Late Night Out

While relaxing at a local watering hole in the town of Arkham, the investigators are approached by a patrolman to whom they have some familiarity. After a few cautionary glances around the room, the officer furtively explains a strange situation he has been dealing with.

For at least six months, a peculiar number of post-revelers have been found staggering around in the early morning; often stumbling over themselves as they shelter their eyes from the fingers of dawn’s light. The officer soon clarifies that it is not so much the amount of over-indulgers he has been rounding up in the mornings, but their identities that concerns him. Unlike the expected round up of recovering college students and forlorn recent lay-offs; the officer has been collecting men and women from the city’s upper classes.

At first, there was nothing too unusual about finding the leftover attendees from late night society parties. However, the patrolman now finds himself dealing with four or five of these types each weekend morning, an unusual number for a small conservative New England town. Moreover, these wealthy drunkards have all demonstrated unusually potent symptoms of recovering inebriation; none have any memories of the evening before. This has caused a distressing situation for the officer since the duty of returning embarrassed society folk to their homes is immeasurably more delicate and time consuming than dealing with recovering students. Lastly, one characteristic peculiar to all of these late night partygoers both unifies them and disturbs the police officer. They all have dark stains around their mouths and have halitosis that reeks of purification and decay.

Possibilities

1 Over the past year, a most popular, and expensive, wine has been introduced to some of the finer restaurants in Arkham. One of the alluring traits of the vineyard that produces this drink is its unusual origin, the hills of central Maine. Although most people believed this region to be too cold, too rocky, and too mountainous to produce fine grapes, a local farmer has been successfully growing several varieties of unusual wine grapes and producing wine. However, this unexpected agricultural prosperity derives from an abyssal horror beneath the vineyard.

Several years previous, an earthquake opened up fissures in the ground near a farm in rural Maine. These fissures extended far below the earth to the dwelling place of the Great Old One, Ghatanothoa. Since then, this being’s tentacles have been slowly winding their way upwards, and in the process, they have contaminated and enchanted the soil. The tainted produce from the farm has slowly been driving the farmer and his family mad, and in the process allowed the Ghatanothoa to implant vile suggestions in their minds. Acting on these suggestions, the family began producing vile wine derived from the essence of the ancient evil being.

The imbibers of the beverage will soon too become enthralled by Ghatanothoa’s influence and carry out his plans to free himself from the depths.

2 It is strange that the police officer is so concerned with the multiplication of wandering drunken socialites when a more distressing phenomenon has been taking place. Coinciding with the appearance of wealthy hung-over partygoers has been a staggering rise in missing homeless persons.

A wealthy, though insane, dilettante who had acquired a copy of the forbidden German text, Unausprechlichen Kulten, was the initial assailant of these unfortunate street people. The blood of his victims was used in a strange recipe deciphered from the blasphemous tome. This recipe produces a magical and blissful cocktail that sends the imbiber’s mind to a dimension of wonders for several hours, leaving their body in a mindless state for the duration. He has now enthralled several other socialites by throwing lavish parties where he serves the intoxicating cocktail. After these parties, several of the attendees have stumbled into the streets drunk on the magical potion, only to be found by disgruntled police officers.

The upper classes have now developed a desire for more of the forbidden potion, a desire that drives them to kidnap lost souls for more blood to brew the magical draught.

3. A new resident to the country has recently moved to Arkham from somewhere in the ancient Zargos mountains of modern-day Iraq. With him, he has brought dark and powerful secrets that his family has carried though the centuries. These antediluvian secrets can be used to fulfill many modern-day desires, and the immigrant has made use of this by teaching them to local families in exchange for certain sacrifices. Many of these families made quick use of the powerful lore to increase their social status and wealth. The sacrifice demanded of them by the immigrant-wizard is the nightly servitude of a close family member. More specifically, the unfortunate family member must submit their soul in an unholy ritual; thereby becoming a mindless zombie controlled by the wizard.

No one yet knows what the magically bonded family members do, or where they go, each night. However, with such a large number of zombie-workers, the wizard’s schemes are likely to be considerable and terrifying, and may involve restoring his homeland to its former Mesopotamian splendor.

© Joel Karwatsky

Grand Guignol

Showman and master of the macabre, Mondreau the Magnificent has been stunning carnival crowds for more than 15 years with his gory exhibitions. Mondreau, whose real name is Vincent Van Dorpe, puts on a grand guignol show called “The Theatre of Pain”. The blood flows in gouts and the actors scream as their bodies are gouged, burned and maimed by many different cruel devices and methods. “All in good fun” as Mondreau likes to put it. Mondreau assures the stunned crowd it was just a show and always brings the actors out to take a bow. The show is so realistic that most find it hard to put out of their minds.

Over the last few years many people have asked him how he does it. He politely refuses of course. The investigators have been hired to look into the show and what the mysterious Van Dorpe’s ulterior motives are, if any.

Possibilities

1 Van Dorpe is really an ancient and powerful sorcerer and devoted servant of Shub Niggurath. Some of his actors are re-animated dead bodies, which he uses in his show. In addition to his zombies he has a loyal band of gypsy disciples, which he has promised immortality if they follow him and do his bidding. The undead used in the act really are hacked and maimed, but since they are undying, they simply need to be stitched back together. Using several different stage names and acts he has been touring the world with his band of animated dead for the past 122 years. His followers are totally loyal to him and will defend Van Dorpe and the show to the death. Van Dorpe needs to travel as he does to sustain himself and his followers. Large quantities of blood and human sacrifices for his god are all that keep him from the death that he has for so long eluded.

2 Mondreau the Magnificent is the leader of a troupe of cannibals. The Theatre of Pain is a front for their activities. Between cities Van Dorpe and his cannibalistic entourage pick up hitchhikers and transients. The unlucky victims are fed, drugged and hypnotized for use in the show. The people who are maimed and tortured on stage really are. There are no mythos influences involved, just garden variety cannibalism.

3 Mondreau the Magnificent is what he says he is… a showman. He and his troupe have honed their act to the point of perfection. The reason his act is so realistic is that the actors who play the victims really are maimed, but not by him. Van Dorpe uses actors who are amputees or suffer from some form of handicap to add to the realism. When an arm is sawn off in the show it is a realistic prosthetic or when an eye is gouged out it was glass. His troupe of actors is devoutly loyal to him and will not divulge any of Mondreau’s secrets of stagecraft.

© Kevin Kaier

The Party

A character receives, quite unexpectedly, an invitation to a soirée at the home of one of their old school-friends. The individual, one Humphrey Anderson-Boyd, is known as an international traveller and has something of a reputation as a dilettante and playboy. He is wealthy, handsome, elegant, and an eminently eligible bachelor. The society journals are quick to match him with any woman in whose company he is seen. His parties are said to be wild and debauched.

Humphrey lives in a large and airy house designed by a radical modern architect and located on the fringes of the fashionable city suburbs. The interior is exquisitely furnished and the grand windows overlook the extensive wooded and landscaped grounds. By day the dramatic skies and excellent views make it an idyllic spot, but at night it can feel very lonely and isolated. The house has been designed to be self-sufficient and has its own generator located in the cellars.

Jones, the cadaverous butler, is the only westerner in the domestic staff. The others are all dark skinned, slightly built Orientals who actively shun contact with the guests. They seem under the sway of the cook, an ancient and grossly fat woman who seems to do little except sit in a rocking chair and give orders. All of the Orientals carry slender knives and have a dragon tattoo on their necks. Jones is able to communicate in their tongue and appears to inspire either respect or fear.

Humphrey retains a number of gamekeepers and groundsmen, local men who maintain the gardens, keep down the wildlife, and patrol the grounds against poachers and trespassers. They consider Humphrey and his staff to be ‘queer folk’, but their wages are rather good, they receive a rather generous holiday allowance and Christmas bonus, and as such they are loyal and tight-lipped. The gamekeepers have well trained dogs and carry shotguns, and will see off anyone who tries anything funny. They and their dogs shun the woods, however.

Humphrey’s little bash, which includes among its guest-list writers, musicians, judges, a gangster, and at least one starlet of the silver screen, begins rather more formally than one might expect. The gramophone music is dull and repetitive and the conversation is terrible: this is hardly going to make the best shindig list of ‘Gentleman’ magazine. That is, until Jones fetches the “special” drink. The liquid is contained in a large bronze bowl worked with Chinese characters and intricate skull-and-claw designs, and appears to be luminous green in the dim light. The other guests have no qualms about drinking.

Possibilities

1 The characters have received an invite to the wrong party - the one they were supposed to attend isn’t until next week. The “special” drink is a powerful aphrodisiac made by the cook: it causes the drinker to lose all of their inhibitions - the affair becomes an orgiastic sex romp. If the characters have drunk the potion they will, in all probability, become willing participants in the carnal activities, though they probably won’t remember much of what went on. A number of prostitutes (both male and female) have been hired to ‘start things going’. Anyone with professional employment or a position of trust would be very badly affected if their participation in such activities became public knowledge.

2 The “special” drink is a potion that causes the drinker to fall into a waking trance. Humphrey is a newly created undead, Jones is his sire and mentor, and the Orientals are trusted henchmen. When everyone has succumbed to the effects of the potion Humphrey and Jones move among the guests and tap just a little blood from each, drinking enough during the course of the evening to satisfy their unholy needs. Both are immune to most forms of damage (although fire, electricity, and enchanted weapons work) and are exceedingly violent if they are interrupted: they are lethally fast and highly skilled creatures. Those who have drunk the potion remember little of the evening, but uniformly recall having had an excellent time.

3 Humphrey and Jones, both permanently insane, are the leaders of a small cult that worships Shub Niggurath. The “special” drink is a potion, made by the cook, with two main effects. First, it allows the cultists access to the guests’ psychic energy. Second, it induces a dream-like state that cushions their minds against the horrors they witness (they recall a wild party but can’t remember any details). Humphrey and Jones begin a ceremony that involves everyone performing complex chanting and dancing. At the penultimate moment a sacrifice is brought forth (a suitable victim has been secured and is being held in the cellars until required), and ultimately one or more Dark Young of Shub Niggurath are summoned. The horrifying entities consume the sacrifice (and anyone who hasn’t drunk the potion) then vanish into the wooded grounds.

© Adie Stewart

Ashes

On an island, an old volcano has erupted again for the first time in centuries. While there is no imminent danger for the few settlements on the island, big clouds of ashes are spreading over a wide area and the near continent.

Possibilities

1 In the areas where the ashes sink down, the deceased rise from their graves and start spreading terror, eating the flesh of the living...

2 In a night after a larger eruption, witnesses claim that amidst the ash cloud a big shadow was seen, as if a gigantic creature had emerged from the volcano, before disappearing into the night - and the volcano still hasn’t come to rest...

3 In the areas where the ashes sink down, certain people – artists, poets and other daydreamers – start having nightmares in which they claim to have seen an ancient city of strange and twisted proportions, as if not made for humans. As the nightmares continue, more and more of these people are driven by an overwhelming desire to go to the volcano and look for the city there, finally even climbing down to its centre, never to be seen again...

© Philipp Mählmann

Sylvia

The investigator finds a little girl on his doorstep quite late one evening, lost. She is very pretty with long curly blonde hair and dressed in an expensive dress.

Circumstances are such that the Investigator should have little choice but to allow her in and put her to bed for the night, in anticipation of sorting the problem out in the morning.

An hour after she is put to bed, the girl gets up and strips herself naked. She then proceeds to mutilate and torture herself, scattering blood around the Investigator’s home. Examples include: pulling her fingernails out, setting fire to her hair and burning herself, smashing her teeth and bones, tearing her face and ears off, putting fish-hooks into her flesh, and blinding herself or putting out an eye.

During the procedure, which is undertaken in complete silence, she is careful about the forensic evidence, trying to ensure that this is as incriminating as possible: for example, she may cut and slash (especially around the genitals), and eviscerate, herself using the Investigator’s kitchen knives, but being careful about fingerprints; similarly, she may hang herself by the heels, or even crucify herself (if she can do this without waking the Investigator) but being careful about the blood patterns.

Early the following morning, she leaves the Investigator’s house and staggers to a neighbour. She gasps out a story of torture at the Investigator’s hands and dies. The police soon arrive . . .

Possibilities

1 The little girl is a zombie, programmed and sent by an enemy of the Investigator. When she first arrives, she appears slightly cold and pale and, of course, has no pulse, although none of this is readily apparent (especially in poor light). The girl has swallowed two pints of blood which she later vomits out to provide a more horrific scene on discovery. This may not be the little girl’s blood group. (Note that there would be nothing logically wrong with the autopsy finding blood in the stomach if the girl tore or cut her tongue out.)

Inconsistencies would include a greater amount of blood than would be expected, anomalous blood-splatter patterns, and the fact that she appears actually to have been dead for four days prior to her ‘death’. However, with such an open-and -shut and disgusting case, the police are unlikely to pursue other leads unduly.

The Investigator’s previous career is suddenly under intense police scrutiny, which may well bring up previous offences and implicate other Investigators.

2 The girl really was lost and was everything she appeared to be. As she
slept, she was the victim of a spell directed at the Investigator.

Unfortunately, the Investigator is still a target.

3 The girl is a dreamer, and blundered into the dreamlands. There she attracted the attention of a minor dreamlands deity, Priebe (a god of suffering and pain), who followed her back to the waking world and, while she was still asleep, forced her to mutilate and kill herself. Her sacrifice provided enough psychic energy for the god to remain 24 hours - unless he can force someone else to do the same thing.

Following the Investigator to the police station, the god enters one of the officer’s dreams and kills him. (He may make the jailer unlock the Investigator’s cell - remember that this will be at night - and the Investigator, if he is awake, may or may not attempt to intervene or escape.)

On the third night, another officer is chosen. After five deaths, the god is strong enough to enter a conscious mind. At this stage, with complete control of a human, the killings increase rapidly as Priebe grows careless of his activities.

© Charles Ross