The "Tales of Terror" were created by Steve Hatherley back in the early 1990s, giving Keepers short ideas from which they could build instant scenarios. Each TOTs (as Steve abbreviated it) starts with a general situation followed by three different possibilites for that situation. The Tales of Terror culminated in the publication of TALES OF TERROR: SCENARIO IDEAS FOR CALL OF CTHULHU (Pagan Publishing, 1996). This scenario appeared in that volume. It was from Steve's TOT idea that I came up with my TOT generator known as "The Stones of Doom".
GHOST TRAIN
By G. W. Thomas
The investigators are traveling by train. The train is scheduled to arrive at its destination at midnight. The witching hour passes but still it does not arrive at the station. The conductor and other workers on the train are reticent and surley about the delay. The conductor makes an announcement, “Everybody remain seated. The train is behind schedule. That is all?”
“But we passed my stop!” complains a woman.
“There will be no more stops tonight.” the conductor returns mysteriously then retires to the other end of the train, despite questions and complaints.
1. If the investigators speak with the train staff they will begin to notice anarchisms, like dates, references to popular people or events. The staff are all ghosts from a decade ago. The conductor is Josiah Brand a ruthless and evil railroad man. Brand hated people of color and threw off hobos if they were black or Mexican. Whites were subjected to beatings and extortion.
Josiah Brand and his fellow trainmen were killed ten years previously (as the investigators will discover by interviewing other passengers) on a similarly rainy night. The train was derailed shortly after mindnight! Can the investigators save the train?
2. The investigators have departed on the legendary Hell-Bound Train and don't know it. All the people on the train are souls of the damned. The conductor and brakemen are actually evil spirits taking them to Hell. The other passengers are odd, tortured individuals, exhibiting their own personal sins. The workers will not allow them to leave, having incredible strength and indestructible bodies. Doors and windows refuse to open as well.
3. The people on the train are being held by cultists in a bizarre sacrifice to Ithaqua the Wind-Walker. Members of the Valusian Order of Valka are trying to use the train to summon Ithaqua. The ritual requires that the participants be moving at least 60 mph. The cultists must also have a large number of sacrifices for Ithaqua to consume. Any attempt to leave the train will be dealt with harshly, as the train gains more speed ...
Copyright G. W. Thomas 1996
