Mrs Whathernam

Mrs Wathernam is a nice old lady living down the street in a small but cozy home with a little garden. Mrs Whathernam adores children; many parents, who can’t afford a place in the kindergarden, send their children to her. There, they can play in her garden, Mrs Whaternam knows lots of games to play, never gets angry and bakes wonderful cakes.

Possibilities

1 Mrs Whathernam is really just a nice lady - with a tragic past: her husband returned from the war, but body and spirit broken. One night, he couldn’t stand it any longer, took a gun and turned on his family before killing himself. Mrs Whathernam survived, but her husband murdered their child.

By day, some of the children claim to have played with an unknown young boy; by night, people tell of a dark figure in a uniform staring out of the windows.

2 Mrs Whathernam has a dark secret: she is a murderer. Years ago, she and her husband were members of a dark cult and sacrificed people in their occult rituals. The cult was infiltrated by the authorities, and the cultists were arrested. Some were hanged, some committed suicide. Mrs Whathernam (not her real name) escaped...

3 Mrs Whathernam really, REALLY likes children - especially served with honey orange marinade and added spice...

© Philipp Mählmann

Mr Sebastien

Mr Sebastien was a strange man. He was noted for holding conversations with himself, even going as far as answering. He professed to be a stage magician, a conjurer and a master of prestidigitation, but he wasn’t terribly good. Even small children went unimpressed.

However, his latest trick proved to be his finest, if last. He was found dead in a dingy hotel room. The trick of it, however, was that the door was securely locked from the inside. Sebastien had the only key, and the windows, previously painted shut, were sealed tight. All that the room contained, other than its cheap furniture, were the corpse and a pack of ordinary playing cards scattered around the room in a haphazard manner.

Possibilities

1 Mr Sebastien believed himself capable of great things, so tried his hand at a little demonic conjuration. Taking a room in a hotel, he carefully locked the door. Then making sure the windows were sealed and using his only aid, a pack of ordinary playing cards, set about conjuring a demon.

Of course, Mr Sebastien was not very good at magic and forgot to take basic protective measures. The conjuration was a success, he managed to manifest a rather nasty demon. However, having no protection, its first victim was Mr Sebastien. It now lurks within the deck of cards.

2 Mr Sebastien, tired of all the jibes over his lack of talent, conceived a brilliant trick. A small hotel room was hired, he locked himself in, he took a rare slow-acting poison and while dying, cast his cards around the room. His final trick then was to leave a mystery.

3 An autopsy is conducted only to discover that the corpse is nothing more than an empty husk. Mr Sebastien, whoever or whatever he was, entered that hotel room that evening and did not emerge alive. At least not ‘alive’ in any sense that we might know it.

©Andrew Parfitt

Figure in Black

Whispers are circulating through a small town about sightings of a mysterious figure along the river dressed in black. The figure is reported to leave burnt black footprints on the ground wherever he walks, and anything liquid that he touches turns to steam.

Possibilities

1 The mysterious figure on the river is the Devil, transported to earth in human form. He challenges all those who come near him to a battle of wits, a battle that he has rigged to win at the cost of the soul of any who challenge him.

2 The mystery man is an actor being paid by a developer to scare the people out of the area so that they can buy up the land to build a casino on the river. All of his scare tactics are a bag of harmless special effects meant to scare away the curious and the simple minded.

3 The figure is an alien from the planet Venus. His coat protects his skin from the sun’s radiation which would be deadly to him, and he sweats acid which burns the ground where he steps.

© Paul Comeau

Gloomy Sunday

‘Gloomy Sunday’ is a mournful song about a young man deciding to follow the woman he loves into death, written and recorded in Hungary in 1933. A composer named Reszo Seress wrote it shortly after breaking up with a long-time girlfriend, and it quickly became popular, but also began to develop an odd reputation as the ‘Hungarian Suicide Song’. A number of deaths were linked to Gloomy Sunday, with suicides following a playing of the song, or lyrics from it appearing in suicide notes. Shortly after he approached her seeking a reconciliation, the composer’s girlfriend killed herself, leaving a note reading only “Szomorú Vasárnap” -- ‘Gloomy Sunday’.

An English language version was recorded, and Gloomy Sunday’s reputation as the suicide song spread across Europe and America, to a lesser degree than in Hungary, but still worrying authorities to the point of banning it from radio in several places.

(This is all true. There are websites that detail the song’s history or debunk the ‘suicide song’ legend, and various recordings available for download.)

Now, a dusty and rather scratchy original recording of the song being played by its composer has been restored and duplicated with a clarity never heard before, and the original Hungarian version of Gloomy Sunday is regaining popularity -- but this version of the song seems to have a power over its listeners that none of the previously mass-marketed recordings came close to matching. Listeners find themselves babbling snatches of Hungarian they don’t understand, experiencing terrible and sourceless fears, seeing strange visions they can’t explain, and killing themselves at a frightening rate.

Possibilities

1 Seress was a cultist, and quite mad. Along with the strange and troubling music he composed, there were rituals venerating forgotten gods. He forced his fiancee to join him, and at first she went along with it willingly, humouring a man she loved and believed could be brought back to sanity with patience and quiet surroundings. But soon the forbidden knowledge she was learning through their descent into the mythos began to horrify her. When she protested, Seress threatened to kill her if she backed out or if she told anyone of what they were doing.

His efforts were building towards a final rite he was reluctant to tell her about, but her own researches gave her an idea of what he was planning, and the sick fear of it became too much for her: she killed herself. Seress was furious at her betrayal, but continued his preparations for the rite as though he believed there would still be a second participant.

Now, the specially-prepared Gloomy Sunday recording acts as a kind of trap for the woman’s spirit, periodically forcing her to inhabit and possess a listener’s body against her will. It also calls to Seress, who immediately gives chase, armed with magical methods to force her to join him in the final ritual. The repeated suicides are the unfortunate ghost’s only way to free herself from the trap.

If nobody intervenes, the deaths continue until Seress finally captures his late fiancee and goes ahead with the ritual.

2 Seress wasn’t much of a composer, but he was a charming man with a wide range of acquaintances, and an accomplished plagiarist. One of his friends was a German-Hungarian scientist experimenting with brainwave transference using salvaged mi-go technology and money provided by Hitler’s Reichstag. He was exploring a promising method of transferring thoughts and memories from one mind to another encoded in repeating tones like the melody of a song. Seress liked the ‘music’ he heard in the scientist’s home one night, and left with the recording hidden under his coat, eventually publishing an adapted version of it with lyrics written by another acquaintance, as Gloomy Sunday.

Now listeners are experiencing some of the scientist’s recorded thoughts as they listen to his brainwave-duplicating sounds, including his growing doubt and guilt over accepting money from nazis, and increasingly paranoid fear of what can only be mi-go attempts at intimidation in order to reclaim their equipment.

If nobody intervenes, the Gloomy Sunday reputation continues to grow and the recording’s publisher quietly takes that version off the market. Isolated suicides continue, as private copies still exist.

3 Gloomy Sunday is simply a sad, regretful song with nothing supernatural about it. The wax the recording is pressed from is contaminated with toxic chemicals that fill the air with poisonous fumes when played. The hallucinations and deep depression listeners experience are symptoms of exposure.

In time, the recording company will switch to a safer material and try to hush up the deaths, leaving thousands of potentially deadly records in the hands of the public.

© Chris Kerr

Glossolalia

In a small town, located in the foothills of larger mountains, are more and more cases of people speaking in tongues (glossolalia). It started some weeks ago and it grows. Every day there are more people who are affected.

Possibilities

1 The outbreak of glossolalia can be tracked to an itinerant preacher, who entered the town just a few days before the first cases were noticed. He has always a round slice with him, which is the source.

The slice is an alien artifact, containing a parasite that powers the preacher’s sermons (which are now highly addictive). The parasite drains energy from the listeners to fuel the slice. Once it has enough energy it will return to space. The tongue-speaking is a adverse reaction, but people stop after several days.

The parasite’s energy-drain is harmless, it just lets the people speak in tongues and gives them a little fatigue.

The preacher himself has no idea what is going on, but won’t let the slice be taken.

2 The town is built above a source of raw minerals that the Mi-Go want to mine. They have placed emitters around the town that are affecting human brains and causing them to become disturbed. This leads to the tongue-speaking and incapacitates the people. They won’t eat, drink or sleep until they leave the area (or the emitters are deactivated).

Some of the officials who have come to the town are Mi-Go henchmen and are here evacuate the town. They will also resist any attempt to interfere with the Mi-Go’s plans.

3 The glossolalia is caused by a Serpent Person. A few decades ago one of the ancient serpent-scientists awoke from his hibernation and started to explore a way to overthrow humanity and restore the ancient kingdom. He invented a disease which weakens the human mind sufficient to allow the scientists mental suggestion. The disease has three different stages:

First the victims loses consciousness for some hours, then it awakes.

In the second stage the victim has loses the ability to speak, and only speaks in tongues. This stage is very dangerous, because everybody who listens more than four hours to the victim’s glossolalia will be affected too.

Finally, after some days the victim regains the ability to speak, but is then a viral carrier, spreading the disease via sexual intercourse and obeying the Serpent’s mental instructions.

© Jochen Koltermann

Fiends on Film

The characters visit a video store containing obscure films on VHS and DVD. The VHS films are of particular interest because they are bootlegs of unreleased films, director’s cuts, work prints and documentaries. One film, called “Document of the Damned,” stands out.

The film, which is the unreleased director’s cut of a film released in campus theaters and art houses during the 1970s’, contains footage shot in the mid 20s’ and late 60s’. It is a sensationalistic documentary about witchcraft and the occult containing lots of nudity and exaggeration.

One detailed scene depicts a ritual for summoning demons. It includes a bizarre and convincing monster.

Possibilities

1 The scene is an accurate simulation of the rituals required to summon and bind a dimensional shambler. Anyone studying the film carefully can learn the spells over time.

2 The scene is actual footage of the rituals required to summon and bind a dimensional shambler being performed, although the spells can’t be learned through viewing the film due to its editing.

3 The film contains no actual content related to the Cthulhu mythos. The film’s value to general occultists is also questionable.

© Brian Woodman

Fallen Grace

It’s been happening for three days now. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, or that I was short of sleep.

If only.

I see her in mirrors, in windows, in puddles of dirty rain-water. Sometimes she’s alone; sometimes, there are others, behind her. Waiting, watching.

Her name is Grace. I don’t know how I know that, but I do.

I also know I’ll be seeing her soon.

Grace appears to be a young girl with long, straggly blonde hair and guarded blue eyes. She’s dressed in rags, and looks like she’s been surviving on her own for some time now. She can be seen in any reflective surface; at first she appears infrequently, but as time passes and her urgency increases, she begins to haunt her target.

Possibilities

1 Grace’s father, Professor Henry Avebury, worships something ancient and nameless. Centuries ago the creature’s body was destroyed, and now its mind roams free, seeking a way back to the world. A month ago, Professor Avebury performed a ritual on Grace to draw the beast’s essence into her body. Unfortunately for Henry, the ritual backfired; Grace was left with limited telepathic abilities, but was otherwise unharmed, and the beast was drawn into Henry’s mind instead.

The beast isn’t shy about calling forth servitors to do its dirty work. Grace is desperate for help, and is calling for it, although she doesn’t know it.

2 In life, Grace was a powerful witch. Six years ago her cottage burnt to the ground; she was trapped inside, and her body was reduced to ash. Her soul, however, survived, and now it’s looking for a way back.

Grace can manifest physically in a shape of her choosing for up to a minute at a time, but must rest between manifestations. She needs to persuade someone to carry out a ritual to bind her to a new body if she is to have any meaningful existence.

She tells the investigators about an invisible hunter which can shift in and out of reality; she claims that this beast is what killed her, and that the ritual she wants the investigators to perform will banish it. 

If necessary, Grace is prepared to kill to provide evidence of her claims.

3 A shape-shifting creature is hungry, and has found that victims are easiest to take when alone and desperate. Who can ignore a helpless child in terrible danger? And who’s going to tell people about someone they can only see in mirrors? The creature preys on the minds of its victims, hounding them until they no longer dare to look in a mirror, until they hide alone, afraid, in the darkness -- and then it strikes. 

© Matt Harvey