The Power Cut

During a storm a few nights ago there was a power cut affecting a wide area around a nearby town; when the lights came back on, Robert Wilkinson (a friend of the investigators) was found dead in his home. His body was strangely withered and aged.

Possibilities

1 Wilkinson is actually the malignant agent of a local cult. In the cellar of his home he keeps a young Colour Out of Space that he uses to kill captured victims and unwary investigators. The Colour is trapped within an electromagnetic field that Wilkinson can switch on and off at will; however, with the house’s generator undergoing repairs the energy for this field is tapped directly from the local power lines. With the power cut, the Colour was released, and it quickly fed upon its captor. Now it has once again been drawn into its magnetic prison, and only the strange drain on the nearest power plant indicates its existence to the outside world.

2 Wilkinson was older than he appeared. A lot older. He had discovered an ancient scroll bearing a ritual that would allow him to regularly rejuvenate himself, effectively bestowing eternal life. However, a few nights ago he made a fatal error when choosing to perform the ceremony, and the sudden power cut – a possibility he had entirely overlooked – interrupted his reading of the all-important magic words. With the spell suddenly broken he reverted to his real age, and the scroll – a contract with the Outer Gods – crumbled into dust, its final conditions met. Only Wilkinson’s secret diary bears any clue as to the terrible pact he made, a pact he paid for with his soul.

3 The investigators have made some dangerous enemies, individuals who will stop at nothing to destroy them. This group travelled under cover of darkness to the home of Wilkinson, where they tortured and interrogated the player’s friend with the Shrivelling spell, before finally ending the interview – and the poor man’s life. Now this group is ready to strike, strengthened by the information they have acquired. They know as much about the players and the progress of their investigation as did their late friend.

© Callum Pearce

Deeper than Skin

Tokyo Museum of History reports a theft of a three-hundred-year-old collection of tattooed human skins from their vaults. Among these is a full-body piece known as the “Hinzo Pattern”.

The Hinzo Pattern is unique in that, though it is obviously of Japanese style and design, the images are not uniquely Japanese. Photographs of the skin show that among its images were divine beings from Muslim, Buddhist, even Aztec mythologies.

The photographic record is incomplete, however, and key photos are missing. The museum claims that the record was complete but has no idea where the photographs may have gone.

Possibilities

1 The skin collection has been stolen by art thieves who plan to make a small fortune selling such rare and illegal pieces on the world’s black market.

2 Images hidden in the Hinzo Pattern are actually formulae for elder incantations, capable of opening up doorways to other places should they be deciphered.

3 The Hinzo Pattern is to be worn by a cult leader during the performing of an ancient ritual. The skin itself works to focus the energies of the wearer in ways unimaginable.

© Eli Arndt

The Mirror of Blood

The Mirror of Blood is a spell; the basic ingredients are an ounce of benzoin (an aromatic gum), coriander seeds, and some fresh human blood. It requires two people to cast it. The viewer cups his hand, upon which the caster cuts a glyph, enough to draw blood, and the hollow then fills with blood. As the viewer looks at his reflection, the benzoin and seeds are burnt and the reflection turns into a scrying window. The viewer can nominate whatever he wishes to see, which he need not have direct experience of. To maintain the image requires more blood.

The mirror shows broad vistas rather than details, and it becomes blurred
if the focus is too narrow.

If the mirror is used too often, the viewer suddenly sees ‘the Man with the Mask’. He may previously have been half-glimpsed in the background, and although his dress changes according to locality, he is always masked. This time, he is at the front of the scene, staring straight at the viewer.

The masked man is Hastur, summoned by the use of the spell; as he takes off his mask, the effect on the viewer is horrific: skin bubbles and festers, as do internal organs, until the body swells up and bursts. So die all who presume upon the King.

Possibilities

1 The players find quite detailed instructions on how to cast the spell in a modern, quasi-mystical, book. While the rest of the book is obscure rubbish, this dangerous spell obviously works.

2 The Stars are Right, and the time of Hastur’s permanent release from Carcosa draws near. Over the coming months his worshippers will become more active, and portents of Hastur will multiply; the effect of this spell, though terrifying and strange, is merely an indication of things to come.

3 If the spell is used at night and Aldebaran is over the horizon, then after the horrific death of the viewer, something more horrific yet happens; the corpse rapidly begins to distend and become scaly, while the limbs become tentacular, and the face distorts into pseudopods; Hastur has come to occupy his avatar. In his own way, he is grateful to the caster of the spell for allowing his return to Earth; grateful enough, if the caster is still present, to take him back to the Lake of Hali. Eventually.

Inspired by The Mirror of Ink by Jorge Luis Borges.

© Charles Ross

The Odin Disc

The Odin Disc is a monohedron; it has only one side. It can be felt, and if moved glistens slightly – but is otherwise invisible (although the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi will make it apparent).

Compounding the problem of actually finding the disc is its size – typically no greater than a large coin. A sorcerer can spend Magic Points to enlarge the disc, which has a maximum size (for humans, anyway) of about 10 feet.

The disc is actually a portable Gate spell. Anyone standing on the disc (which needs to be of a suitable size) will be transported to whatever location they have in mind (with the usual penalties). The disc follows the (last) traveller, ready for the return trip. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find once through the gate, as it invariably returns to its natural size.

As well as mere travel, the Odin Disc has another effect. Each time the disc is used,
Yog-Sothoth is summoned to the location that the traveller just left. Yog-Sothoth’s mood on arrival seems to be directly related to the distance travelled through the disc; the further afield the traveller journeys, the greater the number of sacrifices Yog-Sothoth helps itself to. (It should be said that a rigorous, scientific study has not been made, given the obvious limitations.)

Worse, as there is a time-lag before Yog-Sothoth appears, travellers may not realise that it is their operation of the disc that causes the Outer God’s appearance.

Possibilities

1 A cryptic reference to the disc can be found in the handwritten marginalia of a section in a mythos tome dealing with ‘The Opener of the Way’. It ambiguously states that not only the traveller can use the disc, and that the disc is ‘at hand’. The disc is bound into the cover of the book (one side is raised, the other has no apparent rise or depression), and the cover of the book must be destroyed to retrieve it. Pulling the cover to pieces activates a fire-warding spell which destroys the book and may burn the house down. Of course, the disc will be very hard to find in the cinders.

2 The investigators find a brief description of the Odin Disc and details of how to create one. The spell requires a 3” gold disc, about ten pints of fresh blood, and the sacrifice of a baby. While the investigators may not create a disc, if the spell falls into the hands of cultists they will not be so squeamish.

The spell description forgets to mention that this spell also acts to summon Yog-Sothoth.

3 The investigators return home one night to find a sorcerer (one they have encountered before) stealing their mythos-related bits-and-pieces. Realising he has been spotted, the sorcerer activates the disc and escapes; quick investigators may be able to follow him.

Meanwhile, Yog-Sothoth will be paying a visit.

© Charles Ross