The Miracle

A weird character in the news has come to the attention of an investigator. It will most likely be a sceptical and cynic investigator, or one compelled to believe that kind of news.

The news, it turns out, deals with a person that seems to have stigmata that match those suffered by Jesus Christ on the cross, according to Catholic Mythology. The man, one Jacobo Lewis from Haiti, seems to have injuries on his hands, feet and side that match those famous wounds. These wounds keep bleeding, but apparently never get infected. People are told to have healed after he touches them, especially those with blood diseases, although none have been documented. Also weird is the fact that Jacobo is 30 years old, the same age Jesus was when he started preaching.

What has the religious community in an uproar is that Jacobo is black, and definitely not a Christian but a practicer of voodoo. He says the wounds were inflicted on him by the Loa of his tribe, as a reminder of his human frailty, and so he could spread the word.

Possibilities

1 Jacobo is, of course, a fake. The people he has been said to heal are healed by their own faith, just as a lot of people get sick when they believe they are. Most likely, those people weren’t even sick.

2 The man from Nazareth was an avatar of the Crawling Chaos. The reason why we don’t know anything about his life from his early years until his 30, is because at that point, he hadn’t been contacted by the Nyarlathotep, and therefore wasn’t important. The Black Man tried to recruit him when he is said to have been tempted in the desert, but he went mad and believed he was the Messiah. Given his newly found powers, that wasn’t hard to do. Now, more than 1900 years after that, Nyarlathotep is willing to try again with the son of a mortal woman. Jacobo might dream about “past lives”, which are previous avatars, and by those means, the players can find out the truth.

3 The Loa did contact Jacobo and inflicted the wounds. Unfortunately for him, the alleged Loa is a vampire, too weak to fully return from his resting place. He was in life a sorcerer and is trying to attract a cult to the place. Then he will control Jacobo to slaughter them all, so with the strength given by their blood he may return.

© Ricardo J. Mendez

That Old Fashioned Charm

The characters regularly visit a diner or restaurant with a classic feel that harkens back to the simple pleasures of yesteryear. One day while enjoying their meal, they see the owner being harassed by two men in black suits. Voices are raised, and the men leave, but threaten to return. “And we won’t be so polite the next time around.”

Possibilities

1 Extortion. The men in black are gangsters, members of a local syndicate who are trying to muscle in on the business. Other rival gangs also have their eye on the restaurant, and soon the gangsters will clash.

2 Vampires. The restaurant owner is a ‘beard’ for the real backer, an undead. The vampire enjoys the atmosphere and uses the restaurant as a sanctum. The two men are vampire hunters, trying to track down the creature of the night.

3 Cannibals. The restaurant specializes in a certain kind of meat dish, only served to ‘very special’ customers, and only after closing time. They get their supply from a crooked mortuary, but the undertakers are beginning to demand more money, “since we’re taking all the risks.” This will make the ‘very special’ customers upset . . .

© Adam Gauntlett

What lurks below

During a visit to a local bookstore, the characters find an independently published manuscript written by a prominent “beat” author. It describes a set of tunnels beneath Hartford, Connecticut where the store is located. The author found the tunnels during his wanderings across the country, during which he was periodically homeless, and briefly describes how hoboes were afraid of them due to rumors that these were haunted.

The basement has been renovated to contain shelf space. Alert characters might see eyes peering through a breach in a boarded wall in the basement, which separates an unused portion of it from the rest of the floor.

Further research indicates there are unused portions of the sewer system that are separated from the current sewer system and are not up to code. There are also disused canals beneath certain city streets that are adjunct to the tunnels. Characters exploring them discover that the canals and tunnels do connect, but represent only a portion of the underground site described by the author.

Possibilities

1 Certain tunnels were dug upwards into the other tunnels by Ghouls. One of the canal tunnels connects to a breach in a basement at the store.

2 The author did not accurately describe the tunnels. A vampire living there used psychic powers to read his mind and discovered he was a prominent author. It meddled with his mind and sent him away. This creature preys on small groups of isolated curiosity seekers, vagrants and others who will not be missed. It uses its powers to simulate a haunting, has found an outlet in the tunnels near the store and can read minds with some effort.

3 The tunnels were covertly expanded and used for illegal activities such as bootlegging. There are a few dead bodies and evidence of other dark secrets there that at least a few prominent people in the state with ties to organized crime would prefer were never discovered. A community of vagrants resides there. The “thing” in the basement is merely a homeless person residing in the tunnels who could provide clues if the characters meet him.

© Brian Woodman

The Seance

The character’s great aunt Frieda is a devotee of Mrs Beddowes, a self-proclaimed mystic. Frieda’s daughter, Charlotte, is certain that Mrs Beddowes is a fraud, and she wants the investigators to help her prove this. Mrs Beddowes regularly holds seances for her clients, and charges a hefty fee for the privilege. Investigators who attend one of these seances experience nothing beyond the stock devices of the psychic con-artist. Music, odd knockings and noises, but nothing extraordinary. However, half-way through the seance, Mrs Beddowes drops dead.

Possibilities

1 Mrs Beddowes died of natural causes. Bad timing, but nothing more.

2 Mrs Beddowes was killed by a disappointed client. The client attended the same seance as the investigators. However, the client was more experienced in Mythos magic than Mrs. Beddowes, and when the client realised that Mrs Beddowes was a fraud he killed her with spells. The client thinks that he is a psychic phenomenon, and is desperate to find another psychic like himself. He had hoped that Mrs Beddowes was one. The client will keep looking, and keep killing any frauds that he finds.

3 Mrs Beddowes was never alive. The corpse is the host of a vampiric spirit entity who has several host bodies scattered about the city. The vampire entity activates whatever body it pleases, and keeps the others in cold storage until required. However, the vampire entity has a mortal enemy, and this Van Helsing-type found one of the vampire’s bodies and destroyed it. The shock to the entity was such that it lost control of the Beddowes-body for a few minutes. The Beddowes-body will get up again, confounding any investigators who pronounced Mrs Beddowes dead. The vampire entity wants revenge on its tormentor, and it will also want to kill any investigators who have discovered its secret.

© Adam Gauntlett

The Rug

The rug measures four feet wide by six feet long. It appears to be a fine if slightly plain-looking Arabic carpet, the central design appears to be divided into four sections with two sections just being woven lines that go from the outer edges to merge at a central point at the centre of the carpet. The other two sides contain black rectangles decreasing in size as they progress towards the centre, one side of this design is not identical to the other with there being a gap between the dark areas and the first line to make its way to the centre.

The whole design gives the rug the appearance of having depth. Around the edge of the rug runs an area of exotic-looking symbols and text adding to its ancient appearance.

Possibilities

1 It is a cleverly woven floor rug. A person standing in its centre will get a feeling of being at a great height, bad news for anyone with vertigo.

2 A search among the fringe at the end of the carpet where the dark rectangles don’t meet the first line, reveals two loops at each end - this rug is obviously supposed to be hung on the wall. When hung on a wall, anyone concentrating on the centre design no longer sees a plain black and white design but a corridor stretching away into the distance. Lining each side of the corridor are doors. It is possible to step into the corridor - and find yourself in the corridor, with a multitude of doors to choose from...

3 The rug was owned by an Arabian vampire before a group of suspicious villagers stormed its home. The villagers didn’t find the vampire, so torched its lair. They brought back booty for their homes, including the rug. Unfortunately, the rug is the vampire’s "coffin" - it retreats there during daylight and in times of trouble. In taking the rug, the villagers inadvertently brought about their own doom...

© Gavin Bourchier

Under A Blood Red Sky

After sleeping for a while, the characters awaken in a forest. Their first impression is that the light is extraordinary. Indeed it is, for in the twilight, all colors are shades of red. It looks like an old black-and-white film filmed with a red filter lens. After walking for an hour, the characters come to the edge of the wood. This opens an even stranger vista to them.

They look at a valley where a stream of blood-red water flows gently. On the horizon, a dark red light, which must be the sun, glows unnervingly. Everything is shaded in red: the clouds, the grass, even the sheep herded by a little boy. Down in the valley at the blood river lies a small city. Farther away, on the hill that the river springs from, rises a tower, glowing unholy red in the eerie light.

Possibilities

1     Do vampires dream? Yes they do! This is the domain of a strange vampire lord. (For an example, see Brain Lumley’s Necroscope.)

In the vampire’s long unlife, he has had more than enough time to dream, shaping a whole nightmare realm in the Dreamlands. It lies in the Stony Desert on a high plateau. He is a counterpart to King Kuranes, having created an entire realm out of nothing. The vampire has made himself a retreat in the unlikely case that vampire hunters should kill his body. In his domain he is a god-king. His seat is the Citadel of Blood, the unholy red tower on the hill. He is a ruthless ruler.

The characters have been drawn to this plateau because a good wizard has seen how the vampire lord’s subjects suffer. But, the vampire is a mighty foe, and the wizard cannot face him alone. Therefore, he has summoned helping hands. On the outskirts of the city he looks for the saviours.

2     The characters are not in the Earth’s dreamlands but in those of an alien world. They are archaeologists or geologists and in the waking world have discovered a strange meteor. This meteor is of a stony material in varying shades of red. Everyone touching the stone will dream of the planet from which the meteor comes. How is the curse broken?

3     After watching a horror film named The Mad Butcher, with much blood-spilling and then eating lots of pizza, the characters have a simple nightmare. But why do they all have the same nightmare?

© Mathias Braun

Woman in a Robe

When locale police officers enter an abandoned office building, they stumble upon the gruesome mutilated corpses of three men and a woman.

Also found at the crime scene is a smashed camcorder, and when checking what it may have recorded, the following can be seen: An unidentified woman, not the same woman found dead, is seated on a chair, clad in a monk’s robe. It’s dark outside, indicating that it happened in the evening, or at night. Then one of the men found murdered, steps into view as he walks behind the sitting woman. He asks the woman about her name, but before she’s able to answer the question, all goes black, followed by horrifying screams. Then the recording ends, as the camcorder is smashed.

The question is now; why was the robed woman not found at the crime scene? Where is she now? And who, and why, murdered the others?

Possibilities

1 The murderer is a heavily armed and mentally unstable bible-thumper. He goes around striking against anything that he finds morally depraved and sinful. When he learns that someone was making low budget porn movies in his town; he chose to deliver God’s punishment on those impure filth-peddling bastards.

As soon as he found the location of the porn-movie set, he donned a night vision goggle, cut off the power and then went on a killing spree, targeting everyone involved in the filthy porn movie.

The reason why the roped woman isn’t found at the crime scene is that she was severely wounded and was thus able to flee the bloody carnage. But the crazed bible-thumper sees her escaping, and he chases after her. Her corpse is never found.

2 The robed woman, now missing, is the oldest daughter to the murdered woman and one of the men. But she had been lured by an esoteric and very religious cult, much to her parent’s dismay.

After several futile attempts to make the locale law intervene, the parents chose to hire a renowned private investigator that’s specialized in deprogramming brainwashed members of religious cults.

He, and his assistant, snatched the daughter and brought her to the abandoned office building, rented by the investigator, as a place to initiate the deprogramming, monitored by the girl’s parents, and recorded on camcorder.

But when the cult leader, a deeply religious Vietnam veteran, realizes that one of his favourite cult members have been taken away, he immediately summons a byakhee, which he, in his sick mind, actually believes is one of God’s glorious angels, and orders it to track down, punish those who took his favourite cult member, the daughter, and then bring her back to his waiting arms.

The deprogramming was just beginning, when the byakhee found them. But as the byakhee flies off with the daughter, she sees it, and her mind bends out of shape.

3 The missing robed woman is the murderer, or one of them. She is in fact a vampire, who has been terrorizing humans for several decades, along with a group of fellow vampires.

While stalking a prey, she failed to realize that it was a trap, orchestrated by a team of skilled vampire hunters. They quickly managed to subdue and bring her into the abandoned office building, where they were planning to interrogate, and then destroy, her. All recorded on cam recorder that has been custom made to allow vampires to be filmed.

But the interrogation had barely begun, when the fellow vampires located their imprisoned friend and moved in to save her. They all then attacked and killed the entire team of vampire hunters.

© Tim Deer

After the Funeral

One of the investigators is attending the funeral of an old friend with other investigators. After the funeral, they have drinks together and talk about their lost friend. Suddenly one of the investigators look through the window and sees the dead friend staring back.

Possibilities

1 At first, the investigator thins it’s just a trick of the mind... until he sees his friends staring at through the window too. Is it a ghost? Is their dead friend trying to send a message from the other side?

2 The dead friend is now a vampire and wants to see his acquaintances one last time before leaving for somewhere else.

3 After blinking the dead friend disappears. It was just a trick of the investigator’s imagination. But why are there footprints below the window?

© Nicolas Dao Phan

The Crate

A character receives word from the post office that they have received a package and need to come and claim it. It is a large rectangular crate; six feet long, two feet wide, and quite heavy (it weighs about 250 lbs.). The crate is well-packaged and there is no shipping label or return address.

Possibilities

1 The crate contains a mannequin; a perfect wax copy of the character. It is a flawless duplicate of the original, but its origin is a mystery. Then, when the character has been left alone with it, the wax figure animates and attempts to kill it’s “twin.” If it succeeds, it comes to life and replaces the original.

2 The box contains a body, still fresh and well-preserved. The face is that of a stranger, but who sent it and why was it sent to the character?

3 The box contains a body, remarkably well-preserved. The face is unfamiliar, and the cause of death is not readily apparent. When the sun sets, the vampire awakens and seeks sustenance after its long journey from Europe.

© John Grigsby

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

Dead Man's Bluff

The above letter arrives for one of the characters on the Thursday of the appointment.

If they check the address they can confirm that Czeminski is listed as the owner. Apart from that, for official purposes, the man simply does not exist. He is not on the tax department’s books, no birth certificate exists for him, no passport or immigration papers, no police record, no phonebook listing. Nothing.

If they go there during the day, number 117 is a dark stone house set away from the road. An unleashed Doberman in the yard discourages them from entering the property.

If they go there at night, Czeminski answers the door. He is quite handsome. He does not shake hands. The house is dark and dusty and there is an odd smell about it. He leads them into a well-stocked library, pours them a drink, motions them to be seated, and begins. “My good people, I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet you. My name is Alexander Czeminski, and I am a vampire.” He is.

Possibilities

1 Czeminski is a collector of esoteric books and paraphernalia. He asks them to bear him in mind if they ever have anything of that nature. He will pay handsomely. He bears them no malice.

2 He has heard of them and guesses that eventually they might track him down, for being what he is. He has asked them here to strike up a more civilized arrangement: they leave each other alone. If he can’t, then he will attempt to kill them; maybe tonight, maybe in the weeks that follow.

3 He wants to make a deal. He lives on the dark side of normal existence and is aware of the dark things that dwell there; be they monstrous creatures, or crumbling undead, or gibbering ghouls, or ancient godlings. He is privy to information, the rumours and gossip that travels along the telegraph wires of the dead, unheard by mortal ears. He offers to fence information in return for their protection against vampire hunters, clergymen, and others. If the bargain is struck Czeminski will appear in the future, giving odd tips, translating old documents, and scaring the hell out of them with sudden appearances.

© Mark Morrison

Scarlet Fever

It is a rather peculiar disease, liquefying flesh into a thick red jelly, leaving only bones and skin untouched. Bodily functions continue unimpaired until the end. It is so rare that it does not yet have a name, let alone a cure.

Victims are often completely unaware that they carry the disease. Realisation sinks in only when cut: instead of blood, jelly wells out of the wound. Their skin does not heal, and if left unbandaged shrinks and wrinkles as the victim’s liquefied flesh oozes out.

Possibilities

1 The disease is caused by a body thief. The body thief possesses human victims in the course of its evil design. It is so successful at possession, that it has not had to materialise into its original, monstrous, form for many years now.

The unfortunate human is unaware of the possession, which lasts for a maximum of six months. After that the disease, a by-product of the process, causes the human body to fail irretrievably. The body thief then moves on.

2 A vampire is afoot, feeding on pre-digested human flesh. It has two forms; the first a tall and handsome human, the other a multi-legged maggot-thing with a stabbing proboscis.

The vampire-thing needs to inject its prey with digestive juices some months before feeding. It makes two visits, injecting juices at first and then returning once its victim is ripe.

3 Nyarlathotep occasionally chooses a bride. Or groom, it makes no difference. Nyarlathotep appears to the chosen individual in full regalia, and proposes. If the chosen individual accepts, they become its bride or groom and reside in the Daemon Sultan’s court for the rest of eternity.

Those that refuse are set free and cursed: everyone they encounter for more than a few hours will die, afflicted with a terrible liquefying disease. At midnight on the night of each full moon Nyarlathotep returns to ask, again, for their hand. If they accepts, the Outer God takes them to Azathoth’s court for the wedding and matrimonial bliss. If they decline, more are consigned to a grisly fate.

Eventually Nyarlathotep becomes bored with its bride/groom, and it is time to choose another.

© Steve Hatherley

Seven Woodcut Blocks

It's an online auction for seven woodcut blocks by Thomas Kilner. The seller's username is bugman666, and the starting bid is £100.

Thomas Kilner (1803-1831) lived in London and was an artist of minor repute. He was a member of the occult Order of the Silver Thistle, and illustrated the order's only publication with a series of 35 woodcuts. He was savagely attacked with a knife while sleeping. The murderer was never found.

The Order of the Silver Thistle was an occult society formed in 1820 by James Pinkney. The order broke up in 1831. The order published one book, Light of the Seven Orders of Truth, a 128 page volume written by Pinkney. No volumes are known to remain intact.

Possibilities

1 The auction is a lure. Bugman666 is an avid collector of magical esoteria and artefacts. He knows that the order was involved in powerful occult rituals, and hopes to lure other magically-inclined individuals to bid. His plan is to sell the woodcut blocks and get a postal address (he'll insist on a real address, not a mailbox). Bugman666 will then make a personal visit to rob the seller not only of the blocks, but also any other artefacts, books or ephemera he can find at that address.

2 The winner of the auction is Colin Jessop and he has been fascinated in the Order of the Silver Thistle for the last five years. Colin has collected anything and everything to do with the order that he has laid his hands on, and he would love to meet some like-minded individuals to reform the order.

3 Bugman666's real name is Thomas Kilner and he is now nearly 200 years old.

The order's last ritual in 1831 was livelier than they could have anticipated. Through powerful magics that they never really understood, Kilner underwent some fundamental physiological changes. Nobody else survived.

Kilner is now an ageless vampire, and hates his pathetic existence. He has few vampiric powers but must drink human blood once every few years or so. The rest of the time he spends in his increasingly dilapidated house, feeding from rats and spiders. As his resources and finances dwindle, he finds new ways of raising money - including selling his work online.

© Steve Hatherley

The Locket

The locket is old, and made of silver. It’s case is adorned with an engraved rose, and inside is a faded painting of a young woman. Opposite the picture is an engraving saying “All my love. E.”

Looking closely, what at first glance appears to be rust around the edges of the picture, turns out to be a red-brown residue that flakes off. It is dried blood...

Possibilities

1 The woman in the locket was slain by vampires, and the locket was made by her widowed husband Ezra Thorne shortly after her death. Grief stricken, he became obsessed with destroying the monsters that had murdered his bride, and became a vampire hunter.

The locket bleeds when vampires are near - and as they grow closer it becomes awful to touch. Using the locket, Ezra Thorne became a successful and feared hunter of vampires.

2 The locket is haunted by the spirit of the woman in the picture. Her name was Alice Thorne, and she married her one true love, Ezra. They were due to be married, but the night before the wedding she was murdered. On the anniversary of her death, the painting of Alice cries tears of blood.

The only way that Alice’s spirit will rest is when the locket is placed in her one true love’s grave.

3 The woman in the picture is a deep one hybrid - before the Change. She is now a deep one, and is living off the coast of Innsmouth.

The locket has since been enchanted and now grows warm in the presence of deep ones. It has been used by the enemies of the deep ones in identifying hybrids before the Change; they then kill them.

The blood in the locket comes from the enchantment that has been placed upon the locket. The enchantments needs refreshing periodically, and the ritual that creates it requires a few drops of the caster's blood.

© Steve Hatherley