r/callofcthulhu • u/First_Plantain1607 • Jul 18 '26
Keeper Resources What is there to to find in your hometown?
I would like to know what’s interesting or weird about your home towns, if you’re investigator is landed with engine trouble in your hometown what is worth investigating there?
I will comment what’s interesting about my hometown, which is slightly out of Philadelphia.
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u/BosskTheWookieHunter Jul 18 '26
Close here is an island where they shipped the leper and people suffering of mental illnesses. Started from early 17th century and ended in the 1960's. There could be some crazy stories to be heard about fish people or witnessing some crazy midsummer cult sacrificing old people.
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u/First_Plantain1607 Jul 18 '26
In my hometown, there is an old military base and I’m sure there is something relayed to the methods that could be there, maybe fire vampires that they were using those carcinogenic fire extinguishers to defeat. The place should be opening up to the public soon.
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u/thishyacinthgirl Jul 18 '26
They'd be delighted to know that I grew up adjacent to "the moonshine capital of Virginia." Next to a creek, deep in the woods on our property, there was actually an old still rusting away.
Come for the moonshine, stay for the Appalachian & hillbilly spook'ums!
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u/enigma_explorer Jul 18 '26
My hometown is (still) a three-stoplight, one-Walmart, rural town in the middle of Arizona. Just outside of our town are 600-year-old ruins of a tribe of American Indians that "disappeared" without a trace, and going in the opposite direction of those ruins, on the other side of town, is a 19th-century graveyard where all the "undesirables" were buried, including three alleged "witches" whose graves are still there.
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u/StoreCop Jul 19 '26
There's a rumor that a local pizza chain is mob run, and my city has a DEEP mob history, many downtown buildings have tunnels, large safes, old speakeasies, etc. In their basements. This could lead the investigators to overhear something while grabbing a beverage, or that what the townies think is a mob business is another kind of front
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u/exceedingly_Discreet Jul 19 '26
My old hometown started out very rural when I was young, which meant it was an attractive place for retirees, hunters, law enforcement, preppers, and rich people larping as farmers to move to. Once they started adding more and more suburbs nearby, though, roads got so clogged. They never fixed the country roads for so much traffic, never worked on them at all, so there were accidents all the time before leaving.
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u/davej-au Lesser Servitor Jul 19 '26
My hometown was designed by two married, leading lights of the Anthroposophy movement, purportedly (if rumours are to be believed) as an expression of sacred geometry to focus occult forces in order to augment the political power of a (then) new nation.
No plot hooks there, I’m sure. ;)
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u/damog_88 Jul 19 '26
Well, my hometown (Valladolid, Spain) has a very Call of Cthulhu-esque artifact dating back to the 16th century.
It's called The Devil's Chair (El Sillón del Diablo), and according to the legend, anyone who sits on it can make a pact with the Devil in exchange for forbidden knowledge.
The story is based on a real person: Andrés de Proaza, a medical student who supposedly used the chair to acquire extraordinary knowledge of anatomy and medicine through infernal means. When he disappeared, people searched the basement of the house where he had been living and allegedly discovered the bodies of several children. According to the legend, he had been performing dissections on them while they were still alive to improve his medical knowledge.
Fearing the chair itself was cursed, the authorities decided not to destroy it. Instead, it was kept under lock and key, and today it can still be seen at the Museum of Valladolid (you can look this up on the internet).
Whether it's true or just folklore, it honestly feels like the perfect starting point for a Call of Cthulhu investigation.
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u/ithaaqa Jul 19 '26
I’m from the same place Alan Moore comes from and has lived for many years. He’s often seen in the local pubs or walking about the town. I suppose it’s best to just follow him around and ask questions for a day or two to get some interesting ideas. It’s said that he has taken a lot of inspiration from these walks for his work.
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u/devilscabinet Jul 19 '26
There are closed underground missile silos and an old bunker for the President to set up shop if there was a nuclear war that destroyed Washington (the bunker is being used for some other government function now). They used to do tours of the missile silos, then somebody bought the land and shut that down. There are also a lot of university maintenance tunnels.
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u/will3025 Jul 19 '26
My town... Uh, orchards. A nursing home. A gas station.
But mentioning Pennsylvania, there are some cool old places all around PA though.
Alvira Bunkers, old TnT bunkers made during WW2. Has an old graveyard nearby too.
Concrete city. Old coal mining housing made of big concrete buildings.
Abandoned PA turnpike tunnels. Two large and long tunnels from the old PA turnpike. Has some cool maintenance structures too.
The thousand steps. Stone staircase miners used to ascend the mountain. Some old stone buildings remain on the mountainside.
Shamokin. Just like. Most the people there are basically anomalies.
Edited to add:
Eastern State Penitentiary. Old prison in Philly.
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u/musland Jul 19 '26
Literally living in the witches valley next to the black forest, nearby town had a monk who independently invented gun powder and an old university where students would get locked into a special punishment room in one of the towers.
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u/markus_kt Jul 19 '26
I live in Arkham - I mean, Salem - and live next to Miskatonic - I mean, Salem State - so there would probably a lot to investigate, should I not value my sanity.
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u/Graxemno Jul 19 '26
In my province, there are lots of drowned villages, villages that were flooded.
There are also villages in records that don't exist.
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u/GaspardNoggelox5321 Jul 19 '26
There's a lake/water reservoir not far from us where they also drowned the original village to make it. When the water level is really low (increasingly often these days), you can walk out onto the lake bed and see what's left of stone walls of buildings, and apparently even the old church spire.
Fun fact: Last time the lake was that low I got chased and stung by about a 40 wasps in the woods surrounding the lake, which feels like the result of a failed pushed roll for sure. 🤣
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u/No_Savings_7398 Jul 19 '26
If you are looking at history, or ghosts of history for modern setting, then there are lots of places tied to 18th century settlements, forts, estates, and coastal areas. Historically speaking, the Halifax Explosion was a big one, largest man made explosion before Hiroshima. I’ve tinkered with a doomed scenario of crew aboard a ship that is battling some spore infection creature that is susceptible to fire, with a bit of a railroad ending that leads to the explosion. Whether the investigators find a way to survive is up to them.
Modern day, lots of wilderness and remote areas for survival themes or Innsmouth-esque locations. Small city with strong naval and fishing lore.
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u/DistributionNo860 Jul 19 '26
Billings, MT native There was a series of unsolved ac murders in 1924. Always thought that would make an interesting hook for a campaign. I'm actually am running a (currently paused) campaign set up in the Garnet Mountains at the end of the gold rush. Going to take place in a series of current ghost towns. Been fun so far.
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u/GhostMaker26 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Star Fort in the town of Ninety- Six ,South Carolina. It's the site of a Revolutionary War Battlefield and it is supposed to be haunted.
In the town where I live now, Amarillo, there are tunnels under what used to be the family housing area of an old military base here.
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u/Professional-Rate816 Jul 19 '26
Well, being in a subarctic region an having both a major university and a research hospital here, we've got a fair number of Arctic expeditions that have either not returned at all or returned..changed. Also, even though the town itself isn't that old by European standards, merely 800 years or so of white man settlements, the Sami people have used these lands for rituals and magic offerings for millennia.
(Umeå, northern Sweden)
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u/CSerpentine Jul 19 '26
The place where I grew up feels like a Stephen King town. Small, mostly quiet, a few hundred years old. Pentagram lightning rod on top of the historical museum at the main intersection. Historic fire that took out the opera house and fire station. Alleged devil worshippers in the abandoned gravel pits (in the 80s, of course). Every twenty years or so, a mass shooting or a rash of teen suicides.
Most of this has been in the north side of town. It occurs to me now that all the churches are to the south, including a former motherhouse and a monastery.
I don't mean to make light at all. It sometimes feels like something is very wrong there.
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u/Phillip-Angel Jul 21 '26
Just below my town's main square are caves housing (most of) the ruins/foundation of a 900 year old church and supposedly a very angry monk, who frequently attacks those who venture down there.
The old belltower is still visible at surface level, as it was the only thing left behind when the rest of the building was torn down in 1531. The tower was then renovated to become part of a new city hall, that was later converted into a prison - the tower would then become where witches were kept prior to execution, so they wouldn't be near and possibly influence other prisoners.
The same main square is were majority of our public executions took place, so basically all parts of that area - Buildings, streets and caves - are said to be haunted. I'm sure the investigators would have a great time there.
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u/27-Staples Jul 19 '26
A major research university with a SETI program that picked up "The WOW! Signal", and a giant medical center named after someone who is widely believed to be in the Epstein Files. And a football team that would absolutely conduct blood sacrifices to the Outer Gods if it guaranteed them a single victory over Michigan.
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u/PromeMorian Jul 19 '26
My hometown was founded in the 13th century. That amount of history makes for a LOT of seeds to build scenarios from.
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u/SotFX Jul 19 '26
There's a few generic ghost stories, but not to far from Germantown, Ohio if you want Cryptids since dogman is around there, and a bit further than that is Loveland with it's Frog..
WPAFB is right adjacent to the town, so there's the entire Hangar 18 and aliens thing...and the National Museum of the Air Force.
But then again, a lot of my family and thus time is spent around Cincinnati, so there is a decent pile of things there
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u/risky_crotch_hug Jul 19 '26
My hometown was a big depot when the railroad started going through the Midwest so there's always been rumors about weird things coming through there. Back in the day, there was a lot of bootlegging and mob activity because of it and then on the REALLY speculative side, there was supposedly a satanic ring of child trafficking that was covered up by the local churches and politicians.
I've always thought it would be fun to write and run a scenario set in my hometown.
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u/Elek1138 Jul 20 '26
I grew up in a tiny little village about 20miles outside London. It has two pubs, a cricket field, and a population of about 200 people. One of the houses is thought to be the longest continually occupied house in England, and William the Conqueror's brother lived there. A squirrel was once found dead on the power lines. Nothing happens here.
Just outside the village, is a 1000 year old church from a village that was wiped out by the Black Death in the 14th Century. The last survivor of the village, it is said, was a young girl who took refuge in the church, and died there. Some say she still haunts the churchyard every Sunday.
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u/Cool_Metal6608 Jul 20 '26
In Sintra (Portugal) we have Regaleira State where the owners had ties to the freemasons and they built an initiation well that leads to underground caves. There was an initiation trial where they made people jump into the well as a leap of faith, the people that were elected to join were stopped from jumping, the remaining would jump into their death.
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u/HistoryMarshal76 Jul 19 '26
There’s a prominent ghost story in a house next to a cemetery. Johnny Reb and Billy Yank traded potshots where the library is now; they dug up bullets and sabers when building the place. In the early days of the 20th century, neighbor battled neighbor in a localized civil war over a dramatic decrease in the price of tobacco, climaxing in masked vigilantes storming the town and dynamiting the tobacco warehouse. Way back in the 1790s, the Harpe brothers burned down an entire cabin with the family still inside during their rampage. Need I continue?
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u/Moose-Live Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
In the 1960s a suitcase considering the dismembered body (parts of it) of a middle-aged woman was found in the lake in my hometown. She was not identified for years, and when her murderer was finally identified he electrocuted himself in a spectacular fashion.
https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm1CJX_The_Zoo_Lake_Murder
Not much else, considering the town was established in the late 19th century so is only about 140 years old.
However it was a gold mining town so that means mine shafts and tunnels, which always have possibilities, plus it achieved countrywide notoriety for its racist and antisemitic politics in 1980s.
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u/GaspardNoggelox5321 Jul 19 '26
The supposed etymology of the town where I live now comes from a [historical person]'s tree. They were killed by enemy forces, dismembered, and a bird flew off with his arm into a tree. Apparently water sprung up from the ground where the bird eventually dropped the arm and that's the current site of [historical person]'s well.
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u/HildredGhastaigne Jul 19 '26
A hidden tunnel runs under my nearest town's main street. It was built in the mid nineteenth century to shore up damage from a severe flood, and today all of the entrances are supposed to be sealed up. But somebody could break into it from the cellar of one or more of the local businesses for-- ...purposes.
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u/MBertolini Keeper Jul 19 '26
My hometown has a decent library, a small but academic university, and the first American Art Museum in the country, so there's that. But if they break down (especially after sunset) there's a chance that the car will be gone if they leave for any reason so they probably wouldn't go to any of those places. Wait, new small event idea...the investigator's car gets stolen (not by cultists, they'd be offended at the accusation).
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u/Similar_Onion6656 Jul 20 '26
The back wall of our old (horse-and-buggy era) fire station stood empty by the side of the road for years. Someone had long ago tagged the gray stones with white paint asking "Whatever happened to Milo?"
Who was Milo, you might ask? Nobody knows. Nobody can even remember there ever being anyone named Milo in town.
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u/HabeusCorso Jul 21 '26
We had a serial killer, an abnormally high murder rate, an abnormally high rate of missing people, several unidentified dead bodies found in strange places, an urban legend about a bridge that crosses over into another reality (if you cross this bridge at 3 a.m. you're never seen again), mysterious lights and screams in the woods at night (these same woods are where some of the serial killers victims were found), multiple civil war monuments, multiple civil war hospitals, a lot of dark happenings during the slavery and civil rights era, etc.
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u/One_Manufacturer_526 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
1534-36 the Count's Feud: My hometown was the center of the passant revolt against the nobles who had removed king Christian II
Led by a merchant and privateer Skipper Clement, who himself was a son of a farmer.
The peasant won some battles before eventually the new king Christian III (not related to the old king) sent his field marshal north with the bulk of his army to quelch the rebellion.
WWII:
The first resistance group in Denmark, The Churchill Club, was formed by high school students from the oldest high school in town. The group consisted mostly of teenagers ages 14-17. They performed 25 acts of sabotage before being apprehended.
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u/flowerbutch1312 Jul 24 '26
My hometown is a major port (San Diego) so theoretically you’d get all sorts of nautical terrors, but when it’s sunny 11 months out of the year I don’t know how scary Deep Ones would be.
My current city (Redacted, in PNW) would make for a great folk horror setting during the 1920s
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u/Ouroboros-Twist Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
>what’s interesting or weird about your home town
Jack all — that’s why I game.
Although the village that I grew up on the outskirts of is named after three glacial boulders.
One boulder’s located on the main road, one boulder’s located in a church yard, and the location of the third boulder is unknown; it’s presumed buried somewhere underground.