# Modern Horror - The truth is out there... somewhere



## Ghostwind (Sep 30, 2004)

I've recently started running a modern horror campaign at work and thought I would try my hand at putting together the events notes and posting them here for everyone to read. This is the first time I've tried this, so be gentle. 

At the first session, only two players showed up so the story will seem a bit one-sided until others join in.

Background: The game uses a blend of rules from Spycraft, Grim Tales and d20 Modern. It is set up as an X-Files type campaign where the characters are FBI agents that slowly uncover things that mankind was not supposed to know about. Department P is a division of the FBI that handles the cases no one else wants. They get the dredge, the ones that are horrible or so weird that the other departments pass them down to the P’s. Cases involving serial murders, occult activities, claims of paranormal or extraterrestrial, and other strange phenomenon that tends to be outside the realms of normal criminal investigations.

FBI agents (code named “Snuffman” and “Caretaker”) are dispatched to a rural Kansas residence which is the scene of the third serial murder in as many weeks. Each murder circumstance has progressively been worse. The first scene was a murdered family of three with death from a single stab wound. The second murder scene was slightly more violent with the five victims having their throats cut. The latest scene is far more grisly and is why Department P has been called upon by the Kansas State Police. A family of four has been brutally murdered with a savageness that has not been seen in over 50 years.         

Caretaker and Snuffman arrive at the two-story farmhouse to find a couple of visibly ill troopers. A quick introduction with the county sheriff and state trooper in charge and the agents take in the scene. The farmhouse is surrounded on three sides by corn fields, a barn sits about 100 yards away from the house. The door to the house is propped open and a trooper is standing at the base of the stairs leading up to the porch. The agents enter the house and are immediately hit by the bitter, metallic smell that can only come from massive amounts of blood. A small entryway opens to a stairwell to the upstairs, a hallway that leads to a closed kitchen door, an open archway leading to the living room on the right and an archway leading to the dining room on the left. Movement to the right attracts the agents attention as they see one of the trooper’s crime scene forensics men closing his case.

“Greetings, Agents.” He says in mild southern drawl. “I just finished collecting the initial evidence and taking photographs. I’ll be certain to give y’all copies.”

The agents inquire as to the details and location of the bodies.

“Four victims,” says the detective, “a man, his wife and two daughters, ages 13 and 4. They were all killed in separate rooms. The man’s body is in the kitchen, the wife’s in the dining room, and the girls’ are in each of their bedrooms upstairs. There are no visible signs of forced entry or signs of a struggle. Each victim appears to have been taken by surprise and then mutilated in some fashion. I’ll let you see the bodies for yourselves. I’ve seen them enough today.”

The agents then split up. Caretaker examines the living room and discovers there is something amiss with one of the windows, it is unlocked. Snuffman heads to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, he is stunned at the amount of blood everywhere. Blood pools on the floor and can be seen covering much of the falls in a blood spray manner. The kitchen table is covered in smeared blood as though something had lain upon the table and was drug off it. In the kitchen sink is a bloody butcher knife, while the oven door has been opened to reveal the remains of a man. Much of him has been ripped apart and forcibly shoved into the oven. The head has been decapitated, the flesh at the base of the necks torn raggedly as though ripped off. Snuffman examines the room more only to discover blood dripping from the bottom of the side-by-side refrigerator. Slowly, he opens the right door and sees a human heart sitting on a shelf of the refrigerator, the last amounts of blood congealing in a pool around it. Closing the door, he continues to search and examine the kitchen, looking for signs of prints and anything else that could help identify the killer.

In the meantime, Caretaker has moved upstairs where he is looking at a bathroom almost directly in front of the stairs and two open doors to his right and one on his left down the hallway. Entering the bathroom, the first thing he notices is that it is immaculate. There is no sign of blood anywhere. Everything is pristinely clean. He cautiously looks behind the shower curtain only to see a dry tub and shower, indicating that it had not been used that day. Relaxing somewhat, he casually lifts the toilet lid only to be alarmed at the sight of a small child’s severed hand floating in the bowl!

At about the same time, Agent “Snuffman” discovers bloody footprints and drag marks leading downstairs to the basement. A flip of the light switch is no help as the bulb is either burnt out or removed. Drawing his gun and retrieving a flashlight from his pocket, Snuffman cautiously descends the old wooden steps, which are open to the back and present a fairly steep pitch downward. Carefully making his way downward, he enters the darkness.

After making his horrifying discovery of the floating hand, Agent “Caretaker” enters one of the bedrooms on the right side of the hallway. Posters lining the walls indicate it is the room of a teenager. The splatter of blood across them is the first indication of something wrong in this room. Caretaker looks to the bed where the 13-yr old girl lies naked on blood-soaked bed. Her lifeless eyes reflect seeing something extremely horrible and terrifying, her facial muscles locked in a scream as she died. Her body looks as though it has been opened with a razor sharp knife and then splayed outward. Her organs have been strewn about the bed, many of them either missing or ground into a pulpy mess. It looks as if someone had used some kind of whirling blade and just shoved it inside her. Trying to avoid becoming sick, Caretaker steps out of the room and notices the attic cord hanging from the ceiling further down the hallway. It is swinging slightly. On edge, he moves down the hall watching the attic door carefully. Convinced, it is only his nerves, he looks into the far bedroom. 


(More later tonight...)


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