Tuesday, June 20, 2023


 Trail of Breadcrumbs...

I want to be found.

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.breen.9659/

https://www.quora.com/profile/Stephen-Breen-26

And those are places where I can be found.


Figure stands 8" from ground to highest tentacle. Made using wire and Das Pronto modeling compound. I used the painting from S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters as a vague guide.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

JUST A WORD OF WARNING...

ABOUT SPOILERS...In many entries I have given away key plot elements of my scenarios so, if you think you might be playing in one of my games - AND I NEED PLAYERS - you might want to think about this and definitely heed the spoiler warnings on posts.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Looking for Lovecraft... in all the Wrong Places - Wendigo - Inspirations

As with many of my scenarios, Wendigo takes its inspiration from some moderately improbable sources.
 There is a movie "Shadow of the Hawk" (1976) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075199/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
which contains a sort of reincarnated Native American witch called Sonoqua.  The film is not good, but I've always liked it anyway and it does have two notable virtues: Chief Dan George as the aging shaman and a musical score by Robert McMullin. From this movie I took several things: This is where I first heard of Sonoqua. The voice of Chief Dan George provided my fake Ishi reordings. The Sonoqua song...
 There is a more basic source which constitutes something of a spoiler...


SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

 
Lobby Cards - Shadow of the Hawk

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW

               Really, they are just below this line of text...

 A more basic inspiration is the 1977 TV movie (and failed pilot) "Spectre" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076745/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3 from which I drew the idea of the imprisoned guardian, released by accident from a subterranean prison. The guardian, Tsonoqua in the case of my scenario, must carry out a ritual sacrifice to release the real horror... In "Spectre" this would be a Judeo-Christian "Hell on Earth". I simply adapted the matter to a combination of HPL and Native American folklore.

 The location of the focus being at a town called Weitchpec, owes to my having seen a bumper sticker that read  "Where the Heck is Weitchpec?"... Imagine my happiness to discover that it was in Northern California, just across the river from an Indian reservation...

 


Friday, June 3, 2016

Information, Documents and Some Images - Wendigo


SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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April 1906: Work on the “new spur” in Visitacion Valley was interrupted by the earthquake.
July 1906: Discovery of the Indian artifacts in what turned out to be an unknown shell-mound when the structure is broken open by a steam shovel working on the “new spur”. A group of students from the Lowie Museum did a poor job of preserving the context of the artifacts they discovered. Drawings exist of what the original structure may have looked like.
What was found fifteen feet below the mound surface was a “box” of sandstone blocks surrounding and creating two small chambers, one above the other. The chambers were each only about a half a cubic yard. The upper chamber contained a very odd granite block  with five granite “pins”, each pin drilled trough the head to hold the ends of five tarred twines which interconnect to form a five pointed star which overlays a lozenge shaped block of sandstone.


The lower chamber contained four small items:

  • 1   A small pestle in the form of a figurine of southern California  - perhaps Chumash workmanship.
  • 2   A wooden mask of Yupik origin.
  • 3   A stone disk with a painted wolfs-head design – definitely Kwaikiutl.
  • 4   A basketry disk which is certainly Hupa or Yoruk.




Prof. Kroeber cannot rule out the possibility that the artifacts were buried in recent times – the Mission era or later… In fact, after dispatching letters to the regions represented by the four identifiable artifacts, Professor Kroeber was distracted by the remarkable appearance of Ishi, the sole representative of a vanished tribe of northern California Indians. Ishi would be personally close to Alfred Kroeber as well as being a subject of research until his death from tuberculosis in 1916.
Professor Kroeber has a sense of guilt owing to the fact that after arranging the most appropriate funerary rituals for Ishi, he then sent the man’s preserved brain to the Smithsonian.
 In late November of 1921 Professor Kroeber returned to the Lowie from a data gathering trip to the eastern part of the state and, while organizing collections, rediscovered the 1906 artifacts. He also found that there had been a response to one of his letters which he had never seen.
The letter on University of British Columbia stationary reads:

Dear Professor Kroeber,
  In answer to your remarkable query, we have in our collection a very curious and similar piece of sandstone. The tablet appears to be of approximately the same dimensions although the face is painted in characteristic Kwaikiutl style. The inverse face is unornamented and not so well finished.
  This item was discovered under uncertain circumstances during the latter half of the nineteenth century by a trapper and purchased for the original McGill collection, which preceded the current University. Unfortunately the provenance is quite uncertain and the artifact is therefore of limited value. I hope you will share with us any further information that may uncovered, although I agree that the chances are this is some later disposal or possibly even a hoax.
  Please find enclosed a photograph as well as a copy of the accompanying paperwork.

Yours truly,
Alexander Worthington, PhD                                                           
Lozenge shaped tablet in Kwaikiutl style.
  

Professor Kroeber sent off a new wave of letters to many of the same persons and institutions.

The first response was from the Hoopa Valley reservation.
Office of the Superintendent of Instruction Hoopa Agency            December 2, 1921

My Dear professor Kroeber,
 I am afraid that Mr. Englehart is no longer employed in this office, having been carried off in the great flu epidemic of 1918.
 I have had a brief survey of our records and find no reference to tribal artifacts such as you describe. Additionally, I have shown the photograph you enclosed to the current tribal “Chief”, and he claims no knowledge of it.
 I am told that you spent some time in the Hoopa Valley around the turn of the century and that other members of your institution have conducted research here in the intervening years. I hope that you are not contemplating a return at this time as conditions have changed somewhat and the Indian residents do not need further reminders of their pagan superstitions.

 Yours truly,
Edward Marshal - Superintendent

Next to arrive was a letter from British Columbia.

March 23, 1921
Dear Dr. Kroeber,
 In answer to your recent enquiry, I must report something very unfortunate.
 Our “museum” is hardly worthy of the name. It is merely a couple of rooms set aside for display in the new Hall. And our storage facility on campus is totally inadequate. Therefore, items deemed to be of lesser value are kept in a rather remote warehouse on the edge of town. On February 3rd of last year, or thereabout, the building was broken into and considerable wanton vandalism was done.
 Many items were damaged or destroyed by what, I am informed, was almost certainly a number of burly men. Seeing the damage to the padlocked door, I was moved to suggest a bear - As I said, the building is on the edge of town - but police sergeant Enderby showed me a large, but apparently human, palm print among the debris.
 In any event, a full survey of the collection has been completed and a few items are not accounted for, some may be broken and not yet identified but the tablet is certainly not present and the carton in which it was stored is missing.
 Please consult me again if you think I can be of any assistance.

Yours truly,
Professor Vincent Tobias
Dept. Chairman

A letter came around the same time from the Moravian Mission in Bethel Alaska.

Alfred,
Greetings to you! I'm glad to hear that you are still busily advancing the cause of human knowledge and wisdom. I do recall your previous question about the odd collection of artifacts found in your area. It's been a good many years but I still retain the photograph and sketches.
 I have never seen nor heard of anything remotely like the cache from your shell-mound. Neither have any of my Indian friends any knowledge of an object like the sandstone “lozenge”.
  I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance.
Yours in Christ,
John Henry Killbuck, Rev.

Professor Kroeber says that Rev. Killbuck is a very decent man with a lot of friends and contacts in the tribes of the area. Killbuck is an authority on the language of the Yupik and has shown unusual cultural sensitivity.

A further letter came from Killbuck… this in the last month.
Alaska Territory - Bethel Area Moravian Mission
March 3, 1922
Alfred,
Your most recent letter has given me pause.
  You have suggested that the, undoubtedly Yupik, mask in your cache is probably associated with the Casquarimiut band of the Kokechik Bay region. I would have to agree with your identification and I have disturbing news in that respect.
  As you probably know, Kokechic Bay is over a hundred miles from Bethel across what can best be described as inhospitable country. The Casquarimiut are a nomadic Esquimeaux people, spreading out to hunt and fish during the spring and summer and returning to the bay to camp through the winter. The Casquarimiut have been rather resistant to my attempts to bring them to the light of Christ. They are, or were, a quiet and polite people and I have not seen fit to pressure them. The only contact they have had with the outside world is through traders and infrequent stops by a Coastguard ship.
  The news I must convey to you is that the Casquarimiut may be no more. Jack Gaumann, a half-breed fur-trader  who is, occasionally, a parishioner of mine has returned, somewhat shaken, from his recent visit to the Kokechic Bay village.
  According to this level-headed and generally reliable fellow, the village has been wiped out by some unnatural catastrophe. The several long-houses are burnt to the ground and there are enough traces of goods to indicate that they were not abandoned in any orderly fashion. Nonetheless, there are no signs of human remains.
   Jack stated that he found a rifle lying, undamaged, nearby and no Indian would abandon such a valuable weapon. The members of the Casquarimiut band must number nearly three hundred and none of them has been heard of since this occurrence. It is still early in the season but according to Jack, who is a very experienced man, the destruction at Kokechic Bay must have occurred in late December or early January, in the dead of winter. It has, therefore, been over ten weeks.
   Perhaps survivors will turn up at some remote village.
  Your Friend,       
John Henry Killbuck

The response from a Prof. Hewett at USC is somewhat dismissive but does identify the pestle as being specific to the Barbario Chumash.

When the name of Tsonoqua comes up there are various images...

 

A Timeline of Events Relating to the Scenario - Wendigo


SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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1906 – Apr 18 - The San Francisco Earthquake stops work on the “new spur”.
1906 – July - Discovery of the artifacts in the shell mound – Professor Kroeber sends letter to various contacts in the regions of origin of the mask, stone disc, basketry disc and stone pestle. Kroeber is distracted by other work and the appearance of Ishi and fails to note the single relevant reply, from the University of British Columbia.
1915 May 23 – Date of the odd Ishi recording which contains a reference to Tsonoqua.
1921 Feb. 3 - The UBC warehouse is plundered by unknown vandals.
1921 Oct. 16 - That night Tom Rogan, the old switchman, hears a godawful howling… Like a dog or a coyote… But loud … From the new spur… where they got some cars for months now. Told Clancy to have a look the next morning… There was a singing kinda… Later. Didn’t sound like it came from the Tent… They had their Revival in the afternoon Sunday… Not late.        Little Angelina got to the stand, bought the oranges and dawdled to watch the trains… She spoke with other kids who were playing on the tracks. They went south along the tracks, following a creek-bed and said she was still there when they last saw her. (She said she was listening to the singing…)
1921 Oct. 18 - Rev. Ambrose is missing, though this is not immediately known as his wife covers it up.
1921 Oct. 21 - The Rev returns and is apprehended by the investigators.
1921 Nov. -  Early in the month, the reverend dies accidently – hit by a train.
1921 Nov. 20 - Prof. Kroeber returns.
1921 Nov. 28 Prof Kroeber, having discovered the 1906 reply from UBC, sends out a new wave of letters.
1921/1922 Late Dec. – Early January – Estimated time of attack on Caquarimiut band at Kokechic Bay.
1922 Mar. 6 - The coyote has been seen around the Visitacion Valley tunnel and the remnant of the shell mound since late October. It has been howling the last couple of nights. Old Tom Rogan is badly affected by… something . Apparently the same singing he heard before.
PANIC GRIPS VISITACION VALLEY _ ANOTHER CHILD MISSING
   Another little girl has vanished in Visitacion Valley.
Little Mindy Jones disappeared from behind her family’s house in the evening last night. The child, seven years old, had been sent out to return the family chickens to their coop, just before sunset, and the alarm was raised within the half hour.
  The Jones house is somewhat isolated along the road to the Johnson and Brown Dairy and it was at least another half hour before police and local volunteers arrived in force to search.
  Residents recall the tragic loss of Angelina Rossi, whose horribly mutilated body was found days after her disappear- ance in mid-October of last year.  Because of the previous awful events, Captain Morgan of Southern Station has immediately called in the same deputy from Half-Moon-Bay whose tracker dogs finally discovered the remains of little Angelina.
  It may be recalled that, while foul play was strongly suspected, the death of Angelina Rossi was finally attributed to an accident while playing on the railroad tracks. What has never been clearly established is how the body was found after several days in a location which had been searched repeatedly.
1922 Mar. 7 – The investigators revisit Visitacion Valley and speak to various persons including Tom Rogan.
1922 Mar. 8 – The investigators visit the Lowie, meet Prof. Kroeber and his colleagues, and convince him to secure the very odd artifact, (the one which has a five pointed star of tarred cords securing a sandstone lozenge to a granite slab) in a convenient safe. The investigators get access to the professor’s correspondence about the artifact at this time.
It seems that the coyote is gone from Visitacion Valley.
1922 Mar. 9 – Apparently the date Benjamin Geitner was approached by pawn broker Rex Morganthal. Morganthal wanting to borrow $7000 to buy gold…
Mar 12 - Sunday – Death of Pawnshop Owner  - Apparently Ben Geitner was present – certainly he had a bit of flaked gold like the over $15000 worth found in the pawnshop…
5 year old Luigi Mazeppi lost in the Produce District .
Mar. 13 – Monday. It turns out that Benjamin Geitner got picked up in a dazed condition and taken  to SF General, where Dr. Xander discovered another of those weird little leather “fetish” thingies sewn to his arm.
On returning to the Lowie, the investigators find that Professor Kroeber has become romantically involved with a strange blonde woman named Leda Zenika… He is listening to old Ishi recordings and they hear one from 1915 which in addition to containing a reference to Tsonoqua, seems to them to contain the notes of the weird song which they have been hearing of. On re-play of the recording does not contain that song at all.
Kroeber provides various information on Tsonoqua, the American Indian legend of the cannibal-woman who preys on children. It also seems that, while Tsonoqua is depicted as a blonde woman, most of the time, she may also appear as male…

Sunday, March 20, 2016

September 26 - Oct 22, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date February 2, 2016) Part 1

Loot From Drood
Copy of “The Black Book”
 A large bell jar containing dead rats.
A dozen small numbered jars containing what appears to be ordinary earth, a veritable spice rack of common and exotic herbs and spices, mostly in similar glass jars.
Several bundles of small bones and half a mummified human foot (probably Egyptian – certainly partly ground up to provide “mummy dust” for some spell or other).
There’s a “toolkit” containing small knives, files, chisels and hammers as well as tongs and a number of metal rods between six inches and a foot in length. There is also what may be a thousand dollars worth of fine platinum wire… (A lot more of this is part of the floor symbol and was left behind when the sanctum was dynamited).
One box (an ordinary wooden cigar box) contains pens, pencils and a number of bottles of variously colored ink.
There are also an assortment of amulets. Ankhs, serpents, symbols of every sort in wood, bone, metal... Some may be of considerable monetary value.
The jars and boxes include a number of pieces of remarkable workmanship and value:
•    A small ivory box of African workmanship with delicate carvings of elephants and trees (contains a mysterious white powder).
•    An ebony box about the size of a cigar box with intricate abstract carvings (Malasia?) - contains a quantity of dried vegetable matter or fungus).
•    A Chinese porcelain urn of considerable antiquity and great beauty – but rather chipped and discolored - half full of some sort of leaves.
•    A small pottery container in the shape of a crouching toad; ?Meso-American? and very ancient – contains a gravely grey substance.
  The papers recovered are a muddle, mostly the diary or ravings of Drood – They are not in any sensible order although some sheaves appear to be bound intentionally together.
Some of the papers appear to contain notes on “The Black Book” and may reward study.  The hand varies from the familiar hand of Drood to a wilder, more difficult to read, scrawl, which, while it is definitely still Drood’s,  is much harder to decipher. The sheets scattered nearer the nasty goo-covered chair in the center of the symbol on the floor seem to be the most recent and the most incoherent: Lots of phonetic gibberish “Phataghn! I’a! I’a! Tsathoggua!” AND “I am BECOMING! On the great day when I am one with the LORD TOAD. I’a! I’a! SAINT TOAD! The spirals are nearing completion…” “Children are such tasty morsels… Food for the soul. My power grows.”   Etc. etc….

The memorial service for the police officers killed at the Blue Fox and for Joseph Linehan occurs and the whole Drood affair is carefully covered up.

In the next week a Catholic priest named Father LeClerque appraches the investigators individually; questioning them about the death of Father Kolvenbach.

On October 10th Jessie Cook and detective Gregory contact the investigators as quickly as possible to inform them that Harry Gray has managed to slip out of town despite ordinary police surveillance. As a result of this the investigators take precautions - generally by leaving their known lodgings.