Queen of Vampires

By Adam Gauntlett

Gorgo, Mormo, thousand-faced moon, look favourably on our sacrifices! The Horror at Red Hook

Mormo, whose totem beast is the dog, maintains a great rivalry with the Elder Goddess Bast. She is the patron of all werewolves, and the Queen of vampires. Trail, p. 96

A Trail of Cthulhu scenario in which an unwary collector of relics finds himself wandering Cairo in his dreams, desperate to avoid the attentions of its Vampire Queen.

The Hook

A police detective in [urban location of your choice] has been illicitly trading in items taken from crime sites for several years, selling them to wealthy murderbilia collectors. 

One collector, nightclub/speakeasy owner Michael Harp, purchased a peculiar little idol and ever since has had the most unsettling dreams. Harp reaches out to the investigators, either as occultists or psychologists, whichever best suits. Can they help him put an end to his nightmares?

The Victim

Michael Harp could have been a contender. For a while, he was; his place, the Cat O’Nine Tails, was one of the hottest on the street. Its neon signage still lights up the night, though some of the tubes don’t work the way they should. 

Things have changed since then. 

Mike’s getting a little paunchy, a little grey. Not as quick on his feet. He keeps up appearances; his speedster, his women, his bankroll. It’s all a little more ragged than it used to be. The speedster has dings. The women don’t hang around anymore. The bankroll used to be twenties, hundreds; now he keeps singles in his money clip.

He’s losing sleep. 

He says it’s the same thing each time. He finds himself alone in an ancient city. He thinks it must be Cairo or some place like that. It reminds him of a film set. He can hear dogs howling and as the sound gets closer, he feels an overwhelming urge to run. Except wherever he runs to, he ends up in the same place, a dark temple where something hideous waits. 

He always wakes up before he finds out what’s in the temple. 

He blames his lucky charm. 

He says he picked it up in some market; he doesn’t remember where (Assess Honesty: lie). It’s a little gemstone carving, like a monkey buzzard. He says he hates it, but he doesn’t want to get rid of it. Psychoanalysis: he can’t get rid of it. He’s compelled to keep it; he can’t bear to be without it for more than a second or two. 

Hypnosis, if used, puts him right into a dream state, and this time the investigators are compelled to come along for the ride. See further Mormo.

Art, Craft: the idol’s probably made from lapis lazuli and could be genuine Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. It would take an expert to confirm. 

If an expert is sought, that expert confirms it is, to all appearances, the genuine article. It’s worth a small fortune. An item like this should be in all the archaeological journals, should be a piece of history; nobody knows when it was found or who found it. The expert can’t say what the monkey buzzard is supposed to be.

Mythos recognizes it as a votive object dedicated to Mormo, the hideous one.

Anyone who spends a point of whichever ability remembers that an item fitting this description was part of a murder investigation four or five months ago. The killer was never caught.

The Vendor

If the investigators chase up this angle, they soon discover that none of the pawnshops or art galleries in town stock anything like this. Even the places that deal in stolen antiquities don’t have anything close. 

However, if they spend points in Intimidation, Flattery, or similar while dealing with the shop owner of any of these establishments they get the same benefit as if they spent a point of Art or Craft: the owner knows that an item fitting this description was part of a murder investigation four or five months ago.

Anyone who makes the murder investigation link and starts asking about it discovers that there’s one guy in town who deals in items linked to murder investigations: Detective Flanagan, Homicide. 

Flanagan makes a nice little side profit selling whatever he can lay his hands on – knives and razors used in crimes, the clothes of the victim, anything from the evidence locker that he thinks he can get away with. 

Flanagan was a high-flying Prohibition Bureau agent and got used to the good life. When he transitioned to Homicide, it came with a pay cut; there aren’t nearly as many bribes in Homicide. That’s why he sells evidence. There’s all kinds of whackos out there who like that sort of thing, the bloodier the better. 

Flanagan: tall, beefy roughneck beginning to show signs of a lifetime of drinking. Good at Scuffling, Firearms. A tenor; likes to sing in a choir. Has a lengthy repertoire of drinking songs.

Flanagan doesn’t trust people he doesn’t know well, so if the investigators are going to talk to him about his side hustle, they’ll need to show, preferably through Cop Talk, that they can be trusted.

According to Flanagan, Harp asked him for this item specifically. It was some trouble to get, and Flanagan charged double the usual rate. Harp paid up, no questions asked.

Flanagan says the idol came from the Monk Bohan killing. This was a gangland hit. Bohan was a former gang boss who extorted speakeasy owners, but he lost his grip and ended up in a burlap sack, dumped by the side of the road. This little idol was found on the body.

Monk Bohan

This gangland boss owed his life to the Mormo cult. He dedicated his service to the fearful one, protecting the cult from harm. 

He used to run protection rackets throughout the city, taking a hefty cut from all the clubs and speakeasies. He had his own brand of whiskey, Bohan’s Best, which sold in all his places. 

When he died, the Mormo cult collapsed. Partly from within, partly from without; as they had no muscle, outraged citizens were able to storm the cult’s safe havens and destroy them. Any investigator with Occult or Mythos knows about the cult’s demise; if they spent a point, they may even have been part of those raids on cult havens. 

The raids aren’t widely known. They didn’t hit the papers, and the police went out of their way not to investigate. It’s generally agreed, in Occult circles, that the local Mormo cult is either gone, or greatly reduced in strength.

Cop Talk or Streetwise knows that, back in the day, Harp was Bohan’s business partner. It was Harp that made Bohan’s Best and distributed it. Rumour has it that Harp was the one who bumped Bohan off, because Bohan was getting greedy. Nobody’s been able to substantiate that rumour. 

Oral History knows that Bohan kept a little lucky charm just like the one Harp bought from Flanagan. Bohan said it was his heart, and that so long as he kept it by him, he’d never die.

Mormo

The Fearful One is outraged that its worshippers, and its champion, are gone. 

It is dragging Harp to its nightmare version of Cairo each night, drawing his spirit closer and closer to its greatest Fane. The intent is to drag him through Hell and eventually have him devoured by wolves, all the while begging the Queen of Vampires for his miserable life. 

This may take months. Mormo is nothing if not patient. However, after a few nights of this, Harp begins suffering nighttime injuries, marks that resemble bites. These are Mormo’s nightmares, her werewolves, the monstrosities that guard her temples. They are under orders not to kill Harp, not right away. That doesn’t mean they can’t have fun.

Anyone who watches Harp while he sleeps may see this happen: potential 3-point Stability loss.

Anyone who is drawn into Harp’s nightmares through Hypnosis has to go through the same trials as Harp, in Mormo’s phantasm Cairo. Potential 4-point Stability loss.

There is one other way to be drawn into the dream-Cairo. If the investigators try to destroy the votive object, it can be shattered with a hammer easily enough. However, if they do this then Mormo immediately plunges anyone in the immediate area into her realm. This is a one-time effect. If the investigators manage to survive the night, or if someone wakes them up before the dream ends, then Mormo’s power over them dissipates. 

If the investigators are in the dream because they destroyed the votive object, then there is a chance they will encounter Mormo herself, in her gorgon or Vampire Queen form. Potential additional Stability 3, Sanity 1 loss.  If this happens, Mormo is prepared to offer a bargain: worship me, re-establish my cult, and you can live. You can leave this place. Those who refuse are pursued by her werewolves, her mocking laugh echoing in their ears.

This effect can be avoided if the investigators somehow destroy the idol in such a way that its destruction is remote, say by flinging it into an industrial furnace. Or putting it down a mineshaft and blowing it up. 

Merely losing the item without destroying it does not save Harp. The effect is delayed, for a time, and Harp claims to feel better. However, after about a week or so, Harp suffers a massive heart attack and dies. 

Mormo took her revenge on him.

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Trail of Cthulhu is an award-winning 1930s horror roleplaying game by Kenneth Hite, produced under license from Chaosium. Whether you’re playing in two-fisted Pulp mode or sanity-shredding Purist mode, its GUMSHOE system enables taut, thrilling investigative adventures where the challenge is in interpreting clues, not finding them. Purchase Trail of Cthulhu, and its many supplements and adventures, in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.