📑 Quick Jump
🔍 Clue Types (2d10)
Different types of clues investigators might discover.
| 2d10 | Clue Type |
|---|---|
| 2 | Witness testimony (reliable, corroborated by others) |
| 3 | Physical trace evidence (hair, fibers, unusual substance) |
| 4 | Photograph or video footage (partial, unclear but real) |
| 5 | Audio recording (EVP, strange sounds, voices) |
| 6 | Historical records (newspaper clippings, old reports) |
| 7 | Personal journal or diary entry (victim or witness) |
| 8 | Symbol or marking (occult, ritualistic, repeating pattern) |
| 9 | Electromagnetic readings (EMF spikes, unexplained signals) |
| 10 | Temperature anomalies (cold spots, heat signatures) |
| 11 | Footprints or tracks (unusual size, pattern, or origin) |
| 12 | Financial records (payments to unknown parties, unusual transactions) |
| 13 | Behavioral change in animal or pet (refuses area, fixates on location) |
| 14 | Architectural anomaly (room that shouldn't exist, sealed passage) |
| 15 | Dream testimony (multiple unconnected people sharing same vision) |
| 16 | Digital artifact (metadata inconsistency, file from impossible date, corrupted footage with clear frames) |
| 17 | Medical records (unusual symptoms, unknown substance in bloodwork, pattern matching old cases) |
| 18 | Object that reacts to proximity (compass, pendulum, EMF, candle flame responding without cause) |
| 19 | Map or diagram left by someone who shouldn't have known (victim, child, anonymous sender) that proves accurate |
| 20 | The clue is the investigators themselves - something about the party is connected to the case in ways they haven't understood yet |
📦 Physical Evidence (2d10)
Physical items and traces left at scenes.
| 2d10 | Evidence |
|---|---|
| 2 | Strange residue that glows under UV light |
| 3 | Claw marks too large for any known animal |
| 4 | Burned symbols on floor or walls |
| 5 | Ectoplasm-like substance that evaporates |
| 6 | Teeth or bone fragments of unknown origin |
| 7 | Handwritten notes in multiple handwritings from one person |
| 8 | Flowers that bloom out of season, unnaturally |
| 9 | Mirror with image burned into surface |
| 10 | Watches and clocks all stopped at same time |
| 11 | Photographs that develop showing things not seen |
| 12 | Hair that doesn't match any DNA on file, or anything biological |
| 13 | Scattered salt in patterns too deliberate to be accidental |
| 14 | Object placed at exact center of room; moved back to center whenever relocated |
| 15 | Pages torn from book; the book itself has no record of those pages ever existing |
| 16 | Handprint on ceiling; no ladder or furniture near it; print faces downward as if someone stood there |
| 17 | Soil inside sealed building that matches a location over a hundred miles away, verified by geology |
| 18 | Wax seal on a letter that matches no known heraldic or organizational symbol; pattern causes mild unease in anyone who looks too long |
| 19 | Object that casts a shadow of something entirely different; shadow remains consistent regardless of light source angle |
| 20 | A sealed room containing a fully set table, food still warm, personal effects of people missing for decades - and a chair pulled out facing the door as if someone just stood up to leave |
👁️ Witness Account Types (2d10)
Different types of witness testimonies and their reliability.
| 2d10 | Witness Type & Testimony |
|---|---|
| 2 | Child witness - detailed but dismissed by adults |
| 3 | Multiple witnesses - same story, clearly scared |
| 4 | Authority figure - saw something, covering it up |
| 5 | Elderly person - similar event decades ago |
| 6 | Skeptic - reluctantly admits seeing impossible thing |
| 7 | Drunk/impaired - story dismissed but accurate |
| 8 | Security guard - footage exists but is being hidden |
| 9 | Victim survivor - traumatized, fragmented memory |
| 10 | Anonymous tip - detailed knowledge, won't come forward |
| 11 | Expert witness - explains away but doubts own explanation |
| 12 | Repeat witness - seen something similar before, moved towns, found it again |
| 13 | Journalist - investigated officially, killed the story, still has notes |
| 14 | Former hunter - retired, doesn't want to get involved, will eventually help |
| 15 | Witness with no memory of the event - was present, no recollection, but wrote everything down |
| 16 | Hospital patient - saw something during cardiac event or surgery, clinically dead for several minutes, very calm about it |
| 17 | Person who claims to be the entity - may be delusional, may not be; story is too internally consistent to dismiss |
| 18 | Witness via recording only - person is missing; what they filmed before disappearing makes the investigation much more complicated |
| 19 | Witness who predicted this - documented account written years ago describing current events; they are unavailable for comment for reasons that require investigation |
| 20 | The party already interviewed this witness. They have no memory of it. The notes in the party's own handwriting describe a conversation that hasn't happened yet. |
🎭 Red Herrings (2d10)
False leads and distractions that waste investigation time.
| 2d10 | Red Herring |
|---|---|
| 2 | Suspicious person with alibi (actually innocent) |
| 3 | Unrelated crime happening simultaneously |
| 4 | Prankster creating false evidence for attention |
| 5 | Mental illness mistaken for possession |
| 6 | Natural phenomenon appearing supernatural |
| 7 | Local legend that doesn't apply to current case |
| 8 | Con artist exploiting supernatural fears |
| 9 | Unrelated old evidence from previous event |
| 10 | Misidentified mundane object or animal |
| 11 | Witness lying for insurance/legal reasons |
| 12 | Copycat behavior inspired by earlier incident the party wasn't involved in |
| 13 | Environmental contamination (mold, gas leak) producing hallucinations in the area |
| 14 | Deliberate misdirection by someone who knows the truth and wants investigators away from it |
| 15 | Two separate, unrelated supernatural events happening simultaneously in the same location |
| 16 | Planted evidence by a rival who wants credit for solving the case, or wants the case unsolved |
| 17 | Party misidentified the monster; all evidence fits the wrong type, solution prepared for wrong entity would fail dangerously |
| 18 | The entire apparent supernatural event is staged by mundane actors for reasons unrelated to anything supernatural - but something real noticed the commotion and arrived |
| 19 | The red herring was placed by the entity itself, which understands investigator methodology and is running countermeasures |
| 20 | There is no red herring. Every lead is real. They connect to separate things. The party has stumbled into the intersection of three unrelated supernatural events that share one origin point no one has identified yet. |
⚠️ Investigation Complications (2d10)
Problems that arise during investigation to create tension.
| 2d10 | Complication |
|---|---|
| 2 | Authority figure orders investigation stopped |
| 3 | Time pressure - another incident predicted soon |
| 4 | Key witness refuses to talk or disappears |
| 5 | Evidence destroyed by fire/water/theft |
| 6 | Investigators become targets of entity |
| 7 | Town conspiracy to hide the truth |
| 8 | Rival investigator group interfering |
| 9 | Legal trouble - trespassing, breaking and entering |
| 10 | Media attention making investigation public |
| 11 | Personal connection to case creates bias |
| 12 | Resource shortage - funds, supplies, or contacts unavailable at critical moment |
| 13 | Cover story compromised - locals know investigators aren't who they claimed to be |
| 14 | Investigator affected - one party member is experiencing symptoms related to the entity |
| 15 | New victim occurs mid-investigation, changing the timeline and urgency |
| 16 | Investigation site condemned or demolished - key location about to become inaccessible permanently |
| 17 | The entity has moved; everything gathered so far describes its previous location; it's been watching the investigation progress |
| 18 | Someone the party trusted has been working against them since before the investigation began; every piece of evidence passed through their hands |
| 19 | Solving this case requires revealing a truth that will destroy someone innocent - a family, a reputation, a person who survived once already and may not again |
| 20 | The investigation itself is the trigger. Every step forward has fed the event the party was trying to prevent. They were always part of the mechanism. Stopping now may be the only option - but stopping means it never gets resolved. |
💡 Investigation Breakthroughs (2d10)
Moments when investigation suddenly makes progress.
| 2d10 | Breakthrough |
|---|---|
| 2 | Pattern in timing reveals next incident location |
| 3 | Elder shares key piece of local history |
| 4 | Hidden journal found with detailed notes |
| 5 | All clues suddenly connect, revealing truth |
| 6 | Witness comes forward with missing piece |
| 7 | Ancient text provides exact solution |
| 8 | Expert interprets symbol/clue correctly |
| 9 | Location of entity's lair discovered |
| 10 | Weakness of creature identified |
| 11 | Source of curse/power revealed |
| 12 | Digital records accessed that were thought destroyed - backup existed without anyone knowing |
| 13 | Someone the party dismissed as unreliable turns out to be the most accurate source in the investigation |
| 14 | Unrelated investigation by another party (police, journalist) has already done half the legwork; their files are accessible |
| 15 | Physical evidence survives that was thought lost; leads directly to origin point or identity |
| 16 | Entity makes a mistake; first deviation from its established pattern gives away something critical |
| 17 | Someone closely connected to the entity chooses to help; conflicted, scared, but done staying quiet |
| 18 | A previous hunter's hidden cache discovered - weapons, notes, and partial solution from a case they couldn't finish |
| 19 | The entity communicates directly, intentionally - not a threat, but a message. It wants something specific. Whether that's exploitable or a trap is unclear. |
| 20 | Everything converges at once: location, motive, method, and identity revealed simultaneously. The party has exactly one window to act before conditions change. It will not reopen. |