[UA] Something Nasty Under the Stairs

[Gaston Phillips]

So, most all of the images and ideas that follow are other peoples'.  Most
were culled from the Kult-L list, and the hospital rooms were described by
PeterAmthor.

Just a creepy little horror film segment that, I'd like to imagine, one
could insert at random into a campaign.

gaston

Something Nasty Under the Stairs

Setting: A Hospital/Psychiatric Ward - cracked tile, dripping and rusty
water, exposed pipes, flickering fluorescents. Empty wards. It's
underground. Beneath the subways. Accessible by steam tunnels, by sewers,
and by long and locked elevator shafts in buildigs undisclosed.

Scenes:
1. Set up - get the PCs there, get them lost. (Hooks: Ad in paper offering
guided tours of NYC's catacombs by the kind of extreme tour group that
bungee jumps off the brooklyn bridge, A PC's little sister ran away to New
York and he found out she's squatting in the basement of a hospital, Druggie
PCs are trying to pull a midnight cowboy - doesn't matter. Bring them down
there alone. In the Setup, they meet each other one by one and two by two.)

2. Hospital Beyond Hope - Wandering around the empty halls. Fluttering
visions of orderlies dissapear around corners. The hallway is a cluttered
mess. Medicine and cleaning carts are turned over and their contents
scattered about the floor.
Some of the ceiling tile have fallen and only about half of the lights work,
some of them are hanging by the wires and sway giving a sensation of
perpetual motion. Other various debris lays in piles here and there,
clothing, a mattress or two, etc. There are doors to rooms all along the
hallway some are opened, other closed, some are missing doors altogether.
One major thing that stands out is the scrawlings along the walls on both
sides of the Hallway, with a tribal type design it is made using what
appears to by a mix of crayons, blood and marker.

Description
The Scrawlings: Stretching along the entire length of the hallway walls on
both sides is a intricate design. It first looks like something a child
would do, but there is a pattern evident. Looking like a cross between
tribal designs used by african natives and egyptian hieroglyphs it fills the
middle section of the wall completely. The media used in one section appears
to be crayons, another section looks like dried blood and right beside it is
a section done in black marker. This gives you the feeling that it was not
all done at the same time.
The rooms along this area are of varying states of disorder and chaos, some
are even in perfect order (these are usually ones with the door closed). Its
up to the individual GM to decide how much gore or dark imagery they want to
throw in here. Below are a few ideas and suggestions, although some like to
heep on the blood and death others like to give the feeling of the surreal
and unknown.

- The room is layered in dust and cobwebs. The light from the ceiling is
barely showing through enough for anyone to see by. On the bed is the dried
remains of the rooms occupant, long white hair and typical hospital gowns
give the idea that it was once an older female. Underneath her folded arms
is a copy of the Bible and a small cross. The tiles crack underneath the
characters feet and every sound seems to create an subtle echo.

- The room is completely empty save for a mirror above where the sink used
to be. There is no dirt or dust buildup anywhere in the room. Once someone
enters the room they can here a faint childlike voice saying "Help me...
please.. will someone help me. I'm lost." The sound is coming from the
mirror. In the reflection on the mirror the room is entirely furnished and
the person looking into it does not cast an image into it. Standing on the
bed is a young dark headed girl clutching a teddy bear and crying. Every now
and then she will repeat her message for help. Viewing this is usually a
call for an Unnatural, or Self, check. Trying to move the mirror will cause
the image to vanish and the mirror will then function normally.
Breaking it causes a loud ear aching noise and the glass shards will turn
first a rusty, blooded brown, and then black. However you can still hear the
girl calling for help.

- Several carts of life support machines and IV units clutter the room, most
of them with blood stains and dysfunctional controls. Amid the heap on a bed
is a lone elderly man connected to them all by tubes, wires and hoses. The
bed sheets are soaked with crusted blood and bodily fluids. As the
characters get closer his eyes will turn and focus on them. He reaches to
his mouth with one tired shaking hand, pulling on the tubes connected to it.
He reaches to pull the oxygen mask down from his mouth. When he has it out
of his way he speaks in a slow dry tired voice "please... help me...." his
eyes begin to well up tears "kill me... stop my suffering... please...
before they get back..."

- The room is brightly lit with everything in pristine order. The bed is
made perfectly, the floors are clean, there is absolutely no collection of
dust or dirt of any sort. It seems as if the room has been maintained in
pristine condition all this time.

- All the contents, the bed, chairs, IV racks, everything have been piled
into the center of the floor. All along the walls are the same scrawlings
seen in the hallway. Again they seem to have been made with whatever was
handy. A light draft of cold air can be felt by anyone standing still in
here.

- The corpe of a blonde boy is strapped, naked, to a steel operating table.
Thick white bands cover his ankles, his genitals, his nipples, and his eyes.
There is a... creature standing on his chest, in the process of eating his
lips. The boy's teeth and tongue have already been consumed. When the PCs
enter, the creature looks at them, hisses, and darts away into a crack in
the wall.  Creature: A squirrel or rat with talons, a lizard's head, black
lusterless eyes, and a long tail.

The nurses stations
There are several along this floor. Some have a security station in them
with television screens showing various sections of the floor. The only
problem is the screens are showing a normally operating hospital floor.
Nurses, patients, doctors and visitors all going about normal everyday
business. Everything looking like its supposed to. The computers at these
stations no longer function properly and display a hazy green blur and are
off an older model than those found at most modern facilities (Roll vs
computers to determine that they are a mid 80's model). Paperwork lies in
piles, equipment seems to be moved into corners to keep it out of the way.

3. Cops. It's silent in the hospital. Then, finally, voices. Noise. The
police are in the cafeteria. They've got it cordoned off. If people sneak
up, they overhear that the police have an escaped lunatic in the kitchen of
the cafeteria.  

4. The chase. At the end of the hallway, the PCs see an orderly crouched
over a homeless man who's sitting with one leg broken. The Orderly runs. The
man stands up, his leg twisted around, and begins to cough. His throat
swells. A snake slithers out of his mouth and drops to the ground,
approaching the PCs. Legs appear, and fur - it becomes one of Those
Creatures.  The man collapses into a hollow sack of skin.  More snakes begin
to appear, from the walls and the ceiling. Lots more. All sound is gone -
the PCs can't hear their own heartbeats. If they scream, their voices are
mute. The light goes out.  I imagine they run. Flashlights are visible from
the cafeteria. The PCs enter. They see the kitchen door as the only other
exit. The cops are confused. Then the flashlights die and the cops begin to
scream. There are sounds of feeding.  One cop screams into his radio
something garbled, but orders the tunnels flooded.  The sounds stop. The
kitchen is pitch black. It's wet and cold with condensed steam.

5. What you're standing in. The lights flicker back on. The kitchen is
coated in blood. The Police are slaughtered - mangled bits and torn uniforms
and equipment are strewn everywhere. When the PCs leave, the way out...
isn't. The hallway keeps going. Turning. The numbers don't make sense.

6. The big fight scene. There is a snuffling sound following the PCs. It's
getting louder. It's a big... thing. Horse Sized. Like a baby elephant with
rhino armor, a trunk, too many tusks sticking out every which way, big
claws, and a mouth that looks like a shark's. This time, the PCs get to
fight if they want. And, once it's dead, the numbers begin to make sense.
They're on the right path.

7. ...and your little dog toto, too. Walking backwards, the boy comes around
a corner ahead of the PCs. He turns to look at them. His mouth is sewn shut.
He's speaking with a sock puppet. "It wants your voices." Something like
that. The boy then shimmers, and explodes - inside the hollow sack of his
skin is a nest of snakes. The snakes turn into thingums, and give chase
again. 

8.  When the PCs then escape, racing out ahead of the floodwaters, it is to
return to a world that's two days later than the one they left.


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua