Southern Discomfort

It’s a hot summer day in 1897, when renowned millionaire industrialist Henry Bowens invites family, friends and acquaintances, including the investigators, to a wedding between his son Eric, and Amelia the lovely daughter of a banker.

Henry, who pays for the entire wedding, has arranged for the celebration to take place on a riverboat cruising the Mississippi river for a couple of days.

But halfway through the dinner party, the lovely bride suddenly pours a bottle of liquor on herself and ignites it with a lit candle. Quick-reacting family members and guests extinguish the burning bride, but it’s too late; Amelia succumbs to her injuries and dies.

As they are witnessing the bride’s death, a mutual question is asked by the horrified family members and guests; what made such a lovely lady do such a horrid thing to herself?

Possibilities

1 A man bent on revenge and skilled in voodoo made Amelia kill herself. But poor crisp Amelia was not the vengeful man’s target. Her father-in-law, Henry Bowens, was.

The man, Raymond LeManeux, is the sole survivor of a bloodbath on his family during the American Civil War. A bloodbath that was ordered by Henry Bowens when he was a high-ranking officer in the Union army.

For several decades, Raymond has plotted to track down and exact his revenge on the murderous Henry. And now, armed with a vengeful heart and dreadful skills in voodoo - which he learned from a small band of runaway slaves who cared for him - Raymond has finally succeeded.

Raymond infiltrated the wedding party disguised as a cook. He now exacts his vengeance on Henry Bowens and his family, using his voodoo spells through the cooking. But even though his first victim, Amelia, went up in flames, Raymond believes that “Revenge is a dish best served cold”.

2 Forbidden love drove Amelia to kill herself. Even though Amelia was marrying Henry Bowen’s son, her heart belonged to another.

The marriage was arranged - Eric Bowen became smitten with Amelia and even though he realised that she didn’t return his affection, he got his father to exercise his wealth and influence on Amelia’s family. Soon after, Amelia was engaged to marry Eric. She was also forbidden to see her true love, Frederic Jones - a young man of meager status and wealth.

Despite her family’s plans and prohibitions, Amelia continued to meet with Frederic, in secret. Unfortunately, Eric found out and, once again, he ran to Daddy. He informed Amelia’s family and a few days later, a fatal “accident” befell poor Frederic. Distraught to learn about her lover’s fate, Amelia quickly realized the sinister truth about his death. But instead of confronting her family about her suspicions, Amelia conspired a plan all by herself. A suicide plan.

With hopes of an eternal reunion with her lover in Heaven, Amelia poured the liquor over herself and ignited it, setting herself ablaze.

3 Mental illness drove Amelia to kill herself. During her teen years, Amelia began to show signs of a progressive mental illness - brought on by her father’s molestations of her during her childhood years. Worried about her wellness, or rather, what the local gossip mill would say, her family arranged for her to be married to the son of a business friend, Henry Bowens. The family also hoped that the marriage would banish Amelia’s mental illness.

But the family’s plans and expectations did not banish anything. It only made it much, much worse. But no one took time to notice her deteriorating mental illness.

Amelia’s mind finally snapped moments before she turned herself into a human torch.

© Tim Deer

The Museum of Mannequins

The Museum of Mannequins an old place, located somewhere in the barren plains of Illinois. The Museum is deserted, and there are DANGER signs in everywhich direction.

Possibilities

1 The Museum of Mannequins held old store mannequins rescued from garbage cans. One day a little girl’s body was mysteriously found in the back room. The owner of the place was arrested, and nobody came within even a mile’s radius of the place.

2 The museum was burgled a few years back. The people that lived closest to the museum moved away, fearful of being burgled themselves. With no customers, the owner went broke and closed the museum.

3 The museum existed in ancient times - although its theme changed from time to time. In its early days, a lady who had mastered voodoo, was a frequent customer. Once, she was charged with an outrageous member’s bill but the Museum’s owner would not listen. In anger the lady cursed the museum. When the towns folk heard about the curse they moved away. Nobody knows what became of the Museum’s owner.

© Sakuni Egodawatte

Who do voodoo?

A string of ritual murders is rocking a small town, and the people are starting to panic. The victims have no obvious connection. The police have enlisted the investigators for help in identifying some strange items found at the scene, and research reveals that they are items related to voodoo magic. This leads the investigators to believe that someone is practising voodoo rites somewhere in town. But what is puzzling is that voodoo isn’t a religion that condones multiple bloody murders like these - voodoo may be strange, but it is not murderous. Something is amiss.

Possibilities

1 The victims were all attending a small fundraiser at a picnic ground on the same day an important voodoo ritual that was being performed in the nearby woods. The town’s mayor is involved in the voodoo group, and would be thrown out of office if people knew he cut the heads off chickens and drank their blood in strange, secret ceremonies. (Voters can be so picky!) Someone witnessed the ritual and is trying to blackmail the mayor. After obtaining a list of the donors at the fundraiser, he is now systematically killing off people who were at the picnic ground that day in an attempt to silence his would-be blackmailer. If the blackmailer is still alive, he is too afraid to go to the police, and rightly so; the police keep the mayor well informed on the progress of the case.

2 The murders are being performed by an insane preacher whose church’s attendance has waned considerably since his hellfire-and-brimstone sermons have gotten a bit too graphic and vitriolic. In an attempt to rekindle a god-fearing attitude in the town, he is murdering people at random and making it look like ritualistic voodoo murders, thinking it will scare people back into the pews. When it doesn’t work, he gets more frustrated and kills again. Checking up on him will reveal that he has a book on voodoo checked out of the library, which he is using as a reference to decorate the murder scenes. If there is any pattern to the slayings, it is that all the victims are either his rival clergy or his vocal critics.

3 The leader of a group of voodoo practitioners has stumbled upon a dread tome of magic written by a madman from the jungles of Brazil, and doesn’t realize that it describes rites that aren’t a part of voodoo (they’re actually Mythos rites). Since finding it, he has tried to incorporate what he has learned from the book into his teachings, and the result is a cultish cross between voodoo and the worship of a Great Old One. While on the surface, the murders and trappings of the cult are reminiscent of voodoo, a darker secret lies within: the Great Old One is demanding sacrifices, and the leader is providing them. Investigators are likely to be quietly helped by the voodoo practitioners who realize that something is wrong, but cannot show themselves for fear of being implicated in the murders.

© C C Chamberlin

The Puzzle Boxes

In a left luggage locker at a local mainline station there is a large carpet bag containing 19 intricately carved and extremely devious puzzle boxes...

The key to the locker is found on the body of Dr Allen McNair. Dr McNair is found dead at his desk in his surgery, with the twentieth puzzle box open in his hands.  McNair’s body is in a state of some discomposure and the expression on his rotting face can only be described as one of surprise and fear.

There is considerable debate as to how long McNair has been dead; the state of his body suggests some considerable time, but many patients swear they were treated by him during surgery only yesterday.

Possibilities

1 McNair has been killed by a violent and extremely virulent fungal infection, the spores of the fungus were released directly into his face as he successfully opened the ancient puzzle box. He purchased the boxes whilst on vacation in India from a lone street trader, believing they would make good presents for friends and colleagues.

Unfortunately, the street trader was a servant of darkness and has laced the puzzle boxes with a toxic fungus. The fungus is now starting to spread, infecting all who have come into contact with McNair’s body.

2 McNair was the unwitting victim of a bacterial agent released from within the puzzle box. The boxes were being used by an old friend of McNair’s, Alaistair Mickleson who was using the boxes to smuggle the bacterial agent (a weapon developed by an unscrupulous bio technology company).

Mickleson had asked McNair to place the bag in the luggage locker for him fearing he was being followed, he never dreamed that McNair would open a box.

3 The puzzle boxes were purchased by McNair on a recent trip to New Orleans. The seller had no idea what they contained and had never managed to open one, but knew they were connected to the local Voodoo culture.

McNair is dead, but the powerful magics in the puzzle boxes mean that in two days time he will rise from the dead, a zombie hungry for sustenance!

© Derek Mayne