What's YOUR story, Pal?

You drive around the corner and through the trees you see a house. The mansion seems to have been built by a madman. None of the angles of it seem quite right. As you pull up the driveway, you're not even sure what the building is made of. It looks like some material that is both metal and stone. You stop and get out of the car. As you walk up, you see a few gentlemen gathered on the massive front porch. You recognize some of them and begin to wonder what you're doing here. This rabble consists of every crackpot scientist in North America. You think about heading back to the car. The other "Doctors" look like they might be having the same idea. Then the front doors swing open...

Okay, so I've got this idea about a convention of mad scientists. Sounds fun, lots of absent-minded professors getting themselves into trouble. Interesting setup, but what's the story?

I'm prepping for KublaCon game convention and this is the opening scene for my 6 hour Call of Cthulhu game. I have some other elements in mind, but they're not coming together as a story yet. What's a Keeper of Arcane Lore to do? I've only got 2.5 weeks! I reach for a book, of course. C-O-C investigators are always getting their answers out of musty-dusty old books and I'm no different.

I use the ENCYCLOPEDIA CTHULHIANA. I own a 1st Edition and there's been a 2nd Ed. I start with a connection I already know: The Great Race of Yith were big technology users. They also mastered time travel. They fled their doomed planet of Yith and came to inhabit the bodies of creatures on earth millions of years ago. Okay, scientists like technology and mad scientists are always messing with time travel. At the end of the entry on the Great Race, there are cross references: Brothers of the Yellow Sign (could be bad guys) The Eltdown Shards (ancient pottery shards that could save the investigators) flying polys (the Yithians ancient enemies, maybe sanity loss causing bad guys), etc. As I turn to each reference, I find others and eventually I find a way of tying several of them together. I make up a few elements of my own and Bingo! I've got a story.

If you run C-O-C this is a really good source for creating adventures. Only bad news is that it isn't currently (5/8/2007) in print. I'll check with the folks at Chaosium at the convention and find out if they're planning a reprint. If you can find a copy, get it and ask Chaosium to do a reprint. My copy's getting tired.