Von Azathoth bis Zoth-Ommog

[Der Läuterer]

TIMELESS SANDS OF INDIA, the

Age of Cthulhu #7

Goodman Games - 2012 - CoC6

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Setting: 1920s

Locations: Calcutta

Creatures: Yithian, Dimensional Shambler, Sand Dwellers

SYNOPSIS:

India: exotic splendors, desolate sands, and the mysteries of the Subcontinent. The answers to unexplained nightmares rest in India's timeless sands, where eons-old mysteries still dwell just below the veneer of polite society.

Curious investigators are quickly drawn into a shadow-war waged by forces of darkness. The clues lead to the ferocious sandstorms of the Great Thar Desert, with fires and assassins.

 

An alien who has been manipulating events from eons to prevent a global catastrophe, battles a Cult of the Black Scimitar, who worships Nyarlathotep and is trying to undo the actions of the alien.

The alien has chosen people from around the globe that have a similar trait in common, but one that only the alien knows and that Investigators will discover. At the same time, the Cult of the Black Scimitar is out to assassinate any who would aid the alien and have begun to pick off its allies one by one. The investigators have to deal with multiple attempts on their life and have to use violence over intelligence and battle Sand Dwellers with strong alien weaponry.

 

Edited April 18, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

STARFALL OVER THE PLATEAU OF LENG

Age of Cthulhu #8

Goodman Games - 2014 - CoC6

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SYNOPSIS:

An investigation into the whereabouts of a missing artist becomes a manhunt for her suspected murderer. The trail leads to the impossible, deep into the mystical realm of sleep, the Dreamlands. The investigators must journey to the very heart of the Plateau of Leng, to the fabled Pharos of Leng, if they are to find their quarry, but it may all be for naught, as a giant falling star threatens to destroy both the Waking World and the Dreamlands...

Edited May 26, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

CANIS MYSTERIUM

Chaosium - 2014 - CoC7

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Setting: October 1930

Locations: Coldwater Falls, Arkham, Massachusetts

Creatures: ghoul

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are called upon to research the strange psychology behind a man exhibiting canine behaviors.

 

The police of Coldwater Falls is desperate. They have been in touch with every sanatorium and hospital from New York to Boston and there’s not an empty bed to be found since the stock market crash last year. They’re full to brimming with suicidal businessmen and investors.

The police is holding a man in jail exhibiting some rather... extraordinary canine behaviors. The delusion is complete and total - he walks on all fours and he won’t speak a word. They say he even eats out of a bowl and refuses utensils! Not a shred of human behavior left in him.

The man was discovered with the shinbone of a missing local girl in his teeth. The small town demands justice for the murdered girl and the Investigators have to unravel the mystery of what lead to the poor girl's fate.

 

Edited April 18, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

DEAD LIGHT

Chaosium - 2013 - CoC7

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Setting: 1920s

Locations: Arkham, Massachusetts

Creatures: The Creature from Another World

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are on a road out of Arkham. A remote area with heavy woodland and infrequent habitation. Rain is pouring down, the road turning to mud, and visibility growing progressively worse. Needing a place to rest for the night, they are looking for shelter, and almost run a dishevelled and bewildered woman down. Finally they take refuge at a roadside diner and a petrol station / garage out in the back of beyond. The investigators have to spend a nasty night in nasty weather. But there is something unknowable lurking that leaves a bloody trail at the diner. A threat revealing itself as it comes hunting for those trapped by the storm. And it leaves the investigators to uncover what is really going on.

 

Two hours ago, an unworldly entity was released by accident during a robbery from its prison in a metal case. This entity is of non-terrestrial matter, composed of a dense fluid. It radiates cold light but is highly sensitive to sunlight itself. Its sight sickens, attracts and paralyses anybody who looks on it. It is hungry and it is a carrion-feeder that consumes the energy of life and the echoes of consciousness. And this diner is its new hunting ground.

Loneliness, claustrophobia, powerlessness and death await the investigators.

It's a 'The Colour Out of Space'-like story, but it is far more 'King' than 'Lovecraft'.

And it reminds me of the great scenarios 'Begraben', 2012 and 'MorgenGrauen', 2010.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

LAST RITES OF THE BLACK GUARD

12 to Midnight / Savage Worlds - 2003 / 2009 - NON CoC

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Setting: Now

Locations: Pinebox, Texas; but any small town or village will do

Creatures: Ghost

SYNOPSIS:

It begins with a plea from a desperate mother. "Please help me. My family is being haunted. I have nowhere else to turn." The family - the tired single mother, a scared and worn girl, and a detached boy - is being plagued by paranormal activites (ectoplasmic manifestations, strange voices, mysterious manifestations and unfriendly communications etc. pp.) and the situation is pretty bad. The family can not move out, cause the terrifying haunting is following them. So the investigators have to examine the origins of the poltergeist-phenomenon by spending a night in the house. And soon they learn what they're up against and that this evil lurks in the house next door.

 

This hostile haunting comes from the neighbor's house, where an evil and sadistic Nazi doctor (but any insane occultist will do fine) lived and recently died. Now the investigators have to deal with living and dead opponents alike. The doctor was a highly respected person of the community, who built up a cabal among the local authorities to continue his work. They also learn that he conjured, mastered and bound ghosts to himself in order to reach immortality. When he died, the bound ghosts were free to roam the neighborhood, while his occult disciples have their own plans for it all.

'The Haunting' meets 'Music from a Darkened Room' RECOMMENDED

Edited June 27, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

BLOODLINES

12 to Midnight / Savage Worlds - 2004 - NON CoC

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Setting: Now

Locations: Pinebox, Texas; but any small town or village will do

Creatures: Ghost

SYNOPSIS:

There's gold buried in these hills... or at least, that's the local folklore. The investigators join a treasure hunt where people use GPS to locate hidden items. But this time these hidden items are treasures of old. Cult objects, hidden a long time ago from the grasp of its cultist. One of the investigators is, unaware, the last remaining descendant of the man who hid these items from the eyes of the world. And now the investigators are lured back to the scene of a century-old crime.

 

In the late 1800s, a rancher led a posse to recover a kidnapped child and discovered a blasphemous cult. Stopping the ritual, he recovered their dark artifacts and hid them, leaving them safe from everyone but his descendants. The cult struck at the rancher's son after his death, enchanting him against his will to search for a book of magic and a mysterious red lens. But he failed. The objects are still in the lair where they were hidden and the cultists lead the investigators toward the hidden artifacts. Once they find them, things get complicated. The investigators are accused of murder and kidnapping and thrown into jail, where they first learn of the conspiracy. If all goes well, they manage to stop a ritual that would have let a horror from another plane into the world and, later, stop the vengeful ghost of a long-dead cultist from escaping with the artifacts again.

 

Edited May 25, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

OUT OF TIME

Pelgrane Press - 2011 - Trail of Cthulhu 1

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Not So Quiet

Setting: 1917

Lrocations: Great War, Western Front, behind the Allied lines

Creatures:

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are either members of a field hospital staff or bruised and bloody soldiers, wounded during the Great War at the frontline. They are on an infernal and sapping journey in an ambulance convoy on its way to the Military Hospital No.5 in war-torn France, not far behind the Allied lines. Here they get a taste of the horrors around them, and they notice that their position behind the front lines is by no means secure. The hospital is big and busy. Many nurses, many doctors, all around. Screaming and moaning wounded everywhere. The patients are assigned to their wards to rest and the medical personnel is sent to work. It is no longer quiet on the Western Front. An ancient horror is stirring and something dark walks the halls of the hospital.

 

In the days to come, it becomes apparent that not all is well at this hospital. The wards are ruled by a fierce head nurse. The Military Police is always present. The weary, dazed and tired staff make their rounds. The doctors experiment after dark with electro-shock therapy, that seems to be more than a cruel therapy. The gaunt nurses give unlabelled and unknown drugs. Mortality rates among the patients are high, even amongst those that would otherwise appear to be on the road to recovery. Something is wrong and the investigators sense a brooding malevolence hanging over this hospital. They discover that a secretive cult works to escape the horrors of war and learn that there are worse things in life than a bullet wound. They must overcome forces beyond human comprehension to save the pitiful few they can.

The scenario includes pre-gens. And it is suitable for vets only. Difficulty: A great deal of this scenario depends upon character interaction with the various medical personnel and injured soldiers in the hospital, and the GM will be running single scenes to a great extent.

 

The Black Drop

Setting: 1930s

Locations: Southern Indian Ocean

Creatures:

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators travel aboard a freighter bound for the isolated and inhospitable Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands. The French government has decided to shut down its failed colony - only a few dozen sheep-raising settlers. The passengers of the ship are either to aid in the colony's closure or to take advantage of this very last opportunity to visit the islands to undertake some scientific studies. The windswept and almost sub-Antarctic islands are one of the most remote places on Earth; a place of overwhelming physical and psychological isolation.

There are rumors that the Kerguelens were once part of an ancient continent - a place of advanced learning and magic - Lemuria; and they are also a known site from which the Transit of Venus can be viewed. There are also suggestions of a potential deep water anchorage for use in the forthcoming conflict that everyone fears. When the crew of the freighter picks up German radio traffic, the question is, who else has an interest in the Kerguelens and the mysteries of this barren wasteland?

 

A vessel with a German crew - including an SS officer - has arrived at the island. Something ancient stirs beneath the remote Kerguelen archipela - something unwholesome and hungry - something that slowly gathers strength beneath the frozen basalt - something monstrous that was once worshipped and then betrayed - something that uses its powers to lure some of the French settlers into offering blood sacrifices to it to help it escape - a terrible god from the antediluvian past. It’s time has come again, and mysterious forces gather.

The Germans are there to prevent the God of the Black Stone from being freed and to save the world (surprise). All of them have come willingly, and all but one of those participating in the ceremony to contain the dark god die or go mad. As events transpire, the Germans suddenly find themselves two men short of the absolutely necessary minimum to perform their ritual, and desperately need to find replacements in order to succeed.

The investigators find out that they have only days or even hours to do what needs to be done, with no outside help to be counted on. And it is unavoidable that one or more investigators have to volunteer and sacrifice themselves for the good of the world.

Purist scenario - highly atmospheric - MUST PLAY

The Kerguelen Islands are mentioned by Edgar Allan Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket; 1838), Jules Verne (An Antarctic Mystery; 1897) and Charles Romyn Dake (A Strange Discovery; 1899).

The scenario includes pre-gens. And it is suitable for vets only.

 

The Big Hoodoo

Setting: 1952

Locations: Pasadena; Mojave Desert; the mountains of southern California; the beaches of Los Angeles

Creatures:

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are iconic figures active in the science fiction scene and examine the explosive death of the rocket and chemical engineer 'Jack' Marvel Whiteside Parsons in his home laboratory. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He also was an occultist of the Thelemite Ordo Templi Orientis. And he conducted the Babalon Working, a series of rituals designed to invoke the Thelemic goddess Babalon to Earth. The police rules Parsons' death an accident, but many associates suspect suicide or assassination.

 

The investigators meet a number of eccentric individuals with interesting agendas. The stories of rocketships and rayguns are coming to life before their eyes. Eventually they find themselves caught in a charlatan's web of chicanery and mendacity, and end up attempting to thwart a highly dangerous plot that involves rockets, honey and black magic, carried out at the diabolical direction of someone who is definitely L. Ron Hubbard.

The scenario includes pre-gens. Typical one-shot. And a ripped-from-history plot.

 

Castle Bravo

Setting: March 1954

Locations: an aircraft carrier, Bikini Atoll atomic tests area in the Pacific

Creatuares: Great Race of Yith

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are members of a top-secret military unit, soldiers and scientists deployed aboard the USS Bairoko, an escort Navy aircraft carrier, in the South Pacific as part of the Joint Task Force One to participate in a series of secret thermonuclear test shots in the Bikini atoll called Operation Castle. After the first detonation, they will have more than just radiation to fear.

 

There are Things Man Is Not Meant To Bomb. The previous atomic detonations and the intense amounts of energy unleashed drew unwanted attention from something beyond and the follow-up test doesn't go as smoothly as those in command planned. Now the investigators have to struggle against the anomalies unleashed and are dragged into a mad play of temporal distortions, quantum mechanics, and personal transmutations.

The scenario includes pre-gens. Typical one-shot.

The scenario is similar to Lovecraft's story 'Shadow out of Time'.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

DAY OF THE WORM

Amazing Adventures

Troll Lord Games - 2012 - NON CoC

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SYNOPSIS:

The Thule Society, a dark Nazi cult dedicated to furthering the esoteric knowledge that fuels the ever growing Third Reich, may have acquired the ancient Heart of Yhtill and all the power it promises. Worse still, they appear to have partnered with malevolent aliens known as the People of the Worm, who seek to ensure that World War II devastates the entire planet, leaving humankind ripe for conquest and consumption have come seeking the Heart as well. The investigators, working with the Allied forces, and alongside fanatical Ormazd Society allies, find themselves in a race against time to stop the People of the Worm from unleashing the doomsday device from within a hidden tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. If only the Nazis and the People of the Worm were their only worries: there is another, equally mysterious force who want the Heart of Yhtill for their own alien agenda.

Science, sorcery, pugilistic pummeling, gun-toting, sword-wielding, B17-flying, gadget carrying adventure! Whether in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's or modern.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

LEGS

Skype of Cthulhu / online - 2013 - CoC6

MODERN

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Setting: Now

Locations: Chicago, Cinema, Hotel

Creatuares: Leng Spider, Atlach-Nacha

http://www.worldtravelerjim.com/soc/books/Legs.pdf

 

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators have come to Chicago, Illinois, to attend a three-day convention in celebration of their favorite weird-fiction author. After two full days of a fun and exciting convention, the investigators will attend the screening of a highly-anticipated fan film called - Legs - but what has been a harmless and enjoyable weekend getaway quickly turns into a terrifying race to survive.

 

The production assistant of a film crew making a documentary on a rare species of spiders discovered an ancient temple of the Spider God Atlach-Nacha in South America, where he gained eldritch knowledge on how to draw sacrifices through the veil from the waking world and into the Dreamlands where the god waits to devour them.

Being involved in film, and already holding dreams of making his own films, he decided to make a gory horror B-movie about a group of people in South America who are attacked and killed by a giant spider.

 

The scenario includes pre-gens.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

RISE OF THE RED GOD

Amazing Adventures

Troll Lord Games - 2014 - NON CoC

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SYNOPSIS:

Tens of thousands of years before our time, in the mythic Thurian Age, the cult of the Red God, the Blood Imperator, spread across the world like a plague, its legions more powerful than the Aztecs and more cultured than the Mayans. Now, so many eons later, a temple has been unearthed deep in the jungle - a temple built by a lost civilization and dedicated to this long-forgotten god.

Is it possible that the Red God itself still sits at the heart of the temple, now decrepit, crumbling, and suffering from thousands of years of neglect? What secrets of ancient knowledge still reside within, undiscovered and little-touched by the millennia that have quietly passed it by? What treasures may still be hidden behind the stones and beneath the altars of the place? Perhaps even the very bible of the cult itself, an unprecedented find of historical significance! There's only one way to find out.

An intrepid group of investigators are hired to investigate strange goings-on in this old temple. When they encounter and stop an ancient evil from rising within, they think the danger has passed. But this encounter with the ancient and alien Red God Ornduhl is only the beginning, as a cult arises with a single goal. To bring about the end of the world as we know it and usher in the age of the Blood Imperator. Now, these same heroes are all that stand between civilization as we know it, and a crimson tide of bloodshed, chaos, and destruction.

Hard-boiled detectives, fedora-wearing action heroes, and Steampunk gadgeteers rocketing to battle with their jet packs against bloodthirsty Thule cultists of the Third Reich.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

THREE KINGS

Acthung Cthulhu / Modiphius / Savage Worlds - 2012 - CoC6

WW2

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Setting: Summer 1939

Locations: Czechoslovakia, Castle Karlstein

Creatuares: Ungeziefer Zombie, Shoggoth

 

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are operatives of Section D, a branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service, who operate in Czechoslovakia to delve into the mysterious goings on at Castle Karlstein located 25 miles outside of Prague.

As in most tales of terror, what the investigators think is the reasoning for their assignment of establishing contact with the trio of resistance leaders - known as the Three Kings - will soon take a backseat to the horrific goings on of an evil mad doctor.

There are three alternate openings to the adventure, one of which casts the investigators as academics at the University of Prague, one with the investigators slipping into the country as spies and one with them parachuting in.

 

The investigators are undercover and not in military uniforms and they are each provided with cyanide capsules in case of capture.

They have to contact Czech resistance fighters and a priest - codename Angel - who has informations about Nazi atrocities in this region. A mad and evil scientist at castle Karlstein makes nightmarish experiments on prisoners. His aim is to create an army of undying soldiers. But his results are only monstrous parodies of life, animated corpses left over from the Gray Binding and Black Binding rituals.

The investigators have to overthrow a nightmare alliance of science and the occult.

The priest himself thinks of being on a divine mission. But he has not the Bible in mind. He is only interested in an ancient tome, known as the 'Shadows of the Eternal Dark'. He has stolen the book from the scientist and discovered an additional spell. He believes this will summon a divine force to do his bidding and rid the country of its occupiers.

It's a bit of a 'Herbert West - Reanimator'-like story.

It's a very combat oriented, Nazi-bashing, pulp scenario that lacks the known scary Lovecraft horror feeling.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

HEROES OF THE SEA

Acthung Cthulhu / Modiphius / Savage Worlds - 2012 - CoC6

WW2

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Setting: Summer 1940

Locations: Dunkirk, Dreamlands, Stone Age, U-Boat

Creatuares: Deep One, Zoog

 

SYNOPSIS:

Again the investigators are operatives of Section D, a branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service. They are sent on a seemingly traditional espionage mission only to find themselves not only caught in the midst of the carnage of the Battle the Dunkirk and the following evacuation but in a diabolical Mythos plot as well. A sinister conspiracy threatens the lives of the retreating Allied forces. A female undercover agent - Codename Wotan - has gone missing shortly after uncovering a secret German project. There are all kinds of random encounters, including booby traps, troops on sinking ships, dive bombers, criminal activity and many more.

There are two alternate openings to the adventure, one of which casts the investigators as archaelogists and one with the investigators as German agents. There are also three likely outcomes included, one of which is a colossal failure for the investigators, one of which is a straight up victory, and a poetic one.

 

A Nazi occult expert tries to form a deadly alliance with an inhuman power he discovered in the deep of the north sea. Using an u-boat the Nazis aim to retrieve a hideous statue of a ghastly marine deity from a sunken temple, and transport it to a location south of Dunkirk, where they will perform a ritual to cause the sea to rise, to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of allied troops on the beaches at Dunkirk as a sacrificial offering to the dwellers beneath the sea, sealing with blood an unholy alliance between the deep ones and the nascent occult powerbase within the Third Reich.

The scenario includes pre-gens.

It's a combat oriented, two fisted wartime, pulp scenario with some Lovecraft horror feeling.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

FEARFUL PASSAGES

Chaosium - 1992 - CoC5

CLASSIC 1920s

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Nine terrifying journeys on various continents in the 1920s, when travel could be by turns long, arduous, luxurious, and debilitating, but always full of incident and meaning.

Aircraft * Trains * Automobiles * Dirigibles * Diving Suits * Canal Boats * Armored Cars * Elephants * Siberian Sledges.

The golden age of travel occurred between 1880-1939. As traveling times shrank, destination became more important than journey, a notion now so common-sensical that we blink to think that the reverse was once truer.

 

Fear of Flying

Setting: 1920s

Locations: The plane, airfield

Creatures: Serpent Men

SYNOPSIS:

An ordinary, if Spartan, long-distance flight proves eventful in more ways than one. Mechanical complications are not the only perils besetting the unwary passengers.

 

The investigators face a series of setbacks on their flight, largely independent from one another. The flight occurs in a number of stages, with rest stops in between. The other passengers are a peculiar bunch, including conspiring businessmen, an eccentric publicity-loving film star, and a disguised serpent man. The last is the source of most of the plot.

A flock of birds fly into the plane, and injuring crew and causing damage that must be repaired immediately; investigators are dragged in to keep the plane flying until it can land safely.

The serpent man, after devouring a dog in the night, accidentally enters an investigator's room rather than his own. Depending how events play out, the investigator may be hypnotised, attacked, or remain ignorant until morning reveals a bloody doorknob and muddy footprints.

When a photographer takes a photo of the group, the serpent man subtly poisons him to get a chance to destroy the evidence.

Finally, an accident in flight breaks the serpent man's disguise, causing pandemonium. Depending on how the passengers react, he will either negotiate a safe departure from the vehicle, or fight to the death.

The eventful journey is likely to attract media attention - particularly given the prominence of some passengers - and this can may well affect an ongoing investigation. Any surviving passengers may also become useful contacts, allies or even player characters.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED with the scenario of the same name in White Dwarf #72

 

The Iron Ghost

Setting: 1920s

Locations: The Train That Ever Was

Creatures: Spectral Traveller, Vapor Mask, Prowler on the Threshold, Driver-Thing

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators board an ordinary-seeming train, and learn that evil extends beyond every boundary of time and space.

An overnight journey on a sleeper train is accompanied by strange hallucinations. As the journey continues, their situation becomes ever more sinister, and their surroundings ever more peculiar. Can they solve the mystery of the train, and avoid the appalling fate planned for them?

 

The train the investigators enter is actually a trap, a living spectral vehicle that prowls the multiverse, collecting victims to feed the endless hunger of the demon sultan Azathoth. The visions the investigators see are attempts at warning by the remnant souls of previous sacrifices. The train itself is part of a multidimensional entity that stretches throughout space and time, perpetually harvesting human fodder. The human-seeming train staff are actually Mythos beings in rough human guise, and try to keep passengers just contented enough to avoid trouble. They discourage investigation, to the point of rudeness, so investigators must judge how much trouble to cause and just how worrying their situation is at any point. Investigators find their sleep troubled, as sinister faces carved into the cabin drain their magic points to power the train, and they dream of hideous beings. The doors between carriages are kept locked, the staff surly, and new carriages appear behind them without the train stopping to collect them. They encounter a misplaced traveller from the First World War, raising suspicions further, and may glimpse the conductor's ability to cross between times. Exploring the train, they discover it is some kind of living entity, and may discover other cars linked to other times, or the horrific corpse-car where the remnants of previous victims are hung to feed the inhuman conductors.

Unless the investigators escape, they will either be drained to husks by the train, or devoured by the conductors. Jumping to the endless plains outside will strand them, with no option but to board another of the train's incarnations or be devoured by predators. The only way to return to their own reality is to destroy the train’s monstrous driver and shut down the engine.

 

Furious Driving

Setting: 1920s

Locations: Putney estate, New York's Gasoline Alley

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators encounter Rupert Putney when he nearly kills them in a driving accident. Shortly afterwards, he contacts them with a request to track down a missing man, his brother Rodney. They are invited to the Putney estate and encounter his remaining family and learn that blood is thicker than oil, but no less combustible and discover a web of deceit, madness and self-destruction.

 

In truth, the photograph he offers is not of his brother. His real twin brother is a twisted thing that nests in the attic. Putney's sanity is too fragile to deal with the real situation. Instead, he sends them on the trail of his old friend and ex-mechanic, Flynn, deluding himself that Flynn really is his brother and that somehow things will return to the way they were. The Putney family will all strive to conceal Rodney's existence, for their own reasons. Old Putney is a deeply evil man responsible for most of the family misfortunes, driving his relatives to self-destruction. If he learns of the investigation, he will try to hamper them with a mixture of truths and lies, and ask them to simply pretend they are looking for Rodney. The investigators must decide whether to help Rupert or comply with the old man. Neglecting the investigation will eventually lead to the family's deaths. If they openly decline to investigate, Rupert contacts them regularly, in deteriorating condition, until his death. Tracking down the mechanic is difficult, as he is a petty criminal and suspects the investigators of trying to arrest him. A chase or some detective work is needed to get hold of him and persuade him to cooperate. The investigators may get a chance to learn Rodney's true nature - a deeply misshapen Siamese twin of Rupert, somehow kept alive by old Putney. On return to the Putney house, the investigators are asked to stay and watch "the show", which turns out to be a car mysteriously driving itself. The driver, of course, is the diminutive Rodney, who chooses that night to try and kill his family and claim the inheritance his father and his own madness convinced him he has been cheated of.

 

Rigid Air

Setting: 1920s

Locations: Nelson, British Colombia; Seattle; aboard the Terra Nova (possibly)

Creatures: Dho-Spawn, dho-spawn puppets

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators travel by dirigible, and encounter a passenger whose motive is far beyond getting from here to there. They are named as executors in the will of Robert Douglas, a friend of past years who drifted out of contact after a botched Arctic voyage. He died in British Colombia in a wilderness accident, but his wife is suspicious of the circumstances and asks the investigators to look into the case. They soon discover a trail of death haunting that fateful expedition.

 

One of the investigators is contacted by a Canadian solicitor. He is named as executor of the estate of Robert Douglas, whose body was found by a glacial lake, dead from a fall or by drowning. Douglas had known the investigators in earlier years, but drifted out of old friendships in late 1921 after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Magnetic Pole by air.

In truth, the dirigible Bellinghausen successfully reached the North Magnetic Pole, but reported a failure to the world. Their real purpose in the expedition was not to perform research, as claimed, but to open a dimensional gate. Rather than the expected dramatic intrusion from inhuman beings, only a strange crystal emerged. It was concealed by the disappointed occultists and largely forgotten. Over time, though, it grew into a monstrous dho-spawn and mentally enslaved the expedition, Sheridan Moore. It has gradually manipulated him to bring it to each of the remaining expedition members, enslaving them also. Now it uses Moore's airship, renamed the Terra Nova, to prowl through the Americas as it tracks down the last of those present at its emergence: the unfortunate hired crewmen.

The investigators must track down the last of the crew, Chester Whittle, then seek out and destroy the airship to end its threat. If they don't, the dho-spawn will kill Whittle too, then return through the dimensional gate with its stolen knowledge. There is no way to save the enslaved officers; they are now bound to the creature, and will die if its psychic tendrils are withdrawn. The un-parasitised Captain Moore, whose Mythos scheming started all the trouble, offers a useful potential plot hook for further adventures.

 

Crash Dive

Setting: 1920s

Locations: Cider Lake, Oregon

SYNOPSIS:

A letter from a shady antique-dealing acquaintance tips off the investigators that a valuable artefact is on the market, but they soon find that obtaining it will call for more than money. They'll need to get their hands dirty - or at least damp.

 

The investigators receive a letter from an acqaintance, a dubious fence with an taste for occult artefacts. He puts them on the trail of an interesting find, but it turns out to have vanished into a frozen lake during a tragic plane crash. They can easily get permission to search the site and retrieve the artefact for themselves. They must obtain diving equipment and learn to use it, though. The farmer nearby has a damaged suit discarded by the group who retrieved the pilot's body, but they would be wise to head off for proper training and hire decent equipment. Once on the dive, they face the dangers of pressure, cold and accidents as they search for the artefact. A drunken boat pilot endangers the divers, and leaves the dive guide injured and unconscious.

 

Slow Boat

Setting: 1920s

Locations: London, the Northamptonshire waterways, possibly Oxford, possibly Banbury, the future

Creatures: Liches (Zombie), reptilian humanoid thing

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are summoned by a millionaire, concerned about his missing daughter, who disappeared shortly after discovering a mummified corpse. Suspicion rests on her paramour, a professional psychic, but the truth is far stranger.

 

In a terrible distant future, two necromancers pass the time experimenting with ancient grimoires. In one such experiment, Thathmuor created a vortex opening the way between his time and a 20th century canal tunnel, sending undead servants through to investigate. The undead collapsed on arrival, but the occultist Raven and the missing Aline blundered into the gateway and were dragged into the future, to be captured. The necromancer plans to experiment on turning them into liches and sending them back to their time, wondering if they will be able to withstand the journey better. Raven, however, knows more of the supernatural than acquaintances may believe, and played on his occult knowledge to bluff the necromancer, and eventually struck a bargain to exchange Aline for some of his supposed acolytes. Raven was sent back with an artefact that will reopen the gate, and now hopes to find suitable dupes to sacrifice. Not only does he want to rescue Aline, but he is under suspicion of her murder after the disappearance. With all his former investigative associates long dead or insane from their experiences, he's desperate. Luckily, at this point Aline's father sends the Investigators to talk to him.

Raven is very willing to offer the Investigators room on his boat, and to show them both the canals and the mummy they discovered, now in a museum in Oxford. He will try to persuade the Investigators to come with him to the tunnel where he says Aline vanished, hoping to keep them in the dark about the true events so he retains control of the situation. If unsuccessful, more corpses will be discovered; he will eventually come to them and spill the beans, hoping they can defeat the necromancer together and save Aline. If the Investigators are deceived, or persuaded to help, they will enter the gate and encounter a nightmarish dying landscape full of undead slaves. Confronting the necromancer, they will probably be captured. However, Raven has laid plans for a magical distraction, helping the rival necromancer breach Thathmuor's tower and begin a battle that allows them to escape. Aline is already undead, and begs them to give her a peaceful end. With luck, though, they can escape back to their own time.

 

Armored Angels

Setting: 1920s

Locations: Kirkuk, Iraq

Creatures: Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, Mi-Go, enslaved

SYNOPSIS:

The Investigators are summoned to troubled Iraq, where a scholar has requested their advice on an archaeological dig. They will be grateful for the British Army's presence before their adventures are over.

 

An RAF officer appears with a message from the British government, summoning the investigators to immediately travel to Iraq and providing the necessary transport. He also presents a letter from one Professor Powell, which hails them as Mythos experts and asks their immediate assistance.

Arriving in Iraq, they find that Powell's party has been missing for several days. A scout plane observed peculiar activity at their last known location - odd plant matter, strange noises and other oddness. His remaining notes describe a temple and its vanished cult at the site. In fact, Powell realised the temple's purpose, opened a Gate to Yuggoth. A dark young prevented them from travelling through, but not the mi-go who have seized the site, extracted the humans' brains, and wired them as control devices to their own armaments to defend the site from further meddling.The local British military commander will send out a patrol, with or without the investigators, to investigate. They suspect guerillas have attacked Powell's group and captured the site. He will send armoured cars and troops to seize control and free any survivors. If investigators do not go, the first patrol will be massacred.At the base, the group will be attacked by enslaved brains, which both control various weaponry, and attempt to telekinetically seize control of any abandoned vehicles. They will also have to content with six mi-go, a dark young, and a mi-go scientist. Their own party has heavy armament and air support to back them up. Once they defeat these adversaries, they can close the gate.

 

Along the Indus

Setting: 1920s

Locations: The Indus Valley in India (now in Pakistan)

Creatures: The Black Man

SYNOPSIS:

A formal request takes the investigators to a remote part of British India where they travel by elephant looking for the mysterious Black Man, whose sudden appearances and disappearances have spooked the local population, upsetting peasants, workers, and the province’s rulers. No explanation for the apparition is ever provided.

 

The Investigators are summoned by a British army commandant to travel across India to the remote city of Bakhtapur, on a 'terribly important matter'. They travel by train, escorted by an Indian youth.

The commandant, Major Singeon, reports sightings of a sinister jet-black figure that is terrifying the local populace, his presence apparently linked to horrible accidents and seen as an omen of doom. He is known as the Black Man. Local scholars of both Hindu and Muslim background can offer some insight from historical writings, each coloured by their own traditions. There is very little information available in town, only third- or fourth-hand gossip.

The journey requires a trip by elephant – walking is out of the question and the roads don’t allow any other mode of transport. An elder in Peerut dispenses some basic information about the Black Man, suggesting he’s an avatar of Vishnu signalling a change in the way of life – probably an end to British rule.

The Investigators can set out to hunt along the banks of the Indus, where they will glimpse the Black Man from afar but never manage to find him. When they finally (in their own time) head back across the river, the Black Man materialises and shifts each player’s consciousness into that of an animal. Some of the mahmouts (elephant-drivers) may also be affected, though the most devout retains control and begins urgent prayers as chaos erupts. The Black Man is seen no more after their encounter, gaining them prestige with the powerful, though peasants give them little personal credit.

 

Sleigh Ride

Setting: 1926

Locations: Siberia, USSR

Creatures: Troll (Dryopithecus), Chthonian

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators journey across Siberia in search of a lost race, and find human hearts colder even than the frozen wastes.

 

Certain Siberian tribes have long-standing bargains with hairy subterranean creatures to help them survive harsh winters; they consider them to be spirits or gods, and give them food in exchange for their help. In reality, the creatures have their own bargain with a powerful god, and must provide human sacrifices to placate it. The investigators will discover and eventually confront this being.

The investigators are friends with one Dr. Chance, a scientist, who invites them to join him on an expedition to find Dryopithecus giganteus, an enormous ape-like creature he believes to be the Yeti. Unlike most, he thinks the creature can be found most readily in Siberia. Investigators have a few weeks to prepare, study notes, research and learn some basic Yakut language. After a boat trip to Japan, they enter the USSR in the guise of mining engineers employed by an international company. Although the Investigators pass without suspicion, they are assigned a tail as a matter of course. They travel by train to Chita in Siberia; a one-week journey. From there they set out by sledge for Vitim.

Along the way, the group encounters a number of problems. There is an accident along the way, and prisoners are brought in to retrieve the sledge. There may be an attempted escape during the work. A little later, the party is overwhelmed by a savage blizzard, and trapped for three days: they begin to hallucinate, and risk wandering off to their deaths. After the blizzard clears, some may develop influenza, and be treated by a local wise woman, who also gives them an amulet. The following day, a sledge begins to sink through the ice, and may be lost or rescued depending on the party’s response. They will have the chance to chat with and befriend a colonel in the secret police, regardless of their political views. Finally, they face a bandit ambush and possible capture for ransom.

Eventually they reach a Yakut village, where they are welcomed. The elders will tell them something of their local lore, including the protector-spirit Tabba.

The investigators’ tail poisons the village dogs, to simplify his task of sneaking around to spy on them. The Yakut view the deaths as a bad omen. After a fierce argument, the villagers agree to let them stay providing they take part in the ceremony and provide gifts to appease Tabba. Once the ceremony is over, Chance and the party return to watch. During their vigil, a gigantic ape approaches to take the gifts, but another sneaks up on the party and kills Chance. The party must fight them off, possibly capturing or killing one in the process.

At this point the party may alienate the villagers if they display the body of their gods. If they leave the village for any reason, they are captured and interrogated by the tail, Borisovich, for anti-revolutionary activities. Whatever happens, they will be attacked and captured by a band of angry giganteus overnight, and taken away to their caves. Here they are kept prisoner for a few hours, with the villagers and many other locals, then herded out to a cave where they will be sacrificed to what turns out to be a cthonian. After some horrible deaths, the wise woman’s amulet will reach the cthonian one way or the other and explode in a burst of magic that stuns the creatures, allowing the party to escape.

From here, they must find a way to leave the USSR.

 

Edited July 25, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

THE HOUSE OF R'LYEH

Chaosium - 2013 - CoC6

CLASSIC 1920

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The Art of Madness

Setting: 1929s

Locations: Boston

Creatures: Ghoul

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are searching for two students and a teacher who are missing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

 

The missing artists have been kidnapped by Richard Upton Pickman, an artist of rare skill who became a little close to the Mythos models for his art, who now feels his art is unappreciated by the human society he was once part of. And he also feels that his style of art must live on in the surface world, and so he decides to open a school of arts inside the ghoul warren he is part of. He needs students, and so he begins to take a select few that show “potential” from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

It's a sequel to Lovecraft’s story 'Pickman’s Model', but the characterization of Pickman is completely off from the Lovecraft story, and also different from the Pickman in 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath'.

The introductory adventure Paper Chase appears in the Cthulhu Companion.

 

 

 

The Crystal of Chaos

The investigators journey to Providence, Rhode Island to retrieve a mystical artifact from the long ruined and possibly haunted Church of Starry Wisdom.

It's a sequel to Lovecraft’s story 'The Haunter of the Dark'.

 

The Return of the Hound

Edited August 6, 2015 by Der Läuterer

[Der Läuterer]

NO SECURITY

Hebanon Games online PDF-Version - 2012 - Systemless Horror Scenarios

MODERN

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Lover in the Ice

There are a lot of players that either are uncomfortable with sex being the focal point of an adventure and some that as soon as sex enters become exceptionally immature because they can’t handle the topic appropriately. This adventure should only be run with a group that is comfortable being uncomfortable.

Setting: January 2008

Locations: LaFountaine, Missouri

Creatures: Amante (impregnating Alien), Seeders (Succubus)

SYNOPSIS:

The investigators are captured during a massive ice storm in a mid-sized Missouri town. The wind and snow put the entire town out of commission and a huge chunk of the town is without power. Quite a few places have suffered damage from the crushing weight of the ice including a very unfortunate place that stored the slumbering remains of a strange South American creature whose entire body from the torso down is a giant phallus that it uses to rape, kill and impregnate its prey.

 

Those impregnated with these parasites by the creature become completely obsessed with sex and violence, merging the two into one in their now insane minds. This leads to some pretty messed up situations. The people killed by the Seekers impregnate the corpses via the parasite living inside them and the dead bodies become eggs of sorts for more of the original creature. The creature is trying to turn sorority girls into sadomasochistic nymphomaniacs and the adventure culminates with the creatures crashing a college dorm party in an attempt to turn all the teens into Seeders with uncontrollable appetites for sex and violence.

The entire adventure revolves around sexual perversions in the extreme. This rape/kill aspect and several of the encounters may create some serious problems at the table. It's definitely not for everyone to play, cause it is a disturbing and uncomfortable adventure.

This scenario will take a skilled GM and a mature group of players to keep this adventure’s tone serious, and to not stray into the juvenile. If the group can handle it, it will be a most memorable adventure.

Caution! Hot Button Issues!

Edited July 30, 2015 by Der Läuterer