Breaking New Grounds

Shock and grief spreads like a wildfire through Boston, when the mutilated corpse of renowned construction entrepreneur Richard Walker is found sprawled on top of the thrashed scale model of his recent building project, covered in a rancid smelling fluid.

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When questioning the family, friends, neighbors and employees of the deceased construction entrepreneur, they all seem to have noticed a man, who seemed to have stalked the victim. But when asked, no one seems to be able to describe the strange stalker.

Possibilities

1 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is not the murderer, but he is a spy for the true murderers – a group of ghouls. Ghouls, who felt, that the victim was about to threaten their existence.

The construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker, was about to turn an unoccupied spot of real estate into several apartment complexes. But the same real estate already housed the underground warrens of the ghouls.

Knowing that the imminent construction of the apartment complexes would inevitably reveal the existence of the ghouls, they quickly plotted to track down and stop the entrepreneur from putting his plans in motion.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon, represented what was planned to be constructed on the abovementioned real estate. The rancid fluid is from the ghouls, who snuck in and murdered the entrepreneur.

2 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is the murderer – a hired killer, sent by a locale gangster, in order to shut up the victim for good, as he was about to alert the authorities.

The construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker, planning to construct several expensive luxury apartments, had bought the real estate from a local gangster. But when the entrepreneur learned that the gangster had used the real estate as a dumping ground for several barrels containing dangerous chemical waste, he chose to gather more evidence, and then alert the proper authorities of his findings.

When told about the entrepreneur’s suspicions, and his successful attempt to gather irrefutable evidence, the gangster hired a professional killer to seek out and silent the entrepreneur for good.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon, represented what was planned to be constructed on the abovementioned real estate. The rancid fluid was the samples that the victim had collected to present to the authorities.

3 The strange man, who stalked the victim, is the murderer – sent from the remnant Esoteric Order of Dagon, hiding in the ruined remains of dreaded Innsmouth, in order to thwart the entrepreneur’s newest building project.

As a highly skilled and recognized construction entrepreneur, Richard Walker was hired by the US government to turn the dilapidated Innsmouth into a new and thriving coastal town, hoping it would bring new life and blood to the dread and forgotten town. A huge project worth billions of dollars, all funded by the government, and destined to take several years.

But when the remnants of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, who had be hiding within the ruined remains of bombed Innsmouth, learned about the plans to rebuild and renovate Innsmouth, they chose to act against the project immediately, and thus they sent one of their agents, who hasn’t yet made the change into a deep one, fully.

The scale model that the victim was found sprawled upon represented how the new and renovated Innsmouth would look like, when finished. The rancid fluid comes from the murderer - a human/deep one hybrid.

© Tim Deer

Bloody Mary

The investigation begins when a number of teenage girls are found to have been horribly murdered during a sleepover. Their bodies are found in a circle on the floor, around an old, circular mirror. Only one survived, and she has gone insane, endlessly repeating the words ‘Bloody Mary’.

Possibilities

1     The mirror is enchanted, and forms a gate to a distant world. It was enchanted by the distant ancestor of one of the girls and has remained in their family ever since. The weird visions occasionally glimpsed through it have given it a reputation for being haunted. When the girls performed the famous ‘Bloody Mary’ ritual game at the sleepover using the mirror, it attracted the attention of one of the planet’s inhabitants, who burst through and killed them, and has now taken a liking to Earth and developed a taste for its inhabitants...

2     The girls were performing a ritual from an internet site to contact a ‘spirit’. Unfortunately, this spirit was Nyarlathotep and when he appeared in the mirror several of the girls went insane and killed their friends and each other with kitchen knives.

3     The murders were committed by a psychopath who later strikes again, in each case recreating a well known urban legend with his killing. But witnesses descriptions suggest that a different man commits each crime, and this suggests paranormal involvement.

© James David Beard

New Guinea Football

In the mountains of New Guinea a number of violent tribes have been fighting a ritualistic war that has lasted for hundreds of years. The war consists mostly of skirmishes leading to injuries rather than fatalities (which are rare).

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When anthropologists encountered the tribes they taught them European football to minimize the bloodshed. The skirmishes now only take place on the pitch, and each year the tribes gather for their football tournament.

Possibilities

1 The victims of the skirmishes were all ceremoniously thrown into a nearby lake that was home to a Dark Young. With the skirmishes replaced by a football tournament, the Dark Young is now hungry...

2 The ritualistic approach that the tribes took to the war meant that the fatalities that did occur were enough to keep a Servitor of the Outer Gods bound and imprisoned. With no more fatalities, the Servitor will soon be freed...

3 One of the anthropologists is using the tribes’ emotions, captured as part of the football tournament to summon the Outer God Nyarlathothep.

© Jochen Koltermann

In the Watches of the Night

The local museum was recently preparing to open a new display about a prominent local family. Edward Eastman, the only son of a wealthy father, had donated many interesting family heirlooms to the museum.

The Eastman family has been in the community for generations, and Thomas Eastman, Edward’s great-great-great-grandfather, was one of the founders of the town. The heirlooms donated included several paintings, some furniture, some letters, and assorted antiques. The most interesting piece was a large, old-fashioned silver pocket watch, with a stylized dragon engraved on the lid, which had belonged to Thomas Eastman.

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Unfortunately, two days before the museum was scheduled to open, the museum was broken into, and many of the Eastman heirlooms were taken, including the pocket watch. The assistant curator, who had been working late that night, was brutally killed. And to make the case even more complicated, Edward Eastman has vanished.

Possibilities

1 Edward Eastman had a tendency to gamble, and his debts quickly outgrew his abilities to pay them. He didn’t donate his family heirlooms to the museum; he sold them and used the cash to pay off some of his debt. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and the people he owed got impatient and threatened him.

Edward quietly left town before the break-in, hoping to put some distance between himself and the loan sharks. The break-in at the museum was a straight robbery; other valuable pieces were also taken. The assistant curator happened to walk in at the wrong moment.

2 Thomas Eastman was a sorcerer of no small skill. He was also a thoroughly unpleasant person, and was forced to disappear for a good long time, leaving many of his possessions behind. Chief among these was his pocket watch, which he had designed himself. It was something like a magical battery, supplying him with any needed magical energy. Thomas had put himself into a type of stasis, concealed in the basement of his mansion.

Five generations later, Edward Eastman was doing some remodeling, and accidentally woke Thomas up. Thomas killed Edward and started setting about locating his missing belongings. He broke into the museum to recover them, killing the assistant curator when she got in his way. In a few days, the badly mauled body of Edward Eastman will turn up near his house.

3 Edward Eastman had an interest in the occult, which was bolstered by some of the things he read in Thomas’s papers. However, some of his experiments in sorcery attracted the notice of one of the Hounds of Tindalos. Edward managed to seal the Hound into a non-dimensional space, using Thomas’s watch as a focus. Unfortunately, Edward was an amateur sorcerer at best, and the Hound quickly broke through the seal, destroying the watch and several other items. It happened upon the assistant curator, and tore her apart. Then it hunted Edward down and exacted a horrific revenge.

© Megan McKnight

Blood on the Tracks

The investigators find themselves sharing a compartment on the express train from Boston to Portland, stopping at Arkham amongst other places. Just as the train leaves North Station, a drunk man staggers into the compartment, slams the door shut with an effort and collapses in the corner seat. It soon becomes apparent that the man isn’t drunk but is suffering from a fatal stab wound to the lungs.

As the investigators tend to him, he gasps out his last words:

Looks like they’ve done for me, don’t it? ... They’re after it, see ... They want it more than anything ... only ... I took it from them ... Had to, see ... Someone had to ... Else Christ knows what they’d’ve done ... Can’t tell you what it is, though ... Too dangerous ... Can’t even tell you where it is ... ‘cause then you might tell them ... But I fooled them ... They might’ve stuck me through the lungs with a damn butcher knife ... but I shot the bastard dead who done for me and got away for long enough ... Long enough from them and those damn things of theirs ... Only maybe it’s the things that’re runnin’ the show ... Who knows ... Who kn- ...

Possibilities

1 The man, Adam Tubbs, has stolen a powerful cult artefact. He escaped from the cultists chasing him long enough to hide the artefact somewhere on the train. Unfortunately, one of the cultists caught up with him and stabbed him with a ritual dagger before Tubbs shot him dead and stuffed the body into a toilet. Several bad guys and two semi-human ‘things’ are on the train searching for Tubbs and the artefact.

2 Tubbs is a minor hoodlum who has crossed the gang he runs with by stealing a package of heroin from the latest consignment from Southeast Asia. He was trailed to the station by several gang members, where one of them ambushed and stabbed him before he was able to shoot the attacker and hide the body. Tubbs staggered onto the nearest train, stashed the kilo of heroin onboard and then stumbled into the investigators’ compartment. The ‘things’ he refers to are Vietnamese drug-traffickers that the gang is allied with. Three gangsters spotted Tubbs getting on the train and are now looking for Tubbs and the heroin.

3     Tubbs is a member of one of a pair of feuding cults that have an overwhelming hatred for each other. In a struggle for an artefact belonging to one of them, he has been stabbed and has slain one of his enemies. He has managed to hide the artefact on the train before staggering into the investigators’ compartment. Several cultists from each faction are also on board the train, searching for the artefact, Tubbs, and each other.

© Tony Hickie

BURN

The growth in information technology has made the dissemination of information very easy. However there is a price to pay for such easy access to information.

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On the internet, there are a growing number of computer users falling prey to a new computer virus called BURN. This virus is so new that most anti-virus software companies do not yet know of it. It is also unlikely that anyone will survive to tell the story of its most unusual effects.

Astute students of Fortean lore may note an increasing unusual death rate amongst Net surfers, and there are always going to be upset parents. Media types, always hungry for a new angle on the Internet, will also make much of the rising tide of bodies, linking them to Internet pornography. 

Eventually the BURN virus can be traced (via assembly language code headers) to a compiler belonging to the Arkham Sanitarium. 

Howard Barker is a deranged hebephrenic psychology postgraduate from Miskatonic Uni who works as a ward assistant. Lately he has been spending a lot of time with the computers in the building.

Possibilities

1 The two variants of the BURN virus target Windows or Apple computers.

BURN is a Trojan virus which hides itself inside other applications then attaches itself to video card drivers. The next time the computer is booted up the virus causes the screen to pulse and strobe at a rate which hypnotises unfortunate onlookers or causes epileptic seizures.

Embedded into the strobing is the subliminal text message KILL - ENJOY. After 15 seconds the virus shuts down and is deleted the next time the computer is booted. Victims immediately become mindless killing machines and end up dead, either shot by police as they stroll through a shopping mall armed to the teeth, or take their own lives after cheerily slaughtering their family and friends.

Howard Barker is currently preparing his doctorial thesis on human psychological impulses and is testing a few of his assumptions before he submits his final paper.

2 The two BURN variants target sound card drivers, not video drivers. It causes the computer to produce an odd agglutinous chanting from the attached speakers. If the timing is correct (i.e. night and Fomalhaut is visible) the user will suddenly feel cold and tired, and a glowing ball will appear from the smoking remains of the computer.

The chant is a summoning spell for a Fire Vampire and the user has just lost the requisite magical energy to summon the beast. There are a large number of recent cases of people burnt to a cinder alongside their melted computers, causing the major PC companies to suspect hardware faults; none have been found so far.

The Fire Vampires, being balls of plasma, then run around the electrical circuits in the building causing major fires. In big computer installations the sprinklers/halon/CO2 extinguishers go off and the Fire Vampires usually get snuffed. Surviving security video footage from a nearby college campus may prove illuminating.

Howard Barker is a mad genius who got a number of such spells piecemeal from one of the inmates. Said inmate is John Doe #23 and has an unusual case history.

3 The BURN virus is slow and insidious. It subliminally flashes unpronouncable text messages on screen, essentially a Contact Nyarlathotep spell. It also adds a bookmark to web browsers. The address is that of the home page of the Starry Wisdom Brotherhood, a quasi-religious group who hold all kinds of odd beliefs. 

Nyarlathotep contacts the unfortunate victim via dreams or e-mail messages from an apparently non-existent mail address. The net result is that the victim is seduced by the Mythos and joins the Brotherhood. Eventually the sendings (dream or electronic) command the victim to prepare for a journey to the throne of the Ruler of the Universe and to prepare offerings. 

Howard Barker maintains the website and there is much circumstantial evidence pointing to him as the leader of the Brotherhood. Actually he is a front man and scapegoat for Dr. Eloise Whateley, a recent addition to the staff roster at the Sanitarium.

© Peter Devlin

Best-selling necktie

Philosophy major Andrew Cyrus Galbraith penned a runaway best-seller that made him internationally known. Too bad he’s not around to enjoy it.

An earlier collection of his essays had garnered critical acclaim for his striking new perspectives on old philosophical problems. However, Galbraith’s latest paper asked whether life had any meaning, and if not, then should you continue to live? His powerful thirty-page answer was no, life has no meaning outside of what we project on it, and no, we should not live through this absurdity. It was the most intelligent, convincing, solid argument ever written in favor of suicide. Simply titled You Should Do It, the paper also served as his own suicide note. Andrew tightened his necktie, secured the thick end of it to the cross-braces on his dorm window, and flung himself out.

His death was a minor news story the next day. It only drew world-wide attention two days later, after someone circulated the paper on the internet, and thousands of readers agreed with Galbraith’s tightly reasoned arguments, and began taking their own lives...

Possibilities

1 The paper is cursed. Galbraith undertook the Unspeakable Oath to accomplish this. Weak-willed people can be susceptible to suicide attempts if they read it. The curse can be cancelled, making all copies powerless, but only by seeking Galbraith’s ghost and allowing it to rest in peace by completing “unfinished business”. Whatever that may be.

2 The paper isn’t convincing. It’s actually a signal for members of a particular cult to sacrifice themselves en masse around the world, or killing many people in ways that look like suicide. The cult is using the sacrifices to summon something powerful - but what?

3 Galbraith’s paper really is that convincing. Shortly before the paper is published, a psychic has a vision of thousands of readers inspired to kill themselves if the paper becomes widely read. It can only be a matter of time before a priest of Nyarlathotep or other fiend publishes it on the internet.

© Rob Northrup