Things Begging to be Used in a Game Somewhere

This local legend in New Jersey always seemed to me a great seed for a Call of Cthulhu/Trail of Cthulhu/Cthulhu Dark/Lovecraftesque/etc. game.

In 1926, according to a report in the venerable New York Times, Miss Florence E. Steward of Trenton, New Jersey, decided to sell a house on Wood Street in the nearby village of Burlington, which had been owned by her family for generations. And, for those many generations, her family knew a secret about that house and a walnut tree which stood in its yard. The walnut tree had always been known to its owners as the "pirate tree," and according to a closely-held family secret, under it Black Beard had supposedly buried his fabulous treasure many years before. The tree was on the east bank of the Delaware River about twenty miles northeast of the pirate's favorite city, Philadelphia.

Of course, Miss Steward didn't want the new owners to end up with Black Beard's treasure so she hired some excavators to come and dig it up for her. Why the family waited until they were going to sell the property before they attempted to dig up the fortune was not explained. Oddly, the owner was not present when the work began and at the end of the day the excavators were gone but there was a large hole in the ground. It was only natural that within a couple of days, neighboring children came and played in the hole, at which time they, very unnaturally, unearthed a human skull. Upon learning about the skull, Miss Steward divulged that is must have been the old Spaniard Black Beard was said to have buried, standing upright, atop his chest of treasure. She called the police and asked them to guard her property from other volunteer diggers until she could personally supervise the work. However, having gotten a taste of treasure hunting, the children could not be dissuaded and they began to dig a hole on the adjacent lot of Miss Anna Pugh, where they discovered a "large cache of bones," which were later determined by a veterinarian to be bovine in nature, and not of Spaniards, dating to a time when the property was once a tanning yard.

After following the story for a few days, the Times lost interest and had nothing else to say about the matter, inferring that the search had been unsuccessful. However, in their final story, it was reported that the original excavators had been observed prying "a large, heavy object" from the earth and taking it with them when they departed. Meanwhile, Miss Steward told the paper that digging would continue around the walnut tree until she was satisfied with the result. Presumably, the property had diminished significantly in value by the time Miss Steward achieved her satisfaction.

So the diggers found something while digging for cursed pirate gold (from Blackbeard, who was rumored to dabble in black magic). The PCs might be investigators hired by Miss Steward to get her treasure back... or they could be the crooked diggers discovering the ghost pirates and curses and worse after digging it up. either way, instant horror scenario waiting to happen.

About 50 words are first recorded in English as appearing in a book that definitely existed, but that no one can find a copy of.

This feels a bit like a successfully suppressed Mythos tome. One theory about The Meanderings of Memory is that it was banned and shunned because it was pornographic. But it also reminds me of how The King in Yellow was said to be outlawed by world governments.

Other details, like the pseudonymous nature of the author or the obscure Latin epigraph that is repeatedly quoted as the only identification of the book, could make for good plot hooks or weird mysterious details for any investigative or horror game. Having a pseudonymous author means that you could identify any appropriate historical person or NPC as the true author, as well.