WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN MASON

But seriously- what if one number station was broadcasting the operating code of REALITY ITSELF

Over-descriptiveness. You need to spend more time describing things than doing anything else. To be a good horror DM, you basically need to have the ability of an A-class horror novelist, which, as you'd imagine, virtually no DMs are.

Intruders: Invaders from the Abyss for the Mage: the Awakening game has a beautifully detailed set of Number Station themed horrors for you to look into.

>>15271883
So fuck the numbers stations, tell them more about how the shingles are melting off of the roofs and puddling onto the overgrown lawns and never, ever use the words "profound" and "wrong" in the same sentence?

The actual thing they're used for is somewhat unsettling. They're for communicating with spies. That means, if you can pick up a numbers station from your city, it's likely that someone in your city is a spy. Maybe even a neighbor.

Instead of spies, maybe it's a cult. Maybe the numbers encode a spell, or an unholy text on which the cult is based. Maybe the "station" isn't really a station at all, but a broadcast from space, or from Hell, or from the Dark World or whatever.

Record a numbers station to softly play in the background. Make them really feel the situation creeping up on them. Insert random static, confusing numbers, patterns where there shouldn't be any.

Consider the idea that the numbers are what help to define the universe. These stations are what keep physics running properly. Then, the laws start to subtly change, and warp around certain stations. Whole cities begin skipping around in time. Causality begins to break down.

All this leads them to a rusty tower, where they work on discovering the source of the numbers. A large underground facility, abandoned and filled with the skeletons of the workers finally leads to a strange dimensional gateway, tapping into an alternate reality. Then, as the numbers are growing louder and louder, distorting reality more and more . . .

Silence.

Darkness.

A single thump.

Whatever is giving them the numbers to define reality has just discovered what is going on. And things have been changed enough to allow a portal.

Time to run.

one
one
two
three
five
eight
thirteen
twenty-one
thirty-four
fifty-five
eighty-nine

>>15271943
Fibonacci isn't scary.

>>15271930

>>15271953
TO THIS MUSIC!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR3v_eT8aCA&feature=related

What if they have no purpose?

They exist, and they transmit. You can find the source and shut it down. Doesn't stop it, just picks up again from some other abandoned transmitter.

Sometimes the numbers change. Sometimes the monotone exchange of machine-altered voices and xylophone tones turn into... other things. Sometimes they talk to you, and say things that you don't want to hear.

But only once. Then back to the numbers. And they don't ever stop.

The numbers stations are completely harmless.

However, during the course of listening in on them the PCs catch the attention of a government agency that is itself trying to decipher the meaning of the number stations.

Hijinks ensue as this hilarious misunderstanding embroils them in a turf war with an agency that isn't exactly sure what the Number Stations are, but seems convinced that the PCs know and are concocting some nefarious scheme.

The Double Shyamalan: The Numbers Stations ARE Malicious, and now the PCs must ally themselves with the agency that was formerly trying to kill/extract information with extreme prejudice from them to combat the real threat behind the numbers stations.

Shamallamadingdong: It was an organization within the organization that sent the greater Agency off on a wild goose chase (with the PCs as the red herring) in order to enact their own plot.

Deeper: They have no idea what the numbers stations do either. They were hoping to buy time by siccing the Agency on the PCs.

EVEN DEEPER: Shadow agency was controlled by an NPC ally that had been helping the PCs, he knows the true meaning behind the number stations/how to harness their power and is planning to use them to turn all intelligent life on earth into passive, mindless cattle.

>>15271853
Well OP, while it is not what you're looking for, it could be an aspect of your game.
I once wrote a story about a pair of soviet spies living in America disguised as your average couple, and each day at the same time they turned on the radio to the right frequency and recorded the numbers, flipped through their ring binder and got the translation for what the code was telling them.
Well long story short, the sense of alienation and the stress and all that good bullshit of being a spy made one of them crack. He started obsessing over the numbers (this was written before call of duty black ops, mind you) as one of the first signs his mind was going, and it ended with him chasing his partner through the house with an axe. It was left ambiguous as to whether or not the code itself had sinister intentions behind it (such as driving the programmed spy mad) but to be honest, it didn't.
It was just an average story that I never really had that much thought put into, but if you can use it somehow, then let my shit idea be awesome. The number station could be sending out a code to drive people insane and now you're running a Condemned game, or it could just be a number stations with no evil purpose, but it could drive someone insane. They try to figure out the meaning of it but just can't and can't and can't until one day it clicks. Why obviously the numbers want me to smash in everyone's head with a shovel!

WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS MASON?!

>>15271975
STOP IT! YOU'RE MAKING MY BRAIN HURT! IT'S PLAYING TWISTER IN MY SKULL TRYING TO UNDERSTAND!

>>15271980
Could work like "Pi" as well. There's a meaning, but understanding it will drive people insane. Up until that point, it's pretty cool, but when they finally get good enough to really understand it, inevitable insanity. Of the suicide/lobotomy/murder variety.

>>15272006

On this earth there are 6.78 billion people.

In the world, only a few hundred numbers stations remain.

Out of the 6.78 billion people, only a few thousand, possibly more, will ever find or hear one of these number stations.

Out of those hundreds of stations, only around a dozen serve a special purpose.

With only a dozen stations, there are 100 people on this earth for whom the messages are meant. It is vastly unlikely any of these 100 people will ever hear the message.

Should they hear it, however, they will be stripped of their humanity. They will become an effective machine, open only to the will of the numbers.

Each station of the dozen serves a special purpose. Some command the listener, the few out of those 100 it has been programmed for, to prepare for the coming of the Third World War. They will, instinctively, dissociate themselves with anybody they even have a slight distrust from. They'll build themselves shelters, fill it with food, and wait for the coming of the war.

Another station commands it's selected listener to await further instructions. So they'll sit at the radio and wait. Anybody who attempts to pull them away may find themselves attacked. But they'll wait. They need further instruction.

One very special station commands it's listeners, it's very special listeners, to be alone. TO be alone, they must kill. First their friends, then their families, then anybody else they can before they can finally be alone. Then they need to be isolated. The last man who received this message, after his dread massacre, was found alone in a cabin. His eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and some of his skin were all carved off. With no senses left, he died, finally alone.

And, somewhere you might live, another station may be at work...

>>MEAT terissi
H3H3H3.

>>15271975
You are my new favourite person.

>>15271853
Look up interesting numbers.
Large primes, the products of large primes, large numbers that can be found within mathematical sequences such as the Fibonacci sequence, etc.

>>15272017
I so mad, I wanna punch him in the face so hard his grandchildren are born bruised and without genitalia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McFRonD-sjg

>>15271975
Just to clarify. I'm not mad at you or >>15272017.

I'd just like to rain bodily harm on Shamalaymanamaia or whatever the fuck.

>>15271975
I... Wai...

...

...What?

Better yet. Have the station repeat some pattern.

One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three.

Something that suggests order, easy counting, simple doubling until one hundred and then resetting, anything. Then, when shit is getting real, the players tune into the station.

Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five.

The pattern is broken. An extra number is added. The numbers stop counting up and start counting down to zero. The numbers become random if they were ordered, or ordered if they were random. A single number is repeated. Bonus points if the number hints at who is really responsible, what's really going on, or what the numbers actually mean. In the count down scenario, the players get the idea that they're on a serious time limit.

The origin of the numbers should remain unclear until the final reveal. If the players investigate, they find out that one of the people broadcasting them just got the sheet of numbers from a friend who went missing shortly thereafter.

>>15272087

Actually, I've been creating a modified Dark Heresy game around this very idea, going under the name "Signals"

Basically, the number stations are just carrier signals for far FAR more complex data, modulated in ways that I can't even begin to describe.

All of the signals act slightly differently, but the primary Signal that truly makes the setting is simple. It broadcasts to a very specific antennae: The human brain.

The PCs are in a facility surrounded by giant towers broadcasting this signal. Any attempt to go near the towers results in hemorrhaging from all facial orifices followed by death if you continue.

One of the ways the entire thing is made creepy is by sheer uncertainty. One log book suggests that the weird things going on at the facility is the signal eating away at the very stuff that used to govern our reality. It's not magic, rather the signal was constructed using concepts that we'd never even dreamed of, and its results were much the same. On the other hand, another log does show clinical testing on a small scale that proves even short term exposure to the signal can drive you completely insane and result in vivid mass psychosis

I think my favorite log book I've written just far is the one that explains, at an elementary level, destructive interference, complete with diagrams. The whole thing basically adds up to the suggestion that the setup of the towers actually protects everyone in the middle since the signals from individual towers cancel each other out. The thing is, that means that everything OUTSIDE the ring of transmitters will be affected and considering that they're based on soviet over the horizon radar towers...

Let's just say that it adds up to the possibility that they aren't actually trapped, but instead in the one spot on Earth the signal won't kill them.

Oh yeah, addendum; don't try the whole "Recorded numbers station" thing if you have nervous players or they tend to fly off the handle on anything.

I lost a girlfriend and ended up with a concussion due to a well-aimed beer bottle thanks to that.

>>15272215
Hrm, but they're so goddamn scary.

>>15272232
As a man who has sustained injuries, freaked out players, and once needed to drive one to a hospital thanks to a panic attack brought on by poor interactions between medication and techniques of immersion that some people might consider a little bit 'extreme', I have begun to realize that sometimes, it's a little smarter to avoid going completely over the top.

Seriously, nothing ruins a night of gaming like hysterics, injuries, and additional freaking out. Admittedly, it makes for good stories, but that's about it.

>>15272232
Depends on the station. Some are much worse than others.

Stories, now.

>>15272263
Just a couple, off of the top of my head, that I like:
Lincolnshire Poacher
Swedish Rhapsody

>>15272258
I don't have any particularly nervous players, but I do have one that takes ADHD medication. I guess I might do best to take it easy, then.

>>15272277
>>15272263
>>15272232
http://www.archive.org/details/ird059

Enjoy.....as long as you can.

>>15272310
I have it bookmarked for this occasion, but thank you even still.

>>15272283
That shouldn't do it. Mainly be advised about players taking medications that could cause fainting and light-headedness if their heart rate or breathing gets a bit too high. I was a bit overzealous in my last game, accidentally caused a complete freak-out, and ended up needing to drive her to the hospital.

I could tell the story of my first amateurish attempts into immersive gaming, if people want. It ends with me losing a girlfriend and taking a beer bottle to the head, among other things. It also plays out in a shack in the woods, because that's how you have to roll when you're a young GM with everything to prove and nothing to lose living in the middle of fucking nowhere and trying to scare the living shit out of your players.

>>15272347
This is just gonna be in a really dark basement. And I mean really dark. This is freeform, so no light for dice is needed.

>>15272347
Yes, I demand storytime.

But honestly, I don't see how anyone can get that freaked out over roleplaying. Not trying to sound like a macho man or slam your storytelling skills, but fiction just... doesn't have that affect on me. None of it's real, plain and simple.

Have an NPC that seems crazy tell the PCs they have to listen to this thing on the radio. Have him put on the number station, which is counting backwards. Have him get more and more agitated and paranoid as the count goes on. Have him talk about a strange dream about being abducted and having surgery (which another PC had as well, which you described in an earlier session).

When it reaches zero, his head explodes.

Then the count starts up again.

>>15272393
It's like how people get freaked out over movies, novels, Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, etc. Except, if you have a good(?) DM, they've catered this particular horror to you alone.

>>15272393
Environment and atmosphere, my friend. Environment and atmosphere. Sometimes, all it takes to reduce a man to a gibbering wreck is a series of brutal, privacy-invading game set-ups, carefully-orchestrated scares caused by lights switching out, and an elevator override.

This particular story occurred when I was just getting out of high school. My regular gaming group, bored of our usual sessions of D&D decided that they wanted me to run something a little different. I'd just gotten the books for All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and I decided that it would be fun to run a horror game with it.

My girlfriend at the time was one of those "out late at night wandering" types, and had a love of crazy paranormal horror, so I decided to base it on something that was near and dear to my heart; a local numbers station I picked up on my car radio when cruising around late at night.

Our usual place, a rather well-lit room, wouldn't do, so I asked if we could use a rather derelict shed located on the property of one of my more redneck player's parents' home. It was an absolute piece of shit; dank, no electricity, just enough room for a few chairs, and way out in the country.

In other words, it was perfect.

>>15272450
My players were the usual suspects; a couple nerdy friends, my bandmates, and the then-girlfriend. Seeing as we were all underaged idiots with a desire to act cool, beer was acquired for the night in question, and a camp-out was planned.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect night, either; no moon, tons of fog creeping over the ground, and that weird pressure in the air that you sometimes get late at night. I drove out with the girlfriend and one of the guys from the band, as he had no car and no money, being in a shitty high-school band and all. The fog was so thick I had trouble even making it to the appointed place, which I took as a good start.

We were the first ones there, aside from my redneck nerd friend. I took the time setting up a laptop, loaded with five hours of recorded numbers station, and got out the characters. We were running pre-generated, as they all didn't want to bother making up characters for what was essentially a one-shot.

Soon, the rest of the motley crew arrived, and we started having a few beers, enjoying the feelings of underage rebellion and stupidity. I passed out the character sheets, and the game began.

>>15272310

>"Why does the Swedish numbers station use a small girl's voice?"

Oh god just that sentence creeps me out

Goddamn Swedes making shit unnecessarily terrifying

>>15272486
I switched on the laptop, and started my little recording.

Background was simple; a number of disappearances had occurred in the town they were in, and each of them had lost a loved one recently. The only evidence for their disappearance was a series of numbers, different for each one, left in an odd location. One man had painted the interior of a cabinet with the numbers. Another left a typed note, and a third simply left a rambling message on an answering machine, disjointedly reading a series of numbers. They each got a little note, with the numbers written on it, and laughed it off as a stupid GM trick.

They butted heads with things a little bit, and then decided to investigate a few nearby radio stations. They encountered a rather odd conspiracy theorist working out of the stereotypical trailer-with-a-large-radio-broadcaster there, and he ranted and raved at them, telling of creatures up in the mountains and words that drove men mad.

It was here that the first creepy thing happened. I'd noted down a series of numbers about an hour into the recording, and put in a loud burst of static to remind myself to quiet down. They were the same numbers that their friends and relations had noted down, forming a long sequence. One of my more astute friends noticed this, as part of his sequence was just a series of 1s, and had them all listen intently.

Soon, the sequence dropped off, but one of my players noticed the numbers written on their character sheets. They didn't bother to listen to the broadcast; they knew I was crazy enough to write that shit down for them.

Tempers were starting to fray, and I'll say that all of us weren't particularly used to holding our alcohol, so a bit of drunkenness was creeping in.

>>15272531
Swedish evil wants to be the little girl, apparently.

Ha, I live right down the road from the CIA. I'd love to run a game with creepy spy-related content.

What terribly frightening things could our intelligence services be keeping from us?

>One might think that these espionage activities should have wound down considerably since the official end of the cold war, but nothing could be further from the truth. Numbers Stations (and by inference, spies) are as busy as ever, with many new and bizarre stations appearing since the fall of the Berlin wall.

>Why is it that in over 30 years, the phenomenon of Numbers Stations has gone almost totally unreported? What are the agencies behind the Numbers Stations, and why are the eastern European stations still on the air? Why does the Czech republic operate a Numbers Station 24 hours a day? How is it that Numbers Stations are allowed to interfere with essential radio services like air traffic control and shipping without having to answer to anybody? Why does the Swedish Rhapsody Numbers Station use a small girls voice?

>These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.

I'd be very interested to know if there are Russian numbers stations that transmitted before the fall of the Soviet Union that are still transmitting today.

One idea I have tossed around is the idea that the number stations have always existed. It is simply that we humans haven't been able to pick up the signals till we developed the technology to.

Where you take this can go anywhere. Long last civilizations, the beat of a eldritich being from another dimension, etc.

>>15272589

Yes, there are. If one follows the theory that those stations are a "Dead Hand" system designed to automatically trigger a nuclear counterattack if they don't transmit on time, that's a good thing.

>>15272486
If you are who I think you are, Awake, I remember stories of you DMing Don't Rest Your Head and sneaking up on players for spontaneous DMing. If you are who I think you are, I love you in the creepiest sort of way.

If not, well, this story's getting off to a good start.

>>15272536
They then investigated the area the conspiracy theorist told them about. It was a short drive for the characters, and their radio was only picking up the numbers. I read them off in a monotone, contrasting with the station in the background, and they actively watched their sheets this time, seeing that the numbers I was reading were their own.

Finally, they reached the mountains with all of the disappearances, pulling the car to a stop at an old ranger's cabin. The road let out, and it was getting far too foggy to drive through the woods, so they started off on foot. Noises were coming from the woods, along with strange periods of silence. Then, the numbers started creeping in, coming off of a scratchy loudspeaker located at an old boy scout camp. They tracked their way to it, and found the speaker. It wasn't connected to anything, and they spent a few minutes simply beating it, trying to get the broadcast to stop.

At this point, they were all starting to freak out a little bit. The combination of the freaky night, the isolated situation, and the alcohol was not helping anyone's peace of mind. My girlfriend in particular was a bit whiffed; she didn't want to leave, but she wanted things to stop. We voted to keep going, because everyone was interested, but it was clear that this was getting to them.

Finally, they found a locked cabin with all of the windows covered in cardboard. After forcing the door, they found themselves in a room full of broken, disused audio equipment, covered in dust. Fresh blood led to a closet.

One of the braver players went to it, and upon opening it, found the crucified body of the conspiracy theorist, his hands covered in blood and numbers covering the walls. He'd scratched them in with his bare hands, ripping the fingernails from them and leaving a horrible mess. A bloody hammer lay on the ground in front of him.

Then, there was a single thump from the outside of the cabin. Something had just slammed the door.

heres a setting for you game, a number station flickers on and off. Its message once decoded turns out to be gps coordinates. These coordinates lead the PCs to places like serial killer body stashes, cults, and haunted places. But the whole time the PCs are more concerned with whos running the number station and how they know this information

>>15272590

If you've got a repeated message, it's possible to jam a radio broadcast in such a manner as to make it seem like nothing is being broadcast at all. It's the same way noise-canceling headphones work.

What if the early pioneers of radio heard something coming from space so horrifying that they jammed it in this fashion before radio technology was released to the public?

>>15272611

It's one solution to the Fermi Paradox, at least.

>>15272602
It was at this point that something hit the shed we were in. I don't know what it was; most likely a tree or a retarded bird. All I know is, the timing was perfect for horror.

My girlfriend freaked out, and one of my players ran outside, screaming obscenities at my assumed accomplice. I tried to calm her down, but she was freaking out, accusing me of trying to unfairly scare them all so badly. After a few failed attempts at comfort, she started yelling, and tossed an empty at me. It hit me in the head, and I went down like a sack of nerdy potatoes.

At this point, everyone was yelling. She was screaming at me, calling me a sociopath and a jackass for pulling this shit. One of my players was out in the woods, trying desperately to figure out what the fuck just happened. And the others were huddled in the shed, either trying to calm her down, calm themselves down, or simply stop freaking out so badly. One of them accidentally switched off the light for a few seconds, and the whole process began anew.

A long argument ensued, whereupon my girlfriend called a buddy of hers and got a ride out of there, saying that I should never speak with her again. I spent the rest of the night drinking in a shitty shed in the middle of the woods. The next day, with a righteous hangover and one hell of a bruise on my forehead, I was driven to the hospital by my mother and diagnosed with a concussion.

I never even managed to get to the part where horrifying creatures ambushed them in the woods of that mountain and they slowly fought their way to the abandoned radio tower, trying desperately to shut off the noises assaulting them louder and louder.

Not bad for my first dedicated horror game, if I don't say so myself.

>>15272611

Marconi as the founder of a century-old conspiracy to jam the radio signals of an eldritch horror?

That could be kind of cool.

>>15272601
Yeah, I'm the guy who does a lot of Don't Rest Your Head. Thankfully, not as many of them have injured me. Glad to know people still remember my stories. They're fun times, to say the least. Admittedly, the retelling is usually the best part. The actual aftermath of most of my games (freaked-out players, injuries, trespassing charges, et. al) aren't so great.

>>15272635

I think the trope of "we just invented this advanced new equipment only to realize it's already in use" is actually pretty damn cool.

I had an idea for a story once about someone inventing a tachyon receiver and then realizing there were already many sources, billions even, saying things like 'help me, I can't see anything, where am I, is this Hell, did I die...'

>>15272635
"Marconi, the world.. it is not ready for what we know," Tesla said, sealing the lid on the infernal device they had slaved over for six months. "It may never be ready."

"Indeed, Nikola. We must seal away our finest work, that... that we may have a world to call our own. That bastard, Edison, and .." He began to sob.

"I know, Marconi. I know."
>In other news, a lost ledger belonging to famed Italian radio pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi, was discovered after a traffic accident near his estate in Rome. Officials describe it as 'visionary', but note that half of the contents appear to be in Russian, which Marconi was not fluent in. Handwriting specialists have scheduled a press release later this month."

>>15272647

>>15272601 here.
Just to let you know, you had perfect timing. I've been having a really, really shitty day and I was afraid it was going to be another worrisome, sleepless night. But your story made me smile, so now I'm going to bed happy. I know there's some irony here, but I can't quite put it to words.

sage for being a huge faggot all over OPs thread.

>>15272677

Oh man. I just Wiki'd Tesla and he started a giant radio tower project that was never finished shortly after he got his radio patents.

All of his notes were burned in a fire in 1895, too. After then, Tesla entered a severe depression.

Holy shit. It all fits together.

>>15272742
If you want to read something even wackier, check /rs/ for "Five Fists of Science".

Worth it. Totally worth it.

>>15272742

Oh, and the US government dynamited the tower during World War I. Tesla said it could be used to provide free wireless power.

What could we say that tower was actually for? This is getting really interesting.

>>15272699
No problem. This brought back some decent, rather blurry memories of my infancy as a creepy-as-shit GM.

OP, I hope that my little story helps give a bit of inspiration. Sorry for taking up so much of the thread relating a somewhat tangential story, but it does show that numbers stations are freaky as shit sometimes.

>In the Colorado Springs lab, Tesla observed unusual signals that he later thought may have been evidence of extraterrestrial radio wave communications coming from Venus or Mars.[69] He noticed repetitive signals from his receiver which were substantially different from the signals he had noted from storms and earth noise. Specifically, he later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks together. Tesla had mentioned that he thought his inventions could be used to talk with other planets. There have even been claims that he invented a "Teslascope" for just such a purpose. It is debatable what type of signals Tesla received or whether he picked up anything at all. Research has suggested that Tesla may have had a misunderstanding of the new technology he was working with,[70] or that the signals Tesla observed may have been non-terrestrial natural radio source such as the Jovian plasma torus signals.[71]

>>15272763

That reminds me of the epilogue to "Shadow over Innsmouth" about the US Navy depth-charging the ocean floor off Innsmouth after the story.

Marconi/Tesla radio conspiracy is my new project for this summer.

>>15272742
Then there was his earthquake machine, which he (supposedly) successfully tested, and resorted to smashing it with a hammer to shut it down after the vibrations just kept getting worse and worse. And the death ray, which would end all war by making it impossible to approach with aircraft, infantry, land vehicles, or ships lest they be instantly annihilated.

Tesla's world is not our world.

>>15272882

number stations are for communicating with spies.

>>15272907

That's what they WANT you to think.

Tomorrow, everyone posting in this thread will suffer improbable accidents. The Marconi-Tesla Conspiracy must be preserved.

>>15272926
Fuck man I have orientation for a job tomorrow!

I'm now going to run a game of Don't Rest Your Head based on this idea by the way.

He was nervous, he tried to hide it, but there was no mistaking the visible flinching when I spoke. He had the quiet look of a man desperate to escape a maze he feared had no exit.

I despised his weakness.

Donald Woodrow had contacted me several days ago in a panic, he had spoken in hurried tones and insisted we speak in person. I had expected him to arrive at the door to my manor possessed of a fear of the darkness, as is common amongst the broken minded. Instead I saw in him an unflinching certainty that the shadows of my home were less fearsome than whatever ominous specter haunted him.

He had followed me through my home with exaggerated care to avoid making sound on my wood floor, and seated himself on a comforter with as much faltering grace, perhaps worried the floor would give out under him and allow his personal hell to consume his body.

"Four months ago." He began unceremoniously, speaking barely above a whisper, and looking nervously to my ancient gramophone and the music it now played. I had hoped to calm him with the music, letting him know that his words would hardly travel out of this room, much less outside; But it was obvious now that he seemed more concerned with the noise it produced. I shut it off, bathing us in silence, before gesturing for him to continue.

"It was four months ago," He started again, "I was surfing some frequencies on an old radio I found in my dad's attic, when I got this station full of what I thought was morse code."

Donald hugged himself, scrutinizing my expression with wide eyes to gauge my reaction before he continued.

>>15272956
I quietly motioned for him to go on.

"Anyway, I don't now much about this sort of thing, so I took it to my friend, he's a hobbiest, a strange guy, but decent." Donald worked his jaw before adding "Terence, his name was Terence.

"Terence, he told me the beeping was old numerical code, like on telephones. But there was no pattern, no matter how long we listened, It was all just zero, zero, six, six, zero, six, three, one, five, five, stuff like that. No pattern." He was raising his voice a bit, nearly to normal levels, perhaps he didn't realize it. I didn't think to care at the time.

"I thought it was weird stuff, but you know, I didn't think..." He caught himself, lowering his voice. "I didn't think it was interesting. I let Terence tinker with it, he could take a look, I thought, maybe some government guys yell at him for snooping around, we could laugh about it."

He took the longest, most quiet breath I have ever witnessed a man take, and continued after I had settled back in my chair with a squeak of leather.

"I think he was busy, just busy with other stuff, because he put the frequency aside and forgot about it for a while. then about two months ago he tells me he decided to look into it, and the noise was... I don't know, it was still going, but it still didn't seem to have any sort of pattern. Four, two, five, five, four..."

He trailed off for a bit, looking at my gramophone, which I had turned back on at a low volume to see if he was to notice it.

He had, so I shut it off again.

There are also reports you can twist easily enough to show weakness in this preventative measure. People hearing electrical buzzing (not actually from power lines/mains hum), exploding head syndrome, etc.

There are so many sound events that can be twisted to have a sinister tone.

>>15272961
"...Anyway, he said he'd tracked the signal to an old station a hundred miles out, far away from town, middle of the hills, absolutely nowhere." He continued to watch me for a response, I gave him none.

"So I decided I have a few days to kill. We packed ourselves a lunch one day and went out there to find out what it was." He caught himself, and quickly added; "I didn't plan on going in. I thought we'd get out there, see a military building, and just drive away. I'm okay with not knowing if it might get me in trouble. I'm okay with that."

He was curled up, flinching at the sounds of my house settling in the cold spring evening, likely worried that monsters would spring out around corners.

"We get up there, and it's just this old, rusted radio station. A big tower, but nothing special. That seals the deal for me, it's just some old white noise signal, that's what I figure. Nothing interesting. But Terence, he wants to go in, he wants to check things out. So we... we go out there, and the door is open, it's just sort of hanging open, like someone didn't bother to closer it on their way out."

Donald is quiet for a time, staring at me, and I lean forward, steepling my fingers, and nod for him to continue.

>Another of Tesla's theorized inventions is commonly referred to as Tesla's Flying Machine, which appears to resemble an ion-propelled aircraft.[91] Tesla claimed that one of his life goals was to create a flying machine that would run without the use of an airplane engine, wings, ailerons, propellers, or an onboard fuel source. Initially, Tesla pondered about the idea of a flying craft that would fly using an electric motor powered by grounded base stations. As time progressed, Tesla suggested that perhaps such an aircraft could be run entirely electro-mechanically. The theorized appearance would typically take the form of a cigar or saucer.[92]

>after speaking with extraterrestrials he develops the principles behind flying saucers with ion engines

>also radar, X-rays, particle beams...

>>15272973
"Terence heads in first, because he's curious, and... Well, I remember right after he goes in I start hearing the signal again, the beeping. It's loud here, and Terence is looking for the source of it."

He takes a deep breath before this next part, obviously concerned.

"I didn't... I mean, I didn't even get to follow. Terence goes in, and he just... For a second I see him standing there in that dark room, and that noise is just so loud, it's like it's swallowing us, and he turns and he says something to me, but I don't know what, and then... and then..."

Donald was staring at my gramophone.

"And then his body just unraveled."

>>15272985
I waited for him to elaborate, but he was clearly having difficulty reliving the event, and hurried on to the next part of his story.

"I ran, I ran away. I made a dash for the car and just floored it out of there. I don't know what I was thinking, I don't know if I was thinking at all. I was just..."

He exhaled like he was letting poison expel itself from his body.

"And the noise, it was still in there, in the car, I turned off the radio, and it just came... flowing in. From the windows, from outside."

He lowered his voice, whispering harshly.

"The sound."

He didn't seem to know if he could continue, and had to force himself to say the next part as if even he thought it sounded insane.

"The sound was chasing me."

I took the liberty of archiving this, because even though it's a pretty short thread as of yet it has a lot of potential (and a good story).

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15271853/

>>15272993
He was visibly shaking now, balling his hands into fists.

"I don't know how I got out of there, maybe I outpaced it, but I don't think I did, I think it let me go, because I can still hear it."

He was raising his voice, frustrated at my lack of response.

"Not all the time, but it's there! I'm serious! I hear it on the television, on the radio, even when people talk!"

He started shouting at me.

"I can hear it when I talk! It's THERE! In the SOUNDS! It IS the sound! The SOUND is alive!"

Donald grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking violently, and began the last sentence of his life.

"SOUND IS ALIVE! SOU

>>15272907

Not what they want me to think. Just what is.

>>15273016

WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?

YOU BASTARDS CAN'T SILENCE US THAT EASILY

Why do people find number stations scary? Must have had bad experiences in math class I guess.

>>15273016

WE KNOW NOW. WE'VE FIGURED OUT THE MARCONI-TESLA CONSPIRACY

>Some researchers have suggested that the character of Nyarlathotep in H P Lovecraft's 1920 short story of the same name was inspired by Tesla.

>>15273046

Because there's no obvious reason for them, and nobody who can explain is willing to do so.

Obviously they serve some important purpose, but while everyone can hear them, nobody can explain it except for a handful of unknown people who choose not to.

Basically they're like any other top secret government activity, except it's conducted in broad daylight and visible to anyone with a radio.

Dolores is back? How nice. And a lovely horror thread too.

I am always amused by the idea that 'number stations are to talk to spies!" If that were true.....wouldn't people have attempted to shut them down? We can easily find them now. modern technology being what it is, it should be exceedingly simply to remove them from the airwaves.

No one ever does. Or rather, no one ever succeeds. Why is that?

>>15273080

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned the idea of a deadman switch for nuclear war - if they stopped transmitting, it'd automatically launch a retaliatory strike.

Pretty fucking terrifying eh?

>>15273071
>Because there's no obvious reason for them

There are multiple obvious reasons, and they have been posted in this thread.

>>15272531
Why do small girls voices creep you out?

>>15273099

Yes, but none of them are actually confirmable.

>>15273103

They creep me out when they're reciting code phrases for shadowy government agencies accompanied by eerie chiming music.

>>15273105
True, but what could they really be used for (realistically)?

I bet we could make half the global intelligence community flip its shit by starting up a random numbers station of our own out in the middle of nowhere.

>>15273071

That just makes it mysterious though.

>>15273124
There are two possibilities. Either no-one cares or you get abducted, interrogated, and possibly worse.

>>15273115

The chiming of music is also a code.

>>15273123

Mundane explanations aren't what this thread is about.

>>15273133

And that's also creepy!

The number stations are a product of the cold war. Why are they still playing? Well a family of Russian spies were sent back to Russia recently.

>>15273124
You ever do a slow scan of the longwave and shortwave bands on one of the old multifrequency radios? Not these new fangled electronic ones.

There are many, many such stations.

Of course, the numbers aren't the important part of a number station. they never were. It's the voices, and the music. The music and the tone of voice is far, far more critical than the numbers. The numbers are just the part that people can work with. The tones and music are for the other people.

>>15273188

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

Some don't even transmit voices or music at all... except when they do.

>>15273080

Because they can be broadcasted from outside our borders and bounced off the atmosphere.

>>15273236

Shortwave radios are actually pretty difficult to locate precisely.

Fuck you, /tg/. I'm not sleeping tonight.

>>15273219
http://fromtheold.com/news/politics/uvb-76-wakes-4chan-message-warns-world-war-new-world-order-20316
.html

That's....interesting. 4chan took and ran with it.

>>15273254

Sleep soundly, my friend, knowing that we yet guard you against the horrors beyond.

>>15273256
>The Middle East will get involved, attacking the Eastern seaboard.
>Russia will join China and North Korea and win the third World War, and a New World Order will be put into effect

Oh, 4chan.

>>15273254
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFuyE_VBeO8&feature=feedf

I think it's actually Marconi and EDISON who are jamming the extraterrestrial signals. Tesla knew about them, publicized them, and he had his reputation destroyed, his workshop and notes destroyed in a fire, etc. Marconi stole Tesla's radio patent. Edison and Tesla had a lifelong feud. This was what it was all about.

He obviously got in contact with them again somehow, though. Flying saucers, particle beams, radar, worldwide electric power transmission...he was a bright guy but for one man to conceptualize so much without outside assistance strains credibility.

The US government had taken over communicating with these signals by 1945, if the atom bomb is anything to judge by. They must have limited contact at some point after that, because we haven't had the same stream of world-shattering innovation lately.

>>15273352

This would actually tie in fairly well to the background of Delta Green...

This entire thread is part conspiracy theories, and part fantastic ideas for horror campaigns.
Also storytime, which is always nice.
I've just been listening to this [>>15271962] endlessly at a low volume with only the computer monitor for light.
Fun.

Anyway, I'm going to get chased by monsters in my sleep.

Good night!

rolled 5 = 5

So all this talk about sounds that mess with your mind... anyone know of those songs that supposedly give you a high similar to one you'd get with weed, but with no chemicals involved?

DRAGOVICH

STEINER

KRAVCHENKO

ALL MUST DIE

>>15271853

I used recordings of Numbers Stations (Thank you Conet Project!) mixed in my music playlist which already consisted of subtle background music (Hans Zimmer's stuff for Batman Begins and Dark Knight can be really brooding and atmospheric) and creepy noise metal and dark ambient ( "Sun0)))" and Lustmord, respectively). The group was on a planet embroiled in a warp storm, so reality was slowly eroding around them. I told them that the numbers stations were vox/radio interference, and so if they were having any vox-to-vox communications they would be interrupted by the numbers stations.

This was perfect, because the group had split the party in two, and both were trying to communicate through the ship in orbit as a booster for their personal vox units. The first few times a numbers station played I had to remind them that all conversation had to stop. Eventually they would stop themselves talking during the broadcasts, filling the apartment where we played with a tense silence, waiting for the transmissions to stop.

Eventually my friend that owned the apartment got up and turned off all but the dimmest lights. When I asked him what he was doing he replied "Making it spooky. Duh." The next day he complained that, due to the music and the low lighting and the story, he couldn't get to sleep without double-checking all the windows and locks.

This is the effect you want. Not them jumping out of their skin, but getting the players to fully embrace a state of heightened tension and lingering paranoia.

This thread once again proves to me that you don't need superficial shit like zombie apocalypses to be frightened. Reality is far scarier than any fiction.

bampin'