Arkham Detective Tales is a collection of short crime stories with the usual supernatural bent. They actually start in New York, I'm using the only one which has an actual Arkham connection. It starts as a typical closed room murder investigation, with leads sending the investigators towards Arkham. This has led the PC in contact with Dr. Henry Armitage, who'll be one of the key NPCs in the next stages of the campaign.
Basically, I'm using the first adventure to build the party and introduce Armitage, then the adventure will develop mostly on its own.
The party is composed of four investigators:
- A Californian gonzo journalist of Italian background, largely based on John Fante's Ask the Dust protagonist Arturo Bandini. Main drive: make a living out of investigative journalism.
- A New-England millionaire and Klondike gold rush veteran, largely based on certain Disney characters... Main drive: protect his investments (he owns a share in the newspaper for which the first character works).
- A young Chicagoan hooker. Main drive: personal connection (she's a cousin of the victim).
- A reformed mob hitman and snitch, half-Italian and half-Chinese. Main drive: personal connection (the victim was a his police handler).
They are currently investigating Talby's mistress and his recent trip to Arkham. Moreover, the millionaire and the hooker have both been plagued by mysterious dreams which also feature Arkham -- both characters and Talby have ancestors that lived in the area, while the other two investigators do not.
Talby's trip to New England apparently aimed at reconstructing some events in which a Talby ancestor was involved in Arkham. However, multiple contradictory accounts exist of the events, so the investigators are now trying to understand what actually happened. At the same time, investigating Talby's mistress, who seems to have disappeared, has led to an unsettling discovery: the girl was pawning off goods (rings and necklaces) likely stolen from the dead.