STRANGE AEONS - CALCUTTA

Another set of Strange Aeons adventures.

Dr. Vikram Sharadindu Chatterjee, the legendary Calcutta detective, is dead. Mysteriously dead. You have to solve all his outstanding cases. No time to lose. The body of a Special Branch detective was recently found at the Nimtala burning ghat - stuffed in a jute sack, burnt alive. Gangsters, naga, creepy monks and parasite-infected Himalayan mountains await. I'm also on Bluesky so check me out there.

Here's another section of my list of occult treasures if that's the kind of thing you like.

1. Canary Idol. Owl-shaped Guanche cult image found on the Savage Islands by a family of Portuguese slave traders in the late 16th century. Represents the goddess Chaxiraxi, a demon queen worshipped in ancient Carthage. Sends you dreams of the future if you bathe it in a child’s blood.
2. Camera Nebulosa. Wet-plate camera used by Robert Fenton to shoot Cistercian abbeys and the Crimean War. Requires hour-long exposure times. Sold by Fenton after he abandoned photography in 1862. Gustave le Gray’s experimental chemical process captures spectral entities on film as swirling blue-grey mist.
3. Lunch Pipe. Long-stemmed Xhosa pipe. Handmade in the 1850s by the cattle-killing prophet Nongqawuse. Enables tobacco to substitute for food. Designed for use by breastfeeding mothers - influences the milk. Taken by Boer police from the Black Hebrew evangelist Enoch Mgijima after the Bulhoek massacre of 1921.
4. Eternal Flame. Taken from the Great Fire of Adur Gushnap, a Sassanid flame temple at Takht-e Soleymān in West Azerbaijan. Kept in a brass cup by Hulagu Khan. Smells bad to demons. Can’t be extinguished by anything, ever. Will still be burning when the stars go out.
5. Thunder Casket. Gilded copper reliquary holding three teeth of the Buddha. Found by David Spooner in the ruins of the Kanishka stupa outside Peshawar. Captures and stores lightning - leave it outside in a storm to fire off a thunderbolt at a later date. The Korean pilgrim Hyecho describes its use in war by the White Huns.
6. Epiphany Bell. Crafted over thirty years from meteoric iron by a Russian Old Believer living in total isolation in the Altai Mountains. Said to create a path to the mythical paradise of Kunlun, across the Weak River and the demon-haunted Moving Sands, when rung in the right spot.
7. Phallus Magnus. Roman fascinus amulet - winged bronze penis on a chain. Always points to the fattest woman in a hundred-mile radius. Lost in the Sudd by the legionaries of Nero’s White Nile expedition. Dug out of a hippo’s belly, many years later, and used to populate the harem of King Mutesa I.
8. Chasse-Galerie. Flying canoe purchased from Hell by Quebecois lumberjacks working on the Gatineau River around 1868. Travels 500 km per night. Only works between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. If you say the Lord’s name or touch a crucifix while using it, the Devil takes your soul.
9. Star Wax. Ambergris from the gut of a cosmic leviathan. Gathered by Caral-Supe harpoonists in 3000 BC. Pale and greasy. Peanut-sized lump found by a Chinese coolie under ten feet of guano in the Chincha Islands in 1874. Used in delicious perfumes - Coco Chanel’s assassins scour the globe for more.
10. Titan Cube. Green crystal from Saturn’s rings. Makes people more likely to accept mundane explanations for supernatural phenomena. Given to Galileo as payment for his propaganda on behalf of the Serpent Men. Locally dampens anti-Fortean mind control when smashed - sparks witch hunts, encourages vampire belief.
11. Snake Clown. Painted wooden Hopi kachina figurine. Leave it alone in a cage with a snake overnight - next morning the snake will be gone and you’ll have good luck all day. Found in a Coconino cave by the astronomer Percival Lowell - used to guide his investigations of the Mars canals.
12. Greybeard. Salt-glazed stoneware jug filled with mercury, nails, rum and urine. Resembles a bearded man. Abandoned in the Dampier Archipelago by a captain of the Dutch East India Company in the early 1600s. Any vehicle that carries it will eventually crash, wreck or sink.
13. Pig Dragon Stone. Coiled neolithic jade figure with a vaguely porcine head. Repels cosmic parasites. Owner will slowly become fat, greedy, lazy, stupid and impossible to defeat in single combat. Taken by Chinese Gordon from the Summer Palace ruins and used to manufacture champions for British boxing rings.
14. Night Ship. Carrack in a bottle. Made by a Lubeck shipwright in 1806. Close study reveals minute insectile figures scurrying through the rigging. Fall asleep holding it - become a captain in the Dreamlands, plying the trade routes between Ulthar and the Moon. Lets you carry dream objects back to the waking world.
15. Lazarus Mask. Glittering red Venetian carnival mask. Neither age nor disease can kill the man who wears it. Discovered by Mekhitar of Sebaste in the ruins of the leprosarium on Saint Lazarus Island, on the face of a centuries-old Knight of Malta, who fought like a demon to prevent its being removed.
16. Olifant. Hunting trumpet made from a lunar mammoth’s tusk. Used by the knight Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux. Can summon a legion of extraterrestrial paladins. Requires enough lung-force to pop vessels in the brain - inflicts strokes and aphasia on anyone who blows it.
17. Taklamakan Ape. Red-furred mummified primate found by Aurel Stein in a Tocharian tomb under the Flaming Mountains on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Silk robe and tiny hat. Comes alive at night to steal coins, fruit, small shiny objects - these can be cut out of its bloated stomach.
18. Devil’s Fiddle. Made by the master luthier Nicola Amati on commission from the Devil in 1666, using upas-tree wood and strings made from the guts of damned sinners. Won in a fiddle contest by an anonymous Georgia hillbilly in 1879. Hungry wolves and spittle-flecked berserkers will stop to hear it played.
19. Covenant Ark. Chest used by Moses to hold the Tablets of the Law. Brought to Tana Qirqos in 350 AD by Ezana of Axum. New commandments occasionally spawn in it. Kept in a monastery - the basement is full of stone tablets prohibiting kissing and the consumption of fresh bread.
20. Holy Grail. Brought to Glastonbury Tor by Joseph of Arimathea after Jesus’ death. Lets the drinker return from death, once, by fighting their way free from Annwn - the Welsh underworld, home to red-eyed hounds and mottled serpents. King Arthur is down there, caught in brambles - you can bring him back.

STRANGE AEONS - ISTANBUL

The next set of Strange Aeons adventures.

Leo Kazankian, sole owner and proprietor of the Manzikert Hotel in 1920s Istanbul, wants you to help him solve all manner of occult mysteries. But perhaps the greatest mystery... is himself? Basil Zaharoff has stolen the Prophets' Sword from the Topkapi Museum and is auctioning it off in a secret esoteric bazaar in the old Byzantine cisterns, run by eunuch priests. If you liked my old Black Auction posts I hope that you'll like this. And I'm on Bluesky now if that's the kind of thing that floats your boat.

I'm still fleshing out my lists of spellbooks and treasures, as well. Here's some more.

1. Greenland Spar. Jomsviking navigation crystal. Looted from the Uunartoq fjord settlement by the Victual Brothers in 1428. Found in an abandoned boat shack in the Turku Archipelago. Invisible things can be seen through it. Reveals extra planets when aimed at the night sky.
2. Ghost Shirt. Made from buckskin by the Paiute prophet Wovoka. Deflects bullets. Worn by Chief Kicking Bear during the Battle of Greasy Grass. Sold by Buffalo Bill to a Glaswegian bank robber in 1891. Uncomfortable. Fits under a long coat. Only works when it’s about to rain.
3. Catalan Barsoom. Portolan chart of Noachian Mars, showing the coastline of the northern ocean and the spice ports of the Valles Marineris outflow channels. Made in 14th-century Majorca. Green figures in turbans depicted riding insects. Bug-eyed Antichrist crouches atop Olympus Mons.
4. Glyph Cone. Live venomous sea snail. Shell marked with angular cuneiform - generated by a chemical cellular automaton, devised by Lemurian scientists to preserve their sacred texts. Neurotoxic needle kills in minutes. Specimens routinely found by Queensland divers.
5. Hockomock Hinkypunk. Cluster of luminescent floating grubs - the souls of Wampanoag shamans. Bottled by a Connecticut trapper during King Philip’s War. Uncorked in a rural area, they fly off in all directions, permanently haunting the vicinity with strange misleading lights.
6. Taduki. Dried leaves in a hessian pouch. Lets you relive past lives if smoked. Harvested in the Drakensberg by slaves of the Zulu dwarf wizard Zikali. Distributed by Omani traders from Zanzibar and Muscat. Horribly addictive. Use D&D rules for medieval memory adventures.
7. Paramaribo Judge. Gold vessel found in Suriname by 17th-century Dutch settlers. Traded to the river Caribs by Mansa Muhammad ibn Qu. Djinn inside can fairly settle any dispute, given calculation time and library access. Currently considering the ancient case of Animal v. Man.
8. Plum Dust. Rosewood box stolen by Hitachi Province fisherman from a hollow metal vessel shaped like an incense burner, discovered on the ocean around 1803. All the box contained was a pink skull made from lacy crystal that dissolved into powder on contact with the air.
9. Cipher Block. Brick from Solomon’s Temple. Absorbs heat. Hums when left in sunlight. Inscribed in Hebrew with a Name of God. Any building constructed using it will develop rudimentary consciousness, capacity to grow. Taken from foundations of Keziah Brown’s Arkham cottage.
10. Nosferatu Coffer. Sealed by seven locks, one for each classical planet, requiring a key of the corresponding alchemical metal. Holds the heart of the oldest vampire. Plants die around it. Removed by subterfuge from a Swiss bank vault - the Gnomes of Zurich want it back.
11. Ottakar. Life-size wooden mannequin. Four feet tall, proportions subtly wrong. Manufactured by a German firm to the exact specifications of the Symbolist painter Odilon Redon. Figures drawn with it as a model tend to resemble the same pallid entity - and move when you look away.
12. Mist Whistle. Skull-shaped Aztec whistle found in Tlatelolco. Makes a dry shrieking sound and summons an ice-cold mist when blown. Skeletons bathed in the mist get up and dance. Attracts the bones of underground giants - +10% chance to cause an earthquake every time it’s used.
13. Brain Cylinder. Holds Knud Andersen, bat expert, recently returned from a tour of the crystal cities and fungal forests of the Oort Cloud. Bubbling with excitement - wants to publish his new biological discoveries. Sleeps a lot. Only good things to say about his mi-go hosts.
14. Lucky Penny. Minted in 2043. Steel. James K. Polk on one side - lightning bolt on the other. Brings good luck in battle to its owner - opponents have a way of tripping over and dealing themselves comically grotesque wounds. Bad luck in all other fields. Can’t be reclaimed once lost.
15. Slime Helm. Diving helmet full of cold black ooze. Used in an attempt by rich Theosophists to investigate magnetic anomalies detected off New Zealand’s southern coast. Hauled up years later by Chilean fishermen. Ooze can be poured out - there’s always more.
16. Stopwatch. Made from an abandoned time machine, found by urchins in a Southwark warehouse and dismantled for scrap. Can freeze time for thirty seconds. Usable once a month. Ape-men from the future must destroy it to avert the paradox that ends their species.
17. Dowsing Pendant. Tiger’s eye pendulum on gold chain. Gives you direct access to the Akashic Records. Charge it up with sunlight and suspend it over a map to see where you’re supposed to go. Destiny of all previous owners - Mughal princess, French aristocrat - has been horrible death.
18. Thunderclap Bomb. Cast-iron sphere full of gunpowder. Blessed by 888 Taoist priests. Character for “heaven” on the side. Last of a bundle used by Song dynasty warriors at the Siege of Kaifeng. Will level a building and summon a celestial bureaucrat to see what all the noise is about.
19. Aqua Tofana. Thumb-sized vial of colourless liquid. Makes you fall so deeply in love with the first woman you see that it kills you. Brewed from toads and mercury by the Palermo poisoner Giulia Tofana in 1633. A kiss each day from your inamorata delays your painful death.
20. Imperial Harpoon. Hurled by the Roman general Belisarius into the flank of the sperm whale Porphyrios, who plagued shipping in the Sea of Marmara during the reign of Justinian I. Retrieved from the beast near Mocha Island in 1838 and hung above the altar in a Nantucket church.