Game Description
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."
~ Second Witch, Macbeth
In The Past...
The name Wolfgang Hodenstahl was once synonymous with 'Adventure'. World explorer, millionaire philanthropist, amateur archaelogist, big game hunter, and of course, ladies man, the handsome second-generation German American made headlines in all the right papers and friends in all the right circles. His exploits, embellished with the artistic liberties of journalists, held the public in thrall while his many monetary and artifact contributions to leading scientific institutions made him popular in academic circles as well (although more than one archaeology professor was known to gripe that he tended to destroy more history than he preserved.)
His charming, self-deprecating personality made him approachable and at every party or gathering he was the perfect guest: famous, interesting, entertaining, but not one to hog the spotlight. His own parties at his large estate in northern Massachusetts were always well attended and he was known to go bear hunting in the area in the company of Theodore Roosevelt and his cabinet.
On March 1st, 1908, he left the country on a particularly expensive and well publicized expedition to Africa from where, he claimed, he would bring back extraordinary proof of mankind's earliest selves. Leaving the academics lurching between scepticism and anticipation, he set off by ship to Europe and thence, to darkest Africa. The trip was to take six months.
Three years later a broken Hodenstahl crawled into a British settlement on the Gold Coast, his guides and expedition members long gone and his mind unhinged. He was quickly returned to the 'States where the tabloids buzzed madly about what horrible fate may have befallen the expedition and exaggerated every detail leaked about his condition. After a brief stay in Arkham Sanitarium, he returned to his estate and fired all of his staff save three. He refused all visitors and interviews and in time the public grew bored and sought scandal elsewhere.
The world seemed to forget that he existed. For ten years no one had heard from him, not a letter, not a telegram, not a check.
Seven Months Ago...
At the beginning of August, 1922, Wolfgang Hodenstahl contacted and employed several individuals of varying skills and experience to complete a seemingly simple task: discovering the identity of a two-hundred-year-old body recently unearthed in an unmarked grave. Complications quickly arose when it was learned that the body in question had disappeared from police custody. The trail of its identity and whereabouts lead a merry chase through the city of Arkham, from a forgotten cottage in the woods south of town to a modern elementary school on an ordinary city block, and finally ended where it began - at the Public Schools Building where the body had first been discovered and where it would ultimately be destroyed.
In The Present...
It is now March of 1923. The past few months have been quiet in Arkham and life has returned to its normal path. Winter lingers like an obnoxious cough, alternating days of clear sky with fits of snow and sleet, but there is reason to believe a fair spring will soon arrive. As the end of yet another quarter approaches and exams are completed one after another, the atmosphere at the Miskatonic University takes on a festive air. Parties are becoming more frequent, more joyous, and even without alcohol (or sometimes very much with it) the people of Arkham are enjoying an overall sense of optimism not commonly seen in sleepy little New England towns. Spring is for lovers, they do say. Already some of the birds have begun to return to the trees.
In the wee hours of the morning soft steps lead to closed doors and dark windows. A gloved hand deposits stiff envelopes into certain mail boxes; unmarked envelopes sealed with green wax and a coat of arms that features a coiled serpent atop an anvil. Inside the envelopes are notes handwritten on very fine and expensive paper. There are also invitations... but of a very different sort than those provided on previous occasions.
Tales of the Miskatonic
