"Old Ghost"

by Peter A Worthy 

originally published Cthulhu's Dark Cults, Chaosium, 2010

Father Thomas moves to Shanghai in 1926, escaping a painful past.  The captain of the ship that takes him in, Williamsen, sets him up with a place to live, an interpreter named Li, and shows him a word in Chinese, which, though the Father can't read it, Williamsen warns him to recognize, and, if he should see it anywhere, to stay away, stating that it is the sign of a cult that practices murder.  He also mentions the name Ho Fong, a local importer who apparently was affiliated with the cult.   It seems Ho Fong recently survived an attempt on his life by some foreigners, all of whom were subsequently killed by his associates.

The cult seems to encroach on Thomas.  He notices the mysterious word tattoed on his housekeeper.  Williamsen is lost at sea.  Serafinowicz, the first mate from Williamsen's the journey that brought Thomas to Shanghai, makes contact.  He introduces Thomas to Medeved, a Russian sailor who also knows a bit too much about the cult, which is known as The Cult of the Bloated Woman.  He gives Thomas two scrolls somehow important to the cult.  Thomas gives them to Li, expecting that the cult will find him and bump him off.  Apparently, they do.

This is a fairly effective story and (for once in the Cthulhu's Dark Cults collection), you don't need to know that Ho Fong and the Cult of the Bloated Woman come from Chaosium's Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign to get something out of it.

On the downside, the unclear ending undercuts the story's strength, and it doesn't quite generate the sense of paranoia it needs to to really pack a punch.