A Restoration of Evil Rewrite Pt 2
New Hook
The Investigators are hired by Arkham Archeology Society and sent to Red Hook because HORACE BAKER reported finding an artifact in the wreckage of the Park Place disaster. When they arrive, they will find the door open and BAKER murdered.
Why kill the others? –
Existing motive or they know about the artifact.
About the Artifact
It is the Pedestal or Altar mentioned in the Red Hook story.
Somewhere dark sticky water was lapping at onyx piers, and once the shivery tinkle of raucous little bells pealed out to greet the insane titter of a naked phosphorescent thing which swam into sight, scrambled ashore, and climbed up to squat leeringly on a carved golden pedestal in the background.
They took it to the naked phosphorescent thing on the carved golden pedestal, and the thing tittered and pawed at the bedding. Then they unswathed it, and propped upright before the pedestal the gangrenous corpse of a corpulent old man with stubbly beard and unkempt white hair.
This pedestal was found in the deep in the wreckage of the Park Place rubble. Horace Baker, David Clark, and Andre Vollinchanski found the artifact and all three pulled it out of the rubble {touching it causes something sinister?}
Alternate Aspect to the artifact – in three (3) pieces. Each worker has one piece.
Does Jerry Wells know about the artifact? – no, he knows nothing because the 3 others conspired to gain from the find behind his back. Wells was not well liked.
Why did Baker contact the university? – he was having nightmares!
DRAWINGS (Additional Evidence found in the homes of all three men) – All three men had visions after touching the artifact and these slowly drove them mad. They can find interior rooms of their individual homes or apartments where the man drew insane drawings on the walls. These drawings depict horrid scenes of sacrifice, strange creatures and mind wrenching patterns {GMs discretion}.
Some imagery in these drawings might include a fiery theme (Green Flame), images of large winged things (Byakhees), and a distinct depiction of what looks like a chapel or steeple.
Notes & Expansion on the Victims
- Horace Baker – Surveying Supervisor
- David Clark – Surveyor
- Andre Vollinchanski – Surveyor
My thoughts were to have the Russian Andre act as the local, someone who used to live in Red Hook. That way, he perspective on the situation would be different, perhaps supplying some more insight into the dark underbelly of Red Hook (perhaps an alternative to searching for Malone.) The non-locals will have apartments.
Change to Andre’s Background: One perspective is that Andre “escaped” Red Hook and is now returning to take revenge on the town. Perhaps he is related to one of the kidnap victims (from the story) or was at least friends with one. Cousin?
By the time of Suydam’s wedding the kidnapping epidemic had become a popular newspaper scandal. Most of the victims were young children of the lowest classes, but the increasing number of disappearances had worked up a sentiment of the strongest fury.
Change Andre to be a single man living long. He is obsessed with the disappearance of a child in his family 3 years ago. When the players enter his apartment, they will find two things:
- The drawings from the pedestal dreams all over his bed room, same as the other men.
- Inside the walk-in closet of the bedroom is a map of Red Hook and surrounding areas, as well as several articles about the kidnappings in Red Hook 3 years ago. These tell a strange tale of multiple kidnappings prior the Park Place disaster. As the text implies, street children were taken on a regular basis. There are enough clues to lead the investigators to believe that someone Andre knew was taken during this time (perhaps a message scrawled on one part of the wall “Where are you, Minka”)
- Research on Ley Lines and a connection to Red Hook.
This can be used to feed the investigators with any other information they need to lead them to the warehouse.
VOICE THOUGHTS spell use idea
The investigator(s) walked into a plaza where there are a lot of people – a bizarre or gathering of some kind. As he walks through the crowd, one person says something and then another, as if they are completing the same thought. None actually speak english but they are under the spell. ROLL SANITY
Byhakees
From The Festival
Out of the unimaginable blackness beyond the gangrenous glare of that cold flame, out of the Tartarean leagues through which that oily river rolled uncanny, unheard, and unsuspected, there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember. They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings; but something I cannot and must not recall. They flopped limply along, half with their webbed feet and half with their membraneous wings; and as they reached the throng of celebrants the cowled figures seized and mounted them, and rode off one by one along the reaches of that unlighted river, into pits and galleries of panic where poison springs feed frightful and undiscoverable cataracts.
Obviously associated to the Green Flame Cult, Byahkees should be used as scouts or watches over the “hallowed ground” of Red Hook.
CoC7 describes them with the ability to “fold space.” This can be interpreted in many ways. One way is that they can pop in and out of our reality (virtually teleport) at will. Or at least when it is convenient for the Keeper.
Something is Special About Red Hook
What makes Red Hook so special aside from the influx of foreign cultures? Why do cults keep popping up there? I felt that there needed to be something special about Red Hook itself that made it special to cults; Ley Lines.
A common occult power point is a convergence of Ley Lines and Red Hook can be one particular point. Use this to somehow imply to the investigators that Red Hook was a convergence of cults.
The Lilith cult did their thing with Robert Suydam in the story, but Father Washington went a different way – the Cult of the Green Flame. Why? The reason given in the adventure – because Lilith was …”Since Lilith was related to his old faith (being the first wife of Adam). Washington could never feel close to that dark goddes…” Not enough for me!
Cult of the Green Flame
Need to draw from the history of the Green Flame cult as represented in The Festival.
- New location for the “Festival”? People from Kingsport migrating down?
- unspeaking old man with “flabby hands, curiously gloved,” and a “bland face” that he comes to suspect is “a fiendishly cunning mask”
- “something amorphously squatted far away from the light, piping noisomely on a flute”
Green Flame Imagery: In dreams and visions, the players might see various images of green flame.
- Street lights displaying strange green flame (but are actually long burned out)
- Images of a green sun in the sky, either in dreams or visions.
- Strange green light in the rooms before the players enter.
Change in background and Motivation: The Green Flame cult is not converging here. They were after the pedestal. Washington was recruited by the Lilith cult and died in the rubble of Park Place. However, the Green Flame reached out to the dying Father who did in fact dabble in various faiths and saved him from bodily death by converting him to what he is now. THe Green Flame has recruited him to find the pedestal and rebuilt the caverns for a new god.
White Steeple Cometh: Also in The Festival, there is a theme of an “ancient town” existing in the same space as the existing modern Kingsport. Carry that into this story. THis town travels and can be scene occasionally peeking through dimensions..
“…top of a high hill in the centre of the town, where perched a great white church…”
They constantly see the steeple of a white chapel in various places in the city, always in a differently place. Homeless people will randomly say to them “The White Steeple Cometh!” or “The White Chapel Cometh!” Use that a theme and a sense of foreboding.