Forgotten Sins

A scenario hook for Trail of Cthulhu by Chris Spivey

Father David Baker is an ally who may have performed an exorcism, or provided the Investigators access to ancient church records. He has requested that they come to the church immediately. When the Investigators arrive, the usually-collected older man of the cloth speaks with a nervous crack in his voice. He explains that he is worried about Sergeant Williams, one of his congregants: the man has changed over the last year. His weekly confessions have moved from describing minor sins and youthful indiscretions to detailing blackouts and “dreams” of his horrendous deeds. He awoke yesterday with blood under his fingers. In addition to his stories, there’s something different about Williams that has affected the Father to the core, and he asks the Investigators to find out the truth.

Investigating the young Sergeant turns up evidence that he is well liked by co-workers and the neighborhood he patrols, and he lives with his two brothers. As the Investigators dive deeper into the mystery, his co-workers mention he has recently become more violent. In one of his reports from last year, they find a case where he was bitten by a vagrant hanging around the hospital, who Williams then killed.

His brother quietly admits to them that Williams sneaks out of the house at all hours of the night and he reeks. The Investigators notice that Sergeant Williams lingers around the hospital for hours at a time, never going in, just standing and staring.

Investigating the hospital turns up that either a patient or a body seems to go missing every couple of weeks, and that the hospital administrator has been covering it up in exchange for bribes from the monstrous residents living under the hospital – a band of ghouls. They take a meal back to the tunnels below every few weeks. Sgt Williams killed one of their number last year, and was bitten. He has slowly been turning into a ghoul, and now can sense the others of his kind.

What can the investigators do to save Sgt Williams? Do they kill him before he fully turns? What happens if they kill a cop? Has he killed already? How long will the ghouls be happy feeding only rarely?

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Chris Spivey is a writer, long-time gamer and father. He is the CEO of Darker Hue Studios, which aims to increase diversity in gaming, fiction and media. He is also a contributor to Pelgrane Press’s upcoming projects Out of the Woods and Cthulhu Confidential.