The Desecration

Two weeks ago Mr Andrew O’Vel died of a heart-attack. He was buried soon after in his town’s churchyard. Twelve days later Mr O’Vel’s relatives issued orders for the body to be exhumed and transported to their private cemetery. However, during transit an accident caused Mr O’Vel’s coffin to break open. To the driver’s horror the corpse was missing its head!

The resulting investigation reveals that Mr O’Vel’s grave was not the only one to have been desecrated. A total of thirty-seven decapitated bodies have been uncovered, all having been buried during the last two years. The undertaker claims that the bodies were intact when they were placed within their caskets, and this is confirmed by the parish minister.

Police believe that the heads were severed after their burial, but can offer no motive for the brutal and inhumane acts.

Possibilities

1 For the last two years the churchyard has regularly received unwelcome nocturnal visitors. On each occasion the four intruders - equipped with spades, knives and chains - have unearthed a coffin, dragged it free of its resting place and cleft the head free of the unresisting corpse.

Those responsible believe that their work will eventually benefit mankind. They are scientists who - having mastered the reanimation of the body (with the help of the notes of Dr Herbert West) - now seek to reanimate the brain. Their foul experiments are conducted in a small laboratory located in the basement of their accommodation.

2 From an early age no-one understood James Miller, but this was only natural since he didn’t understand himself. At the age of seven he was placed into a rehabilitation institution. He remained there for twenty-two years, taking no interest in the world around him.

Then, three years ago, he received his first visitor – a tall, lean, black-skinned man. The two talked for many hours and the stranger finally left upon the insistence of the asylum’s senior director, but not before promising James that he would return.

James in the meantime, began to show an unprecedented change in his attitude. The following week at exactly the same time, the black man again visited. This continued for many months during which time James’ condition showed obvious signs of improvement. Finally he was considered fit to rejoin society and discharged. The evening before James was due to leave, the Black man visited one final time. The staff were surprised that he only stayed for five minutes; just long enough, he claimed, to offer a “parting gift”.

The following day James went to live in a small town and examined his gift - a fine parchment scroll. The scroll contained instructions for a ritual which allows the caster to “transcend his mortal form”. In order for the spell to be successful the caster must have ingested a total of forty human brains.

Over the last two years, James has dug up thirty-seven corpses, removed the head and - in the comfort of his own home - digested the brain. He only needs to consume three more brains before the metamorphosis occurs. If he succeeds a Hunting Horror bursts from the now-useless human shell; only then will James Miller become a true servant of Nyarlathotep.

3 The police are mistaken; the bodies had already been beheaded prior to their burial. Reverend Matthew Thompson is responsible. Almost two years ago he received a visit from a group of Mi-Go who requested his aid to help obtain dead human brain-tissue for experimental surgery. He refused.

The Mi-Go retaliated by connecting him to a machine that planted false experiences into his mind - experiences that he believed had really occurred. Consequently, the reverend now remembers receiving a divine visitation telling him to aid the Mi-Go. The Mi-Go have retained their control by implanting the experience of further visitations whenever his resolve weakened.

The reverend was unnerved by the recent discovery, and subsequent investigation, of the decollated corpses. He pleaded with the Mi-Go to cease their relentless demands, at least until the current investigation was closed. They refused. The reverend is now suspicious and has begun to doubt the nature of his “visitations”. The Mi-Go are aware that they can no longer rely on him and the next beheaded corpse may be wearing a clergyman’s habit.

© Hadley Connor

The Hungry Woods

A small community housing project has recently been completed on the edge of a large wood just outside of town. The project’s aim is to create a safe, pleasant environment for parents and young children. Families move in at the start of summer. Once the school holidays arrive the children begin exploring the wood, climbing trees and going wild out of sight of their parents.

A few weeks into the holidays Annie McElroy notices that food is missing from the cupboards and fridge. At first, she thinks it is her husband, snacking during the night. She doesn’t mention it to him but drops it into casual conversation with the neighbours. It seems everyone has been victim of the mysterious food thief – and nobody has admitted to it.

Possibilities

1 Children are stealing the food. Whilst playing in the heart of the wood they encountered a place where the barrier between the Dreamlands and the Waking World is very thin. The Dreamlands point of contact is the Enchanted Wood, where the Zoogs live. These sweet-looking creatures have befriended the children, who are bring food to the creatures. The children will never tell the grown-ups about their new, special friends, The Zoogs are doing their best to entice the children into the Dreamlands proper, and it is only a matter of time before they succeed.

2 The community’s adult males have been subjected to the dream-sendings of a dead witch. She has been persuading them to bring food to her grave in the woods. The food rots rapidly into the ground and nourishes her body, strengthening it and putting flesh back upon the bones. The men have been obeying her instructions in their sleep and have no memories of their actions.

3 Early in the housing project’s construction a body was found in the woods. The body, that of a homeless man judging by the clothes, was badly mangled and parts looked as if they had burst open. To avoid bad publicity the site foreman had the body buried in one house’s foundations and bribed the workers to keep quiet.

The body belonged to a man who had fallen into a narrow hole in the woods and found himself in an underground labyrinth. There he encountered the Great Old One Eihort who offered him the usual choice: death or become host for Eihort’s brood. The man chose the latter and died when the brood erupted from his body.

The Brood have lived in the wood since then, but some have migrated into the houses, hiding in cracks and the shadows of cupboards. It is the brood that has been eating the food.

© Robin Low

The City in the Skull

It is a most peculiar object. A human skull, beautifully engraved in a curiously ragged script and with its eye sockets filled with emeralds. A perfectly circular hole has been drilled in its top.

If the skull is placed over a candle, the light shining through the jewelled eyes throws a strange vista of a fantastic cyclopean city across nearby walls. As the candle flickers, it almost seems as if there is movement.

Possibilities

1 The city glimpsed in the flickering candlelight is the ruined city of Sarkomand in the Dreamlands. The skull helps dreamers find their way to the city and from there to the rest of the dreamlands. Careful research eventually reveals that the engraved script is a simple incantation. Washing the skull and reciting the incantation activates the skull. Upon falling asleep, the character's dream self is safely transported to the dreamlands.

Unfortunately, Sarkomand is close to the Plateau of Leng, whose inhabitants are known to be hostile to casual intruders. Worse, the skull is cursed, and upon activation summons the vengeful spirit of the person who was killed to make it.

2 The image of the city is an optical illusion caused by flaws in the jewels. There is nothing magical about the skull at all; it is merely priceless.

Investigators researching the history of the skull will find that it was stolen from an Aztec treasury by unknown conquistadors. It was stolen again upon its arrival in Spain, and next appeared in 1612 in the treasury of a monastery in Alsace. The monastery was destroyed in 1650 and the skull vanished.

The skull later appears in France, among the treasures of Louis XV. During the French Revolution, it disappeared, and was believed to have been destroyed by the revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, the skull brings bad luck and disaster - as well as attracting thieves from afar. If the investigators hang on to the skull, something bad will happen - soon.

3 The city is Mu. It really does exist, and it is actually inside the skull. When mad Zhoras, the immortal God-King of Mu, realised his land was doomed, he placed it within his skull using his powerful magic. Because of its magical nature, Zhoras' skull is virtually indestructible, and Mu has survived for untold millenia.

The writing on the skull is in the language of the serpent people, added at a much later date. Once translated, it proves to be a gate-spell to the city. However, getting from the city back to the real world is much harder. Furthermore, Zhoras still rules within the skull, and exacts a fearsome toll on trespassers.

© Matthew Grossman

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 Last Carriage

During an overnight rail journey the train unexpectedly slows and stops at a small station shortly after midnight. Passengers who are still awake are politely informed that supplies are being collected. Although it is dark, the station looks to be old and in a state of disrepair. A damaged sign reveals only part of the station’s name. Nobody is seen outside the train, but passengers in the penultimate carriage hear clanking noises towards the end of the train, followed by a slight jolt. After about 15 minutes the train resumes its journey.

The next day when the train reaches its destination, observant passengers note that nobody leaves the last carriage.

Possibilities

1 The railway staff are part of a cult serving a small tribe of ghouls using the disused station as a base. The train stops at night and the final carriage is replaced with an empty one. The guards are brutally efficient in silencing non-sleeping passengers in the final carriage. Most passengers are destined for the ghouls’ dinner table, but a few are to become ghouls themselves.

2 The occupants of the last carriage were taken over by the Great Race of Yith who, when fleeing the Flying Polyps, chose to spend time in the present. Rather than move directly among mankind, they have chosen to hide themselves away for a short time and learn about the world. They are currently living in the abandoned station, aided by human allies.

3 The unfortunate occupants of the last carriage have become the victims of a cult obsessed with youth and beauty. Gas rendered them unconscious and they are now prisoners at the station. During the next full moon, the cult sacrifices the prisoners, using Steal Life to regain their lost youth.

© Robin Low

Jenny Beckett’s Ghost

Whilst travelling late one night by car, the investigators spot a shadowy figure by the side of the road as it enters a wood. A young woman paces backwards and forwards and looking in their direction. She seems to be wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather. Should the investigators stop to help, the young woman vanishes before their eyes.

If the investigators are in such a rush that they drive right past, at the last moment the woman steps in front of the car, seemingly unaware. There is no impact, no crash, no body bouncing across the windscreen. When the investigators’ skid to a halt they find no body, nor any evidence of one.

Instead, all they find is a small stone dedicated to the memory of Jenny Beckett sitting in the verge.

Further investigation reveals that Jenny Beckett was murdered at the roadside on the night of June 21st, 1826. The killer, Arthur Langton, was caught and hung, but reports of Jenny’s ghost soon became common. A local gypsy pronounced that unless a special inscribed stone was set to remember her death, then Jenny would continue to haunt that stretch of road.

Once the stone was put in place, the ghost vanished. The stone was blessed by the gypsy and inscribed thus: “To the memory of Jenny Backett, that her soul may rest in peace and she need wander no more”.

Now, however, it seems that Jenny Beckett is haunting the road once more, and it is not long before she causes a fatal accident.

Possibilities

1 Recently, road repairs have been carried out, and the road widened. The stone was taken up during the repairs and then replaced. Unfortunately, to be truly effective it needs to be blessed by a gypsy again.

2 Jenny’s ghost is waiting still for the man she was meant to meet at that spot – Thomas Longstock, her sweetheart. Jenny’s ghost appears sporadically in the area of her death and always around the time of the murder.

The gypsy was only partly right about the stone, which in itself is not enough to lay the ghost to rest. That can only be done by placing something that belonged to Thomas Longstock beneath the stone, no easy task considering he’s been dead for many years.

3 Michael L. Withers is the great-grandson of the man hanged for Jenny’s murder. His family has always maintained that Arthur did not commit the crime, but the Langton family were forced to leave the area after the hanging. Michael was always an impressionable boy and his grandmother’s stories have sent him to the scene of the crime.

© Lynne Wilson

Images of Doom

An investigator is in an unfamiliar shopping district. The usual hubbub of shoppers seems slightly more restrained than one would expect. It is then that the investigator sees an old woman approach a young lady with a pram. The old woman coos delightedly at the baby in the pram. The mothers proprietary grin changes to a look of shock, then horror as the old woman reaches inside the pram, grabs the baby by its foot and swings it out of the pram dashing its brains open on a lamppost.

Stunned silence is followed by havoc as people rush to restrain the old lady. The mother is crouched on the floor with the remains of her baby cradled in her arms, humming a lullaby to herself as she rocks to and fro. The crowd loses all restraint as it rips the old woman apart, literally limb from limb. After this the crowd dissipates leaving the young mother swathed in blood and still singing quietly to her dead child. Of the mutilated old woman there is no sign except for masses of blood.

Possibilities

1 The investigator is experiencing horrific nightmares. It’s all a dream. As the week continues the investigator dreams of the old woman time and time again. Every time he sees her, she is committing an atrocity: mutilating animals, setting fire to people, torturing children, sexual perversions, and so on.

There seems to be no way out of this ever-deepening spiral of depravity – Is this the first sign of madness?

2 A worshipper of Nyarlathotep, Jackson Richards, has been having problems with a local woman with great experience of fighting cultists. Aware of the investigator’s previous experiences with cults, he has inflicted him with horrific images of this woman’s “activities”.

None of the events are real – they are all in the investigator’s mind. That doesn’t make them any less disturbing. When the investigator bumps into the old woman he “saw” earlier, his fear and repulsion should propel him into precipitous action against her.

To push him further along that path, Richards sends further images: the mint she pops into her mouth is a human eyeball; the sly looks she throws the investigator’s way; the strangely shaped, almost cloven, foot she hides beneath her dress. All these images should convince the investigator that action is required against this woman immediately.

If the woman is dealt with, Richards puts the second phase of his plan into action . . .

3 A nerve toxin has been released into the air by followers of Y’golonac. This toxin removes peoples’ inhibitions against violence. It takes some time to take effect and was released over a week ago in the town. The investigator, having only just arrived, is so far unaffected. The toxic effects get stronger and stronger until the town becomes a war zone.

Even if the investigator leaves town he will feel the effects of the toxin pretty soon.

© Simon Taylor