From: snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Steven E. Newton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Nyarlathotep's little habits...
Date: 6 Nov 1992 17:29:35 GMT
Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston

In article <MNEWS.720888443.2096@gate.demon.co.uk> C.G.Turnbull@man0507.wins.icl.co.uk (C.G.Turnbull) writes:
>         Folks,
>         
>         In my Cthulhu campaign, the PCs are on the verge of failing to 
>         stop the summoning of Nyarlathotep
>         
>         I would like to have a number of strange effects take place, 
>         newspaper stories of numbers of household pets disgorging 
>         themselves with their own teeth, natural springs spouting blood 
>         and all that. Do any of you have any suggestions for similarly 
>         macabre little events, nothing too major, just enough to disturb 
>         the pouplation in general and freak out some people in particular.

Lots of pregnant women have miscarriages, or give birth prematurely, or
have babies with extra or fewer fingers and toes.

Terminally ill people, ones who doctors expect to die very soon, or that
Catholic priests administer Last Rites to, inexplicably hover near death
but don't die.  For example, a man with massive head injuries from a
high-speed auto accident just doesn't die, but doesn't heal either.

Men's facial hair stops growing and they don't have to shave.
Women *start* growing facial hair.

Everyone's feet start to stink -- very badly.

Rings start falling off people's fingers and refuse to stay on,
necklaces constantly come unclasped, watches wind down in a few minutes,
stones fall out of their settings in rings and pendants.

The town/city water supply starts tasting foul, but no discoloration is
seen and tests detect no unusual chemicals.

Car repair shops are swamped with people bringing cars in for minor
repairs, but the repairmen can never find the cause.  Alternately, when
the repair shop tests the car the problem doesn't appear.  As soon as
the owner retrieves the car, of course the problem starts again.

Random number generators aren't random.  Perhaps they are sending a
message in some code?

Eletrical appliances--radios, washing machines, whatever--start up
without being turned on.

Psychiatrists see a sudden increase in some ordinary but not very common
mental problem.  Or perhaps manic-depressives get stuck in the depressed
state.

LOTS of couples -- married, engaged, whatever -- break up at the same
time.

You're stopped at a traffic light at suddenly you realize that every
car stopped around you is the same color as yours.

Play on the theme of "anti-chaos".  Normal randomness ceases to
work properly, and incredible coincidences of ordinary things happen.
Everyone in you office shows up one day wearing the same color.   A grocery
clerk reports that dozens of people in a row made purchases of the exact same
dollar amount -- and the amount was $44.55.  People at the city park a
startled when all the birds of the same species sing in unison once,
then go back to their normal singing.

All the flies at the city garbage dump or landfill disappear for a day,
then reappear the next day.  There's no clue where they were.

A woman reports that no matter how much she sweeps or mops her floor she
can't get all the dust.  But the floor doesn't appear unusually dirty in
any way.

The local medical school discovers that all the skeletons (real and
simulated) used for teach have disappeared, or turned a strange color,
or smell bad, or have grown fur.  (Imagine a furry skeleton: Brrrrr!)

S.

-- 
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            I can hear you well,               |Nobody else speaks for me,
            George Orwell.                     |and I speak for no one else.
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