Dracula vs. Capitalism

NBC's television adaptation/re-envisioning of Dracula (2013) was crazy. Aside from the Romantic love-beyond-death subplot, the cod Victoriana, and the Tesla-esque, the show's main theme was Dracula vs. Capitalism. 

The show unintentionally highlighted why capitalism has never been overthrown as the dominant political economy. Although Dracula disables the economic and political apparatus of the Order of the Dragon (aka oil barons) in England, it's clear that this was a local victory rather than the conclusion to a large-scale ideological war; the importation of help from the Italian branch of the Order of the Dragon intimates a truth about how capitalism weathers the revolutionary storm: it's a global regime, not a local one. Dracula may have crippled his enemies in London, but the global nature of capitalism makes it impervious to grassroots, localized revolt. A vacuum of power in one industrialized center of the economy doesn't create instability, it creates opportunities for other capitalists.

Wreath of Barbs

Campaign: Scarabae Open table (5e D&D Google Hangouts)

Characters:

• Bellicose, gothy human wizard
• Mortimer, street fightin' human monk
• Doctor Wiffle, dubiously doctorin' human fighter
• Viktor, former hermit dragonborn sorcerer

Objective: Put an end to the machinations of the Children of Fimbul in the Redgutter Ward.

Events:
The black vines that have been infesting Redgutter Ward had become even more pernicious, spawning vicious bipedal horrors made of black kudzu that were attacking the residents of the borough with alarming frequency. Mortimer and Dr. Wiffle knew that the Children of Fimbul, the apocalyptic cult responsible for the infestation, made their lair in a cavernous underworld beneath the Helveta tavern, so they assembled a crew of crypt-kickers to put an end to the evil druids' plans.

Since their last expedition beneath Helveta, the tavern had closed without warning, its windows boarded up and its doors locked. Under the cover of a distraction provided by Bellicose and company, Dr. Wiffle picked the lock and gained entry. Nothing appeared out of place inside. Using the bucket-like conveyance they had found on the prior expedition the crew descended down the long shaft into the caverns beneath the tavern. The ancient fortress within the cavern appeared to have been pulled out of the earth, revealing a sublevel that the adventurers had not explored last time.

A fissure in the fortress's petrified wood walls was the only visible entrance. Using his familiar to investigate beyond the fissure, Bellicose discovered that the chamber was currently occupied by two animate skeletons busily turning the soil, weeding, and spreading compost. There were also doors at the opposite side of the chamber and on the right-hand wall, and a fissure interrupted the left-hand wall.

The skeletons paid no attention to the adventurers as they entered the chamber. Investigation of the door on the opposite side of the chamber revealed that it opened up into a hallway containing carved pillars and tables strewn with herbs, botanical specimens, and mortars and pestles. However, while exploring the room, two vine-men were spotted emerging from the ground and approaching the hallway.

The party engaged the two vine-men, who were joined in the fray by the two shovel-wielding skeletons. The vine-men were decimated by Dr. Wiffle's swordplay and Viktor's necromantic magic, and the skeletons fell apart under the combined assault of martial arts, magic, and sheer brutality. But before the battle was over, a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, wearing a patchwork robe of furs, skins, and leather, emerged from the unexplored fissure. He let lose two giant rats from their chain leashes, and they promptly charged the party. The rats were dealt with speedily, and the man was pummeled and then lulled into sleep by a timely spell from Bellicose before he got a chance to strike back with the crowbar he was carrying. The fungus and stunted, pale saplings the skeletons were tending were trashed for good measure.

The dreadlocked man was tied up, questioned, and then gagged when he proved unhelpful. The party went back to exploring the hallway. Snoring could be heard behind one of doors to an adjoining room. Opening the door quietly revealed three figures--a male dwarf, a human man, and a halfling woman--all asleep atop a pile of furs in the center of the room. All three figures wore the robes of Children of Fimbul cultists.

Sensing an opportunity to get information from the sleeping cultists, Bellicose cast an illusion of a cage with inward-pointing spikes around them; the cultists were then prodded awake and made to believe that the party had trapped them with powerful magic while they slept. The dwarf proved especially open to negotiating for his life; he explained that he was the second son of a wealthy guild leader so his aimless life had led him to joining the cult--but he had been having severe doubts about their mission. 

The dwarf told the crew that there were about thirty cultists scattered throughout the lair, that the leaders of this cell of the cult slept apart from the others in a large cavern that was off-limits to everybody else, that whatever was creating the vines in Redgutter was surely within that cavern, and that the most fearful things in the lair was Brunhilde (the cult's spear-wielding champion), Freya (a powerful spellcaster), and Bella (the cell's leader). 

The dwarf also drew the party a map that would lead them to the cavern in question, allowing them to bypass exploring much of the fortress. He and his human compatriot gladly signed contracts drawn up by the crew, swearing that they forsook membership in the Children of Fimbul. The young halfling woman had her hand forced (literally) by the dwarf, who dragged her off in the end, stating that she was too young and dumb to know what was good for her.

Pressing on, the crew passed through a small room where the cult stored scimitars and short bows--the strings of the short bows were cut for good measure, just in case. Following the map further brought the party to a series of garden galleries in which the walls had been shaped into pictorial narratives; the soil of the floor was sprouting a variety of pale plant life. The second gallery was patrolled by a cult member brandishing a glaive; the party managed to take her down, but not before receiving enough injuries in the fray to give them pause. Their foe had a vial of pale green, mouthwash-colored liquid on her person. The crew holed themselves up in an empty room to catch their breath and tend their wounds before carrying on.

Their rest was uninterrupted, and the party continued following their map to the cavern. They passed an arboretum of toadstools and lichens, and listened at the next door; beyond it they heard the voices of four people arguing about where to put various items. Opening the door slightly and using Bellicose's familiar to scout gave them a view of four cultists standing at a table sorting herbs and cuttings into various piles. 

Dr. Wiffle threw open the door and tossed a bead of force inside. One of the cultists got caught in the blast and had her neck broken as she was slammed against the wall; the other three managed to scramble underneath the table for cover as they drew their scimitars. Their defense was short lived; Mortimer's martial arts and the combined efforts of his fellows polished them off quickly.

Instead of a being fully enclosed, the chamber's right side opened up into a massive dark cavern--far bigger than should have been possible within the fortress's confines. Viktor cast a light spell on the severed head of one of the cultists, and Dr. Wiffle threw it into the cavern to test how far it went--but it stretched well beyond his throw. However, the illuminated head did reveal that the cavern was dotted with nodules of the black vines that had been spreading throughout Scarabae.

Mortimer decided to scout the cavern, but his stealthy approach was betrayed somewhat by the fact that he was carrying a lantern while doing so. Suddenly, a spear sailed out of the darkness--but as a dexterous monk, Mortimer was able to snatch the spear from the air before it could harm him. Clearly, Brunhilde was present. The rest of the party rushed in to aid their friend.

A giant, thorn-encrusted frog emerged from the darkness of the cavern and attacked Mortimer, biting him and holding him in its barbed mouth. Mortimer attempted to kill the thing with a bead of force, but it managed to dodge out of the way, taking him with it. Chanting was heard from the shadows, but the woman (Bella) invoking who-knows-what-horrors remained unseen.

A gaunt woman with bedraggled hair (Freya) also emerged from the shadows, casting a spell that sent three thorns shooting from her outstretched palm and into Mortimer's flesh. Dr. Wiffle moved to engage Brunhilde behind the remains of a ruined wall. The statuesque spear maiden drew her enchanted weapon and the sound of operatic singing filled the echoing space of the cavern. Brunhilde inflicted devastating wounds, but ultimately Dr. Wiffle's rapier was able to piece Brunhilde's armor and sink down to her heart.

Viktor tried to keep at range, blasting his foes with necromantic magic, but a blast of wintry fury from Freya caught him and sent him to the ground. Mortimer finally managed to rabidly punch the giant frog that was holding him until it, err, croaked. Viktor came very close to death's door, but the timely intervention of Mortimer and Dr. Wiffle got him back on his feet in the nick of time. (Somebody killed Freya at this point, but honestly I don't remember who got the deathblow.)

Bella, the leader of this cell of the Children of Fimbul, emerged from the shadows where she had been chanting a profane liturgy to the destruction of the world. She was a blonde woman of middle years, a mad gleam in her eye. She cast a spell upon Mortimer, but the effects were not immediately obvious. 

Low on resources and stamina, the crew decided that taking on the cult's most powerful member was not likely to proceed in their favor. Wisely, perhaps, they ran, and attempted to regroup. They considered making another run at Bella but realized that after checking to make sure Freya and Brunhilde were beyond saving, the druidess had summoned seven of the vine-men to her side. Since the odds were not in their favor, they ran back to the bucket mechanism and began to ascend to the surface.

Spoils:

XP: 313 XP for Bellicose, 396 XP each for Mortimer, Dr. Wiffle, and Viktor.

Magic Items: The "pale green mouthwash" colored liquid is a potion of healing.

Brunhilde's spear functions as a spear +1, and once per day the person attuned to it can use their reaction to impose disadvantage against a melee attack against themselves or another creature within 5 feet. However, when wielded in melee the spear fills the air with the sound of operatic singing. It's really, really loud.

Cults Human Sacrifice Pagan Sex, Diabolical Miss Hyde, Learning from Jack the Ripper

Cults, human sacrifice, and pagan sex: how folk horror is flowering again in Brexit Britain (Michael Newton, The Guardian)

The Binge-Watcher's Companion Guide: Viola Carr's The Diabolical Miss Hyde and Penny Dreadful (Joel Cunningham, Barnes & Noble)

We are not done learning from the Jack the Ripper murders (Caroline O'Donoghue, The Pool)

A Miserable Little Pile of Secrets

Do you have a favorite fictional map? 

I do: it's the map from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest that was published in Nintendo Power. The version of the map featured in Mondo's new vinyl release of the Castlevania II soundtrack is even better. As it turns out, the map works really well for my Krevborna setting. See my hack of the map above where I've added my place names to the Castlevania map; it's certainly more attractive than the intentionally unhelpful map I've been using in my games.

Speaking of, I'd be remiss not to post the teaser trailer for the upcoming Castlevania cartoon on Netflix: 

The Allure of Thrones

Click here to listen to an 8track mixtape entitled

The Allure of Thrones

Tracklist

† Black Magician, Full Plain I See, the Devil Knows How to Row †

† Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Ritual Knife †

† The Devil's Blood, Within the Charnel House of Love †

† Blood Ceremony, Eldritch Dark †

† Jess & the Ancient Ones, Astral Sabbat †

† Jex Thoth, Damned and Divine †

† Serpent Venom, Blood of Serpents †

† Electric Wizard, Frisson des Vampires/Zora †

The Best Defense

Even though the previous collection of The Walking Dead ended with Rick's nihilist pronouncement that he and his fellow survivors are ontologically equivalent to the zombies all around them, The Best Defense picks up at a moment removed from Rick's descent into existential pessimism. Instead, we see something of a return to the old Rick of earlier issues; he's busy organizing and fortifying the prison into a stronghold that will enable the group's survival. With the discovery of a cache of weapons and riot armor, the prison becomes a feudal castle; when Rick and Glenn don riot gear to venture beyond the prison's barricades, they do so as armored knights errant sent to protect the kingdom from invaders. These images and the actions they foreshadow gesture toward a stark possibility about the prison: if it is to be the group's castle, it must be a castle that can withstand a siege.

Glenn and Rick's knightly quest for gasoline is interrupted when they observe a helicopter go down a few miles away. Off they go, with ronin Michonne in tow, on a further quest to discover crash survivors on the boundaries of their domain. Back within the prison, Lori again feels (rightfully) abandoned by Rick's willingness to always be the one who takes action far afield instead of staying near his family. 

While Rick is away, Carol takes the opportunity to make an unusual proposal to Lori: she suggests that she "wed" both Lori and Rick, becoming part of their family. Carol explains that in this new world of survival against the walking dead, the old rules don't have to apply. And she's right. Since survivors will be forced to remake the world one way or another, they need not be bound by traditions, customs, or mores that no longer fit the world in which they're forced to live. 

But Lori will have none of it; she's not an open-minded woman--she cites the effect that a polyamorous relationship might have on the children--and rejects Carol's idea out of hand. Through this odd-yet-stereotypical interaction, Walking Dead poses a series of questions about our adaptability: if we had to rebuild the social world through which humanity coheres, could we do it anew or are we, as a species, inextricably bound to the social formations we've inherited? Is change, even when it might abet our survival, something we have difficulty navigating? Do the lines, rules, and strictures of interpolation and tradition have too tight a hold over not just what we think, but how we think and what we're able to imagine?

Our collective inability to break free from the hegemony of old patterns is underscored in several ways. When Rick, Glenn, and Michonne find themselves in the clutches of the Governor, he imparts a missing piece of why everything has gone to hell in the big cities: when the National Guard was called out to turn metropolises into sanctuaries, the men and women of the Guard couldn't let go of the idea that they needed to protect their families first and foremost. And so the cities went undefended because those with the power and mandate to make a difference simply couldn't think beyond the basic survival of their immediate tribe. They couldn't bring themselves to do something unprecedented in response to extraordinary circumstances.

The other way we see old habits dying hard is in the ridiculous artifacts of more civilized times that the various characters crave even though those artifacts have no meaningful place in the dangerous world that confronts them. Foremost of these misfit artifacts is entertainment. Carol is thrilled at the prospect of having access to the prison's library, and positively overjoyed at the thought of being able to watch a movie once they get the generator working in the prison. The possibility of movie night again rears its head as a form of escapism that might allow the survivors in the prison to forget, at least momentarily, that Michonne, Rick, and Glenn haven't yet returned from their expedition.

The craving for entertainment takes a darker form in Woodbury, where the Governor has arranged for gladiatorial combat to keep his populace dependent on the bread and circuses he provides. As the Governor states, "There's a lesson there. You gotta keep people occupied or they'll turn on you. Reading and fucking will only keep people busy for so long." Entertainment, then, is both a instrument of social control and a numbing form of self-medication and self-distraction. The ways that entertainment, especially bloodsport, appeases the populace is gruesome, but its not nearly as horrific as the populace's willful complicity in allowing that bloody spectacle to effect who they are and what they will accept as human beings.

The Walking Dead posits that our habitual desire to be entertained renders us vulnerable to a corrosive habit of distraction that has the potential to eat away at our humanity--or at least sedate it into quiet compliance. The reliance on spectacle, then, is just one more pattern that we cannot leave behind, even though distraction can be fatal in a post-apocalyptic world and escapism is a weakness when the current situation demands all of your focus purely as a matter of survival. Notably, despite the Governor's understanding of the role that entertainment plays in the community he leads, he isn't immune to it. The Governor keeps the severed heads of his victims in tanks as if they were so many television screens competing for his attention. He's seemingly aware that watching the heads diverts him for his purpose--he ironizes the moment by saying "Fifty-seven channels and nothing on"--but he still can't tear himself away from this macabre pageantry of his own creation.

But nothing in The Best Defense even comes close to the Grand Guignol grotesquery that is the Governor's repeated rape of Michonne. Michonne's abuse is framed as a form of entertainment for the Governor. Sexual gratification doesn't seem to figure into his ends; the pleasure he finds is in breaking the will of a strong woman. And yet, the sexual violence the Governor inflicts on Michonne is largely without purpose. Despite claiming that he does terrible things in the name of survival and keeping order, he knows that he's never going to get the information he wants about the prison from her. 

Michonne's assault is essentially a private theater of brutality that stages savagery for the benefit of a sole sadistic viewer in the comic's fictive world. The Governor's hope is that he can lead her to the final cathartic scene he desires--to crush her spirit to the point where she takes her own life. All of which means, of course, that Michonne's rape is another distraction that dehumanizes, another spectacle that unmans, another entertainment that functions as negation. This critique becomes more pointed when we realize that it is being delivered through a piece of entertainment media that is currently horrifying its audience with a depiction of sexual assault--and yet, we aren't likely to break the cycle of reliance or the pattern of mediation either. Instead, our complicity is likely unnoticed or perhaps just brushed away; we reach for the next issue because we must be entertained.

From the hip:

• If donning the riot gears transforms Rick and Glenn into post-apocalyptic knights, it is playing with the imagery of a particularly fascist knighthood. If Rick's authority as a former policemen reached troubling extremes before, it's chilling to think of how that power might be exercised when given the equipment of militarized police intended to crush dissent.
• While siphoning gasoline outside the prison, Glenn takes a moment to ask Rick if he thinks that Maggie would think less of him for being so proficient at sucking gas through a rubber tube. Glenn's need for reassurance about his masculinity is almost comical at this point, but it is noteworthy that he seeks affirmation from a man and not from women.
• A point of comparison: Rick is unwilling to do what the National Guard was not--he's always running off instead of staying put to defend his immediate family, as Lori wishes he would.
• Andrea reinforces the idea that the prison will have to sustain a siege when she stands atop its walls and mentions that some day they may be called upon to keep humans, not just zombies, out of their fortress. It's Chekov's castle.
• Of course, the violent, power-mad, survival-obsessed Governor is essentially what Rick would have become if Tyreese hadn't intervened.
• Something tells me the Governor's not going to get the ending he's dreaming of with Michonne.
• As a person possessing an advanced degree in literature, I am legally obligated to whisper "Symbolic castration" in your ear during the scene in which the Governor chops one of Rick's hands off.

Strangely Beautiful

Author Leanna Renee Hieber has created an alternative Victorian London that merges ghost-hunting, Jack the Ripper, capital-R Romantic love, and a healthy dose of post-Harry-Potter magic in her novel Strangely Beautiful. Originally published as two books in 2009 and 2010, Hieber's story features a beautiful, innocent young woman raised in a convent and dropped into a supernatural battle that will change the course of her life. She describes this book as "Victorian Ghostbusters" and seeks within its pages to create a new brand of Gothic with a modern sensibility.

How will Jack and Kate react to this fanciful new spin on tried-and-true suspense tropes? Why does Kate loathe the male lead more than any other character from any other book they've read so far? When does a wish-fulfillment fantasy for a teenager become a horror story for a middle aged person? And how do Jesus, Snape, and Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS figure into all of this? Find out all this and more in this month's episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Listen to the episode here!

Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople and on Facebook. You can discover where to get all the books featured on Bad Books for Bad People on our reading list.

Parisian Prostitute Etchings, Alchemical Art, Mourning Through Horror

Etchings of Parisian Prostitutes and Drug Addicts Portray 'Deadly and Delicious Passions' (Paul Gallagher, Dangerous Minds)

How Alchemy Has Been Depicted in Art Through the Ages (Anika Burgess, Atlas Obscura)

Mourning Through Horror Movies (Aaron Orbey, The New Yorker)

People Kicking Around in My Sandbox

Over at The Vanishing Tower blog, Jay Murphy has adapted my World Between setting for the Renaissance d100 system. I think that system is a really good fit for the campaign setting.

B. W. Mathers has been running a campaign set in my Scarabae setting. Here's an actual play report.

Mr. Mathers has also continued to do cool stuff with the Major Arcana of the Scarabae setting. Here's his take on The Fool, The Magician, and The High Priestess.

...and The Empress, The Emperor, and The Hierophant.

Information on the Courts of Swords, Cups, Coins, and Wands.

...and he rolled-up a character I hope I get to see soon in my online Scarabae games.

Check out these five islands for Scarabae.









House Stillwater, a woman-run criminal syndicate in Scarabae.

This post of mine on Sloppy XP got discussed a bit on the ggnore podcast. They agree with me because I am very correct. Now I just need to convince them that it's okay to describe combat in an rpg and that rolling to check for stuck doors is goofy and my grand work will be complete.

I think I linked this before, but G. S. Smith used my Thirteen Questions to make a City of Intrigue.

Ides of Gemini, Igorrr, Volur

Both of these two music videos feature currently as part of the Krevborna soundtrack that exists only in my head:

Ides of Gemini, "Heroine's Descent"

Igorrr, "ieuD"

Volur, live at the Music Gallery (thanks to Cole Long for this one)

Playing D&D in Virginia with Goths, Punks, and Metalheads Who Have Important Jobs

DAS TRAVELOGUE

Over the weekend I drove down to Virginia to play some D&D with a convergence of friends from the DC/NYC/NJ/Toronto areas. The drive was made much more pleasant by listening to the Boiled Leather Audio Hour on the way.

BLAH is a Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones podcast hosted by Sean T. Collins and Stefan Sasse. I don't agree with everything they have to say--I still don't buy that Game of Thrones isn't exploitative in its presentation of violence--but they raise a lot of interesting questions and have solid insights into the franchise.

I made a new first level character for the weekend's game:

Ivy Valerio, half-elf knowledge cleric. Ivy was abandoned or orphaned as a baby and left on the doorstep of an ascetic devoted to Jergal. Ivy grew up being trained as an undertaker and priestess of the forgotten god of death. Ivy was designed to be bad at combat; her low strength and dexterity meant that she is better off not using her mace or crossbow. Instead, she relies on her magic (sacred flame and inflict wounds) for damage--which was slightly a problem when I had to help destroy a magic diamond since I couldn't target it with any spells since it wasn't a "creature." Oops.

The rest of the party: gnome barbarian with an abiding hatred of goblins, dragonborn rogue who was formerly a fashion designer, human dandy highwaywoman, and a vengeful half-elf paladin.

Things that happened in game:

• Our most harrowing fight was against giant badgers.
• We may have used oil and ball bearings to remove a dead giant from a hole in the top of a stone pyramid.
• It is inappropriate to call a magical barrier a "hymen."
• Giorgio, the dragonborn rogue, nearly died and was brought back from death's door by magic so many times that he began to prefer the idea of death to constantly being brought back from beyond the pale.
• Other things fought: tiny shrunken goblins, orbs with tentacles and a hovering magic diamond, kobolds, magma men.
• We callously killed a small bear, which is probably for the best as it is likely we would have used it as a canary in a coal mine if we had kept it alive.
• A small giant is just a dude.
• I tried to use my character's shield as a stepping stone to cross a river of lava and rolled a one on my Athletics check. But fuck it, I survived and messed up a magical sigil of the Prince of Evil Elemental Fire. Fuck that guy.
• We hit second level, y'all.

Giorgio's player is the least experienced with D&D, so I made her this icon-coded character sheet. So when she was like "What is my speed?" I could say "It's by the boot." I also brought a set of color-coded dice so I could say "The blue one is the d4." She said that both were helpful.

Also, I drank a liquor called Incredible Hook.

Opinion was split on the merits of Incredible Hook; reactions ranged from "disgusting poison to "delicious, smooth poison." I was in the latter camp.

My partner-in-podcast brought me back this rad vinyl soundtrack to Castlevania from the Roadburn festival. 

The hostess of D&D weekend gave us all prints from her recent art show. This is now mine.

Gotta find some wall space for it.

What did I listen to on the drive back?

I ran out of Boiled Leather podcasts to listen to, but I can tell you that this Ides of Gemini album is real good.

Disturbing Folk Songs, Debunking Tear Catchers, Blade Runner Eyes

10 of the most disturbing folk songs in history (BBC)

Debunking the Myth of 19th-Century 'Tear Catchers' (Sonya Vatomsky, Atlas Obscura)

My Blade Runner Eyes (Nadya Lev, Folks)

Bewildering Attitudes I Have Encountered in the Wild (part 4 of old-school.txt)

• This set of abstract mechanics is okay, but this other set of abstract mechanics breaks my immersion. Disassociated!
• When I talk about reading old D&D books, I use the word exegesis because these are ~sacred texts~.
• OMG I can't believe the prices that WotC and/or Paizo charge for these books! The hobby doesn't need these huge books packed with artwork! (minutes later) I just dropped a hundred bucks on this 300+ page, profusely illustrated book from my favorite OSR publisher!
• You want to run a game full of characters options, modern design sensibilities, focused on character interaction? Have you considered using OD&D or Swords & Wizardry for that?
• This person's horrible personality and inexcusable behavior are worth putting up with because he made a good blog post five years ago. I mean, we're all gamers, right?

Satanic Strippers, Why Women Love Witches, Victorian Entertainments

Satanic Strippers: Vintage Burlesque Models Dance with the Devil (Dangerous Minds)

The Real Reason Women Love Witches (Anne Theriault, The Establishment)

Circuses, Magic and Hypnosis: Welcome to the World of Victorian Entertainment (Anika Burgess, Atlas Obscura)

Unafraid to Walk in the Forest's Maw

A "mixtape" for your listening pleasure:

Unafraid to Walk in the Forest's Maw

Isa - Feather Grass

Harrow - Fragments of a Fallen Star

King Woman - Manna

Opeth - The Leper Affinity

Cultes des Ghoules - Vintage Black Magic

Wolvserpent - Within the Light of Fire

Oathbreaker - Being Able to Feel Nothing

Imperium Dekadenz - Striga

The Isle of Bonnie Maedra

Campaign: Something Rotten in Piskaro (Open Table G+ Krevborna, 5e D&D)

Characters:

• Elaria, wood elf ranger
• Marek, human fighter
• Erasmus, tiefling barbarian

Wilem, human 'whaler'

Tobias, human warlock

Objective: Discover the cause of the unnatural storm afflicting Piskaro.

Events:

• Torrential rains continued to deluge Piskaro to disastrous effect. The near-constant rainfall led to flooded streets, an outbreak of fever, and fears the harvest would be ruined. It was already becoming difficult for fisherman to brave the tempestuous seas for their catch, so the threat of famine loomed large over the town. Piskaro was choked by a strange bluish fog that clutched at it like a funeral shroud.
• As a ranger learning to channel the mystical power of the earth, Elaria knew that the rain and fog were unnatural in origin. Tobias's research revealed that there were ancient folktales that associated the strange blue mists with the intrusion of the fey and with the destruction of settlements. Marek busied himself helping on the farmsteads just outside town; he was told of a runaway child that could possibly have been snatched from its home. 
• Things were seen moving in the blue fog. The party investigated the home of a dog-trainer who claimed that furry, frog-faced men came out of the mists and made away with a few of his animals. The tracks leading away from the kennels ended abruptly, as if the thieves and the dogs simply vanished into thin air; the party discovered an oily blue residue at the scene of the crime.
• Erasmus, Tobias, Elaria, and Marek went to Andullah for further information. At Andullah's house they were introduced to Wilem, a whaler recently returned from the high seas.  On his return trip to Piskaro, Wilem had spotted a island off the coast that had never been there before. He reported that the uncanny blue fog that was currently plaguing Piskaro seemed to be streaming from a hill at the center of the isle; the fog drifted over the sea and snaked its way to Piskaro, where it seemed to draw down the unending rainfall.
• Wilem was able to procure a longboat for the party to row out to the mysterious island. Landing in what seemed like a safe spot, the party made their way through the thick grasslands of the island's outer rim and began to climb the hills surrounding the mount from which the malignant blue fog issued. Their ascent was interrupted by an Elvish traveling song coming from the forest of twisted, blue-leafed trees to the south of the hills. 
• Everyone but Wilem hid in the deep grasses; Wilem observed a number of frog-like bipedal creatures clad in comical fur suits--each carrying a spear. The creatures greeted Wilem peculiarly; Wilem returned their gestures and a parlay began. From the creatures, Wilem learned that the island was under the control of Bonnie Maedra, who made her lair in a cave within the mount that vomited forth the blue mist; that the entrance of the cave was guarded by one of Bonnie Maedra's minions; that the woods to the south were home to dryads who are vicious, pretty, and hoarding a great treasure; that there was a pool of healing waters to the west of the hills tended by a nereid. 
• After talking to the frog-like creatures, the party decided to press on to Bonnie Maedra's cave which, as they were warned, proved to be guarded by a giant, obese knight clad in emerald armor and wielding a gigantic emerald greatsword. The knight spoke with a thunderous voice, but was clearly not open to negotiation regarding entrance to the cave. The party would have to fight their way into Maedra's lair. The knight proved adept and powerful with his sword, but Marek, Erasmus, and Wilem took him on directly, while Tobias and Elaria pelted him with blasts of magic and arrows from a distance. Erasmus climbed the giant, tore off his helm, and discovered that there was no creature within the brilliant green armor. Ultimately, the armor was split asunder by the party's assault, leaving the mouth of the cave free of defenders.
•  The interior of the cave was strange and precarious. The party discovered a chamber full of ritualistic components such as athames, incense burners, mortars and pestles, and a number of bottled specimens and herbs. More troubling was a circular chamber choked with with blue fog; holding on to each other so as not to get lost in the fog, the characters uncovered the source of the supernatural blue mist: eight children chained to chairs, their blank faces tilted upwards, blue fog streaming from their mouths, where it exited through vents in the ceiling of the chamber. The chains restraining the children were easy enough to break, but the children seemed to be in a sort of trance and their mouths could not be shut without the application of undue force. 
• Further exploration of the fog-choked chamber revealed a "mirror" whose frame appeared to be made of hardened vines with a reflective surface of cool liquid. Erasmus poked his head through the mirror surface and found himself looking into a chamber in which the walls and ceiling were hidden behind an artistic arrangement of human bones, the floor comprised of human teeth.
• A table in the ritual chamber also proved to have a similar mirrored surface on its underside; this portal lead to a room that housed a a collection of feminine treasures: a table strewn with pressed flowers also held a silver pitcher, a gold bracelet, a man's silk handkerchief, a silver-embroidered carnival mask, and a gold-locket (inside which is a miniature portrait of a woman who resembled Bonnie Maedra, but with darker hair); a rack of fancy ballgowns stood nearby, as did yet another fey mirror.
• This third mirror led to another cavernous area that was massive in scope. Pushed back into the recess of the cavern was a the headless corpse of a giant. The giant's body was bruised, lacerated, and smelled of rotted meat. Its belly was split open, and a thin wisp of smoke that smelled of raosted dog stole out from the wound. The party called for Bonnie Maedra, and a slender, feminine hand pushed aside the two sides of the giant's belly as if they were curtains. Bonnie Maedra, a thirty-ish woman with close-cropped blonde hair wearing a plain red dress, emerged from the belly of the beheaded giant.
• Conversation with Bonnie Maedra gained the party an insight into why she had brought the horrible, drowning rain to Piskaro: she claimed that a greater evil--the Watcher in Darkness, the Elder Scholar--had awoken in Piskaro, and that it was worthwhile to destroy Piskaro entirely than to let that evil grow in strength. The party began to probe this motivation. Maedra casually remarked that she would probably eat the stolen children she had used in her ritual to bring on the rain-inducing blue fog. The party tentatively began to offer alternatives, perhaps opening the way to allying with her against a greater evil to spare Piskaro, but Marek's moral compass would not suffer an eater of children to live!
• In the ensuing fight, Bonnie Maedra transformed into a horrifying blue-skinned monster with curling black horns, fangs, and wicked claws. This alteration of form unnerved members of the party; she seemed to exude a troubling aura that put ice into their hearts. Even so, Marek's halberd soon served the witch's head from her body.
• With Maedra now physically banished from the world, the party returned to the chamber where the children had been chained to chairs. The fog was now clear from the chamber, no longer streaming upward to the vents at the top of the hill. The children were all still unconscious, but at the feet of each was a withered apple, clearly coughed up from the throat of each child when Bonnie Maedra was slain.
• Wilem noticed that the island now seems to be drifting northward under its own power. The party bundled the children into their longboat and set off back to Piskaro. The rains had abated, freeing the town from the threat of flood and famine. The fever that the storms had exacerbated, however, is still an issue unresolved.

Spoils:

• XP - 330 each
• Coin - 69 gp each from coins found, selling the ritual components to Andullah, and the items in Maedra's dressing room.
• Magic items - Potion of Superior Healing, Scroll of Fabricate
• Other - The green knight's massive greatsword. It's possible you could sell that, but you'll need to find a special sort of buyer. It's also possible to have it reforged into a sword sized for use.