A deceptively common looking device, the Haunted Camera is anything but. It
looks just like an ordinary if slightly out of date camera, flashes, lens, and
all. It in fact used to be a normal camera that belonged to a slightly crooked
Greek archeologist. About ten years ago on a dig on the island on Crete, he
found a small sculpture of a gorgon with an odd little inscription on it.
Place me where I can see all and never again shall your enemies be a concern
for you.
After cataloguing it and writing down its inscription the poor man thought nothing
more of it until it was time to leave the dig. Now since this man was not rich
he would often smuggle certain pieces of his finds through customs to avoid
paying duties and having to worry about pesky governments wanting to examine
the most precious of his findings. Packing some of his ill gotten treasure away
safely inside shaving cream cans, socks, and souvenirs, he unwittingly placed
the statuette inside of his camera. After returning to Greece the gentleman
turned his findings over to his university for further study, all that is except
the tiny gorgon which lay inside the camera, forgotten in the bottom of his
suitcase.
Time passed and the man married, his wife became pregnant, and they awaited
the birth of their first child. A short time before his child's birth he found
the suitcase while trying to make room for the crib. Feeling the weight inside
he opened it up to find the camera; and what luck, there was still film in it.
Thinking he would use it to photograph the birth when it happened he dusted
it off and placed near the front door.
When his wife went into labor, he grabbed her, the camera and a jacket and drove
to the hospital at top speed. The son was born healthy and strong and his father
to celebrate took a picture of mother and son. They were instantly turned to
stone. Devastated by the loss, the man threw away the camera and took his own
life.
It is up to the storyteller the entire effects the camera has, for example is
it possible to reverse the effects of the camera? Can the statue be removed?
What happens to those who are changed to stone? Where is it now? Where has it
been? All those possibilities and more are for you, the fiendish storyteller
to decide.
