A History of Horrible Experiments

The hunt for Patchwork Jack continues! This session brought some horrific revelations about the site they had been lured into by their quarry and the mystery of Willard Corn has also deepened. 

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events

When we last left our heroes, they were descending a spiral staircase down into the depths where they could hear a strange metallic buzzing. The sound was coming from a swarm of bio-mechanical bats, which surrounded the group and made them fight for their lives on the staircase. Judicious use of fiery blasts and necrotic bolts knocked the mechanical bats--which had been spying on them on behalf of Patchwork Jack--out of the air. 

While exploring this new level of the complex, they discovered a corpse that Khamaat determined had been exsanguinated via medical means. Additionally, many areas on this level of the complex proved to either be flooded or to have a fast-rushing stream bisecting the caverns they were trudging through. 

Garazi summoned Txori and sent the bird to scout one of the larger caverns. The cave was lit by phosphorescent fungi and was filled with over twenty Vlaak sarcophagi that were leaned against the walls. Willard was able to read the runes carved onto the stone sarcophagi; the runes indicated that the dead were "Doctor-Priests" of some fashion. 

Garazi sent her familiar into another cave--this one stinking of feral animal. Txori was able to relay that the cavern was inhabited by two ratman, each of whom was bearing an eldritch firearm fitted with a glowing green stone, before she was blasted into nothingness. (Don't worry, she can be re-summoned in ten days, good as new.) As the group stormed into the cave, one of the ratmen released a giant rat to attack them. Panthalassa responded by summoning a raptor, which took down the giant rat as it attacked Willard. Once the ratmen were dispatched, the group was able to determine that the eldritch weapons were now useless because they were powered by the life forces of their wielders. 

Heck volunteered to wade into a chamber filled with massive fungi since he is immune to poison. He found two ancient Vlaak corpses that had been covered in a carpet of fungal matter. He was able to obtain strange medical instruments (which he gave to Khamaat) and an alien sword (that was given to Willard). Since Heck was now covered in potentially deadly spores, the group made way so he could give them a wide berth and clean himself off in one of the cavern streams before returning to the party.  

Disappointingly,  neither Panthalassa nor Serafina could pick the lock of a large, metal-plated door that had the name Dahom-Ka inscribed in runes above it. They would need to find a key to open that door. There was also much dithering in the sarcophagi room over whether they should open one of the three final resting places of the Lord Doctors within the chamber. Ultimately, they decided to leave things alone in that room. 

However, on one wall they did find a relief carving of...Willard Corn and a three-legged dog?! The words accompanying the depiction indicated that they are dangerous escaped "experiments." 

Once a staircase was located, they descended to the next level. This set of stairs spit them out near a waterfall created by the rushing streams above. In a nearby room, they found barrels filled with human body parts preserved in formaldehyde for further experimentation. The floor in the room beyond the chamber smelled of vinegar and looked strangely wet. When Heck threw a piece of leather into the room, a translucent pseudopod extended and caught it; the leather sizzled in its acidic grasp! The group was soon fighting an unnatural ooze. 

Once the ooze was dealt with, they discovered another room that had been clearly been used for either surgery or butchery--or a combination of both. There were cleavers and anesthesia masks next to a scarred operating table. Other interesting surgical item was recovered from a flooded room. Panthalassa used her cephalopod familiar Happy to scout the room. After determining that there was a Vlaak skeleton and a floating sack in the water, Khamaat--also immune to poison and disease--waded in to retrieve whatever was in the bag. The item was a broken mechanical glove meant to assist during surgery. 

They also encountered a strange mollusk that was posing as a stalagmite, but they decided to avoid that monster. However, they did explore a series of rooms with broken white tiles on the floor that seemed to be some sort of hospital ward. Panthalassa picked the lock on one of the rooms and they discovered that there was a key jammed into a crack in one of the walls. In fact, Daytona had had a vision of a crazed, wild-eyed man hiding the key in that crack back in the past when this site was an operating medical facility. 

The key was a fit for the lock on the door on the previous level that they could not open. Now they are ready to find out what lies beyond the door.

The Trilobite and Vodyani Isle

Two final adventure locations on the Judas Sea. The Trilobite adds a mobile location and a different spin on "mad scientist" and "fearsome captain" as found elsewhere in the setting. Vodyani Isle is a seafaring take on Stephen King's "Children of the Corn"--the potential for a little island folk horror, if you will.

The Trilobite

Crewed by hardened revolutionaries liberated from oppression, the Trilobite is a submarine that serves as the ambulatory fortress from which Captain Jaivati Drakkar wages war against tyranny.  

    • Born to noble a family in a distant southern land and educated at Creedhall University, Jaivati Drakkar’s genius for science, engineering, and artificer magic led her to create a submersible vehicle bristling with weaponry. 

    • Horrified at the conflict that tears her homeland apart, Jaivati has devoted herself to fighting autocrats who abuse their power—she seeks to free the people of Krevborna from cruel despots and tyrannical rulers. 

    • In the heat of the moment, however, Jaivati cannot resist succumbing to her own authoritarian urges. 

    • Jaivati's nights are haunted by regret over the violence she has perpetrated in the name of liberation.

Vodyani Isle

Vodyani is a little-known jungle island surrounded by a razor-sharp, treacherous coral reef.

    • Vodyani is inhabited by a tribe of feral children and teenagers—visitors will be surprised to learn that no one over the age of eighteen lives on the island.

    • Indeed, when one of Vodyani’s islanders reaches their eighteenth birthday they are taken down to the reefs at midnight and left as a sacrifice for “the Hungry Ones.”

    • The Hungry Ones are rusalkas who devour the sacrifices brought to them by the youths of Vodyani alive.

    • Any strangers who happen upon Vodyani are also captured and offered to the Hungry Ones.

    • In return for the human flesh they crave, the Hungry Ones leave fresh fish on the beaches of Vodyani to keep the children of the isle fed and healthy—so that they might live long enough to reach their eighteenth birthdays, of course.

The Fall of the Vlaak

Generally speaking, I do not like writing the "ancient history" of my settings. I find that it often offers little return on time spent when it comes to actual play. However, in this case I've had enough people using Krevborna ask me for more information about the Vlaak that I find myself willing to bend my own rules.

***

The people of the Vlaak Empire originated as an ancient folk capable of traveling the planes of existence. Rather than submit to life as servitors and prey for the cosmic horrors from the Outer Dark that conquered their world, the progenitors of the Vlaak fled into the many worlds of the Mortal Spheres in their planar-faring craft. These alien beings now exist in a state of diaspora. When a fleet of their ships find a world suitable for colonization, they invariably attempt to defeat the native population and found a dynastic empire that echoes the former glory of their homeland.

When these planar travelers descended upon Krevborna they displaced both the pomenysh and humanity with their advanced technology and strange sorceries. In Krevborna, the Vlaak Empire arose to dominate the land for a thousand years until it was weakened by decadence and hedonism. The Vlaak priestly class fell into the worship of Dracula, who influenced the Vlaak to adopt the fouls arts of necromancy and blood magic. In particular, Lithka, the last empress of the Vlaak Empire, embraced transformative necromancy in her foolish pursuit of eternal life.

It is widely believed that the Vlaak died out and that their empire fell before the rise of mankind, but this is a historical inaccuracy. The human beings living with boundaries of what would become the Vlaak Empire were enslaved as servants of the Vlaak. Hidden within the Grail Tombs is evidence that the ultimate downfall of the Vlaak Empire came about due to a revolt by humans the Vlaak kept in abject bondage.

Furthermore, the blood-drinking rites practiced by the Church of Holy Blood are a debased tradition passed down by the humans who served the Vlaak Empire. The faith’s sacraments are based on distorted memories of Vlaakish blood magic. A few senior Church officials have discovered the awful facts of their religion’s origins, but they dare not express the truth for fear of toppling the Church from its corrupt foundations.

Into the Vivisectum

We have begun the arc of the current Krevborna campaign where the players decided they wanted to hunt down Patchwork Jack and finish him off once and for all. They joined forces with Serafina for this, but the majority of the players did not like her plan to take Patchwork Jack alive. That adventure would have been more of a Blades in the Dark style game of skullduggery. Instead, the majority voted for taking him out permanently, which means instead they are venturing into his lair on a mission of assassination.

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events  

The plan went well, until it didn't. As Serafina suspected, the touted attraction of the Frankenstein organ brought Patchwork Jack to the Skarnesti Circus. The trap was sprung, but that's when everything went wrong. Patchwork Jack escaped, trudging north through the wilds of the Vespermark.

Acting quickly, the party gathered their resources and pursued him across the wastes on horseback. The weather did them no favors; winter had now arrived in earnest, bringing with it lashing winds, relentless snow, and bitter cold.

When they lost Patchwork Jack's trail, he set fires or left signs so they would remain on his trail. At last, they came to where his trail led: a fissure in the base of a mountain. Beside the crevice leading into the mountain caves, the group found a lit bonfire and a stack of firewood yet to be consumed. We find a fire and stuff outside the cave. A number of items were placed around the wood--there proved to be full wineskins and cheese and sausage preserved in red wax. Willard determined that the food was both edible and untampered with. Along with the food, a letter had been left. It read:

To Those Who Seek My Death,

Your ruse drew me, but now you stand on the precipice of my gambit. If you continue on this path, you approach your own doom.

Doctor Jack Frankenstein

Garazi summoned her familiar to scout inside the cave. Through Txori's eyes, she could see that beyond the mountainside fissure, the tunnel went north before become a switchback that headed south. She saw that a large double door within was guarded by two corpse golems bearing greataxes--though these two golems appeared to be of a higher quality of workmanship than the one that Viktor Frankenstein had sent after them previously.  

There were a number of discarded wineskins strewn about on the ground, which gave Panthalassa an idea. She summoned a giant spider and strapped their full wineskins to it and sent it into the caves; the theory was that the corpse golems had a taste for vino, so it might be possible to lure them out of the caves so dispatch them in the open. Unfortunately, when the corpse golems saw the spider one of them took a bell from its belt and began ringing it. Both corpse golems then exited through the doors they had been guarding. 

The party missed a crucial detail as they made their way inside: there were arrow slits in the walls. They quickly discovered the existence of the arrow slits when crossbowmen began firing on them. Garazi and Kamaat were both injured. Now on the run, the group saw a shallow set of stairs running south; they took the stairs and found the sniper's nest of one of the corpse golem crossbowman. After dispatching the monstrosity, they traversed the snipers nest to emerge beyond the door and out of range of the archers. 

The chamber they found themselves in was not a natural cave, but rather a square room decorated with carvings of Vlaak wearing strange headdresses and operating unfathomable arcane machinery. The room also featured a rope bridge that spanned a massive chasm; they could hear water crashing in the depths below. The two corpse golem guards had fled to the other end of the rope bridge. The group opened fire on the guards from the other side of the chasm and Heck thundered across to bridge to protect it from being chopped down by the guards' axes. 

Once the guards had been dealt with via violence, the group proceeded east. They kept uncovering caches of water barrels and preserved foods, which was odd given that they knew that Patchwork Jack did not require food or drink to survive. 

Further in the caves, the group found two Vespermark plains barbarians imprisoned in an alcove behind a gate made of wooden slats. The woman offered to trade a stoppered gourd filled with potent medicine for their freedom. Heck attempted to shift the gate, but when he failed Serafina pushed past him and simply picked the iron padlock keeping it closed. 

The group offered to let the barbarians travel with them, but they preferred to take their chances escaping back the way they came. Before they left, they explained how they came to be in this predicament: they had been ambushed by rat-like humanoids while hunting and were dragged into the caves. The ratmen were armed, they said, with strange guns that emitted eerie auras. The party now had some of idea of the unseen dangers that lurked in the complex.

In another larger chamber they found haphazard stacks of crates, barrels, and sacks. Inside were all manner of "raw materials" for Patchwork Jack's experiments: metal devices, bolts and screws, beakers and chemicals. It appeared that Patchwork Jack may be using the complex as a laboratory.

As they explored further, they found a stone statue of a Vlaak wearing a strange nautilus-like mask. When approached the mask opened up and a greenish gas spilled forth. Garazi was the only one affected; the gas made her feel light-headed and when it cleared she was left feeling exhausted. 

After crossing through a door near the statue, the found a room full of pelts and tanned hides; the room had an almost overpowering acidic smell. Inside, a large leather arm emerged from a pile of tanned skins and smashed into Khamaat. A massive figure, which appeared to be a man-like creature sewn together from leather, emerged from the pile. Alongside it were two massive frankenwolves whose bodies appeared to have been pieced together from many different wolves. This battle was tough, and the party took a few wounds here, but ultimately they were able to destroy Patchwork Jack's creations. Panthalassa's summoned velociraptor was particularly deadly against the frankenwolves.

Further violence occurred when the group figured out how to access the second sniper's nest. Khamaat's fire was quite effective against the corpse golems, and the group now knew that they were afraid of flame--which might come in handy latter in the complex. The party also ambushed a lone teenage necromancer cooking meat over a fire; he had one of the Usher's stolen masks at his side, so they deduced that he was a member of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. He was quickly killed and knocked into his own fire. They did manage to recover his grimoire, and it contained a ritual for binding a ghost to a human body--perhaps a vital clue as to why this Cadaverite was in the caverns in the first place.

After barricading themselves in a chamber and keeping watch, the group was able to rest and heal their wounds. They located stone spiral stairs descending into darkness--from which they could hear both the crashing of water and a strange metallic buzzing sound--and went down into the next level of the complex. We'll see what they find next time. 

Felvolio's Carnival

We returned to the current Krevborna game. This one...has clowns. Thankfully, Savage Worlds has stats for "Evil Clowns" in one of the companion books. The folks over at Savage Worlds HQ always got my back.

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn and King Beebo, a farmer and his monkey (?)

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events

Autumn had ended and winter brought the first snowfall to Hemlock Hollow. Adrian Vergara and Ivara Graymalk crunched through the snow to pay a visit to Garazi's family home. Adrian brought a picnic basket of food and drink for Garazi's family, but more importantly he brought his translations from the book of necromantic lore they had obtained while in pursuit of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. Adrian explained that the book noted that the Nightmother bestowed the ability to raise the dead indirectly upon her cultists; to access that power, the cultists needed to construct an avatar of the Nightmother that she could inhabit--the "goddess" herself could then resurrect the dead on their behalf. 

Meanwhile, Ivara visited Heck in the lower level of the house. She gave Heck the results of her mother scrying the location of the witchfinder Grigori Trask; Trask was inhabiting an old fortress north of Chancel. She also gave Heck a note from her mother for Panthalassa the revealed that her missing arm was somewhere...on the Ghost Moon?! Finally, she gave him a letter to be opened later; this letter was from Ivara herself and she intimated that Heck, in his living incarnation, may be her father!

While en route to the Skarnesti Circus, the group saw firsthand evidence that the War in Hell had spilled over onto Earth. First, they smelled smoke--which proved to be coming from a village that was aflame. The cause made itself apparent: a number of demons were running amok, the chief of which was a corpulent demon with a massive maw. The demons were chasing a woman, who would turn out to be Khamaat. 

The party moved to fight the demons, but most of the party found themselves unnerved by their infernal presence. During the battle, Daytona was swallowed whole by the corpulent demon and it was only through the efforts of the dinosaurs that Panthalassa summoned that he was freed from the demon's gut. They did notice, however, that the demons bore the mark of Legion.

When the group arrived at the Skarnesti Circus, they found it far less bustling than they expected. They were approached by Melusine, the circus's "snake dancer" and former lover of Daytona, who explained that Zoskia Skarnesti, the circus's ringmaster, and Felvolio, the circus's star clown, had both gone missing. She brought them into a tent where an argument about what to do about that was already in progress. 

Of course, the group got themselves involved in the mystery. They got the sense that the circus had some odd visitors. The local constable had told them to move on; a woman (who was described as looking similar to Serafina) tried to join the circus, but Zoskia had turned them away; a trio had been seen stalking around the fairgrounds, seemingly uninterested in the circus's attractions. 

After searching Zoskia's wagon, they uncovered several clues--which they did not follow up on. Instead, they split into two teams: Panthalassa and Daytona went into town to talk to the woman who had wanted to join the circus and the rest walked into the northern woods to find the three strangers who seemed out of place at the circus.

Daytona and Panthalassa discovered that the town was populated with members of the Yezhuli, a heretical sect of the Church of Holy Blood that practices bigamy. After talking to the constable, they obtained the location of the Maitland residence--the home of the woman who wanted to run away with the circus. The constable also showed them that his jail was currently empty--he had not arrested Zoskia and Felvolio surreptitiously. 

Meanwhile, in the woods, Heck was able to track the three strangers to their camp, though only two--an older priest with an eyepatch named Father Ambroys and a young nobleman with a rapier at his side called Jean de Cote--were apparent. The third, the nobleman's Polnezna half-sister Winter was recalled from her sniper's nest to join the group. They explained that they are all members of the Hounds of Velun, a secret society that believes a tsar should be returned to Krevborna's throne. 

However, they disagree with Valton Blakely's quest to resurrect a dead tsar to lead the country--they want to find a living descendent instead. As such, they were led by the priest's mystical visions to the Skarnesti Circus--they were milling around the fairgrounds in search of the party because they wanted to give them a map to an old abbey on an island that Blakely is using as the headquarters of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. 

Back in town, Panthalassa made her way to the Maitland house. She knocked at the door, and when the man of the house answered she told him that she was having "woman problems." He promptly sent her around to the back of the house where one of his wives was taking laundry down from the line. Panthalassa immediately saw the resemblance between this woman, Agniezka, and Serafina--there could be no doubt that they were sisters. Agniezka confided that her husband was abusive and that she wanted out of the marriage; Panthalassa told her that if she could manage to sneak away that night, she would help her get to safety.

Both the group emerging from the forest and the group exiting the town were surprised to hear a discordant calliope playing on the circus fairgrounds. As they approached, they could see that the Skarnesti Circus's familiar black-and-white striped tents had been replaced by green-and-white striped canvas. A new sign was hung above the ticket booth that read FELVOLIO'S CARNIVAL. The sign also included the image of a sinister, god-like clown surrounded by animated laughing mouths. 

Once they had bought tickets from the elderly clown at the ticket booth, he let them in after saying "All hail the God of Dark Laughter!" which really set the tone for what followed. They saw their deceased friend Rudolpho in a monkey suit dancing to the sound of the calliope; Garazi was knocked into a mud puddle at the pillow fight contest; the ring toss proved to be obscene--they were meant to toss rings onto the upturned codpieces of gyrating clowns. Worse yet, entering the "Tragic Kingdom" exhibit shrunk the party down to size and forced them to face off against a giant ant for survival!

Eventually, they heard the sound of heralding trumpets and an announcement that the show in the big top was about to commence. Once in their seats, they found the spotlight trained on them and they were invited to the stage--where they were forced to fight many clowns to the death. The odds tipped against them when a mechanical contraption pulled up and even more clowns spilled out. Felvolio, the master clown and secret cultist of the God of Dark Laughter, also joined in the fray but ultimately the fools were defeated.

Of course, once defeated, the big top began to creak and groan--it was about to topple to the ground. The group ran for it, but as soon as they cleared the tent they could see that Felvolio's Carnival had been replaced by the Skarnesti Circus once more. The Skarnesti carnies were still trapped in glass bubbles floating in the nearby pond, but they were quickly freed.

That night, Serafina and Viktoria arrived in separate carriages. Serafina explained that she wanted the group's help in taking down Patchwork Jack. There was a wrinkle here, though--Serafina wanted to take him alive. The group balked at this and Serafina was outvoted. They have put themselves on the path of death.

Meanwhile, Viktoria presented Panthalassa with two replacement arms that she had crafted: one a perfect replica of the arm she had lost, the other decorated with raised scars depicting a variety of ancient fossils. Panthalassa chose the latter, and the doctor prepared to operate...

Skalloche Isle and Thornlight

Two more adventure locations on the Judas Sea! Skalloche Isle is as yet unexplored in any of my campaigns, but it might be fun to run a mini-game in which the players all take on the roles of Skalloche's raiders. Thornlight, on the other hand, is the location of one of the best adventures I've ever written. I think I've used it in three different campaigns so far.

Skalloche Isle

Skalloche Isle is a snowy, mountainous island in the northern waters of the Judas Sea. 

    • The island is home to merciless barbarians who set sail in dragon-prowed long ships to engage in piracy and raid Krevborna’s coastal settlements.

    • Skalloche Isle is also inhabited by a groups of outcasts, the Corvidians, who have been warped by supernatural forces.

    • The corvidians—crow-like birdfolk—are the descendants of humans who were cursed by the Word and the Light due to their heretical beliefs; they live within ruined cathedrals that they jealously guard against outsiders.

    • The island’s corvidians adopted the folk saint Vionka as their savior long ago.

Thornlight

Thornlight is a supposedly abandoned lighthouse standing on a lonesome island near Piskaro. 

    • Only the pirates contracted to supply the lighthouse’s owner, Doctor Hesselius Reichman, with foodstuffs and the “raw materials” he puts to macabre purpose in his laboratory visit the island and leave safely. 

    • Doctor Reichman uses the lighthouse’s beacon to trick ships into dashing themselves on the rocky shore; anyone who washes up alive on the island’s beach is used in his disturbing experiments.

    • Reichman experiments with vivisection and artificer magic, following notes left behind by Doctor Moreau, to create tortured hybrids of man and beast. 

    • Reichman uses the threat of pain and dismemberment to keep his creations subservient and docile.  

    • Although Reichman is clearly mad, his research has a tragic purpose—he hopes to find a technological or magical innovation that will allow him to restore his comatose wife to consciousness.

    • Until Reichman can find a cure for her condition, his wife Rebecca is kept alive by magical machinery of his own invention inside a glass coffin. 

Fathom's Reach and Flotsam

Two more adventure locations on the Judas Sea in Krevborna! The first one, Fathom's Reach, was invented as a location the characters visited in my previous Krevborna campaign. Flotsam, on the other hand, was inspired by the (criminally underused) Saragoss from the Ravenloft setting and the floating city of Armada from China Mieville's novel The Scar.

Fathom’s Reach

Though its presence is unknown to most, Fathom’s Reach is an accursed city lurking beneath the waves of the Judas Sea.

    • Fathom’s Reach is an undersea city whose buildings are made of a strange, greasy black stone. 

    • The black stone used in its construction leeches an inky miasma into the water surrounding Fathom’s Reach that obscures it from view.

    • Fathom’s Reach is inhabited by fish-like greshnik who were once human.

    • The first residents of Fathom’s Reach made a compact with Scylla, a primordial creature of the depths, in order to survive a terrible shipwreck; as part of their pact, they were transformed into their current degenerate, amphibious forms.

    • The greshnik of Fathom’s Reach continue to worship Scylla as their patron “goddess.”

Flotsam

Flotsam is an unnatural island east of Piskaro comprised of an amalgamation of seaweed, wrecked ships, the bones of the drowned, broken chunks of coral reef, and other bits of ocean-borne detritus. 

    • Flotsam's nutrient rich soil, made fertile by the rot of the island’s accumulation of refuse and debris, births a verdant jungle spreading over much of the island. 

    • Some claim that the overgrown jungles of the island’s interior are vaster than its spatial boundaries should allow for and that ruins belonging to ancient civilizations are hidden within them.

    • The isle serves as a neutral meeting ground for Piskaro’s pirate captains.

    • Many believe that a number of legendary pirate captains buried their treasure on Flotsam; maps purporting to lead to their hoards sometimes surface, but thus far all who have flowed their paths have failed to return.

    • Captain Laurant maintains a plantation farm on Flotsam, but its location is a closely guarded secret; the plantation is worked by zombie laborers under Vanessa Laurant’s control.