The Bloody Palm

THE BLOODY PALM

Campaign: Krevborna Open Table (5e D&D)

Characters:
- Kylic, half-elf life domain cleric
- Thane Ganymede, darakhul wizard
- Leonid, weretouched fighter

Objective: Locate four pieces of a glass object that Kylic saw in his vision.

Events: Kylic had been having recurring dreams of a a bloody hand print upon a wooden door, hog pens, and a journey north to the hamlet of Stenton. The most prominent feature of these dreams was a glass object that had been sundered into four pieces. Kylic knew that the pieces of this glass, if recovered, could be a powerful weapon against a force of darkness currently gnawing at the roots of Krevborna.

To draw together some companions to assist his pursuit of the vision, Kylic went to an outdoor market. He witnessed the attempted murder of an old man by a street ruffian; the would-be murderer was killed by the combined efforts of Thane and Leonid. Suitable compatriots had been found. 

(The old man was saved from the assassin's knife by a chain shirt he had been given on the streets of Chancel months ago in a previous session.)

Heading north, the party stopped at Stenton. Father Bray, the priest at Stenton's church warned Leonid away from a cave the locals believed to be haunted. Kylic learned that a farmer named Hamish lived in the vicinity, and that his hogs were widely considered to be of the best quality. Since the dream motivating their journey involved hogs, they made Hamish's farm their next stop.

Posing as a prospective buyer, Kylic distracted Hamish  (and healed Hamish's gout) while Leonid and Thane snooped about the premises. Leonid found a bloody hand print upon the door of the farmer's shed. What he found inside was worse: the body of a young man was hanging from a meathook, his blood draining into a metal basin at his feet.

When confronted with this information, Hamish tried to play it off as the body of an intruder he had killed on his farm, but ultimately he confessed that he had overpowered the man and tried to make him a replacement for his dead son. 

He also confessed to having another captive in the house, a man named Theodore who the party healed and set free. Hamish was subdued and the party decided to rest overnight within the farmer's house.

Their rest was interrupted by sounds of frightened yelling coming from the forest at the edge of Hamish's farm. The party ventured into the forest and found a cleric of the Church of Saintly Blood lying wounded against a tree. 

Her name was Vicar Dylia, and she explained that she was part of an expedition sent by the Church to find an artifact believed to be within an ancient shrine. She was convinced to take the party to the shrine.

The "shrine" was a short tower with a domed roof. Dylia refused to go inside because she was traumatized by the attack her group had suffered from the "skinless men" they had released from the shrine when they broke down its door.

Undeterred, the party entered. Inside the tower was a ledge surrounding a central pit of black water. A light spell was cast on a stone; throwing it down into the water revealed a corridor that ran beneath the water to a unknown location.

Leonid accepted the task of exploring the underwater corridor. He emerged at the other end in a circular chamber strewn with bones and debris. The domed ceiling of the chamber was painted with vivid scenes of gaunt, inhuman figures torturing and tormenting human beings.

The trio began to explore the chambers. They discovered a glass hemisphere giving off a blood-red radiance embedded in the floor of one chamber. Within the hemisphere could be seen the head of an inhuman woman whose lower face was obscured by a veil made of fine chain. 

Further exploration determined that the chamber below was responsible for the illuminating red light; the light was streaming from a gilded basin filled with inhuman blood. When Kylic swished the blood in the basin he discovered that the source of the light was a glass chunk at the bottom of the basin--it was one of the pieces of glass he had seen in his dream.

The party also found a ledge from which they could see more bones, debris, and swords lying in a cavern, as well as a statue that appeared to be the same chain-veil wearing women they had seen previously in the hemisphere. The chain veil on the statue was not a carved piece of the sculpture, and thus was duly looted--as was a chunk of gold with a blood-red gem embedded in it that had replaced one of her stone eyes.

The remaining three pieces of the glass artifact were located on an altar flanked by gaunt, monstrous statues bearing swords. Unfortunately, as the party was looting the altar a cloud of ash began to whisper into the chamber, with a sound like sand blown against stone, coalescing into two tall, thin figures bearing curved swords. 

The ensuing battle was brutal; the party took an early beating--both Thane and Leonid found themselves face-to-face with death (in Leonid's case, no less than three times), but Kylic's magic kept them alive. The tide eventually turned in the party's favor, and Leonid delivered the death blow to both of the ancient swordsmen.

Forgoing further exploration, the party left the shrine. Vicar Dylia attempted to take the glass shards from the party by force, but Kylic's last spell subdued her. They returned to Hamish's farm to recuperate. Before returning to Piskaro, Kylic killed Hamish for his murderous, cruel crimes and buried him in the family's small burial plot.

XP: 1083 xp each

Treasure: 
- Violet garnet (90 gp)
- Gilded bowl depicted Lilituans sacrificing humans (100 gp)
- Chain veil (40 gp)
- Statue of a Lilitu noble wearing a chain veil (100 gp)
- Pouch containing 22 cp found on dead assassin

Magic Items:

Golden nugget with red gemstone embedded in it. (Once per day when you hold this item you get advantage on a Persuasion, Insight, or Deception check made against an undead creature.)

Sorrowsworn, a curved sword made of ancient metal, inscribed with runes in an elder language. (Magical short sword; inflicts an extra 1d6 damage against Lilituan descendants and vampires.)

Four pieces of magical glass, the purpose of which is currently obscure.

Lyssa's Torment

Click here to listen to an 8tracks mix entitled

Lyssa's Torment

Tracklist:

† Lords of Shadow 2 soundtrack - Carmilla †

† Funeral - Red Moon †

† Theatres des Vampires - Throne of Dark Immortals †

† Cradle of Filth - Funeral in Carpathia †

† Ancient - Lilith's Embrace †

† Rise of Avernus - Ethereal Blindness †

† Old Man's Child - Funeral, Swords and Souls †

† Ancient Ceremony - Shadows of the Undead †

Shooting at the Walls of Heartache Bang Bang

Nadya looks a bit like Kolin from
Street Fighter V, but her accent
is even worse.

I had the pleasure of helping playtest Paul V.'s GRIDSHOCK role-playing game. My character is a Soviet defector named Nadya Sibirskaya who joined the a secret organization who saw the SHOCK coming; she was trained as an agent of Harvest, placed in cryogenic suspension to ride out the apocalypse, and is now read to begin rebuilding the world. She's got psychic powers and is trained in Systema, so look out, evildoers. 

Here's what happened:

Vat a time! I awoke inside a Supremacy military vehicle, shackled to the wall with some sort of headgear placed on head. With me are talking dead man, American barbarian who makes smells, man who is cactus, and girl. Supremacy robot is standing guard. We struggle with shackles, eventually break free when vehicle is attacked. We feel vehicle lift from ground, we hear gunfire and yelling, explosions. I punch robot but is no good--metal body too strong for fist. Others deal with. We find our belongings; is good thing, Pat Benatar tapes and Walkman very rare.

We are greeted by large man call himself SlimJim. He is hulking brute, but is rescuing brute at least. He want to take us to his lead in Yankee Lake, is good. But his group going to execute Supremacy soldiers. Nyet! Is no good. Girl uses powers, crushes us all with heavy gravity until SlimJim relents. I control mind of man with blaster because he is weak to my superior mental powers. Now I have blaster. We negotiate deal. Supremacy prisoners go with us to Yankee Lake.

At Yankee Lake is Truck Night. Am disappoint that is not person named Truck Knight. We meet leader, Alpha Dog, and girl child who seem to call shots. Vat a place, this Yankee Lake. Alpha Dog vant us to go to Prism and find whatever Supremacy searching for. 

But this is problem because we see people of Yankee Lake treated horribly by Alpha Dog's gang. Is no better than treatment of Supremacy. Convening with new comrades we agree to overthrow Alpha Dog. But when? Is difficult situation. Is like how the Bruce Springfield say, we are dancing in dark.

Alpha Dog invite us to Truck Night. We watch truck with large tire crush other vehicles. Is stupid, decadent American entertainment. After truck crushing show, Alpha Dog have arena built--is going to make Supremacy prisoners fight exhumans. Nyet! Is also no good. Barbarian possess Alpha Dog, send him out window. Dead man also fly out window. Cactus punch SlimJim. I turn on Walkman, tape begin playing "The Warrior" by Scandal. It does me much inspire. I wrestle SlimJim, getting him in gulag leg-lock, but have feeling that he is strong like proud Russian bear. Vat vill happen next?

The Final Programme

Michael Moorcock is one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy authors of the latter half of the 20th Century. Chief among his contributions to speculative fiction is the creation of the Eternal Champion, a hero "doomed" to save the world. One such manifestation of the Eternal Champion is Jerry Cornelius, the central character of The Final Programme, a book deemed too psychedelic for publication in 1965 but finally unleashed upon the world in 1968. Jerry gets wrapped up in a wild scheme concocted by sinister computer scientist Miss Brunner to steal documents created by his dead scientist father from the clutches of his drug-maddened brother Frank. What starts as a heist story quickly reveals itself to be something far more bizarre.

How do ultra-decadence and flashy modernity mix? Which is more exciting: World Ice Theory or radical gender fluidity? Where does pro wrestling fit into all of this? Is Michael Moorcock a time-traveling wizard? Find out the answers to all this and more in this month's episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Intro/Outro music: "Christ You Bring the End" by Sabbath Assembly

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.

The Witch's Guest

Click here to listen to an 8tracks mix entitled

The Witch's Guest

Tracklist:

† Interview with a Vampire soundtrack - Theatre des Vampires †

† Penny Dreadful soundtrack - Mother of Evil †

† Sleepy Hollow soundtrack - Into the Woods/The Witch †

† From Hell soundtrack - Death Coach †

† The Wolfman soundtrack - The Funeral †

† Van Helsing soundtrack - Attacking Brides †

† Dracula soundtrack - Vampire Hunters †

† The Village soundtrack - It is Not Real †

The Rise of the Forsaken Fangs

Campaign: The Forsaken Fangs (Scarabae, 5e D&D)

Characters:
- Kaldwyn Nessilnor, half-elf sorcerer
- "King" Rance, cactusoid fighter
- Nestor, shadar-kai wizard
- Bellwether Hooks, human rogue
- Ambrose Lynch, human ranger

Objective: Steal Bargle's stash of opium and cocaine from the Mentzer Distillery.

Events: There's a new gang in the Toiler's Ditch area of Scarabae: The Forsaken Fangs. The Fangs' leadership is comprised of Kaldwyn Nessilnor, the nominal brains of the operation--a disowned son of an elf shipping magnate; "King" Rance, the gang's muscle--he claims that in his home country he was king until he was ousted by a coup; Nestor, the group's schemer--he's an acolyte in a horrible Cthulhu-worshiping cult; Bellwether Hooks--she says she's a society lady, but her accent and skill with lock picks say otherwise; Ambrose Lynch--a traumatized former soldier. 

The Forgotten Fangs want to enter into the local drug trade in a big way, but that niche is already filled by dealers working for Bargle the Infamous, an intoxicant-peddling wizard who is the current drug tsar of the district. Rather than take on his dealers in the streets and fight for territory, the Fangs decide to move in on Bargle's supply. 

Greasing the right palms in Toiler's Ditch gives them a lead: Bargle is storing his wares in the old Mentzer Distillery, a disused booze-yard at the edge of the ward. The locals who aren't on Bargle's payroll and aren't addicts are only too eager to help; it turns out that Bargle was responsible for the murder of a much-loved local cleric who always gave alms to the poor. The upstanding citizens of Toiler's Ditch would love for the wizard to get some comeuppance for that.

The Forgotten Fangs make their move at night. The sentry at the distillery's back door, a bugbear thug with a pet wolf, is taken out quickly and quietly. Inside, things are quiet. Too quiet. Disturbingly quiet. Where are all of Bargle's henchmen? Who is guarding the stash?

Opposition first comes in the way of a group of skeletons that Bargle had animated to scare off any trespassers. The Fangs manage to bottleneck themselves in a narrow hallway; Bellwether furiously tries to pick a lock so the gang might make their stand under better circumstances while the group's scrappers hold off their undead assailants. They make a hash of it, honestly.

Things get even worse when the gang is ambushed by Bargle's trained darkmantles. The darkmantles cut the lights, then begin to pick off each member of the Forsaken Fangs one by one, knocking them unconscious. When the Fangs awaken, the snickering, goatee'd Bargle is standing over them. He has an offer they can't refuse.

Bewildering Attitudes I Have Encountered in the Wild (part 8 of don't go away mad just go away)

• This adventure is not a true sandbox because it fails to detail every possible place on the planet/multiverse that the players could choose to go to. What a railroad!
• I am really mad that my gaming group wants to play D&D instead of this game that they find less fun.
• It's problematic that players have to wait until 3rd level to get some of their big abilities! (Do you give 1st level characters access to 9th level spells?) No! Players should have to work for new abilities!!
• The people in my small niche of the hobby are the only creative ones! We deserve awards and mentions in history books. And if we don't get them, we'll give ourselves awards!
• When I ask who is doing interesting game design what I am really asking you to do is draw a circle around me and my friends.
• I've created a revolutionary new mechanic. I'm calling it a "dice pool."