Trypophobia: A System-Neutral Scenario for Horror RPGs

This scenario should take 2–8 hours to complete and is designed for use with most investigative horror games, such as Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, or Cthulhu Dark.

A free PDF version is available from Itch.io (no registration required) or DrivethruRPG (you’ll need an account).

What’s Going On

Afghanistan war veteran and former opioid addict William Magnus is using a rare breed of leech to treat opioid addiction in and around Bleakwood, Washington.

• The leech’s saliva contains a hallucinogen that blocks opioid receptors and causes long, intense, profound psychedelic experiences during which users are highly subjective to suggestion.
• The leeches he uses leave small, round, deep scars.
• The leeches are capable of draining a person of blood entirely if a patient is left unattended during treatment.

Magnus has discovered that he can reshape people’s lives in a more profound way than merely treating their addictions. While they’re in a hypnotic state, Magnus can implant essentially any suggestion he wants. He’s been using that as an opportunity to help patients adopt healthier diets and generally live better lives, but he makes these interventions without their knowledge or consent.

Much of the town, including the Sheriff Matt Lange, is aware of Magnus’s strange treatment technique and see the good it’s doing for the town amidst the opioid epidemic. But a few are starting to realize that their loved ones are changing as a result of his interventions.

Magnus has been kidnapped by Dr. Charles Henge, a local doctor feelgood who has been supplying opioid prescriptions to Bleakwood’s population. His practice has suffered drastically as a result of Magnus’s interventions.

Magnus

William comes from a long line of military men, and people in the community know and respect the family for their generations of service. He is the last surviving member of his family. His father committed suicide while he was a teenager, and his mother and sister died in a car accident while he was in Afghanistan.

Magnus began using opioids in the Army after he was prescribed hydrocodone following a shrapnel injury in Afghanistan. He continued using after his discharge.

Two years ago he decided to go cold turkey at his family’s cabin, deep in the woods outside of town. A friend dropped him off, leaving him with no car to return to town. One night he got so desperate for a fix that he wandered into the woods, determined to walk back to town. He got lost and, in a daze, fell into the mud near a creek. Some of the leeches attached themselves to him, and he had a profound and terrifying hallucinogenic experience that lasted for days. His desire for drugs was gone and he had a new sense of purpose. He could help other people in his drug-ravaged hometown overcome their addictions.

As he experimented, he realized that he could implant any suggestion he wanted into people’s brains. He started helping them not just quit opioids, but alcohol and cigarettes as well. He helped people stick to diets, exercise regularly, overcome anger management issues, go back to school, and more, but without their knowledge or consent. The town is turning around thanks to him. But they are also losing their free will — if they ever had any.

For Magnus, the ends justify the means. Maybe he’s been playing God. But, hell, someone has to if God has completely abandoned Bleakwood.

The Hook

Daniel Hart, a 23-year-old construction workerto Magnus’s compound in the forest for treatment for his opioid addiction. Magnus disappeared during Hart’s treatment and was unable to do any “brainwashing.” After sobering up from the leech trip, Hart discovered a Styrofoam cooler of leeches, stole them, and returned to Bleakwood. Unfortunately, while hiding out at the home of his girlfriend Megan Fernandes, the leeches escaped the cooler and killed Hart. Fernandes, a 27-year-old nurse, discovered his body riddled with thousands of tiny holes and completely exsanguinated.

Sheriff Lange is covering up the circumstances of the death, but Fernandes, who is completely unaware of Magnus’s operation and the existence of the leeches, is spreading the word of her late boyfriend’s strange death. Because of her medical background, Hart knew the death was extremely unusual and took photos before the deputies arrived.

How the player characters become aware of the unusual circumstance of Hart’s death will depend on the nature of their group. Perhaps Fernandes sent photos to the state police, or has posted them somewhere on the internet. If your group offers their services for hire, perhaps Fernendes has contacted them directly.

Important note: If you’re creating new characters for this scenario, they should be from outside of Bleakwood, or at best very new in town. Fernandes can be used as a player character since she is new in town.

Trypophobia

Tryptophobia is an aversion to the sight of clusters of small, irregularly sized holes. It’s not recognized as a clinical disorder. In fact, most people have at least a mild aversion to this type of imagery, and with good reason: it’s often a sign that food has gone bad. This sort natural revulsion is different from the serious anxiety experienced by people with, for example, agoraphobia. However, some people may react more strongly than others, so it’s a good idea to let players know what they’re in for before they commit to playing this scenario.

Tryptophobic imagery is a motif that appears in many scenes. If you find yourself needing more examples to sprinkle in, here are some other items to consider:

• Craggy rocks
• Corn cobs
• Sponges
• Lotus seed heads
• Pockmarked roads
• Burst bubbles on a layer of foam on a latte or cappuccino
• Beehive or wasp nest
• The bottom of mushrooms
• Certain cheeses
• Pomegranate
• Bread
• Coral

Bleakwood

Population: Around 15,000

On their way to Bleakwood, the player characters will pass through gloomy old timber towns and desolate cranberry bogs. The weather is rainy and overcast, regardless of the time of year.

As the player characters pass through downtown Bleakwood on the way to Fernandes’s apartment, the town will at first appear to be a charming, small western town full of quaint storefronts along its main drag. But then they’ll notice that at least half of those storefronts are empty. There’s almost no life on the streets. The economic recovery rejuvenating much of the state has passed Bleakwood over completely, leading to the local saying that the town is “recovery proof.”

It will be obvious to the PCs why there’s an opioid problem in town, and why the only famous people to come out of the town are a serial killer and a famous actor who killed himself by overdosing on heroin (feel free to make up the details of these two figures).

Notable places:

• Megan Fernandes’s Apartment
• Sheriff’s department
• County jail
• Whereabouts Bar
• Morgue
• Old Salty’s diner
• Dr. Henge’s office
• Dr. Henge’s house
• Magnus’s house in town
• The Magnus Place
• Double wide near the Magnus place

Megan Fernandes’s Apartment

Fernandes will be entirely truthful about what she knows and remembers.

• Fernandes is new in town. She moved from Northern California for a nursing job at a hospital near Bleakwood.
• She’s only known Hart a few months. They started dating shortly after she moved to Bleakwood.
• She knew he had a drug problem, and he went missing a few days after his friend Tucker was arrested for possession of black tar heroin.
• She reported Hart missing, but the Sheriff blew it off, saying Hart probably just skipped town.

Hart turned up at Fernandes’s place the night before he died, saying he needed to get some sleep and that he would explain where he’d been the next day. She found him dead the next evening, after a shift at work.

The only thing he had with him when he arrived at her house the night before was a Styrofoam cooler. It’s now missing. She can’t recall whether it was in the house before the deputies arrived, but it’s certainly gone now.

She mentioned she’d seen one other person with a small number of similar scars, a man in his mid to late 50s, at the Old Salty’s diner. She thinks the man was the father of one of the women working there.

An extremely good search roll will uncover a single leech. If a character gets it on their skin, they will begin to hallucinate (see Leech Experience for details). Characters with an appropriate scientific background can determine that the leech belongs to no currently known species.

Leech Experience

The effects will last a few days and require a Sanity check or equivalent. The character will be out of commission for at least a day. They will experience intense, disturbing hallucinations. You can use this as an opportunity to drop clues about Henge’s wearabouts, or about future scenarios. Alternately, you can describe flashbacks to disturbing events from earlier scenarios, or ask the players to narrate haunting episodes from their character’s past.

Sheriff’s Department

Sheriff Lange is in his late 50s, but is quite fit and healthy for his age.

He keeps a blender on his desk, and when the PCs arrive, he’s making a smoothy with strawberries, kale, whey powder and other paleo-friendly ingredients.

Lange himself had an opioid problem and was treated by Magnus. Magnus put him, like so many other people in town, on a strict paleo diet and a rigorous exercise regime. He also instructed the Sheriff to protect him and keep him and the location of his operation a secret from anyone who isn’t actively seeking his help. Lange is unable to act against Magnus’s wishes.

He denies Megan Fernandes’s account of what happens and says Daniel Hart’s body never had any holes. He says there was no evidence of foul play, and that Hart’s body was already cremated at the request of his step-mother, and only next of kin, Trisha Martosvich.

Lange is lying: the body is still in the morgue at the hospital.

He will rant about how the PCs shouldn’t be wasting their times looking into Hart and should be going after pharmaceutical companies, Dr. Henge, who he blames for the opioid epidemic, and environmentalists, who he blames for destroying the timber industry and putting the town into such a desperate state.

County Jail / Tucker Billings

Tucker Billings is a white man in his mid-20s with tattoos all over face. If the PCs can gain his trust, he will explain that he went to the nearest large city and bought a large amount of black tar heroin to try to sell in town since Henge has been writing fewer scripts and hasn’t even been in his office lately.

Billings thinks Daniel Hart went to the “Magnus place” for treatment. He’s heard the Magnus Place is the best way to get clean, but he’s never quite gotten up to going out there. He doesn’t know where it is, but suggests that the PCs maybe ask his friend Chris Davis if they think something happened to Daniel there.

Chris Davis

Christian Davis is a man in his mid-to-late 40s. He used to be a mechanic for the state department of transportation. He started using opioids after suffering a back injury while lifting something heavy at work. He lost his job after failing a UA. After hitting rock bottom and losing his wife and kids, he went out to the Magnus place. He’s now working as a mechanic for a local shop in downtown Bleakwood, near the Whereabouts bar. He won’t/can’t sell Magnus out. He has a cluster of small circular scars on his arm not unlike those found on Hart’s body. He will lie and say he got them in a workplace accident many years ago.

PCs could follow Davis out to the Magnus place if he goes out to warn Magnus, or if they can hack his phone or computer they can get the coordinates of the place.

Trisha Martosvich / Whereabouts Bar

If the PC’s ask around, they will learn that Hart’s step-mother Trisha Martosvich can usually be found at her favorite bar, Whereabouts. When they find her, she’ll be drunk and of no help.

Regardless of what time the PCs visit, the bar is slow. Martosvich is one of the only, perhaps the only, patron in the place. She will express surprise and confusion that Hart has been cremated, but little concern. She never thought of Hart as a son, and though she was sad to hear of his passing, they were never close.

She will encourage the PCs to have a drink with her, mumbling that no one else seems to drink anymore.

Hospital/Morgue

St. Mary’s is a small, old publicly owned hospital with aging equipment and dwindling resources. The morgue is located within the hospital.

The coroner, Makaela Ellis, will back Sheriff Lange’s account of what happened, but hasn’t been brainwashed by Magnus and can be coerced into showing the PCs Hart’s body. Just as in the photos Fernandes took, the body is covered in thousands of tiny circular scars. Anyone who sees the body will need to make an Sanity check or equivalent.

If Ellis is asked about Magnus, she can tell the PCs that William Magnus runs some sort of unorthodox treatment center outside of town, that it’s helped people, and that she doesn’t think that Magnus did anything to hurt Hart. But she doesn’t know where Magnus lives.

If the PCs want to bypass the coroner entirely, Megan Fernandes could help the PCs gain access to the morgue.

Old Salty’s Diner / Terressa Smith

• In front of Old Salty’s is a huge old boat anchor covered in barnacles.
• A sign advertises “breakfast all day.”
• A large pancake gridle is visible behind the counter. The PCs can see pancakes bubbling.

Terressa Smith, age 28, will be working when the PCs arrive. Terressa doesn’t know who Magnus is. She’s a few years younger than him and spent the past few years living in Seattle. If the PCs ask whether she’s seen a man with strange scars/holes in his arm, as described by Megan Fernandes, she’ll confirm that her father Bill Smith has some scars like that. He told her that it happened in an accident with some sort of mulching equipment at one of the now-closed timber mills.

She will tell the PCs that her dad has been acting weird lately, but in a good way. He’s eating healthy, exercising, and has even signed up for a certified nursing assistant training program, a career she never thought he would pursue. He’s also been uncommonly nice, and his anger management problems seem to have been cleared up. (He has, of course, been treated by Magnus, but Terressa doesn’t know anything about this as it happened before she returned to town).

Terressa will provide Bill’s phone number if the PCs ask for it. His home address can easily be found through a public records search as well.

If the PCs ask about Magnus, a local named Tom Stewart will overhear and confront the PCs as they are leaving. Stewart is a foul-smelling and homely old man who will rant about how the PCs should leave town immediately and not look back, and that asking too many questions around town probably won’t go well for them. He won’t say more than that.

Bill Smith’s House

The PCs can find Smith at home, where he’s just taken a tray of roasted garlic bulbs out of the oven. They can be smelled throughout the house.

Smith has been brainwashed by Magnus and will lie to protect him, claiming that the changes in his life are motivated by wanting to be a better father now that his daughter is back. He cannot be talked into or threatened into revealing any information about Magnus. As with the Sheriff and Davis, the best the PCs can do is try to trick him into revealing information.

Searching Smith’s car, an old beat-up pickup truck, will reveal a map with a place off an old county road in the woods marked (this is the Magnus Place).

Henge’s Office and House

Henge’s office is closed and locked, even if the PCs visit during normal business hours. He has a burglar alarm that will alert the local police if someone tries to enter. If the PCs force their way in, a thorough search will uncover a deed for a small plot of land near the Magnus Place.

At his house, his wife Marie will say that Henge took off for a week to a conference in Spokane, which she believes to be the truth.

The Magnus Place: Main Cabin

A long country road leads to a faux log cabin.

• Outside, speakers hanging from trees connected to a PA system in the cabin that Magnus and Birch can use to play music or make announcements that can be heard throughout the property.
• Various mulched trails lead off to three a-frame buildings in the woods.
• There’s no cell phone reception on the property, but satellite phones will work.

Birch Stevens is inside the cabin. He’s 31 years old, has a big red beard, thick neck, bloodshot eyes, and wears a Carhart work jacket and work pants. He’s suspicious and distrustful. He will defend himself if attacked, but is not particularly aggressive.

Birch was one of Magnus’s earlier “patients,” before he’d discovered how susceptible people are. He hasn’t been fully brainwashed, but is extremely loyal to Magnus and lives on the property and helps Magnus out. He’s worried sick about Magnus’s disappearance. He’ll help the PCs if they can convince him that they are on Magnus’s side, or if he feels he has no other choice.

If asked about Magnus’s whereabouts, he’ll truthfully answer that he doesn’t know and untruthfully say that he expects Magnus back “soon.” If asked to be more specific about how soon is “soon,” he’ll try to evade questions.

Birch knows that Magnus is missing, but doesn’t know who took him. He doesn’t know where in the forest Magnus gathers the leeches. He knows that Magnus’s therapy sessions now go far beyond simply treating addiction, but he doesn’t want to admit it to himself, let alone to the PCs. No matter what he will insist that Magnus is doing good for the community.

Asked about Hart, Birch will explain that Hart fled the grounds after Magnus went missing and took some leeches with him. There’s no phone at the cabin, so he won’t be aware until the PCs tell him that Hart is dead.

Sheriff Lange’s Arrival at the Magnus Place

After the PCs have spent some time on the property, and perhaps explored the a-frames, Sheriff Lange will arrive, presuming he hasn’t been killed or otherwise incapacitated previously. If the PCs followed Lange here, then the following will obviously unfold before the PCs get a chance to spend any time on the property.

Lange will crash his police cruiser into the side of the main cabin, doing only minor damage to the building. He’ll have leeches all over his arm and will be rambling about the Earth having its “long awaiting embrace with the Sun.” Feel free to add or change his ramblings to include clues more relevant to your own campaign.

Lange was on his way to the cabin to warn Magnus that outsiders were asking around about him and to return the cooler that Hart stole from him, complete with leeches recovered from Fernandes’s apartment. On the way, the cooler tipped over and Lange reached down to grab it, but his arm was covered by leeches. He’ll be incapacitated soon. Birch will work to remove the leeches and calm Lange down.

The Magnus Place: A-Frames

The a-frames are sparsely decorated, with small futons and little else. Only one is occupied, by an older man with a long gray “skullet” (bald on top, long hair in the back). He’ll be writhing on his futon, talking about underground labyrinths and golden castles in the sky. Additionally, or alternatively, you could plant clues more relevant to your campaign in his ramblings.

Searching around outside of the a-frames will uncover evidence that someone was dragged into the woods from one of the empty a-frames. The PCs can follow the trail to another county road, with a driveway leading to a single-wide trailer.

Single Wide Trailer in the Woods.

Henge has Magnus duct-taped to a chair here. Henge is in his early 60s. He’s balding, has a mustache, and wears business casual clothing. Magnus is in his late 30s, has long blond hair, a beard, and wears rugged clothing.

Henge has had Magnus here for a couple of days, trying to work up the courage to kill him. When the PCs arrive, he has a syringe containing a fatal dose of morphine poised against one of Magnus’s veins.

Henge will rant about how Magnus is brainwashing people and playing god.

Magnus will beg the PCs to stop him and claim that he’s helping the people in the community and it’s Henge who is killing them.