Scenes of terror and trouble: Dreaming of Fire

A free RPG scenario

Suitable for Yellow Dawn & Call of Cthulhu

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Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur, first published in 2007,  is an RPG written by sci-fi & dark fantasy author David J Rodger – it blends the Cthulhu Mythos and cyberpunk genres in a post-apocalyptic setting. Learn more…

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The character awakes to find the immediate location on fire.  Their room is now an inferno.  Although this is a dream (sort of) the character should not suspect this at first.  Indeed, the choking, acrid smoke that claws at their lungs and the intense heat and furious crackling of burning walls and furniture, should seriously convince them this is real.

They will feel pain and fear.  If they die in the flames or as a result of leaping from a window (if they were high up) then they wake-up in a cold sweat, clutching their furiously beating chest. They must also make an Anxiety check or lose 1/1d3 COOL.  The following night – the dream will happen again.

Meanwhile, within the dream – they become aware of horrible screaming coming from a nearby room.   It sounds like a woman.

If they go to the room where the sound is coming from, the inferno seems to be more intense here.

Opening the door the character sees a room that does not correspond to what should be there.  Instead the room is a chamber of dark, smoke-stained stone with strange, unsettling symbols daubed onto the walls in a substance that looks like molten lava… the symbols burn and slither across the walls. However, the character’s attention will be rooted on the heavily robed figure of a woman kneeling on the floor within a set of asymmetrically interlocking circles; set on the floor before her is a blackened book, lying wide open with a jet of super-heated purple and dazzling bright pink flames blasting up from its pages and into her face.  The woman is shielding her face with her hands as if trying to stare through the Sun to read what is on those pages; however, it is obvious that whatever protection she has employed is failing and the fire is now beginning to consume her flesh.

As the character enters – the woman will snap her face away from the book and drop her hands to stare at them.  There is a look on her burned, melted features that is part-pleading and part-furious.  “Help me!” she shrieks, or maybe she said, “How dare you!”

The confusion should delay the character a moment. Meanwhile the hot blast of flame does not diminish and rolling clouds of yellow and orange fire come sweeping along the ceiling towards the character.

The book exudes an incredible aura of potent power; what secrets does it contain for the woman to risk such an agony to discover?

The character will certainly be taking substantial damage from the heat of the flames at this point.  They should make a decision: leave, save the woman or grab the book… a huge, churning plume of super-heated flame is now swirling downwards towards the floor where the woman and the book are situated; the character can only attempt to save one.

If the character rushes in they must roll 25 or more on 1d20+DEX or be consumed in an agonising flare of plasma.  They literally vaporise on the spot.  And then wake-up, screaming, shivering, layered in sweat. Make an Anxiety check or lose 1/1d6 COOL for this horrific end.  The next night the dream will happen again.

Penetrating the flames to seek the truth - image source unknown

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Saving the woman

She clings onto the character for dear life, gasping for breath through heat-seared airways, lungs gurgling as they fill up with fluid.  She is human but odd looking, like no race the character will have ever seen before – whorls and other tribal patterns have been tattooed onto her badly burned face.  Stepping out of the room the character should drag her outside, away from the fire that continues to rage through the building – although from this moment the flames no longer do any damage.  It’s as if some of her residual protection is having an effect.

Outside on the street there is nobody else around; nobody -in the dream – is taking any notice of the fire.

The woman looks around at what is obviously a very alien and unfamiliar world to her; she is certainly from a different time and place (in fact, a different dimension).  She is however, rapidly dying – strange colours pulse and glow through her veins, rising up to the surface of her charred skin to sparkle and evaporate.  During this she does not take her eyes from the character – she grips him tightly, lips quivering and muttering unknown words… but there seems to be a look of deep gratitude on what’s left of her face. Then she takes a final, agonising breath, her chest heaves up sharply, her body stiffens and then she disintegrates into dust.

GM NOTES:
The woman is (or was) a powerful sorcerer whose attempt to read the charred book led to her destruction. In her dying panic she created a blister of dream-reality that has randomly attached itself to the character.  By saving her from the fire, the GM is free to decide what rewards comes through but here are some suggestions:

• The ash from her disintegrating body drifts onto the character and dissolves into them. They either gain a bonus to their LUCK (guardian spirit) or increased POW, or perhaps a permanent bonus to certain skill checks.
• The ash from her body glitters in the dream-light – the character can grab handfuls of it as they begin to feel the dream ending.  When they awake the ash is still in their hands – heavy, hard and crunchy like grit.  It can be used for some magickal purpose.
• Some aspect of the woman’s dissipating energy seeps into the character – leaving them waking with a sense of her lingering on the peripheral of their conscious mind. She remains there – providing some kind of “superhero” ability, or maybe just guidance and advice (can be called upon once a day).
• DARK TWIST: the woman is furious that she was dragged away just before succeeding in the reading of the book. Her ash clings to the character like something hot, smothering and irritating. They awake to find themselves carrying a curse that affects LUCK and skill checks.

The dream does not recur now.

Saving the Book

The character staggers outside to find the world still asleep and nobody taking notice of the fire.  However, shadowy forms can be perceived on the fringes of the area – standing in street corners or in the middle of the road, watching from a vague distance…. they shimmer and shift, as if made of smoke, and seem somehow menacing.

The book – although badly burned, is still intact with layers of overlapping leather forming the binding, creating complex patterns; charred, the whole thing creaks like splintering wood when opened or closed.  There are words written on the pages but they’re in no language or script the character has ever seen and they appear to have lost their lustre – the ink now a leaden grey that gleams dully in the nocturnal lights.

Before the character can think of doing anything else they awaken – and find the charred book clutched in their hands.

What the book does and is capable of is down to the GM but here are some ideas:

• It’s a demonic text and contains secrets that reveal the route to heaven (or at least the inner most sanctum of Angelic beings who exist on the outermost rim of the Quantisphere.
• It contains some incredible +to Occult skill, or Mythos skill (or both), and likely contains potent operations to do with fire and plasma energy.  But the process of reading it requires a special operation in itself – and a ritual of fire.
• It is a book dedicated to the worship of Sol’indara (a new Great Old One from Yellow Dawn; however, Call of Cthulhu players can use Cthugha). The book contains a way of gaining control of Sol’indara (or Cthugha) and is protected by a powerful fire / heat energy being (or Fire Vampires).

Regardless of what function the book can perform, it carries a (sort of) curse with it – which is the souls of all the people that have ever died trying to read it.  These are the shadowy smoke-like figures who linger on the borders of awareness. How they affect the character going forward is up to the GM; they could be a subtle presence that only appears at certain times – or they can be a perpetual distraction, bringing a smell of burning flesh and fabric, and a dry, rasping chorus of whispering, stopping the character from getting proper sleep without alcohol or drugs and ultimately leading to madness – until the character attempts to read the book (going through ordeal of fire) and dies or succeeds… in which case all  those souls will be released.

The dream does not recur now.

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Sample Rules for fire and infernos

FIRE STARTS

This can be through arson, or an incendiary device or explosion, etc. At this point the fire has small flames licking other surfaces and a small amount of smoke.

•     Putting out the fire at this point: Needs 1d6 ‘blasts’
•     Risk of spreading: Every round the GM should roll a 1d20. On a ‘20’ the fire abruptly erupts into a lethal inferno.

FIRE BECOMES AN INFERNO
The room / corridor has burst into flames. It is now filled with choking smoke and intense heat. This inferno is pushing in all directions and will begin to spread through the building unless defeated whilst still within this confined space.

•     Putting the fire out at this point: needs 2d6 ‘blasts’
•     Risk of spreading: Every round the GM should roll a 1d20. On a ‘20’ the surrounding area becomes engulfed within the inferno (equivalent to 1 BS space).

The GM should keep rolling 1d20 every round. The next time he rolls ‘20 the surrounding 1 BS (in each direction) become engulfed by the inferno; the next time it is the surrounding 6 BS (in each direction), then 36 BS, then 216 BS, eventually the whole building will be an inferno.

MOVING THROUGH AN INFERO
Once an inferno takes hold the layout of a building, corridor, even a room can change dramatically. Gouts of fire, burning furniture, collapsing structures, all make movement very dangerous, and slower.
To move through a part of a building caught by the inferno (equivalent to 1 BS point), each character or group must roll 1d6 per round. They can only escape that section of building when they roll ‘5’or ‘6’. Each round they fail to roll ‘5’or ‘6’ they are dealing with the consequences of fire changing the terrain, and, they’re suffering damage.
Burn Damage: each combat round spent within an inferno delivers 1 hit-point ‘burn damage’ to one body location. If any clothed-location suffers 4 or more burn damage then those clothes burst into flames, delivering an automatic 1 hit-point burn damage per round.
 Smoke Inhalation: each combat round spent within an inferno the character must roll 25+ on 1d20+CON or face a 20% chance of collapsing unconscious, overwhelmed by the smoke. This includes the act of staying near the floor.
Some things a character can do to avoid smoke inhalation is a) hold their breath, or b) hold a wet rag over face, provides +5 to the 1d20+CON roll for the next 10 rounds.

- Excerpt from primary rulebook of Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur (version 2.5)

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David J Rodger – DATA

Occult or Cthulhu Mythos Relic: The Clay Woman

The Clay Woman

Part of a collection of objects made by non-human hands or forged in the minds of maniacs; items of power for good, bad or disaster. Written to be used within the world of Yellow Dawn (RPG) but could easily be adapted to Call of Cthulhu, D&D and Shadowrun.   They span both the Occult (Quantispheric) and Mythos (the Outer Chaos, from Beyond the Void).

Blaine Sheppard is not the man you think he is

Blaine Sheppard is a mediocre painter who has captured the imagination of wealthy art collectors with a taste for the macabre. His paintings depict the high-paying clients in scenes of bloody violence. Although crude and brutally graphic, his work has created a sensation within a privileged niche of people who are hungry to spend money on things that satisfy their narcissism and their own self-importance: what better than to have a larger than life painting of themselves, alive in the grip of a gruesome end – a permanent embodiment of the concept of eternal existence against the darkness of death.  The primary reason for this wildfire of spreading reputation is the persuasive words of the enigmatic art-agent Elan Path Troy: somebody who appears who have the ear of many who talk about him, and his suggestive opinions on what makes a good investment, and yet, somebody who nobody seems to have actually ever met.

With every painting is a launch party; no press, just a small circle of invited special guests – bringing further notoriety and a sense of exclusivity to Blaine’s work.

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Blaine is a thin, scrawny character who lives on adrenaline and the pleasures of life. Once of a high-society background his family cut him off after his pursuit of an artistic career seemed to be nothing more than an excuse to travel to far-flung corners of the world.  Many of the places he visited have unsavoury reputations and his visits seemed to leave ripples, rumours of  unpleasant behaviour and bribes paid to corrupt officials to hush certain scandals; drugs and violence were common themes of these mutterings.  It cost the Sheppard family to support Blaine during this phase; eventually they cut off his funds and turned their backs on him.

One story that should be picked up by any investigating characters is that Blaine became obsessed with an ugly and repellent object of sexual design and odious purpose.

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Blaine then re-appeared amongst a respectable area – purchasing a large suburban house with small grounds, several outbuildings and an old vaulted cellar.  The purchase was actually made through his agent, Elan Path Troy.  Setting himself up as an artist in-situ it didn’t take long for his work to start getting the notice he craved.

A suitably decadent lifestyle has since followed.

And then Blaine is found murdered.  A large metal spike has been slammed through his torso from the back, pinning his front to the wall of his house (external).  His head has been twisted around 180 degrees – his neck snapped and rubbery, and in some weird way, it’s almost as if the lolling head – with its open staring eyes – has been able to gaze down at the rear of the large spike.

The murder makes the news.

What doesn’t make the news – at first, is the fact that the murder is a duplicate of the self-portrait Blaine made of himself 13 months earlier. This fact is picked up by the group of people who’ve bought into the “Blaine cult” – now a closed group, and is discussed fervently over cocktails.

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The property falls into the hands of the actual owner, Elan Path Troy; some contractors arrive to tidy up the damage to the external wall and fit new locks, but the house is left seemingly deserted. Although neighbours – if asked – will state that somebody must be living there due to fleeting glimpses of a solitary light in various rooms at various times of night.

Three weeks later. Maximo Vinson is found hanging from a reinforced steel i-beam in the roof of his loft apartment; his belly sliced open with loops of entrails callously slung around his neck and shoulders – it appears it took him a long time to die; the facial features are the most shocking aspect because it seems as if there full cognisance and horror of what was happening to the victim.  This time the police and media take note because the painting hanging on the opposite wall is by Blaine Sheppard (deceased) and is almost an exact duplicate of the crime scene.

An evening of cocktails is hastily arranged by Markus Renteria – who is keen to discuss this event, and the fact he knows his friend was approached by – somebody – only the day before he died. Renteria knows this because Maximo Vinson rang him later that day to relate the strange incident: “The man approached me in the street, right outside my door – it was as if he’d been waiting there all night. He was wearing a black suit, but it was strange… like the suit was incredibly old, sort of Victorian but without the dust and mold.  The guy had a really weird face but the mad thing is I can’t actually recall what he looked like, just that he had these intense staring eyes and long tanned hands that were holding this piece of paper – like parchment. In his other hand had been a long silver pin.

Renteria tells his friends that according to Maximo Vinson the strange man had made an eerie warning; not a threat so-to-speak, but a gently murmured claim that death was waiting to take him down to the deepest and most terrible circles of [GM note: some word that is virtually unpronounceable].  If willing to prick his finger and smear blood on the parchment, the stranger promised he could ensure Maximo would not only avoid this fate – but that his future would be blessed by seven sinful pleasures.  The cocktails are consumed with much mirth and concealed apprehension.

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Of note, Renteria did not tell the police this story – mainly because he didn’t want any scandal or ill-thoughts of his friend.  The story was rather strange.

Two days later, Rhett Montanez rings Markus Renteria in a fit of raving panic. It’s not long past noon and he’s just left his office workplace for an early lunch; and been approached by a man in an old-fashioned black suit – sort of like velvet, or something. And offering the same deal as Maximo Vinson recounted.

Rhett Montanez is confused and terrified. He physically recoiled from the stranger and ran – believing he was in mortal danger of being murdered on the street.  Do they call the police?  Markus Renteria says categorically no – what if the police learn he withheld information about the man… Markus doesn’t want any whiff of trouble.  Markus asks Rhett to describe the murderer… and Rhett realises he’s unable to do so.

Markus Renteria tells Rhett to take a photo of the man if he sees him again.

Rhett babbles about the painting by Blaine Sheppard – “I’m chopped to pieces. Every bit of me in chunks of meat and gristle. And the slabs of my head are arranged, with the eyeballs neatly placed side-by-side as if I’m still conscious and able to observe what’s happened to me.”

Markus Renteria tells Rhett to calm down; take a sedative, wash it down with some 40 year old whiskey. I’ll call the others.  Go home and don’t go anywhere.

Markus Renteria rings several of the other people from the cocktail group – fellow owners of artwork by Blaine Sheppard.  It’s agreed that nobody should tell the police – and that maybe somebody should go round to keep an eye on Rhett that night; only, everyone who is on the call is too busy  that night… tomorrow, Hosea Mulligan, he can make tomorrow.

The next morning Rhett Montanez is found butchered in his home; the pieces of his corpse arranged exactly as the painting that hangs in his private and still locked study.  Whoever did this had either seen the painting before (most but not all of the cocktail people have) or… ?

Several days later Markus Renteria is leaving a bar (he’s been drinking heavily on consecutive nights since Rhett’s death) when he is approached by the stranger.  Markus takes the man’s phone – who doesn’t seem to mind or resist.  Drunkenly, Markus Renteria tells the stranger to fuck off and start looking for somewhere to hide because the police will be on his case now. APB. Facial recognition software. Blah blah blahhhhhh.

The stranger leaves.  Markus Renteria rings the police and demands to talk to the investigating officer in charge of the Blaine case; he’s forgotten that he’s so far withheld vital information. Matters are made worse by the fact he is obviously intoxicated and the photograph he tries to reveal and fantastic evidence is curiously blurred and impossible to use.

Markus Renteria sobers up in a holding cell. Coming round he recalls what happened and thinks about his painting: it’s a scene that has him tied to the bars of a prison cell, bloodied, bruised and dying from the violent beating his sustained from other inmates.  Freaking out he causes a scene that results in a fight.  Ironically, the investigating officer releases him: more out of a sense of irritation than sympathy.

Markus Renteria leaves the police station.

He’s found that evening by a cleaning crew at a power utility building. Inside a cell that should have been locked because it contains dangerous power transformation hardware, is the rag-doll corpse of Markus Renteria – he’s been beaten to death… eyes wide open.

The police find a painting at his house that is an identical match to the scene.

The characters are now brought into the story.  Several routes in:

1. The investigating officer in charge contacts them, perplexed by certain details of the case. For example, all CCTV in the power utility building failed shortly before the murder took place.
2. One of the cocktail people, and an owner of a Blaine painting, Jasper Haight, contacts the characters because he’s terrified about being approached by the stranger and wants protection.
3. Or, a different one of the cocktail people and owner of a Blaine painting,  Wes Milton, gets in touch because the police have correctly identified him as the only person who attended every launch party and therefore the only person to have seen ALL of the paintings. He is now a suspect in the murders – and the police are going full-guns to nail him to the wall. (GM Note: his innocence will come to light when he’s murdered).

In the 13 months since Blaine made a self-portrait, 10 people have had similar “death-scene” paintings completed by him.  These are, in chronological order:

• Maximo Vinson (deceased)
• Rhett Montanez  (deceased)
• Markus Renteria  (deceased)
• Hosea Mulligan
• Jasper Haight
• Derick Campos
• Isaiah Weatherly
• Modesto Homan
• Wes Milton
• Rolland Bragg

As the scenario begins – Hosea Mulligan will be visited by the stranger. He is killed the following evening.

As the scenario progresses, every 1d3+1 days, the next victim will be approached by the stranger; and 4d6 hours after this approach, that victim is found dead.

If anybody tries to photograph the stranger the image is always blurred or distorted in some way. apprehending the stranger – he can be grabbed and held, but some event or calamity will always occur shortly after this that causes the people holding him to let go – at which point, in the blink of an eye, he is gone.

If anybody tries to watch over a victim – they will either fall asleep, or find surveillance equipment failing – and there will always be some unknown reason why the victim then leaves the safe-location or “allows in a killer”.

What is going on?

This can be either Occult or Cthulhu Mythos in nature.  Blaine Sheppard made a pact with “something” through an object he purchased during his nefarious travels.  The object is the Clay Woman -  a squat, muscular, hairless, and monstrous albino with large eyes and no other facial features to speak of. When purchased the thing is curled up upon itself – a statue that feels like cold wax to touch. However, it is in fact (occult – a demonic form; mythos – a construct made by a worshiper of Nyarlathotep).  The thing paints.  It is artist behind Blaine Sheppard’s work.  And it paints what it sees (in the future lifestream of the victim) as a suitable place to commit acts of brutal murder.

Image and work by Choi Xooang - all rights reserved

In fact, Blaine bought the thing as it was sold to him as a device of sexual deviation. Animate it would perform all manner of perverse acts for its “master”.  However, over time, it displayed its desire and talents for art… and thus led to the eventual first painting: Blaine’s so-called self-portrait, in fact completed by the Clay Woman. The painting was promoted by Elan Path Troy and requests for more paintings transpired; the rest became history.

The night Blaine Sheppard died, was the night The Stranger arrived to take payment.  The Stranger is a counterpart of the Thing.  If Occult, then it is a similar character to The Devil, seeking souls in return for fame and riches; if Mythos, then the Stranger is an aspect of Nyarlathotep who revels in human misery and mocks the foolish cravings of Mankind [Elan Path Troy].

What happens if a victim agrees to the contract? Seven sinful pleasures.  These could be in quick succession or take place over a prolonged lifetime.  But needless to the pleasures will cause Anxiety / Sanity checks and lead to the ultimate corruption of the fool who takes this option.

The only way for the murders to be stopped is to get into the secured and locked house once occupied by Blaine Sheppard – owned by Elan Path Troy. And to destroy the Thing the lives within the cellar… and which ventures out, a fleeting, ghostly figure that sticks to shadows, and bushes and the branches of trees as it slithers, leaps and bounds, crawls and scurries through every hiding place a city offers to reach the next victim.

Whether it can be killed by physical weapons or only magickal means is down to the GM; it may even require an exorcism (detailed in the coming release of the primary rulebook for Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur – version 2.5).

If all murders take place then the Clay Woman either vanishes or “shuts down” into limbo awaiting the next victim to take ownership of it; perhaps one of the characters, assisted by helpful suggestions from the enigmatic Elay Path Troy?

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The visual aspects of the Clay Woman are inspired by the incredible yet grotesque art of Choi Xooang – an artist based in Seol, who sculpts these fantastically disturbing bodies in concrete.

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David J Rodger – DATA

Scenes of terror and trouble: A Bad Father

A free RPG scenario

Suitable for Yellow Dawn & Call of Cthulhu

Dr Thomas Merkerson is an independently wealthy and publicly celebrated figure; highly educated and gifted in the science of palaeontology, he has dedicated much of his life and disposable income to the pursuit of knowledge regarding the distant epochs of Earth’s history – and the remarkable creatures that once crawled, slithered and raced across and above its surface.

13 years ago his wife gave birth to their only child, a son: Willian – spelled with an ‘N’.  Sadly, the new mother died following complications.  Devastated by the loss, Merkerson threw himself into prolonged and complex projects – burying himself in work to deflect the grief, and to a greater extent rejecting the son that caused his wife’s death.

Willian grew up  in the care of expensive nannies, chaperons and a prestigious boarding school.

His father changed rapidly during those years.

Coming back from an extended project in Peru, Merkerson became reclusive within the home town and educational faculties he once attended so regularly. The community bazaars, once often held at the large estate, took place elsewhere.  The famous dinner parties and social invitations dried up.  Instead, the large estate where Merkerson’s family had lived for several generations became a quiet place of solitude and scientific investigation… because Merkerson began to publish information about prehistoric life that was sensational in its vision, research and accuracy.

Many in the field suspected Merkerson was working on something truly significant and only releasing these tantalising morsels to keep the pressure off. The reason for this suspicion was the amount of time Merkerson was spending away on large, complex and secretive projects; projects that always relied on the same group of skilled and successful people.

Meanwhile, young Willian came home ever less frequently. A combination of his father never being there or never showing any affection when around; and the increasingly “strange” atmosphere of the place that was technically his home but never was… and the hostile and aloof behaviour of the small army of staff that Merkerson kept on to attend to the estate.

And then…

Age 13, Willian’s plans of spending the school’s winter break away heli-boarding at an exclusive snow resort were put on hold when a freak winter storm shut down every airports across the whole area – and, then a car crash placed Willian’s regular chaperon in hospital.  The principle director of the boarding school decided to send Willian home for the interlude whilst other plans were made.

Willian turned up at the boarding school three days later, in a taxi that had travelled several hundred miles, nearly catatonic, visibly terrified by some-event, covered in dirt, stinking of a zoo, and clutching what appeared to be the non-fossilised bone of a vast carnivorous dinosaur.

The principle director, Rhonda Patete, is a master of discretion particularly where the reputation of wealthy and powerful clients are concerned.  Yet she is unable to sweep the incident under the carpet; only a couple of the boarding school staff are aware that Willian is back – and being cared for by Rhonda at her home.  She has not called in the police or any authorities – and a casual telephone enquiry at the Merkerson estate revealed nothing “seemed” to be out of the ordinary: Thomas Merkerson was away, as usual, on some kind of project.

What really bothered Rhonda Patete was the way in which the person at the other end of the phone had subtly enquired if SHE knew about the location of Willian; something about the tone of voice, the deceptive, cunning structure of the enquiry had made her skin crawl, her hackles rise and set off alarm bells.

Rhonda Patete requires investigators; either she is able to contact them directly, or they are recommended via an intermediary.

What’s Happening?

After his wife died, Merkerson stumbled across a potential paleontological “gold mine” – rumours of the entrance to an ancient structure found after a massive rock collapse in a remote mountain plateau in Peru. It was found by a semi-amateur group of rock-hunters, self-funded, travelling the area looking for fossils. When they went inside – they found the remains of a temple (Serpent People) that had been buried and locked away for millions of years.

A lost temple to the Serpent People

The dormant serpent people inside woke-up, killed the rock-hunters and their local guides and took on their identities – but not until they’d tortured and interrogated the humans to understand as much as they could about the world they had returned to.

Merkerson was the primary financial and academic sponsor of their Peru journey, and they’d sent him an email detailing their preliminary discovery before really going inside. At the loss of contact, Merkerson went there!

And never came back.

What did come back was a Serpent People in disguise and a whole entourage of fake rock-hunters.

They took over the Merkerson estate, killed the staff and imitated them – and launched long-range and difficult projects to discover other temples that hadn’t been crushed, buried or lava-boiled out of existence as the Earth changed through the epochs.  With each discovery – they ship back any Serpent People, either in suspended animation or hidden from view.  [Leading to some strange tales by shipping handlers and agents].

Now, in the basement of the Merkerson property – caverns are being dug out and an army of Serpent People (most of them in hibernation) is waxing. How far these plans are, and to what level the Serpent People have infiltrated the local community – or further – is down to the GM.

When Willian arrived more-or-less unannounced, after the snow storm cancelled his plans; the staff at the estate did their best to keep him contained.  They couldn’t kill him because he is too small to imitate or replace – and his murder and subsequent disappearance would create too much risk.

Willian however suspected something was far from right and so snuck out and explored the property; he found his father’s treasure trove of dinosaur bones – not fossilised because they’d been preserved intact within the magickal temples of the Serpent People.

And then he discovered a way down into the caverns… and saw a scene of utter horror.

Somehow, with his sanity barely intact, Willian had the presence of mind to make an escape and find a cab that would take him to the one place his considered safe – the one place he thought of as home: the boarding school.

Investigations

Willian – is suffering deep psychological trauma. If the characters are able to get him to talk about his experiences they should be disjointed, manic and partly nonsensical. GM’s should consider the short story by H.P.Lovecraft – The Nameless City – for inspiration of what Willian may have encountered down there in the caverns at the Merkerson estate.

Optional clue: When William turned up at the boarding school, he may have had a scrap of old, leathery parchment in his pocket.  A “mythical” map – alluding to a land called Valusia (see attached image below)

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This scenario could be about tracking down Merkerson wherever he is and stopping him, or exploring the temples he (or the Thing pretending to be him) is in the process of rediscovering; allowing characters to find arcane technology with terrible power and enjoy fantastic yet alien riches.  Or it could be about destroying a nest of Serpent People at the Merkerson estate.

Things could become difficult for any group of investigators if and when the staff at the Merkerson  estate begin to suspect where the boy may have vanished to; and especially when Dr Merkerson  himself appears at the boarding school, along with attorneys and other officials demanding the immediate return and custody of his boy.  There are not many powers in the land who would be willing to stand up to Dr Merkerson’s political, academic and financial influence; needless to say that if Willian is taken away his life isn’t long for living: something bad will happen, and made to look like an accident.

Is Merkerson resurrecting the ancient Snake Cult of Valusia?

Has he made contact with or found a location deeply sacred to Yig?  And what is the ultimate plan for this?

Yig - The Father of Serpents

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A “mythical” map – alluding to a land called Valusia

A mythical map alluding to a land called Valusia

Valusia was a kingdom to the west of the Thurian continent in the Thurian Age of Earth’s pre-history. At first ruled by Serpent People they were overthrown by their human slaves. After much time, when humankinds’ memories of the wars had faded to whispers and legend, the Serpent People tried to control this human kingdom through cunning magick, using illusions and subtle coercion to rule from behind the scenes – but were defeated once again, this time in a secret war.  Finally then, they created a religion, the Snake Cult, to ensnare the passions and loyalties of cruel men but this plan was destroyed when Kull,  an Atlantean barbarian, gained of Valusia by force.

- History and Legend of Valusia

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Audio Story of The Nameless City – H.P.Lovecraft, narrated by Nick Gisburne

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Useful Links:

• Read the text of  The Nameless City by H. P. Lovecraft – click
• Excellent reference material for Serpent People

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David J Rodger – DATA

Scenes of terror and trouble: A Vintage Villain

A free RPG scenario

Suitable for Yellow Dawn & Call of Cthulhu

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Part of a collection of thumbnail plot sketches for locations and situations where the characters are faced by human, occult or Mythos terror.  Written to be used within the world of Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur (RPG) but could easily be adapted to Call of Cthulhu, D&D, Delta Green or Shadowrun.   They span both the Occult (Quantispheric) and Mythos (the Outer Chaos, from Beyond the Void).

Hal Krzesinski – a production manager for a small media company – is found dead at his apartment.  His body has been torn to pieces, quite literally; it is as if he has exploded. Although forensic evidence suggests that something was plunged into him in several locations and then ripped away in different directions.

His body was found by neighbours who heard the screams, close to midnight. Then the sound of a brief struggle followed by ominous silence.  Neighbours went to his apartment straight away. Nobody was seen leaving. The door was broken down and the gruesome scene found inside.

Krzesinski often worked late at his apartment, after coming home from the day job.  He’d recently split up from a girlfriend due to the amount of time he was spending working on a book about vintage clothing.

Witness statements include:
() There was a smell of burning plastic in the air (Krzesinski’s desk-based workstation and his hand-sized PA have been destroyed; seemingly subjected to intense energy that melted the vital components without actually charring anything).

() The area around the workstation used to be covered in dozens of glossy black and white photos, downloaded and printed, or purchased by Krzesinski: the photos covered the late 1800′s through to the mid-1960′s and featured a variety of people in denim clothing, flannel shirts or baggy suits – all of an evolving trend of fashion – all part of the research for his book.  Most of the photographs have been ripped from the wall – many of them shredded (not by a machine) whilst others have been destroyed through some kind of heat exposure, leaving them shrivelled and glistening with oily discolouration.

() Krzesinski had been recently talking about a problem he’d encountered with his research; something to do with clothing that was “ahead of its time”. The neighbours who had heard this story – in detail – had all told Krzesinski that this wasn’t a problem but a potential “discovery” giving his book a unique selling point.  Krzesinski had apparently been very taken by this idea.

Krzesinski was a very well liked man if not a little eccentric. Most people called him a walking brain although he had a terrible habit of talking too much and in infinite detail.  He was passionate about period clothing from the US 1800s – denim working shirts and jeans used by miners and prospectors – through to the 1940s and beyond, with a passion for blues, jazz and the beat generation.

There are no clues at the media company where he worked.

Krzesinski’s apartment is full of vintage posters and memorabilia.

Although the book he was working on was destroyed, if characters ask about the ex-girlfriend, Nada Vandenberge; she moved in with friends in another part of the city.

Nada Vandenberge will attend the funeral if characters fail to make contact before hand.  If need be, the GM can have her approach characters and say, “I hear you are investigating the death of Hal”, allowing her to hand over vital information.

She has a copy of Krzesinski’s book – and more importantly, the photographs that caused him such consternation. And his working notes.

To the casual observer the photos show nothing out of the ordinary.  Various people in various scenes, some from the late 1800s, others from the 1920s, others from 40s and 50s.  One photo is highlighted and shows a young-looking man in a crowd of people; the man has a tall, narrow head with a mop of thick dark hair; unusual dark-goggles; a jaw shadowed with stubble and the kind of clothing worn by young men of the period.  Except, apparently, according to Krzesinski, the clothing is all wrong for the period.

The photo is from 1941 and shows the reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood in November 1940. It’s from rural Canada.

Krzesinski spent a lot of time online asking about the photograph – and its apparent anachronistic features.

Most people considered him to be a conspiracy theorist, and either fed him further conspiracy to satisfy their own passions for it, or rebuffed him as a fool.

But Krzesinski knew his clothing and knew that this picture was wrong.  The clothing worn by the young man was not made until the mid 1990s.

Then he got an email from Gabriel Gouzalez – who had seen his forum postings and questions online.  The email stated that Krzesinski should examine the camera the young man in the photo is holding. It’s a Japanese consumer electronic brand that wasn’t made until 1994.  Gabriel Gouzalez claimed to have a dossier of photos showing similar inconsistencies and suggested that due to the relatively small number of historical photos available to view, study of them would – without fail – show other inconsistencies.

Gabriel Gouzalez never responded after this – despite Krzesinski trying to get a hold of him; even going as far as finding his realspace address and writing to him.

If characters investigate Gabriel Gouzalez they’ll find he died in much the same way as Krzesinski. An interesting coincidence?

OPTIONS
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The characters can become involved either as:
() Friends of Krzesinski.
() Brought in by the investigating police officer to help due to a hunch that there’s something very strange about the case.
() They read about the story in the media and take an interest – due to the fact no killer or cause was ever found.

The GM needs to decide who and what the young man in the photo is.
(1) Part of a military or private corporation experiment, meddling with history in some way?
(2) A Mythos entity wearing the guise of a human.
(3) A.N.Other

Have the characters now been targeted by the fact they’re asking questions? How are they being monitored – astrally? Through electronic eavesdropping or by physical surveillance?  Is it a military or private corporate security team, or a Mythos sorcerer (the young man in the photo) or some other Mythos entity / agency?

Nada Vandenberge is likely to become the next victim – in order to silence her. Do the characters suspect this and can they protect her; and does foiling, or being involved in the attack, provide clues that lead to the assailant(s).

Perhaps the young man in the photo – human or otherwise – makes an appearance somewhere the characters are, or see on TV, or in a media article. And this allows them to track down where and what / who he is.

The conclusion comes down to a being or an agency, involved in time-travel, covering its tracks – and the characters getting a hook beneath the lid of this cover-up and either tearing it wide open or gaining payment / benefits from remaining quiet about it.

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Image source: virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum; British Columbia, Canada.

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Cthulhu Mythos and Cyberpunk fiction novels and short stories by David J Rodger

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David J Rodger – DATA

Occult Relic: When Hell freezes. Ice of gods and monsters.

Image by qthomasbower via Flickr

Part of a collection of objects made by non-human hands or forged in the minds of maniacs; items of power for good, bad or disaster. Written to be used within the world of Yellow Dawn (RPG) but could easily be adapted to Call of Cthulhu, D&D and Shadowrun.   They span both the Occult (Quantispheric) and Mythos (the Outer Chaos, from Beyond the Void).

When Hell freezes. Ice of gods and monsters.

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Pablo Napolitano has stolen (or scavenged) what he thinks is thumbnail sized diamond.
His intention, at first, was to sell it; but, for some reason unknown to him he finds himself unable to part with it.
The item is beautiful in more ways than he can describe. There is something about it; something compelling that invades his thoughts when he is away from it.
Some time later, there is a fire where Pablo lives.
He risks his life to save the one object that means more to him than anything else in his small world.
The diamond.
When he finds it – amidst an inferno, he discovers that it can’t be a diamond because it is wet, and cold, like ice that is melting – except the heat is intense… so intense that ice would vaporise, so hot that Pablo’s skin begins to blister as he burns.
Clutching the gem or ice or whatever it is fills him with a sense of invulnerability and wonder.
He escapes the inferno but is badly burned.
Somehow, over time, a period spent lurking in the shadows of places where people go about their ordinary lives, Pablo learns that by recalling the heat of the fire causes the object to excrete cold moisture, and that sucking on it, putting it in his mouth and feel the chill pass through him and the refreshing droplets on his tongue makes him feel good.
Better than good.
And others sense it too. At first these people are the gutter trash he is forced to spend his time with; but slowly, as the worst of his scarring seems to heal, he hauls himself into better and more sociable circles; indeed, he begins to connect with people who have influence…

Options:
1. On a whim, (or hidden voice), Pablo dips the gem into the drink of a friend at a private party.  The friend suffers a seizure as his core body temperature drops and his blood turns to ice, bursting every circulatory vessel in the body and creating… quite a mess in the aftermath.  The characters are involved either to investigate, or as witnesses.

2. Drunk, and under the influence of the gem, Pablo decides to swallow it – mistakenly believing he will consume great power and make it a part of himself.  Witnesses or later, investigators, discover a horrifically distorted body – human in outline only – that is literally composed of lumps of… discoloured ice.  Each of these chunks has the same malign influence as the original gem… and so the situation spreads.

3. Pablo discovers that he can withstand great heat. Or rather, he believes he can.  This leads to a situation where the characters are confronted by Pablo (either as somebody they have known, or as a complete stranger) talking like a mad man as he uses a public place to create a demonstration: pouring biofuel all over him and then abruptly setting himself alight.  At this point the delusion boils away and Pablo is left screaming until his vocal chords char away and he flaps around, a human torch.

GM NOTES: the options here are that this gem has something to do with the some of the furthers layers of the Quantisphere, the realm of angels, demons and things that consider themselves as gods.  It’s possibly a relic holding the echoes of a demonic mind or an actual piece of Hell that did once freeze over (metaphorically). Or, Pablo is simply a lunatic who believes this in his deluded mind until dying at his own deranged hands.

Rule data: on the Astral Plane this object would exude negative energy (demonic) with a POW of 5; it is passive and does not try to conceal its nature.  Detect magick (minor) identifies it has POW; (significant) identifies there is nothing sentient about the ‘ice’ but that it is very malign (major) would provide glimpses of Hell in an earlier phase when this ice was formed – undoubtedly a disturbing scene to witness but possibly educational (COOL check or loose 0/1d6 Anxiety) and roll over your current Occult Skill on 1d100 to increase it by +1d6 skill points. Anybody coming into contact with the object must make an opposed POW vs POW roll; if they fail, they become psychologically obsessed by the object. Consumption of the ‘ice’ is fatal.  Partial consumption – licking it – could bestow interesting effects.
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David J Rodger – DATA

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