The Freighter

The citizens of a small coastal town in northern Florida quickly mobilize a rescue mission when a derelict freighter runs into trouble at some cliffs, and is in danger of tipping over and go under.

When the rescuers board the freighter, they’re met with a horrible sight: the crew and passengers have been brutally slain.

The only person left alive is an insanely mumbling sailor, drenched in blood and armed with a bloody weapon. Being unable to question the mad sailor about the brutal murders, the local police charge him for the murders and incarcerates him in a mental hospital.

But before long, a series of strange and brutal murders starts to haunt the coastal town.

Possibilities

1 The mad sailor is not the killer. He’s the only survivor of a desperate battle against a being of monstrous nature. The being was brought aboard the ship as part of the cargo - ancient artefacts recovered by an archaeological excavation in East Africa.

When a nosy sailor searched the cargo for some valuable trinkets to steal, he released the monstrous creature. Then the murders started.

Moments before the ship ran afoul of the cliffs, the surviving sailor successfully fought the being to a retreat. Unfortunately his mind was destroyed by the horrible ordeal. The monster fled when the resuers arrived and went into hiding, gathering strength.

Now, at full strength, the monster terrorizes the coastal town.

2 The mad sailor murdered the crew and passengers, but an outside source drove him to do it.

The freighter’s cargo contained rare and expensive lumber - which was also the home of a species of arachnid unknown to science. The arachnids’ bite contains a poison that kills small prey but has a hallucinating effect on humans. The hallucinations drives the bitten person to become highly paranoid, and later, permanently insane.

Once onboard the freighter, it was inevitable that someone would be bitten. That someone then went on to butcher everyone else on board, and is the only survivor.

As the rescuers salvage the cargo of rare lumbar and dangerous arachnids, they unknowingly endanger the coastal town.

3 The mad sailor is not the killer. The real killer is a serpent-man sorcerer who infiltrated the freighter, disguising himself as one of the crew. The sorcerer is after an ancient artefact that the passengers, a team of archaeologists, have brought along with them.

The archaeologists were returning home after an expedition in southern Egypt where they located and excavated an ancient temple of mysterious design. The temple, which was actually a remnant of the serpent-people’s civilization, contained a lone, surviving sorcerer kept alive in hibernation.

As the archaeologists entered the temple, they woke the sorcerer. He watched from the shadows until they left, but when he discovered that they had stolen sacred artefacts, the sorcerer followed the archaeologists to the freighter. The sorcerer’s plan was to kill theoffenders and the crew, and then sail the freighter back to Africa.

Things didn’t go according to plan, and there was a fight. Moments before the ship ran aground, the surviving sailor successfully fought the serpent-man sorcerer to a retreat, despite going insane when he witnessed the sorcerer’s real appearance.

As the rescuers arrives onboard the freighter, the weakened sorcerer fled and went into hiding.

Now, however, he is trying to locate the sacred artefacts that are stored somewhere in the town. Anyone who gets in his way is murdered.

© Tim Deer

Tales of Terror for The Dee Sanction

I’ve just finished running a short campaign for The Dee Sanction, Paul Baldowski’s game of covert Enochian intelligence set in the reign of Elizabeth I. You can read about the game on my blog, and I’ve published a short adventure, Abaddon’s Puppet, on my Itch.io page.

Tales of Terror are usually written from a modern or 20th-Century perspective, but here are a few I think could be easily incorporated (with some adjustment) within a game of The Dee Sanction. 

The Dee Signet: John Dee’s signet ring.

Gargoyle’s Watch: Evil gargoyles are watching you.

Homunculi: A strange cabinet filled with 24 clay homunculi.

The Plated Skull: Find it at the Whitstable Reserve.

The Gibbet Frame: A picture frame made from the wood from a gibbet.

Type Case: Type used to print an occult book.

Ailurophobia: Cats. Dozens and dozens of cats.

The Attic Window: A house with an ill reputation.

The Iron Crib: A mysterious crib appears in a graveyard one night.

Suitable for Framing: An unpleasant portrait.

The Old Cottage: An odd coin in an old cottage.

Barratt's Brain

Eric Barrett’s short life wasn’t a happy one. Confined to an asylum at four when he began to exhibit autistic behaviour, he spent three years scribbling weird, meaningless shapes on any scrap of paper he could reach, before finally dying of unknown causes.

Eager to study an unusual case further, the asylum’s doctors have convinced the grieving parents to allow them to perform an autopsy and craniotomy to identify the cause of death.

They cut into the boy’s skull and find...

Possibilities

1   ...a brass clockwork engine where his brain should be.

It’s still ticking over, tiny wires tugging at nerves and muscles that no longer respond. Interior convolutions of the skull suggest that the engine somehow GREW in its current position.

Eric’s uncle Phillip was an investigator into the unknown who looked too deeply into mysteries he should have avoided, and slowly went mad. In his insanity, he talked about the things he’d discovered. No-one listened, except his nephew, who didn’t understand what he was hearing. He understood one thing, though—the name ‘Hastur’. He made a game out of repeating it, and even invented a pretend playmate named Hastur.

The childish chanting, coupled with a boyish imagination that treated Hastur as real, was enough to evoke a partial manifestation of the Great Old One, with limited power. Eric and Hastur spent countless hours together, and Hastur told him things even his uncle didn’t know. The boy’s devastating transformation is the result.

His three years of drawings contain mythos secrets imparted by Hastur. Only a few, but they’re big ones, and each is repeated hundreds of times. Someone with the right knowledge could interpret them to reveal information with horrible implications for the whole human race. The Barrett’s have no idea what they have stuck on their fridge.

2.  ...a hollow, filled with nothing but bloody fluid.

Three years ago, parts of Eric’s brain were extracted by mi-go while the family vacationed at a mountain lake resort. They left enough to maintain basic functions, but took everything responsible for higher thought. The mi-go used those pieces of Eric in a mi-go mining machine, burrowing for minerals under the same lake he stayed at with his parents.

Worse, a week ago, Eric’s parents received a phone call in a buzzing, metallic voice claiming to BE Eric, begging them to rescue him. They thought it was a cruel joke, but if the boy is still alive in some form, something will have to be done.

The scribbled drawings are maps of mine shafts, somehow transmitted by the remainder of his brain.

3.  ...a bullet.

While she was pregnant, Eric’s mother was injured in a drive-by shooting. Because it was so close to her unborn baby, the doctors who attended her elected to leave the bullet in place and remove it after the boy was born. However, exploratory surgery failed to locate it after the birth.

The bullet penetrated Eric’s skull, and his brain formed around it. However, the lead slowly poisoned him, leading to the mental breakdown and eventual death.

The gangster responsible for the shooting was never convicted, and is now a wealthy and powerful man. A ballistic examination of the bullet could be the evidence which finally puts him behind bars.

The drawings are meaningless.

© Chris Kerr

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

The Ghost Bottle

It’s a clay bottle, sealed, marked with an inverted cross: a ghost bottle.

According to reliable texts, ghost bottles were used by exorcists in the 18th century to capture evil spirits. The bottles were then taken and the spirits either released where they could do no harm, or stored in specially prepared vaults.

Possibilities

1 This ghost bottle was recently created. The craft of constructing an effective ghost bottle is now known only to a few practitioners, and this one was constructed by Thaddeus Henge, of Henge & Croup Professional Services. (Their mark is stamped on the bottom of the bottle.)

The Burnett family hired Thaddeus Henge to help with a problem at Bellforth Hall. Peregrine Burnett, owner of Bellforth Hall and powerful occultist, had used a restless spirit to guard his extensive occult collection. With Burnett’s passing, the spirit had turned feral and Burnett’s descendants turned to Thaddeus Henge, modern exorcist, to deal with it.

Henge trapped the spirit in the ghost bottle, which now rests on the mantlepiece in Bellforth Hall’s entrance hall.

2 The bottle is part of a collection, one of twelve. Three bottles are sealed, two are broken and the others are all unused. The collection is secured within a fine oak box with a handles for carrying; the lid contains detailed instructions, annotated by its last owner, Chester Beale.

Beale was a 17th century occultist and, so it now seems, part-time exorcist. The collection was found during restoration works in a hidden cupboard in Hobford Grange, Beale’s Wiltshire home.

3 The bottle arrives in the post, securely wrapped. Accompanying it is a note:

Dear J——. I write to you following our long conversations last summer during which you expressed interest in Uncle Johann’s sudden interest in the occult during the summer of 1964. As you will remember, this obsession lasted no more than a few months, starting when the old De Monteford mausoleum was disturbed and ending in September of that year when Uncle Johann visited Keswick in the company of the singular Cordon Paine. Since then I have learned more about Cordon Paine and discovered that he was well known in the London alternative ‘scene’ and created quite a stir by hosting the most surreal and disturbing dinner parties. From what I understand, Paine was retained by the family to ‘cure’ Uncle Johann. Paine believed that Uncle Johann was possessed by a malign spirit released from the old mausoleum, and promised to rid him of it. To this end, they travelled to Cumbria and participated in some kind of ritual in the Castlerigg stone circle, above Keswick.  That was in September 1964, after which Uncle Johann mostly returned to his old self. I found the accompanying artefact, which matches the description of a ‘ghost bottle’ that Paine refers to in the Castlerigg ritual, while clearing Uncle Johann’s attic. I can only assume that this bottle contains the malign spirit that so possessed Uncle Johann and drove him to his obsession. I confess that since finding the dreadful thing I have not enjoyed a single night of unbroken sleep, and have suffered quite vivid dreams full of graves, cobwebs and horrid scratching noises. As you know I suffer from an overactive imagination, and given your interest in things outré I thought that it might find a better home with you. I trust you and yours are well. Best wishes, K——

© Steve Hatherley

Liminal Tales of Terror

Recently I’ve been playing and running a fair bit of Liminal, Paul Mitchener’s RPG of British urban fantasy. I like my urban fantasy to be a bit dark, so I’ve been incorporating Tales of Terror into my games.

Here’s a list of Tales that I think would be absolutely fine to drop into a Liminal game.

In no particular order…

• Homunculi: A strange cabinet filled with 24 clay homunculi.
• The Witch Tree: A curious, stunted oak tree in North Dulwich.
• The Dee Signet: John Dee’s signet ring.
• Snails: Enormous snails in the cellar.
• Seven Woodcut Blocks: By Thomas Kilner.
• The Plated Skull: Find it at the Whitstable Reserve.
• The Sinne Eater: Morton Blakelock, at your service
• The Tattoo: A spider tattoo.
• Snuff: A gift from great uncle Sebastian—his snuff boxes.
• The Old Cottage: An odd coin in an old cottage.
• Gargoyle’s Watch: Evil gargoyles are watching you.
• The Tower on Dulas Island: A strange tower off Anglesey.
• The Gibbet Frame: A picture frame made from the wood from a gibbet.
• The Paper under the Bed: Mysterious symbols under your bed.
• Ghostwatch: A spectral figure in a churchyard.
• The Book: Introducing Jim Book. 
• The Old Quarry: A secret in Northumberland.

I’ve been talking about Liminal on my fourlettersatrandom blog.

Plague Row

It is known locally as “Plague Row”, although there are no historical records of plague in the area.

Instead, it is a run-down row of buildings, all in a poor state of repair. Those living nearby are ill, and what little vegetation there is, is twisted and diseased.

Nothing thrives on Plague Row.

Possibilities

1 Plague Row was once marked by a stone circle that was originally erected to protect against an ancient evil. The stone circle was removed in 1750s when building work started on the site. Over a period of decades the evil influence returned, contaminating everything.

The source of the evil influence is a monstrous demon imprisoned in the ground, deep below. The demon is still securely bound, but its malign influence seeps upwards to contaminate everything above.

However, Plague Row is just one of several locations where the wards imprisoning the demon have been removed. Someone, or something, is destroying them, and the demon is growing stronger...

2 Behind Plague Row is a deep well in which a cold, alien intelligence has made its home. The alien intelligence absorbs the life essence from organic matter, which results in malaise and decay.

3 Plague Row is not far from the site British Ordnance Factory No. 7, constructed in 1940 to manufacture munitions. The factory produced explosives for shells and artillery rounds, as well as phosphorus and other chemical weapons.

Although little remains of the site above ground (it is now a business park), the factory’s underground chemical storage tanks were never fully decommissioned and they have leaked, contaminating the land now known as Plague Row.

© Steve Hatherley