Orphan School Horror (2017)

From publisher blurb:

"Better Not Shout, Better Not Cry, Something Evil is Watching the Orphans. Something hungry."

Perhaps the most vulnerable people in the penal colonies of early Australia were the (surprisingly many) unwanted and destitute children. Most roamed the streets, prey to wicked and degenerate sorts -- but a scant few of the unwanted female children of the colony enjoyed slightly more salubrious circumstances in the Female Orphan School. Or at least they did, until strange and unexplained events began to plague it. What is responsible for the strange, disturbing night-time sounds? Why have some of the adult staff gone missing? And what terror was so frightening that it left two girls struck with a "stupor"?

Ticket of Leave #9 is a super-size supplement which looks at the real-world historical operation of the Sydney Orphan School, a perfect setting for small-scale personal tales of dark and brooding horror. The PDF is rounded out with a lengthy scenario seed: something peculiar and unwholesome has attached itself to the Female Orphan School in Sydney. Ghostly figures have been reported by several of the girls, and more recently by the serving staff.

Are these just products of the over-active imagination of the young orphans? Or is it somehow all connected to recent unexplained disappearances and a pair of girls struck dumb with terror? The scenario includes three different Lovecraftian style horrors that could be behind the mysterious haunting of the Orphanage, each providing Keepers with a different style of investigation and chilling resolution.

Because broody tales of ghostly hauntings are a staple of "Christmas-time horror", this scenario makes a great adventure to run for groups looking for a Yuletide-themed Lovecraftian tale of terror. Alternatively it can be equally well run as a story set in any other season.