Tserberon Falls and Vulture House

Two final locations of the Vespermark. Tserberon Falls has a bit of Ravenloft's Mists in it, mixed with Stephen King's "The Mists." Vulture House exists because I love putting a masquerade ball into my games--and this one has legs.

Tserberon Falls

Tserberon Falls was once a vibrant frontier town, home to a bustling trading post and livestock market. It is now enveloped by a roiling red fog teeming with monsters comprised of animate shadow.

    • Unbeknownst to the people of Tserberon Falls, one of their fellow townsfolk—a man named Johannes Metrovic—was an occultist conducting baleful experiments with blood magic.

    • One dark night, Metrovic’s experiments exceeded his grasp and he unwittingly unleashed a magical red mist that plunged the down into darkness.

    • The townsfolk, including Metrovic himself, were warped into ravenous creatures of shadow by the calamitous red fog.

    • The crimson mist now spreads in every direction from the “Red Wound of Tserberon Falls.”

    • The fog generally moves slowly, creeping across the Vespermark, but has been known to suddenly surge forth to engulf a settlement and consume its residents—transforming all living creatures caught within it into monstrosities. 

    • The Knights Labyrinthian track the progress of the mist, but they have yet to discover a way to counteract its growth. 

Vulture House

Vulture House is an ambulatory manor that walks the Vespermark on enormous bird legs. It settles in one place long enough to lure hapless travelers and “guests” into the perpetual fey masquerade ball that rages inside.

    • Vulture House appears to be a luxurious and otherworldly mansion with uncountable rooms, for Vulture House is the site of a luxurious and never-ending masquerade ball presided over by Queen Mab, the fey Lady of Shadows.

    • Mab is capricious and cruel, and anyone who breeches one of her ever-shifting rules of decorum or who refuses to wear a mask inside Vulture House will face her wrath.

    • Those who are obsequious enough, or who bring the Lady of Shadows a unique gift that catches her fancy, might be granted a wondrous boon—though this boon turns to ash as soon as they lose her favor.

Krevborna High

The pitch for this game was simple: an AU of characters from the past couple of Krevborna games, but versions of those characters as high schoolers in the 1990s. Instead of using Savage Worlds for this one, we're using Monster of the Week.

Characters

Daytona, misunderstood, quiet loner with a secret heart of gold

Panthalassa, do-gooder who loves to meddle in others personal affairs, a bit of a nerd

Pendleton, self-medicating overachiever teetering between valedictorian and total burn-out

Garazi, unusually outgoing art student

Raoul, goth, rich kid, theatre kid

...and Alie, their kinda dumb metalhead friend

Events

We started the session by playing through each kid's morning routine. Panthalassa woke to the sound of her roommate Sera watching loud horror movies. Daytona noticed someone in a white Cadillac watching his house; when he went to get a closer look, it sped off. Garazi got a ride with Alie and Panthalassa in Alie's 70s Firebird. Raoul saw a series of cryptic symbols in his IM conversation with his girlfriend Emily. Pendleton got picked up by Raoul in the Lambo.

When the kids converged at Krevborna High, they could immediately tell that something was wrong. There were cops standing in front of the main doors, not letting anyone in, and their fellow students were heading around back to the football field--and they could hear screams coming from that direction. They followed suit and saw that two students, a couple who were dating, were disemboweled and hanging from nooses tied around a goal post. No one seemed to know what was going on; Officer Draghul gave Daytona a suspicious look. Eventually, Principle Dolan came out with a megaphone and told everyone to go home because school was cancelled. 

Emily was, unfortunately, no where to be found.

Of course, no self-respecting teenager goes home when they suddenly find themselves with a free day to dispose of. The kids' first stop was Emily's house; Raoul broke in, but there was no sign of her or her parents inside.

Their next stop was the book store because they knew that Laura, the owner, always brought fresh-baked cookies in--plus, it would give them a chance to research the strange symbols Emily had sent to Raoul. They figured out that it was a cipher--a cipher that read "HELP ME." Laura also let them take a look at Emily's latest special order of books. Amid the Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite novels, there was a single book on the history of witchcraft in upstate New York. Flipping through the book, they spotted a picture of a grave in their own local Greenwood Cemetery. The name on the headstone was Imogen Garner; below her name were more of the symbols Emily used in her cipher.

Panthalassa ran out to give Thomasina, the girl she has a crush on, a cookie--but the interaction was AWKWARD.

Before they left the Commons for Greenwood, they decided to split up and check the parking ramp for the white Cadillac that Daytona saw earlier. Daytona didn't find the Cadillac, but he did find trouble: Wagner Highcross and his soccer goons gave him some shit about his mom, prompting a fight. Badly outnumbered, Daytona got his ass kicked--until Dr. F stepped in and tasered one of the soccer players. They threatened to report her, but she calmly reminded them that any authority figure was far more likely to believe her version of events than theirs. Once they left, she checked Daytona out, declared he had a minor concussion, and gave him the taser. She also gave him a bit of advice: "There are two kinds of people--those who ride and those who are ridden. You need to choose which you're going to be."

Initially, they had no luck locating Imogen Garner's grave in the cemetry. Then they were approached by a weird old man--groundskeeper Willard! He explained that Imogen was buried in the pauper's field. When asked about Emily, he said a girl fitting her description often came to the cemetery. He even handed over a bracelet of hers he had found on the grounds. When they searched for Imogen's grave in the pauper's field--they found it had been dug up and was now empty. Groundskeeper Willard didn't know much about her, but he knew someone who might--Sera, Panthalassa's roommate, who had done a civics project mapping the cemetery before she graduated.

They went to the Video King where Sera worked. Sera said that it was "crazy that it was happening again." They didn't know what she meant, so she explained that back in the early 80s there was a serial killer in the area who got nicknamed "the Lyncher" because he left a trail of dead high school couples in his wake. This made the kids want to head to the library to do a little microfiche research, but before they did they pressed Alie to talk to Sera about their mutual love of horror movies because Alie has an unrequited crush on Sera. Alie left with a pile of VHS tapes, courtesy of Sera's recommendations.

Outside, they spotted a white Cadillac pealing out of the strip mall. They decided it was time for a little hot pursuit. We'll see how that works out next time...

THE MONSTER SQUAD

I was asked to post the characters from this PLANET MOTHERFUCKER one-shot I ran. See below. They're basically just re-flavored versions of characters straight out of the PMF books, with a little bonus "kicker" of Meat points to make for a slightly superheroic feel.

These characters were assigned based on having the players pick a flavor of Monster energy drink. (Limited to the Ultra and Juice ranges because those are the ones I know.) I'll post all the possible options after the characters who appeared in the session.

Kitten DeKlaw

Anime catgirl burglar

Muscle: -1 / Grit: -1 / Cunning: +2 / Moxie: +2

Meat: 13 / Mojo: 2

Bod: Catgirl, duh / Look: Speed Racer t-shirt and lycra booty shorts / Weapon: Pistol d6

Knack: You were Trained in the Ninja Arts of the Trailer Park. You get a +2 to rolls to sneak or hide. Your claws deal d6 damage, but you’re VERY afraid of breaking a nail. 

You’ve got Nine Lives. When you’re reduced to 0 Meat, roll a d6. On an odd roll, you aren’t killed. You revive in d4 rounds and regain d4 Meat.

Mako Gorejaws

Wereshark surfer

Muscle: +3 / Grit: +1 / Cunning: -1 / Moxie: -1

Meat: 16 / Mojo: 2

Bod: Tan surfer/fuckin’ sharkperson / Look: Board shorts and a tank top / 

Knack: You’ve got the Jaws of...Jaws. Your attacks with ‘em deal d8 damage. Whenever you bite a creature that has a discernible head, roll a d10. If you roll a 10, you bite its head off, killing it instantly.

Mutilatrix

Military-grade robot domme

Muscle: +1 / Grit: +0 / Cunning: +1 / Moxie: -1

Meat: 15 / Mojo: 2

Bod: Shiny and metal / Look: Black leather S&M gear / Weapon: Cat o’ nine tails d8

Knack: Your Bio-Mechanical Body gives you -d4 protection. You are Terrifyingly Inhuman. The first time your enemies have to check Nerve in a brawl, they take a -2 penalty to the roll. 

Beachgrinder

Death metal tiki-god mixologist

Muscle: +0 / Grit: -1 / Cunning: +1 / Moxie: +2

Meat: 10 / Mojo: 2

Bod: Ambulatory wooden tiki / Look: Ripped Cannibal Corpse t-shirt and a leather jacket / 

Weapon: Shotgun d8

Knacks: You know how to brew up a Mean Tiki Drink once per game. It heals d10 Meat. 

Once per adventure, you cause someone’s head to fill with the sound of death metal and tribal drums that drive them into a Frenzy! For the duration of a brawl, they gain +d8 Meat (even above their maximum!), +2 to all Muscle rolls, and they can attack twice on their turn if they fight up close and personal.

Thork Bloodbeard

Axe-wielding undead Viking

Muscle: +1 / Grit: +2 / Cunning: -1 / Moxie: +0

Meat: 17 / Mojo: 2

Bod: Big, hulking undead Viking—bones poking through n shit / Look: Horned helmet, furs, drinking horn / Protection: Viking furs (-d4 protection, Cunning rolls to Defend are +2 harder)

Knack: The Axe of Crom is a massive, two-handed barbarian’s axe. The axe deals d10+1 damage. When you kill a worthy foe with it, you gain +d4 Meat. Crom thirsts for blood!

THE EXTENDED MONSTER SQUAD UNIVERSE

These were the possible options:

Viking Berry: Thork Bloodbeard, undead viking

Mango Loco: Jolly Roger, skeleton pirate

Rio Punch: Trixie Toxic, Vegas showgirl witch

Pacific Punch: Mako Gorejaw, wereshark surfer

Pipeline Punch: Mama Hex, voodoo queen

Ultra Sunrise: Ankh Hotep, scarab-infested mummy

Ultra Peachy Keen: Kitten DeKlaw, catgirl burglar 

Ultra Ruby Red: Carmilla Cadavera, vampire seductress

Ultra Vice Guava: Mutilatrix, robot dominatrix

Ultra Violet: Maglar, Martian warlord

Ultra Blue Hawaiian: Beachgrinder, death metal tiki god

Ultra White: Jimmy Hellson, demon-possessed child

They Defeated Racism+

A couple weeks back I ran a PLANET MOTHERFUCKER one-shot as a "palate cleanser," which is ironic because the game tastes like a hangover. The characters were all members of the MONSTER SQUAD, a group of antiheroes in the Suicide Squad/Creature Commandos vein. Characters were assigned to the players based on which flavor of MONSTER energy drink they picked.

Characters

Beachgrinder, a wooden death metal tiki god in a torn Cannibal Corpse t-shirt

Kitten DeKlaw, an anime catgirl burglar in lycra booty shorts

Mako Gorejaw, a wereshark surfer who loves gnarly waves, dude

Thork Bloodbeard, an undead viking wielding the Axe of Crom

Mutilatrix, a military-grade robot domme with a whip

Events

The MONSTER SQUAD was on a train, sittin' tight in their magnetic handcuffs, on their way back to HQ from their last mission. Then the explosions started. The train rocked back and forth on the tracks as incendiaries burst around them, then the train derailed and turned side over side down a cliff.

When the dust settled, Kitten DeKlaw found herself free of her magnetic cuffs. She quickly got the others free, then they went in search of the lockbox where all their gear was stowed. What they found was TWO lockboxes: one that Thork smashed open held their weapons, but the other had been busted open with crowbars. While they were looking for clues as to what the fuck had happened, they heard the squawk of a walkie-talkie: it was Captain Johnny Goodkind, their handler. 

Captain Goodkind told them that the other lockbox contained reels of a print of Birth of a Nation that had been psychically altered by Nazimancers and imprinted with the power to turn whoever watched it into a racist. Their new mission was to retrieve that film at all costs before it could be publicly broadcast.

Luckily, Mako picked up the blood-scent of someone who had cut their hand getting the lockbox open. They followed the smell down to a "town" that was really little more than a street with a few businesses (a grocery store called White Circle, a bar called Chode's Place, a movie theater called Family Pictures, a gas station called GAS STATION, and Lucky Chan's--a combination laundromat and Chinese restaurant), and a bunch of stacked cargo containers being used as homes. 

Figuring that the evil film got taken to the movie theater, a couple members of the MONSTER SQUAD snuck in while the others kept the owner busy. They didn't find a rogue copy of Birth of a Nation, but they did find reels of Bambi and Deep Throat. They wrecked the theater's projector, then felt bad about it.

Their next stop was Lucky Chan's because they wanted some crab rangoon. Since they didn't have any money, they had to work for their treats: specifically, Kitten had to pretend to be one of those good luck cats with the moving paw in return for a plate of crab rangoon. They questioned the dude working there about who might have blown up the train--and he pointed outside as two racist-ass superpowered jerks, Redline and Sundowner, flew down from the sky.

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! They killed the two "superheroes," then went back to the theater, where the owner was weeping and holding his broken projector like a baby. Mako fixed it for the poor guy, and in return he told them that more super goons brought a reel in to test it--then high-tailed it out of town. He was able to point them in the right direction, then he hot-wired a car for 'em so they could head off in pursuit.

A ways out of town, they found a big gathering--and it turned out to be a meeting of the DNC. As they drove to the parking lot, they got the lay of the land--concessions, a stage with speakers, food trucks, a flea market, and a big ol' drive-in movie theater screen. The evildoers' plan was now clear: they were gonna make the DNCers watch a magic movie that would turn everyone racist! Fuckin' shit!

They immediately checked out the projection tower, but there was no way to enter it from the outside--the only entrance was from inside the concession stand. One of the workers at the concession stand was a teenage girl in a Naruto t-shirt; the group rapped with her about anime, which got her on side. She told them to meet her by the porta-potties in an hour and she'd help them get in.

With an hour to kill, the MONSTER SQUAD checked out the flea market. Beachgrinder got a serial killer's cocktail recipe, Kitten got jerky and porn mags, Thork got a flannel shirt, Mako got a tattoo, and Mutilatrix took a tour of items removed from rectums. The weirdest one? The skull of Jimmy Hoffa. Raises more questions than it answers, right?

When they met up with Naruto Girl again at the porta-potties, she gave them ninja climbing claws she had ordered from the back of a karate magazine. They went back to the projection tower and started to climb--and then they were attacked by a giant black bird. That's right, they had been ambushed by Jim Crow! Kitten launched herself at Jim Crow, riding him around as he flew crazily.

Jim Crow wasn't their only problem. A guy in a KKK hood calling himself the Grand Wizard came down from the sky and summoned lightning to strike at our heroes. If that wasn't bad enough, a minivan rolled up and a Karen with a machine gun, calling herself The Segregator, jumped out. 

Kitten managed to force Jim Crow to crash land. She then smashed a claw into his beak, holding him in place while she put the barrel of her pistol to the side of his head, execution style. BLAMMO! Dead bird.

Meanwhile, a chanting crowd formed around Mutilatrix and The Segregator as they squared off, cat o' nine tails vs. machine gun. Then Mako came up behind The Segregator and bit her head off. Insert sad trombone sound here.

Thork leaped from the projection tower to take down the Grand Wizard--and missed. Totally ate shit. Thunder and lightning goddamn it's so exciting! Wounds all around, but Thork managed to cleave the racist wizard in two.

Beachgrinder made it up into the projectionist's booth and lit Birth of a Nation's silver nitrate reels on fire. They reported back to Johnny Goodkind that they had accomplished their mission. He told them to sit tight while another transport was dispatched from HQ, but they were like, nah, we're striking out on our own, see ya.

They piled back into their van and headed off, like the most fucked up version of the A-Team to ever exist.

The Danse Macabre and the Hounds of Velun

Below are two factions in Krevborna. The first was inspired by one of my player's riffs from his own game in the setting. The second has been around in the setting for a very long time, but this is the first real write up they've gotten.

The Danse Macabre

Ostensibly a traveling dance troupe specializing in horror-themed performances, the Danse Macabre is actually a secret society of voodoo priests and priestesses who use the opportunities afforded by their recitals to exert magical influence over their audiences.

    • Each of the Danse Macabre’s recitals is potentially a ritual enacted through dance.

    • Possible goals of a recital include causing madness within a crowd, dominating an audience member’s will, or harvesting an attendee’s soul as arcane fuel.

    • Members of the Danse Macabre relentlessly train their bodies for strength and agilitye; they make for surprisingly dangerous combatants. 

The Hounds of Velun

The Hounds of Velun are a secret society of monarchists devoted to restoring a lost heir to Krevborna’s vacant throne.

    • Most members of the Hounds of Velun are drawn from aristocratic families who lament the loss of power and influence they wielded before the Uprising.

    • The Hounds of Velun believe the royal line was not wholly extinguished; they search for an heir possessing a direct blood tie to the last tsar.

    • The Church considers the Hounds of Velun to be enemies of the faith; since the Church wishes to rule Krevborna as a theocracy, a new tsar would threaten its plans.

Magog Station/Old Perdition and Trevania

Two adventure locations in the Vespermark. I love the idea of a "ghost train," hence Magog Station and Old Perdition. Trevania, on the other hand, is very obviously a dark play on Arthurian myth. In various ways, both locations can probably be traced back to my appreciation for Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Magog Station and Old Perdition also has at least a little inspiration from the Ghost Train set from LEGO's Monster Fighters; that thing ruled. Additionally, the cursed sword Drachenmort is a sentient black runesword as a tip of the hat to Michael Moorcock. 

Magog Station and Old Perdition

Magog Station is a remnant of the Vlaak Empire’s outposts on the western edge of Krevborna. In its heyday, Magog Station was a railway hub for trains entering and leaving Vlaak territory. 

    • Now abandoned and left to decay, Magog Station is the terminus for a single train: Old Perdition, a beast of iron that belches steam and flame.

    • Old Perdition possesses a life of its own; it is unclear whether it is haunted by the specter of a Vlaak engineer, inhabited by a demon, or something even stranger.

    • Those who wish to board Old Perdition must bargain with the conductor for safe passage—to do otherwise is to risk evisceration at the hands of the undead crew and passengers doomed to ride Old Perdition for eternity. 

    • Those who do come to an accord with the engineer invariably find that the train is headed to the destination they desire to travel to; it arrives by night amid mist and fog, lets its living passengers disembark, and then lurches away into the darkness.

Trevania

When an adolescent knight named Nadezhda Olashenko drew the black runesword Drachenmort from the rock in which it was embedded, the people of the town of Trevania rejoiced to see the fulfillment of a foretold prophecy. To the folk of Trevania, this feat was a sign that Nadezhda was the promised templar who would lead an army to liberate Sibersk from the grip of its vampire overlords. 

    • Nadezhda has ignited a zealous and oppressive fervor in the town of Trevania. 

    • Acting under the fell influence of Drachenmort, a sentient blade that seeks to cause discord and bloodshed, Nadezhda’s paranoid dictates incite violence against supposed traitors, spies, and unbelievers. 

    • She is treated as a living saint, but her increasingly manic decrees have led to instances of false imprisonment and public executions in Trevania. 

    • Nadezhda’s proclamations are law in Trevania—very few realize that she is a fallen paladin and a puppet of the insidious magical sword that is always at her side.  

Anastasia Elanova and Erasmus Feist

Two NPCs from my campaign setting: Anastasia Elanova and Erasmus Feist. Anastasia is a monster hunter, and also secretly the heir to Krevborna's vacant throne. Erasmus Feist is a loser who was been habitually bullied by various characters in-game, but in the intervening years since he last appeared he's  been delving into alchemy and has a horrible secret of his own.

Anastasia Elanova

Anastasia Elanova is a young monster hunter who travels Krevborna slaying unnatural beasts for coin. She is also of royal blood and the nearest surviving heir of Krevborna’s tsar. Like every scion of her noble lineage, she posses the “Voice of the Tsarina.” When she puts the force of her will behind her commands, her dictates tend to be obeyed.

She knows the secret of her origins, though she would resist any attempt to install her as the land’s sovereign ruler. 

    • Appearance: Anastasia is a young woman who keeps her blonde hair boyishly short; a livid scar mars the sharp angles of her cheek.

    • Personality: She is brash and overeager to prove herself.

    • Motive: She aspires to nothing more than a life of adventure.

    • Flaw: Anastasia avoids responsibility like a plague.

Erasmus Feist and Yosef Wulfson

Erasmus Feist is a dilettante occultist who foolishly experiments with alchemy. Unfortunately, imbibing the wrong chemicals has resulted in an uncontrollable affliction: when he becomes angered, afraid, or otherwise stressed, Erasmus Feist transforms into Yosef Wulfson, a brutish lout given to licentiousness and explosive violence.

    • Appearance: Erasmus is a thin, reedy man with prematurely receding hair; Yosef is a muscular giant of a man who is slovenly in appearance.

    • Personality: Erasmus is an arrogant poseur, but he is timid; Yosef is loud, selfish, and possesses a horrid temper.

    • Motive: Erasmus desires respect he does not deserve; Yosef lives for his own perverse pleasures.

    • Flaw: Erasmus is terrified that the world will learn of his second life as Yosef; Yosef hates that he has to share his life with Erasmus.

Diremoon Revelator Shrines and Fort Gilead

The following two adventure locations in the Vespermark are meant to emphasis its status as the "wild frontier" far away from the mainstream Church and other loci of authority. "Location" is being used fast and loose to describe the Diremoon Revelator Shrines, since there are many of them dotting the Vespermark, but they were also a great opportunity to introduce a folk religion based on belief in Santa Muerte. Fort Gilead, on the other hand, is a classic convention of Wild West fiction, but I'm also giving it a little bit of gloss from Stephen King's Dark Tower books.

Diremoon Revelator Shrines

The Diremoon Revelators are followers of a folk religion that venerates Saint Vionka, a non-canonical saint, whom they believe intercedes on behalf of mortals in matters of death.

    • The Diremoon Revelators maintain no organized temples or churches—instead, they establish small shrines dedicated to Saint Vionka throughout the Vespermark. 

    • The Diremoon Revelators’ devotional shrines are most frequently found in areas prone to turmoil, violence, and danger.

    • Saint Vionka is depicted as a pale maiden clad in a black dress and wearing a matching lace veil; she is often shown accompanied by crows, ravens, and jackdaws. 

    • The Diremoon Revelators pray to Saint Vionka be to spared from “bad deaths,” such as deaths by violence or at the hands of the evil creatures who roam the land. 

    • The faithful hope that Saint Vionka will guide them to “good deaths” free from pain and strife. 

    • Saint Vionka’s faithful consider the undead to be atrocities; the most fanatical Diremoon adherents hunt undead abominations as a sacred calling.

Fort Gilead

Fort Gilead is a castle stationed on the wild frontier of the Vespermark. Fort Gilead is currently occupied by members of the Knights Labyrinthian, who are using it as their ad hoc headquarters.

      • Fort Gilead is used as a center of trade for the people living on the Vespermark’s plains. 

    • As their tranactions take place under the watchful eyes of the Knights Labyrinthian, traders are expected to be fair in their dealings.

    • The Knights Labyrinthian also use Fort Gilead as a training ground for the young “squires” of their order who have not completed their trials and are not yet recognized as full members.

    • Squires are trained in tracking, wilderness survival, and marksmanship; they are also initiated in the Knights Labyrinthian's mystical teachings and peculiar version of laconic chivalry. 

    • Within Fort Gilead, the Knights Labyrinthian compile information on the Grail Tombs gathered in their travels across Krevborna.

Urska

Did you know that Krevborna has bear people as a playable race? It's true. Below are the Savage Worlds stats I've cobbled together for them; I think I might have based them somewhat on the minotaurs from the Fantasy Companion.

Urska

Similar to humanoid polar bears in appearance, urska are generally solitary–though they sometimes rally under the banner of a strong leader who commands their stalwart loyalty. Such leadership roles are only ever assumed when a urska manages to best all challengers in deadly, ritualized combat. Urska often favor attitudes best characterized as stoic and militaristic. 

• Blunt: Taught that might makes right, urska struggle with diplomacy and tact. They have the Mean Hindrance.

• Claws: Urska claws cause Strength+d6 damage, adding +4 if the character runs at least 5” (10 yards) and hits with them.

• Cold Resistance: Urska receive a +4 bonus to resist cold effects. Damage from cold is also reduced by 4.

• Heat Weakness: Urksa suffer a –4 penalty to resist heat effects and take +4 damage from heat and fire. 

• Hulking: Urska are tall and broad, adding +1 to their Toughness. They are Size +1.

• Martial Code: Honor is very important to urska. They generally keep their word, don’t abuse or kill prisoners, and feel duty-bound to respect those who have bested them.

• Tough: Urska starting Vigor is d6, increasing the limit to d12+1.

• Uneducated: Urska society favors physical prowess over intellectual ability. Smarts rolls are made at −1.

• Unwieldy: Their muscular frames causes urska to subtract two when using equipment designed for smaller beings, and they cannot wear humanoid armor or clothing. Equipment, armor, food and clothing cost double the listed price. 

• Very Strong: Urska start with Strength d8, increasing their maximum Strength to d12+2.

Beltaire and Bordel

Two adventure locations in the Vespermark: a pilgrimage site where something very strange is happening and a frontier town run by a family of nefarious wereleopards people. Beltaire is a product of my fashion with Europe's bejeweled catacomb saints, as well as my love for the video game Blasphemous. Bordel is my Wild West-inspired take on Val Lewton's Cat People. (The name "bagheeta" is from Lewton's short story in Weird Tales that formed the basis of Cat People; it's definitely worth checking out!) There's probably also a little play on "leopards eating people's faces party" in there.

Beltaire

The ruins of Beltaire are a popular pilgrimage destination for the faithful of the Church of Holy Blood, for beneath the village lie catacombs that house the gilded and bejeweled skeletons of venerated saints. 

    • It is unknown who placed these skeletal remains within the subterranean crypts or who has taken pains to dress them in sumptuous religious vestments, but the Church’s adherents consider it an act of faith to anoint the saints’ bones with blessed oil.

    • Oddly, the saintly corpses within the caverns are sometimes found to have changed posture or position—or to have moved to a different section of the catacombs entirely. 

    • The faithful regard these unexplained movements as miraculous, but there is a darker truth to the ambulatory dead of Beltaire; when the sun sets, the unquiet spirits of Beltaire’s former residents stalk the ruins in search of prey.

    • A thriving market peddling fraudulent saintly relics, fake holy water, and other chicanery has taken root just outside the walls of the ruined village.

Bordel

Governed by a scheming brothel madame named Katarina Valdemar, Bordel is a community of swindlers who survive by providing services such as gambling, saloons, and prostitution to travelers in the Vespermark. 

    • The sins of Bordel drain the town’s visitors like parasites, draining their coin before sending them on their way, broken and humiliated by their vices. 

    • Katarina and her family run the town as if it were their personal barony; strangely, those who stand up to their despotism are often found badly mauled as if they had been attacked by wild animals. 

    • These killings are the work of the Valdemars—a family of bagheeta, werecats who turn into hybrids of man and black leopard when angered or aroused, hiding in plain sight as bawds and procurers in Bordel.

The Unworthy

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 86: The Unworthy

Agustina Bazterrica’s 2023 novel The Unworthy explores the relationship of its unnamed narrator with the repressive post-apocalyptic cult in which she finds herself. Jack and Kate embark on a harrowing journey through broken relationships and authoritarian control and dare to ask the most important question of all: can it be considered nunsploitation?

What does it mean to crave feel-bad stories? Where did nunsploitation come from? And why does everything have to be “elevated,” anyway? All these topics and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.

The Vespermark

Art by Mike Royal

The Vespermark is an area of Krevborna not detailed in the first-edition book, but it will be featured in the revised version of the setting. I realized I wanted in an area of frontier wildlands, one influenced by the Westerns I grew up on.

The Vespermark

A Nightmarish and Lawless Frontier

The sparsely populated hills and plains west of Krevborna’s nominal bastions of civilization are collectively known as the Vespermark. Small towns, villages, and farmsteads dot the borderlands between the settled areas of Krevborna and the rest of the world. In between these outposts are swaths of badlands and steppes littered with supposedly abandoned keeps, castles, and monasteries.

An atmosphere of vigilante justice prevails in the often lawless Vespermark; its settlements are imperiled by unholy beasts and predatory outlaws, and it lies beyond the protective reach of the Church of Holy Blood. The lonely homesteads and towns of the Vespermark are encircled by perimeter walls meant to keep out monsters and bandits. 

Most settlements in the Vespermark practice their own forms of self-governance, but some are oppressed by local tyrants, hereditary boyars, mercenary bands, or cult leaders. For example, the wilds of the Vespermark are a safe haven for the Yezhuli—a forbidden sect of the Church of Holy Blood that practices polygamy.

People who live in the Vespermark are protective of the lives they carve out of the desolate landscape. They are often regarded as standoffish, justifiably so, as they often have good reason to be distrustful of strangers.

Hallmarks

The following elements and aesthetic notes define the Vespermark:

    • The Vespermark is the sparsely populated borderland between Krevborna’s “civilized” areas and the neighboring countries.

    • The settlements of the Vespermark are self-governed, when they aren’t oppressed by local strong-arm rulers.

    • Strange cults that would otherwise be stamped out by the Church often take root in the Vespermark.

    • Brigands, highwaymen, and monsters prowl the badlands and prey upon the Vespermark’s farmsteads and towns.

    • Unusual flowers, their scent both sickly sweet and redolent of rotten meat, grow in the wilds of the Vespermark.

Two Reasons Why Call of Cthulhu is One of the Great Horror RPGs

Call of Cthulhu is one of the best horror games I've ever played, and I've played a lot of them. There are many reasons why it works great for horror, but I want to spotlight two elements that make a particular case for Call of Cthulhu as a top of the class game.

Sanity

It has been said, and rightly so, that Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system is a poor representation of actual mental illness.

Everyone who says that is correct. What they're missing is that this is a feature, not a bug.

Used liberally, Sanity loss in Call of Cthulhu is an unstoppable spiral into the abyss. Players should be incentivized to involve their character in the scenario for an important reason (stopping something awful from happening, keeping the people they love safe, etc.), but the act of involving their characters should also always put them in a position where losing precious Sanity is a preeminent threat.

The beauty of Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system is not in how it models mental illness, but rather in how it snowballs precipitously into a spiral of madness. One failed check means the next check is even more likely to fail, which means that the margin of success on the check after that is likely to be the slimmest it's been. 

Couple the viciousness of that unmitigable peril with the fact that every blown Sanity check could be an opportunity to make the current situation worse. If things go truly bad on a SAN check, it might mean briefly handing a player's character over to the Keeper's machinations and forcing them to do something that is contrary to their best interests.

And Keepers? If you get that opportunity, use it. Have the character do something that really fucks them over or makes the situation demonstrably worse.

What this means is deceptively simple: in Call of Cthulhu, even your own character is a liability.

There's also a special social effect that often occurs when the Sanity system rears its misshapen head in Call of Cthulhu. Sanity loss seldom spreads itself evenly across a group of characters; some characters get hit hard, while others remain largely unscathed. This creates a tension within the group between players who want to play it safer (they're watching their character's SAN score plummeting toward permanent insanity) and those who want to explore the scenario more cavalierly (their character is mostly unharmed by the horrors encountered thus far, so they see room for further error without consequences). 

So long as that tension remains at the table between the characters, and doesn't spill over to the players themselves, it makes for a wonderful push-and-pull of anxiety and dread that really enhances the game's atmosphere of horror.

The Character Sheet

At the side, you can see the skill list that takes up the majority of a Call of Cthulhu character sheet. It almost looks like a tax form, doesn't it? There sure are a lot of skills in this game.

They won't save you.

Ideally, there comes a point in a Call of Cthulhu scenario where a player desperately looks to all the skills listed on their sheet and has a horrifying realization: there is nothing there that can help them.

I've never seen a better encapsulation of the futility of human animal come face to face with eldritch horrors than that.

It's the theme, isn't it? The sum of human ability, the skillset that has allowed mankind to flourish on Earth, all that hard-won specialized knowledge and mastery--all of it is ultimately worthless when confronting things the human mind is not equipped to comprehend.

Now, do I think that is an intentional design choice on the part of Call of Cthulhu's authors? Of course not; the skill list in Call of Cthulhu is obviously an iteration of RuneQuest's rules updated for a modern setting. But as an unintentional facet of the game--it's utterly delicious, a nightmarish serendipity. 

I Wrote a Novel

I got back into writing short fiction in a concerted way in 2024, so for 2025 I gave myself the goal of writing a novel--something I'd never tried before. And I did it; I have now written a novel! And, as you can see from the word count, it's not even a short novel.

I'll have more to say about the process and how I crossed the finish line in a post or two to come at a later date. I've set my book aside for a bit, to give it (and myself) a rest. Then the revision process will begin.

Printed out, double-sided, the draft is thick

What's my novel about? Let me take a crack at summing it up:

A melancholy grave robber and her cheerful automaton friend get involved in the mystery of a missing corpse and an equally missing book of poetry. As they investigate, they cross paths with a black metal bard out to kill an angel and a famous monster hunter who is in love with a beautiful, but deeply evil, witch. 

It's got Slavic monsters, nunsploitation, a first date at an absinthe bar, a fetishistic death cult obsessed with red-haired women...and a whole lot more.

I'll definitely let everyone know when it's available to read.

The Horror at Hickory Park

I broke one of my own rules: I ran a Call of Cthulhu game set in the modern era, instead of using the 1920s or the Victoria era. In this game, the characters graduated from high school in 1995. That summer, on the Fourth of July, they went camping in Hickory Park with their friend Kim. Kim died on that trip, and her death was ruled an accidental drowning.

Although the players didn't know this about the other players' characters, each character had a memory of being the one who killed Kim. 

The present year is 2005, ten years after the tragedy. Each of the characters received a blackmail letter threatening to expose their secrets if they didn't bring $10,000 to the park on the anniversary of Kim's death. 

Characters

Dan, NYSEG accountant

Mickey, comic shop owner

Jason, journalist

Ruth Ann, yoga instructor and art therapist

Events

The group arrived at Hickory Park in two vehicles: Mickey's Ford Transit van and Ruth Ann's 70s AMC Hornet with a deer painted on the hood. At the gates of the park, they spoke to a park ranger whose nametag disconcertingly read "Kim." Kim explained that there would be fireworks later that night, a family friendly movie at the park's drive-in theater, and that they had accommodated the group's request for a campsite at a remove from the other campers. The booking had been apparently made over the phone by Jason, though he denied making it.

As they set up their tents at the campsite, Mickey was blasting a cd of Led Zeppelin's 4 on his boombox--until it started playing Nirvana's "Come As You Are," their friend Kim's favorite song. They stopped the cd player, started it again, but could not get it to play "Come As You Are" again; the song simply wasn't on the cd.

The group left their campsite to see what was going on at the beach. The beach was full of families, teenagers, and middle-aged people looking to cut loose on the holiday; they passed folks stacking firewood in the firepit for a party on the beach later. They decided to rent a canoe from the pier, where old men were fishing, and row around the river to see what was what. However, before they all set off in a canoe, Jason said he left something at camp. He told the rest of the group he would catch up to them later.

While canoeing on the river, the rest of the group saw workers setting up fireworks on Hiawatha Island. Sharp-eyed Dan also spotted a river cave on the isle, so they rowed for it and dragged their canoe up the rocky beach. They discovered a few strange things inside the cave, such as a shrine to their friend Kim (complete with framed yearbook photo), a mural depicting six people wearing furs and metal masks about to sacrifice a young woman lying in the snow (the young woman had an uncanny resemblance to Kim), and a tin mask and hand-crafted knife (that bore a resemblance to those in the mural).

Meanwhile, back at the camp, Jason searched everyone's tents and found their stashed weapons and hidden cash. The jig was up--he rightly assumed that every member of the group was being blackmailed, even if they had denied it earlier. 

When he made his way to the island in his own canoe, he caught up with the group just as they were examining a strange white globe hanging from the ceiling of a cavern by what looked to be a rope of flesh. The globe was covered with a lattice of some sort, and the chamber itself was frosted over despite the fact that it was a hot summer day. As they began to leave the chamber, they heard an unearthly howl. Ruth Ann panicked at the sound, drew her gun, and shot the orb.

When it exploded, it generated enough force to propel the group against the walls of the cave at speed. They all lost consciousness.

As they awoke, they realized that the world was not as they had left it. Hiawatha Island was piled high with snow and the Susquehanna was partially iced over. The gray clouds above threatened snow. They dug their canoes out of the snow and made their way back to the campground, but when they reached the beach they saw that all the celebrants who had been alive when they set out were now frozen-solid corpses. The cars in the parking lot were also mangled beyond repair.

They quickly made their way to their campsite, but trudging through the snow made them realize that they would soon need cold-weather gear if they wanted to survive the unnatural winter that had descended around them. They found their campsite destroyed as if an explosion had centered on it--the trees around it were bent backwards, their tents were shredded, their belongings scattered, and all the cash they had brought was strewn about.

Desperate for warmer clothing, they headed over to the camp's general store. The door was open, though they did knock over a bucket full of water and a mop as they entered. They found cold-weather parkas and boots lined up in the back of the shop--almost as if someone was expecting a sudden, violent turn in the weather. Within the shop they also found a dead man, his body evidencing multiple recent stab wounds. 

The movement of someone crossing the window caught their eye and they moved to lock the front door. Whoever it was pleaded with them to open the door to save them from the cold, but when they risked a look out a window they saw that the would-be intruder was clad in furs and was wearing a tin mask. They quietly exited out the back instead.

As they plodded near the playground, on their way to the house on the hill, they saw that there were children playing on the swings and teeter-totters. The kids were also clad in furs, and some of the group caught a snippet of their singsong: "Wind walker, wind walker, wendigo! Wind walker, wind walker, where'd Kim go?"

They entered the house through its unlocked back door. Inside, they could hear a rhythmic rocking sound coming from the stairs leading to the second story. The group paused too long in the hallway, riven by indecision; they heard a window shatter in a nearby room and the sound of something large trying to push its way into the house. The group opened the door of the room to see what they were up against: the creature was four-armed, covered in shaggy fur, and its monstrous head devolved into a giant curling horn.

Mickey and Dan both made a break for it, running back outside. Unfortunately, the creature easily caught up to them and messily dismembered them.

Back in the house, Ruth Ann and Jason ascended to the second floor. Unfortunately, they never made it to the origin of the rhythmic sound they heard; the monster squeezed up the stairs and into the second-floor hallway, effectively cutting off their escape route. Ruth Ann unloaded her pistol at it, but to no avail. The monster killed her first. Jason tried to ready a can of bug spray and a lighter to use as a makeshift flamethrower, but--the eldritch horror tore through him as well.

The last image we imagine in this scenario was the can of bug spray rolling down the stairs.

The headline in the Press & Sun Bulletin the next day reported that many died during the "freak storm" that darkened the Fourth of July, but no one would ever truly understand--the Horror at Hickory Park.

Comments are Back on the Menu, Boys

I've turned comments back on for this blog. I turned them off years ago because keeping up with spam comments started to feel like a part-time job. 

But they're back on now, because I've heard the filter is much better, so you can yell at me about my posts, agree rabidly as your vie to join my cult of personality, or just say, "hey, what's good. homie?"

Unless, of course, the filter is still crap. In that case, I'll turn comments off again or something.

Smoke City

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 85: Smoke City

Keith Rosson’s 2019 novel Smoke City is a supernatural character study that somehow makes the road trip adventure shared by a loose-cannon pop artist, a reluctant immortal, and a would-be ghost hunter into something much more poignant that one might expect. Jack and Kate hitch a ride with this motley crew and learn whether or not the real treasure is, in fact, the friends we make along the way.

Why does absolutely everyone in LA have a doorman? What is it that makes a dive bar truly magical? Is it ever wise to start a fight with a headbutt? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Almost Dying on the Moon

The second, and final, Krevborna game taking place on the Shadow Moon.

Characters

Willard Corn, strange old man in search of his missing dog

Heck, revenant who punches things to death

Garazi, young witch with a bird familiar

Panthalassa, a necromancer out for vengeance against a death cult

Daytona, dhampir cowboy along for the ride

Events

When we last left our "heroes," Panthalassa ran in to grab a skull mask off a table in a mess hall just as a dragon swooped down from a hole in the ceiling; everyone else was gathered by the doorway. Panthalassa took a mauling from the dragon, but made it to the door with the mask. 

The group slammed the door shut. Willard and Daytona ran down the hall, but everyone else stood by the door arguing which way they should flee--which gave the dragon the opportunity to breath fire and nail the characters who weren't already in motion. The door was blown off its hinges and the hallway filled with fire.

That got the rest of them moving. 

Now that most of them were injured, they decided to hole up in the empty cells in the subterranean floor to rest and recuperate. The time passed without them being detected, but they did begin to recall strange snippets of the woman who sent them here in the first place. 

Panthalassa summoned a cat and used it to explore the fissures running through the broken walls in the complex. Through the cat, they located a cache of stowed-away food and a room where the remaining Fraternitie du Cadavre cultists huddled in darkness. The last mask they needed was with the cultists. 

The group was detected as they approached the cultists. The cultists ran deeper into the tunnels, but the characters followed them. They ran into a chamber where the living avatar of the Nightmother stood; her six hands each held a blade, her monstrous tongue lolled from her mouth. Her mere presence caused fear in the majority of the party; thus debilitated, they had a difficult time fighting the pagan goddess's avatar, but eventually they prevailed--mostly due to Willard's efforts.

Unfortunately, while they were battling the Nightmother, the spectral necromancer Valton Blakely oozed into the room in shadow form and joined the fray. He wore a twisted crown and bore a greatsword blazing with black fire. Luckily, they heard the barking of a dog--Willard's legendary three-legged dog burst from a tunnel and tore a chunk out of Valton. 

Valton proved to be an even more powerful foe than the Nightmother. Since many of the characters (including Panthalassa's summoned raptors) were all bunched together, he was able to hit them all with a big swing, Dark Souls-boss swing of his blackflame sword. Interestingly, they didn't scatter after the first time that happened--so they all took another full swing of massive damage from the necromancer's sword. 

It was a very near thing; even Heck, the party's strongest member, was in danger of meeting death again. They did, at last, kill Valton, but they were always on the brink of losing one or two of their own.

They slaughtered the remaining cultists without mercy and took the final mask as their prize. They then hid out in the room with the cached food to heal up again. Backtracking to the room where they had fought the vlaak Lord Doctors, they realized that they had never looted the bodies there. In that room, they found the key to the vlaak craft, which Yarsi helpfully knew how to operate. 

Once everyone was aboard and strapped in, Yarsi fired up the ship and brought them back to Hemlock Hollow. Willard bid the rest of the group farewell; his next destination was the stars where, with Yarsi and his dog at his side, we would seek more vlaak to kill. 

The rest of the group brought the skull masks back to the Usher house. Inside, they found the sorceress Cassie Mabcrowe and her friends Brigid and Anastasia waiting for them. Nightsong was there too; she was yelling at Cassie for using "her team" for this mission. Cassie explained that she had sealed away their memories to prevent their plan from falling into the wrong hands if it was discovered--which was only partially true, but no one pressed her on that. 

They did, however, insist on watching her perform the ritual that would put Madeline Usher back to "sleep." Wisely, they wanted to make sure Cassie was as good as her word. She was telling the truth--this time, at least. The world is now safe again from Madeline, the Curse of the Ushers.

But how does the party feel about being used by Cassie and, more importantly, what can they do about it? Perhaps that will be filed away, as the next item that appears to be on their agenda is to confront the witchfinders responsible for Heck's death.

Brigid Fane and Bram van Gheist

Two NPCs in Krevborna who couldn't be more different: Brigid Fane, a rage-filled barbarian who approaches all challenges with murder in her eyes and a sword eager in her hands, and Bram van Gheist, a cowardly scholar who has the knowledge necessary to push back the tide of evil, but who is weak of body and resolve.

Brigid Fane

Brigid Fane is a barbarous woman hailing from the tribal lands within the Silent Forest. She was captured by slavers and sold into service at Winterholt in Sibersk, where she fought as a gladiator until her escape during a revolt in the fighting pits. She frequently travels with Cassie Mabcrowe and Anastasia Elanova, serving as their swornsword. Also known as the Red Fury due to her fearsome and unstoppable berserker rage, her skill with a greatsword is terrifying to behold, as is the sound of her savage war cry. 

    • Appearance: Brigid is a hulking woman with bulging muscles and a messy crop of red hair.

    • Personality: Brigid is loud, boastful, and generally jovial.

    • Motive: She is a simple creature who loves fighting, fucking, and drinking.

    • Flaw: Brigid believes that violence solves most problems.

Bram van Gheist

Bram van Gheist is the foremost scholar of the occult currently active in Krevborna, even though he was dismissed from his post at Creedhall University. Too physically infirm to fight against supernatural evil directly, he is overeager to share his accumulation of lore with those who battle against darkness.

    • Appearance: Bram van Gheist is an elderly gentleman with wizened features and a shock of white hair.

    • Personality: There is something undeniably impish about van Gheist’s behavior despite his academic demeanor, and he often laughs at inappropriate times.

    • Motive: He wishes to aid those able of making war against demons, the Unseelie fey, and the undead.

    • Flaw: Deep in his heart, Bram van Gheist knows himself to be a coward who uses others as proxies to fight evil.

Walking on the Moon

We've returned to finish the Shadow Moon adventure in my Krevborna campaign. 

Characters

Willard Corn, strange old man in search of his missing dog

Heck, revenant who punches things to death

Garazi, young witch with a bird familiar

Panthalassa, a necromancer out for vengeance against a death cult

Daytona, dhampir cowboy along for the ride

Khamaat, mysterious pyromaniac mummy 

Events

The session opened with the characters gathered at the mouth of a cave on the forbidden Shadow Moon. They had just traversed a portal in the dungeons below Geldingstone to arrive here. Now, as they gazed on the alien lunar landscape, they saw that the surface of the moon was so black it would have been indistinguishable from the sky were it not for the stars. 

In the distance, they could see a Vlaak fortress surrounded by a tall fortified wall. Between the fortress and the cave was a field of black boulders. They spotted a dragon flying above them in the sky. 

The group wisely decided to use the boulders as cover to zig-zag to the gate at the wall. The were successful at avoiding the dragon's attention. However, as they approached the wall they saw that there were six gibbets on poles erected before it; each gibbet held a Fraternitie du Cadavre cultist. Panthalassa cast her burrow spell so she and Heck could move beneath the ground and come up on the other side of the wall to remove the bar that kept the gate closed. 

The first chamber they entered was a Vlaak barracks. Twelve Vlaak soldiers and two officers were sat at tables playing an esoteric game involving polyhedral dice, books, and miscellaneous papers. Khamaat was able to incinerate a bunch of them before they could even rise from their table. The rest put up more of a fight and were able to deal out a few wounds to the party. 

Two of the soldiers ran into another room. Heck and Daytona followed and found that they had removed some strange metal rods from a glass case, presumably to activate the two skull-headed iron golems standing in the room. Daytona and Heck killed them before they were able to do whatever it was they were doing.

Back in the main melee, the party turned the tide. One soldier struggled to unentangle himself from Garazi's magical chains, and it turned out he'd rather die by his own hand than face the dreaded Willard Corn. He turned his psychic blade on himself and chose death over Corn.

Beyond the automaton room, they found a door of flowing shadow. Khamaat tried tapping it with one of the metal rods, but the rod immediately disintegrated. The murals in this room told an interesting story: they depicted Vlaak in ceremonial armor and neck ruffs presenting chained humans to a throned Vlaak queen. 

In an armory chamber, the group found suits of Vlaak armor, psychic blades, a diorama depicting miniature Vlaak figures fighting eldritch abominations, and a fissure in the wall leading to a narrow tunnel. They followed the fissure tunnel and ended up in what appeared to be a small cell with an observation window set into its iron door. Luckily, the cell was unlocked so they could enter the hallway beyond.

In the hallway, they saw that there were two more cells. One held a human-looking man who had something horrific crawling under his skin. The sign under the observation window to his cell read: "CORN HYBRID #8729, NON-VIABLE." The second cell contained a teenage girl who appeared to be a hybrid of Vlaak and human. The sign beneath her observation window read "CORN HYBRID #7639 !DANGEROUS DO NOT RELEASE!" She clearly recognized Willard and made a three-fingers-down gesture that he recognized as a way to symbolize his missing three-legged dog. 

Panthalassa picked the lock to the girl's cell, and she was very relieved to be released from captivity. They quickly discovered that the girl did not speak Krevbornski; she only knew the language of the Vlaak. Willard could read Vlaak, so they began to write messages to each other to communicate. The hybrid girl's name was Yarsi and there were two important things to know about her: she loves dogs and hates the Vlaak. She joined the party from there on out.

In another room the group caught five scarlet-robed Vlaak Lord Doctors in the act of experimenting on a live human subject with their alien surgical instruments. With the doctors were three hovering automatons bristling with hypodermic needles and bone saws. Yarsi immediately proved her worth by psychically bursting the head of a Lord Doctor. The rest of the enemies were dealt with handily. 

Once their foes were disposed of, Heck took the opportunity to eat one of the Vlaak's brains and the human's brain to gain some insight into what was going on within the fortress. The human was one of the Fraternitie cultists, but unlike his fellows, who were rotting in a cave somewhere, he had escaped the Vlaak's initial massacre. As for the Vlaak, when they returned to their fortress and found it overrun with human cultists, they began to systematically hunt them down. There were still a bunch hiding in the complex, somewhere. 

They also found one of the Usher masks on the person of a dead cultist floating in a tube of yellow liquid. One mask recovered; two to go.

As they explored further, they found a chamber down a spiral ramp that was open to the air. Below the skyward opening sat an alien craft that vaguely resembled a fish made of metal and glass. Yarsi explained that they would need a key to operate it. There was another fissure in this room, and from it issued the sound of a dog barking. Willard wanted to go in to find his dog, but the passage was too narrow to admit him. Garazi send her bird familiar into the crevice and it ended up in the chamber Heck had seen in his vision after eating the cultist's brain--the chamber was piled with bodies. Unfortunately, the familiar's exploration was cut short when she was slain by the burning sword of an immense, shadowy figure wearing a twisted crown.

The group then decided that walking around without disguises was dangerous, so they outfitted themselves in Vlaak armor. This proved helpful when they blundered into a Vlaak mess hall. Thinking on his feet, Willard pointed and yelled "Willard Corn," which tricked the Vlaak into running out of the room in search of the hated and feared Willard Corn. The soldiers left behind one of the skull masks on the long dining table. Panthalassa ran in to get it--and just then the dragon swooped down into the room from an aperture in the ceiling. 

We'll find out what happens next time!

Sonja Barbarez

Veil’s most powerful villain is Sonja Barbarez, a demoness who gathers an army at Hell’s behest. My thought with Sonja Barbarez was that the setting needed a) a major villain who is a demon and b) a major villain who is militaristic and warlike. The notion of a monstrous army sweeping out of the north, which is where Veil is located on the map, is a classic campaign framework--and Sonja Barbarez and her Storm of Malebolge will get you there if you'd like that to be the flavor of your Krevborna campaign.

Sonja Barbarez

Sonja Barbarez is a diabolic soldier serving the demon known as Legion. She has come to Veil to recruit warriors to her army, the Storm of Malebolge, a force capable of subjugating the land and unitinge it under Legion’s banner. Sonja keeps a close eye on Veil’s gangs and the most violent members of its outcast population, always looking for promising conscripts. To Sonja, “promising” means a combination of discipline, sadism, and brutality. 

Sonja has taken the ruins of a former army barracks in Veil as the Storm of Malebolge’s headquarters. Once their numbers are sufficient, they will seize Veil as their own and begin to build larger battalions—ranks Sonja hopes to swell with summoned devils and other enslaved monstrosities who will march in Legion’s name.

    • Appearance: Broad-shouldered and imposing, Sonja is demon wearing the guise of an amazonian warrior woman only a fool would trifle with. 

    • Personality: She is a conqueror who brooks no dissent, which is why her fastness is surrounded by a forest of impaled corpses.

    • Motive: She wishes to see all of Krevborna annexed by the tide of her diabolic army.

    • Flaw: Sonja would rather die in battle rather than retreat.