Back From Beyond - Part I

 “I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness...”

-H.P.L., “From Beyond”

This is a story based upon a real event. In New York in 1922, a young woman was reported as having travelled at night in her dreams, across our solar system to our neighbouring planets, there to encounter the inhabitants of those worlds. Elsa Sheridan met various oddly-proportioned and -featured creatures in her sleep, learned of their lifestyles and their planetary conditions, and her revelations were apparently eagerly examined at the time by scientific and other organisations. This was an era when Spiritualism and ghost-hunting were considered almost acceptable as scientific pursuits so it stands to reason that Miss Sheridan’s novel pronouncements would generate some interest. But what if something else was happening? Something focused through a Lovecraftian lens...?

*****

For this adventure, the Keeper needs a small party of Investigators with moderate experience and with a growing reputation for hunting down the strange and inexplicable. The group needs to start in New York in May of 1922; ideally, they should have some contacts or connexion to the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) or its parent organisation in London (SPR), but this isn’t strictly necessary. It is crucial only that their skills as Investigators are becoming relatively well-known.

An Offer of Employment...

While occupied in New York on separate business, the party should be made aware of the newspaper phenomenon that is Elsa Sheridan and her nightly adventures (Beyond Papers #1, above). The same article appeared in the Buffalo Morning Express and the Syracuse Herald on the 7^th of May 1922, the Seattle Daily Times of the 14^th of May 1922, and again in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the 28^th of the same month. It appeared later in the same year in the Pittsburg Sunday Post and then four years later on the 3^rd of December 1926 in the Sandusky Star Journal (this frequency of appearance in print media allows for some flexibility for the Keeper in terms of timetabling this adventure). The party may discuss her claims, accepting or dismissing them as they see fit. Later, as they pursue their aims, they receive a message to the effect that a Dr. Windrush of the ASPR wishes to visit them to discuss some urgent matters. The players may well decide to ignore the request; if so, they will find that their caller can be very dogged when the situation demands.

Dr. Windrush asks the group if they have heard of Miss Sheridan. He states that the ASPR would very much like to investigate her claims but, for reasons of reputation and a shortage of personnel, he would prefer to have an outside agency – such as the party represents – perform a “first pass” to assess the subject’s credibility. Without allowing them access to the ASPR headquarters (in order to maintain their stance of public neutrality), he could provide access to their library at call, and offer any pieces of moveable equipment which the Society’s laboratories might contain. Additionally, he would set up a meeting with Miss Sheridan. For their trouble, he offers the party a US$50 retainer each, plus US$5 per diem with expenses – if reasonable, accompanied by receipts.

If the party is not interested and turns down the offer, the story ends there. At some later stage, months afterwards, while out at an evening’s entertainment in a theatre in New York, one of the Investigators may spot Miss Sheridan at the back of a chorus line, looking bored and going through the motions, but that will be it. If they contact the ASPR (or SPR in England), they will be directed to a bland statement in the Society’s Journal to the effect that the Sheridan case was a minor publicity stunt, a “fanciful tissue of falsehoods”, and that no further investigation is required. Hopefully though, the team will be eager to take a look.

Some suspicious types may decide to investigate Dr. Windrush also. The scuttlebutt (i.e., a Library Use Roll at a library, or newspaper office, or similar) will reveal that the ASPR has suffered two blows to its credibility in recent weeks: an ‘ASPR-guaranteed’ medium was found cheating some four weeks ago, while two weeks previously, another accredited seer published an interview outlining how she fooled the ASPR into believing in her “powers”. Litigation is in progress against the second medium and the New York Times for libellous statements published, and so most of the ASPR luminaries are spending time in court. Other members have decided to undergo “field work” out of town, or are simply lying low. Dr. Windrush is currently the only ASPR member keeping the flame of psychic research burning...

Let’s Get Busy...!

Having accepted the case, the way forward is entirely up the players. Dr. Windrush offers to contact the group when he has set up the meeting with the test subject (Elsa) but until then the party must formulate an experimental procedure: how does one investigate a person’s dreams? What research must be done? What equipment must be obtained? Let the team thrash things through and establish their own process. Any reasonable (but not purpose-built) equipment is available from the ASPR labs if required, and books on many topics will be couriered over as needed. Amongst these will be the following:

HILL, J.A., Spiritualism: its History, Phenomena and Doctrine (1918)

Swami PANCHADASI, A Course Of Advanced Lessons In Clairvoyance And Occult Powers (1916)

McKENZIE, J.H., Spirit Intercourse (1916)

FRINGS, J.W., The Occult Arts: An Examination Of The Claims Made For The Existence And Practice Of Supernormal Powers, And An Attempted Justification Of Some Of Them By The Conclusions Of The Researches Of Modern Science (1914)

PODMORE, Frank, Mesmerism & Christian Science (1909)

JACOLLIOT, Louis, Occult Science In India And Among The Ancients, With An Account Of Their Mystic Initiations, And The History Of Spiritism (in English & French, 1908)

PODMORE, Frank, Modern Spiritualism (1902)

LANG, Andrew, Cock Lane And Common Sense (1894)

WAITE, A.E., The Occult Sciences: A Compendium Of Transcendental Doctrine And Experiment, Embracing An Account Of Magical Practices; Of Secret Sciences In Connection With Magic; Of The Professors Of Magical Arts; And Of Modern Spiritualism, Mesmerism, And Theosophy, (1891)

MACKAY, Charles, Memoirs Of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds (1880)

From this selection, the party will gain the following: a good overview of the aims and goals of the Spiritualist movement; thoughts on what “crossing the veil” might encompass and techniques for facilitation; notions of the power of hypnotism, including self-hypnotism and auto-suggestion; and some biting commentary on the ability of the human animal to delude itself and others. If, after reading through this lot, they seem stuck and unable to progress, the Keeper may offer suggestions as to ways forward with the expedient of an Idea Roll. Any other literary sources the party must come up with by themselves, including Mythos tomes (if they have them).

Speaking of the Mythos, if players consult their tomes (a Cthulhu Mythos Roll), they will find vague references to creatures on other planets in our solar system, specifically the Great Old One Tsathoggua which is said to have come from “Cykranosh”, another name for Saturn, and Yuggoth, the home of the Mi-Go, supposedly an undiscovered planet too far out to be seen (Pluto is not due to be discovered until 1930). Any party members who are adept at Dreaming may use their Dream Lore skill to realise that each planet has its own Dreamlands and that Saturn’s cats and those of Earth wage constant and terrible war in their Dreamlands environments; there are also rumours of a feline race dwelling on Neptune. None of this, however, sounds anything like Elsa Sheridan’s view of the solar system.

When the party has decided upon a plan of action and has gathered all of the equipment and literature that they need, Dr. Windrush contacts them to say that he has secured an interview with Miss Sheridan at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, mid-morning on the following day.

Meeting Miss Sheridan

STR: 9

CON: 11

SIZ: 10

INT: 14

Idea: 70%

EDU: 16

Know: 80%

POW: 14

Luck: 70%

DEX: 11

APP: 15

Move: 8

SAN: 70

HP: 11

Weapons: None

Average Damage Bonus: +0

Spells: None

Skills: Art: Drawing 25%; Art: Scriptwriting 50%; Conceal 21%; Craft: Acting 60%; Craft: Singing 35%; Credit Rating 60%; Disguise 55%; Hide 50%; Listen 45%; Speak French 30%; Psychology 40%; Spot Hidden 31%

SAN Loss: it costs no SAN to see Elsa Sheridan

The party meets Miss Sheridan at Tony Sarg’s Oasis Lounge, a trendy eatery in the hotel. She is a petite and vivacious young woman who, on first appraisal, seems to be trying to appear much older than she really is. She is quite pretty with blonde hair, blue-grey eyes and a nervous energy. Those party members encountering her for the first time might like to make Psychology Rolls. There is an underlying tension about her: she attempts several times to subtly peek at other guests in the lounge seated nearby, observing their arrangements of coffee cups and cake dishes; placed in front of her on the nearest table is a glass of water on a folded napkin. Several waiters converse sotto voce nearby and look sniffily in her direction. Obviously, Miss Sheridan has a cash flow problem. This fact may be used to gain her early trust (by buying her a coffee and a slice of pie for example, and reassuring her that it’s “on me”) but may also incline the party to believe that her visions are more likely to be a stunt, staged for financial advantage.

Elsa Sheridan was born in Jamaica New York, and comes from a fairly normal middle-class family. An early brush with fame – where she played an adorable toddler in a short movie – inclined her towards the dramatic arts. She took dancing, singing and piano lessons while at school and then joined the Queensboro Society for Allied Arts and Crafts. During this time she wrote a three act play entitled “Jean Madison” which was first performed to encouraging reviews when she was only seventeen. To the assembled Investigators, she seems keen, intelligent if somewhat naive, and enthusiastic.

However, before the party gets to meet the subject of their Investigation, Dr. Windrush ducks out. He hands one of his visiting cards to a party member and tells the group that they must make their own introductions, telling them to say that he was unable to show up to meet her himself. If the party makes an objection, he declares that there might well be members of the Press around and that there must be nothing to link the Investigators at this stage to the ASPR. He absents himself brusquely to the Cloak Room, leaving the party to approach the girl themselves. Later, he will be seen to enter the Lounge and greet a tall bespectacled man with dark hair and a thick moustache, sitting alone to one side reading a newspaper. Neither of them pay the party or the girl any heed.

Elsa at first seems cowed by so many strange people greeting her unexpectedly, but her natural curiosity and eagerness soon take over and she tells the party that she is keen to help them in whatever way she can. The group should here reveal the ideas that they have to try and understand the source, range and capabilities of her talent: she will at all times be enthusiastic. If something they suggest seems rather risqué, she will at first be hesitant but then she will shrug her shoulders and say “what the heck?” At all times she appears forthright and go-getting.

The Wit to Woo...

Elsa Sheridan is an engaging and thoroughly likable character in a clear-eyed, P.G. Wodehouse kind of way. It would seem plausible then, that she might form an attachment with one on the young male Investigators. Should any of the players make this suggestion, play along with it – a little romance does wonders for a Call of Cthulhu adventure!

Down to Work!

What happens next is really a function of what the players have organised in terms of their experimental procedure. They may have set up a sleep laboratory in which they can observe the subject sleeping; they may have decided to hold a séance; they might well have decided to hypnotise Miss Sheridan. The Keeper need only follow along and make whatever responses seem appropriate with the one exception: Elsa is extremely resistant to hypnosis.

The main thing to focus upon is that, for Elsa’s sleeping mind to start seeing strange and bizarre entities from other worlds, she needs to be asleep in her own apartment. The answer to the strange riddle lies not so much in when, or how she sleeps, but where.

To be continued...