Under New Management
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Author: Nathan Lough
Homepage: http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/terror/welcome.htm
System: Call of Cthulhu
Type: Hook
Category: Horror
Requirements:

Under New Management
Nathan Lough

	A local asylum has appointed a new head of staff after 
dismissing the last one as quietly as possible. The new Doctor has 
an interesting manner of treating the ill, paying particular 
attention to each patient, and he has ushered in an atmosphere of 
respect and dignity. Other members of staff have commented on the 
doctor's success with the schizophrenic and paranoid patients who, 
previously thought incurable, now speak coherently.
	The doctor has also shown an interest in events about town, 
attending those  related to the strange or supernatural with noted 
passion. The investigators, if they have not met him before at the 
asylum, might encounter him at one such occasion, a dinner party.
	The doctor and the investigators attend a dinner party given 
by a local spiritualist, who heads some local society for the feeble 
exploitation of the mundanely odd. The investigators enjoy a pleasant 
evening of food, conversation, and wine with the doctor and the host.
	The Doctor is the first to leave, about twenty minutes ahead 
of everyone else.
	On their way home, the investigators suffer from peculiar 
emotions of disease and apprehension. They feel light-headed from the 
wine, and the starless night turns the feelings into paranoia. Once 
they get home they feel safe. For a time.
	Later that night, they discover an odd doll-like figure in 
their room. The dolls wear small-scale normal clothes of the period, 
either male or female, but lack any defining features--their faces 
are white, blank globes. If handled, the doll squirms, and attempts to 
scramble up the investigators arm towards her/his face. The dolls are 
amorphous and gooey, and all but impervious in their single minded 
attempt to reach the investigator's face.

Possibilities
1	The dolls are a hallucination, a nightmare. Mentioning the 
phenomena to anyone results in a visit from the new doctor, and a 
eclaration of insanity may be quick to follow. If this happens, the 
new patient finds her/himself interned in a clean, orderly mental 
hospital, where the doctor and staff patiently try to cure them.

2	Asking around after the nightmare reveals that everyone who 
intended the party had some sort of nervous experience, though some 
decline to share its nature. Investigation reveals that the curious 
society lead by last night's host is much more adept than it seems 
at the arts of the supernatural. Investigation leads to a plot to 
replace officials and people in power in the town, with members 
loyal to this group. The dolls are part of a dark magic meant to 
rob someone of their sanity by implanting dementia-causing toxins 
into the victim's bodies.
	The doctor may at first be thought an ally, but has already 
been replaced.

3.	The dolls are a hallucination suffered by everyone attending 
the dinner. The hallucinations were caused by the new doctor who 
poisioned the wine with a powerful hallucinogen on his way back from 
the restroom. The nightmarish visions persist, and eventually, the 
victims feel persecuted everywhere, seeing life-sized, faceless 
horrors shuffling towards them, obscenely sucking air through their 
white, viscous flesh.
	These delusions will eventually turn a sane man mad, without 
treatment. Unfortunately, the cure offered at the asylum is worse - 
the doctor is creating from the minds of the mad, a perfect mirror 
for the mindless horror that is Azathoth. Individuals are locked 
alone in a dark room, with only a small white doll for company. The 
hallucnations return, with the creature refusing to rest until it 
has slid its way bloodily into the investigator's brain. There it 
prepares the victim's mind for the glory and the terror of an 
eternity of Azathoth.
 
Copyright (c) Nathan Lough 1998