A Tale of Terror is a short scenario premise with three different possibilities for what’s really going on. Keepers can mine them for ideas, taking that which appeals and discarding that which does not.
“Property Values,” from The Unspeakable Oath 19, is by Adam Gauntlett, © 2011, with art by Dennis Detwiller, © 2011.
Cracks are appearing in a home. (It could be that of an investigator or an NPC.) Though small at first, the cracks quickly grow larger. The house may be in danger of collapse, which only gets more likely when a chunk of the back garden suddenly vanishes, leaving behind a large hole. The unfortunate homeowner may have to move out while repair works are ongoing, but what caused the problem in the first place?
Possibility 1: Ordinary Catastrophe
Unbeknownst to the homeowner, a main water line, half a century old, runs through the back garden of his and several neighbouring properties. This line sprung a leak, and erosion washed out the compacted rubble that served as the house’s foundation. The damage is extensive and getting worse. There’s no supernatural element here, but neither the water supplier nor the local authorities are willing to take the blame. If the homeowner is to succeed, plenty of Library Use and Law will be needed to get someone to do something before the house caves in. Throw in a corrupt city official, willing to take backhanders, and you have a moral dilemma: commit bribery, or fight the good fight?
Option 2: Written in Stone
The homeowner’s crazy neighbour, Bob, has been tunnelling under his own property for decades. His tunnels undermine the homeowner’s house, as well as several other properties. He’s developed an extensive network, in which he stores every single newspaper, book, restaurant menu or other bit of written trivia he’s ever picked up. Funny thing, though: it’s difficult to work out where all the tunnels go, and some of the papers in Bob’s tunnel system predate Bob by twenty years or more. Do his notes about “digging the maggots out of Her Flesh” mean something? Why the insistence on written material? Bob didn’t keep anything else. Does his belief that the written word has power in its own right somehow have a grain of truth to it?
Option 3: A Small God’s Rage
The homeowner recently acquired an artefact, a small primitive statue made of what seems to be teak, and which resembles a small man with a fat, toadlike face wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Several iron nails have been driven into its body. This fetish, identifiable as central African manufacture, was crafted to be a defender of home and hearth, but as nobody’s been sacrificing to it (it’s a spirit of real power and it likes palm wine and honey) it has made its displeasure felt by destroying the house. The fetish does this by dancing; each night, after midnight, it hops about on its bandy legs, shaking the house to its foundations, causing bits of it to fall off, blowing huge holes in the ground. If the homeowner owned cattle, no doubt they’d be dying of a noxious blight. Research might reveal the fetish’s function and the necessary sacrifice. Only Cthulhu Mythos research will discover that the fetish is linked to an Old One (Nyarlathotep? Shub-Niggrauth? Tsatthoghua?), and has a more sinister role: instructing initiates in the rituals of Mythos worship. The owner’s first clue comes when he finds it squatting on his chest as he sleeps, whispering blasphemies in his ear. Giving it away isn’t a solution: If the owner began sacrificing wine and honey, then the fetish has affection for his worthy disciple and will keep coming back to his house. If he hadn’t, then the fetish will go, but not before one last dance that may cave the roof in.
“Property Values” appears in The Unspeakable Oath 19. Click here to order TUO 19 in PDF and click here to order it in print with free PDF download.
