While relaxing at a local watering hole in the town of Arkham, the investigators are approached by a patrolman to whom they have some familiarity. After a few cautionary glances around the room, the officer furtively explains a strange situation he has been dealing with.
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For at least six months, a peculiar number of post-revelers have been found staggering around in the early morning; often stumbling over themselves as they shelter their eyes from the fingers of dawn’s light. The officer soon clarifies that it is not so much the amount of over-indulgers he has been rounding up in the mornings, but their identities that concerns him. Unlike the expected round up of recovering college students and forlorn recent lay-offs; the officer has been collecting men and women from the city’s upper classes.
At first, there was nothing too unusual about finding the leftover attendees from late night society parties. However, the patrolman now finds himself dealing with four or five of these types each weekend morning, an unusual number for a small conservative New England town. Moreover, these wealthy drunkards have all demonstrated unusually potent symptoms of recovering inebriation; none have any memories of the evening before. This has caused a distressing situation for the officer since the duty of returning embarrassed society folk to their homes is immeasurably more delicate and time consuming than dealing with recovering students. Lastly, one characteristic peculiar to all of these late night partygoers both unifies them and disturbs the police officer. They all have dark stains around their mouths and have halitosis that reeks of purification and decay.
Possibilities
1 Over the past year, a most popular, and expensive, wine has been introduced to some of the finer restaurants in Arkham. One of the alluring traits of the vineyard that produces this drink is its unusual origin, the hills of central Maine. Although most people believed this region to be too cold, too rocky, and too mountainous to produce fine grapes, a local farmer has been successfully growing several varieties of unusual wine grapes and producing wine. However, this unexpected agricultural prosperity derives from an abyssal horror beneath the vineyard.
Several years previous, an earthquake opened up fissures in the ground near a farm in rural Maine. These fissures extended far below the earth to the dwelling place of the Great Old One, Ghatanothoa. Since then, this being’s tentacles have been slowly winding their way upwards, and in the process, they have contaminated and enchanted the soil. The tainted produce from the farm has slowly been driving the farmer and his family mad, and in the process allowed the Ghatanothoa to implant vile suggestions in their minds. Acting on these suggestions, the family began producing vile wine derived from the essence of the ancient evil being.
The imbibers of the beverage will soon too become enthralled by Ghatanothoa’s influence and carry out his plans to free himself from the depths.
2 It is strange that the police officer is so concerned with the multiplication of wandering drunken socialites when a more distressing phenomenon has been taking place. Coinciding with the appearance of wealthy hung-over partygoers has been a staggering rise in missing homeless persons.
A wealthy, though insane, dilettante who had acquired a copy of the forbidden German text, Unausprechlichen Kulten, was the initial assailant of these unfortunate street people. The blood of his victims was used in a strange recipe deciphered from the blasphemous tome. This recipe produces a magical and blissful cocktail that sends the imbiber’s mind to a dimension of wonders for several hours, leaving their body in a mindless state for the duration. He has now enthralled several other socialites by throwing lavish parties where he serves the intoxicating cocktail. After these parties, several of the attendees have stumbled into the streets drunk on the magical potion, only to be found by disgruntled police officers.
The upper classes have now developed a desire for more of the forbidden potion, a desire that drives them to kidnap lost souls for more blood to brew the magical draught.
3. A new resident to the country has recently moved to Arkham from somewhere in the ancient Zargos mountains of modern-day Iraq. With him, he has brought dark and powerful secrets that his family has carried though the centuries. These antediluvian secrets can be used to fulfill many modern-day desires, and the immigrant has made use of this by teaching them to local families in exchange for certain sacrifices. Many of these families made quick use of the powerful lore to increase their social status and wealth. The sacrifice demanded of them by the immigrant-wizard is the nightly servitude of a close family member. More specifically, the unfortunate family member must submit their soul in an unholy ritual; thereby becoming a mindless zombie controlled by the wizard.
No one yet knows what the magically bonded family members do, or where they go, each night. However, with such a large number of zombie-workers, the wizard’s schemes are likely to be considerable and terrifying, and may involve restoring his homeland to its former Mesopotamian splendor.
© Joel Karwatsky