviving sailor successfully fought the serpent-man sorcerer to a retreat, despite going insane when he witnessed the sorcerer’s real appearance.

As the rescuers arrives onboard the freighter, the weakened sorcerer fled and went into hiding.

Now, however, he is trying to locate the sacred artefacts that are stored somewhere in the town. Anyone who gets in his way is murdered.

© Tim Deer