A Fine Pack of Krevborna Characters

The following entries are descriptions I wrote up for a party of characters I used in a Krevborna one-shot adventure in which all members were part of Sir Aubrek Salazar's retinue of "problem solvers." I like how they turned out, so I thought I might as well post them here for posterity.

Angelique Oleander

Backstory: Angelique Oleander is a Polnezna woman who grew up in a wandering clan caravan. Since birth, she has been “blessed” with a supernatural connection to the spectral world. She was apprehended and nearly executed after performing a fraudulent seance in Chancel; only Sir Aubrek’s intervention spared her from hanging. She has been part of Aubrek’s retinue ever since. Being on her own feels like a fatal liability. 

Appearance: A young woman of middling height with unruly black hair and dark eyes. She dresses in the fashion of her people, as she is proud of her heritage.

Fanlin O’Dale

Backstory: Fanlin was orphaned at a young age when his family was set upon by anti-fey vigilantes. His vengeance does not take the form of direct violence against the world that robbed him of his parents; rather, he gets his recompense one theft at a time–and he won’t stop until the scales are balanced. He joined up with Sir Aubrek’s retinue because Aubrek promised him that his tasks would put him in the path of great riches.

Appearance: Fanlin is a forest elf–tall and thin, with skin the color of tree bark. Strangely, people have a hard time accurately recalling the details of his appearance. Are his eyes brown or blue? Is his fair long and flowing or clipped short and militaristic? Who can say?

“Father” Severin Koslavik

Backstory: All his life, Severin Koslavik was told he was destined to serve in the Church of Holy Blood. Indeed, all signs pointed in that direction–he was apprenticed to a Church inquisitor, at least until an unnamed indiscretion caused him to be formally stripped of all standing within the clergy. Strangely, his miraculous powers have not disappeared since his defrocking. His miraculous talents have found him employment in Sir Aubrek’s retinue.

Appearance: A young man who still takes pains to appear to be a pious servant of the Church, Severin still wears the cassock of a cleric. It just makes life easier–people don’t ask too many questions of a priest.

Lady Jeanette de Winter

Backstory: Lady Jeanette de Winter hails from a family of hereditary knights who long-ago pledged their service to the Salazars. When Sir Aubrek Salazar appeared at her ancestral manor, Lady Jeanette found that she was willing to fulfill the terms of her familial oath. Which is strange, since Sir Aubrek Salazar supposedly died generations ago. She knows her time in the Mortal World draws to a close–better to go out in glory, she figures.

Appearance: Steel-haired, steel-eyed, and steel-backed–Jeanette is an aging woman who is still physically powerful, even if she experiences new aches and pains every day.

Damir Milosovek

Backstory: Whether or not he is a natural-born nobleman is irrelevant; Damir Milosovek plays the part of a dashing, fashionable highwayman with aristocratic bearing. Sure, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor–but he simply must make sure that he holds back enough coin to keep his garb stylishly outrageous. Luckily, the terms of his alliance with Sir Aubrek are generous; shame about all the danger it entails, though.

Appearance: A handsome man with long blonde hair and a meticulously trimmed mustache. He takes pride in three things: the sharpness of his blade, his debonair presence, and his colorful feathered hat.

Braelin Map

I realized I hadn't posted this yet. This is the map I made of Braelin, the starting town of the current Krevborna campaign.

Rate and Review: A Favor

I hate to ask people for favors, or for anything really, but if you're read and enjoyed Ornamental Women, it would help me out tremendously if you rated or reviewed my novel! You can do so on Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph. Or make a post on social media about it, write something up for a blog if you have one, or (most importantly) recommend it to someone you think would like it. I'm an independent author with no writing community or industry ties, so word of mouth is all I've got.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has already rated, reviewed, reposted, read, and promoted my work. It truly means a lot to me. Response has been positive, but I'd still love to reach more readers--and for that, I need your help.

The first few reviews of Ornamental Women are in, and it's been pretty great thus far. Eight five-star ratings on Amazon at the moment:

 And people have been saying some really kind things about the book:

 

 

  

 

Additionally, it looks like people who had fun with Ornamental Women have really good taste in fiction; what an august company to be a part of!

 

 

Of course, if you haven't bought a copy yet...you can get Ornamental Women here.

 

Third Novice Advance

We did another "level-up" session for the ongoing Krevborna game. Here's what the players grabbed for their characters:

Anastasia took the New Power edge, gaining Relief and Dispel (and Smite from studying the Book of Carrion Winds)

Dario took the Formation Fighter edge

Johanna increased her Agility to a d8.

Ulu took the New Power edge, gaining Environmental Protection and Arcane Protection (and Smite from studying the Book of Carrion Winds)

Varro took the Sweep edge

Morwenna took the Arcane Background edge, focusing on Magic, gaining the powers Mind Reading, Bolt, and Corpse Sense

 

Morwenna was taught the rudiments of magic by Cassie Mabcrowe as the group traveled from Hemlock Hollow to Chancel, where they hoped to track down a man named Ratibor Bron--who had some kind of connection to Yavor Mikalek. Cassie also gifted Morwenna a deck of bird-themed tarot cards and taught her how to use them to scry.

Speaking of scrying, Ulu asked Cassie to try to gain more information about Krusikal's sundered heart. The group had been operating under the belief that Varro's sword may have been half of Krusikal's heart, but Cassie didn't think that was true. Varro's sword was connected to something dark and unfathomable, but it wasn't Krusikal. 

Left to think on what they might have brought back with them from Ustalecht, they hit upon an interesting idea--what if Commander Kaul's body itself hid the weapon?

They also asked Cassie to scry the location of Raenessa's missing adult children. Alduin was currently somewhere in Veil. Alyndara however...was deceased. The group did not relish having to break that news to their alchemist.

Yes, you can do emotional terrorism even in a level-up session. It's legal. 

Total Skull: July, 2026

Things that brought me delight in July, 2026:

 

Neurosis, An Undying Love for a Burning World

I honestly wasn't sure we'd ever get another album from Neurosis, but An Undying Love for a Burning World is a worthy addition to their lengthy catalog. The band's signature sludgy, doomy, post-metal heft remains intact, but the record also displays an incredibly varied textural palette; everything from earthy, warm tones to moments of electronic ambience have their place in the overall soundscape. Also, despite being an album that is firmly "of the current moment," there is a hopefulness to An Undying Love for a Burning World that feel so crucial, so absolutely necessary to our survival.

 

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Certain Dark Things is the best Vampire: The Masquerade book not officially part of Vampire: The Masquerade's spotty fiction line. (And let's be honest: this novel is too good to be tie-in fiction, but it should appeal to fans of that particular game.)

We've got rival vampire clans (each with different powers and cultures) in Mexico City, fighting over control of the narcotics trade. The protagonist belongs to the native vampire clan and is on the run from a European colonial vampire clan that brought a horrible vampire disease to Central America. Certain Dark Things combines urban fantasy with a big dose of noir and action thriller--an extremely fun mix.

 

Tarja, Frisson Noir

Touted as Tarja Turunen's (formerly of Nightwish) return to symphonic metal, Frisson Noir is a surprisingly heavy and extremely theatrical record. If the goal was show that she still has the chops to deliver a strong Gothic metal album, well--mission accomplished. And yet, Frisson Noir doesn't really play it safe or rely on retreading past glories; Frisson Noir feels pretty vital and unique.

 

Heather Parry, Carrion Crow 

Heather Parry's Carrion Crow gives a fresh, and sometimes devastating, view on the Gothic "madwoman in the attic." Consigned to an attic in her family's crumbling house by her controlling mother, the protagonist is being "prepared" for life as a wife in Victorian England. Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management stands in as a kind of Necronomicon, full of eldritch truths, eroding the main character's sanity page by page. And there is a lot of erosion here--of the mind, the body, the sense of self...of personal history and identity. Carrion Crow is definitely a clever book; it reminded me a bit of J.-K. Huysmans's A Rebours, but where a male aesthete makes the choice to seclude himself in a world of his own design, a woman of the same era finds confinement to be an entirely different experience.

 

The Long, Hot Summer 

With a plot stitched together from multiple William Faulkner fictions (and a good dose of Tennessee Williams, as well), The Long, Hot Summer finds a handsome vagabond with a reputation as a barn burner ingratiating himself with Will Varner, the big boss of a Mississippi town. Ben Quick, the vagabond who is full of masculine swagger and a predator's ethical laxity, seems to represent the solution to many of Will Varner's problems: he looks to be a good replacement for his somewhat spineless son in the family business, he could be a virile match for his spinster-at-twenty-three daughter, and he looks to be his best bet for revitalizing the Varner family line with lots of grandsons. But Quick's reputation dogs him, and the familial psychodrama is tangled. I wasn't expecting the surprisingly light-hearted ending, but this was definitely a fun Southern Gothic film.

 

Moonspell, Far From God

I wasn't really expecting Moonspell's newest album to be a full-on goth rock record, but here we are. And I'm not exactly mad at it, as the results feel strangely fresh and vital even if it is taking on a sound that now irrevocably feels "retro." Things do get heavier on the second half of Far From God, but even the chugs and grittier vocals don't really feel too far afield from the heavier moments of, say, The Mission or Fields of the Nephilim.  

 

The Vampire Lestat 

Even though my memories of Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat novel have been dimmed by the passage of time, it was clear to me that the AMC adaptation was not strictly true to the source material. And that's fine by me. What I can't figure out, however, is if this show is a brilliantly weird re-imagining of Rice's second foray into the world of vampires or if it's a deeply stupid, meandering take on her Vampire Chronicles. That, in itself, is impressive. I watched the whole thing, and I still don't know exactly what I think about it or how I feel about it. That's probably a triumph of some sort.

 

Queen of the Damned

To keep the Anne Rice adaptation train rolling, I watched Queen of the Damned--which I had never seen before and, frankly, had avoided for years because it doesn't exactly have a great reputation. I thought it was fun, though I'd struggle to call it "good." It's such a strange beast--for a big-budget feature, Queen of the Damned often looks impressively cheap; what's with the horrid special effects? Who found these absolutely wooden actors? Whose decision was it to make the film all beginning and end, with no middle to speak of? Also, I will never get over Jonathan Davis's voice coming out of Lestat's mouth every time he sings. Amazing.

 

Luke Dumas, A History of Fear 

I enjoyed Luke Dumas's The Paleontologist a few years ago, so when a friend recommended I also check out his A History of Fear I put it on my list. It's time has come. Either I didn't know it or forgot in the intervening months, A History of Fear is a riff on James Hogg's classic Gothic novel Confessions of a Justified Sinner, specifically incorporating Eve Sedgewick's argument that the main character's flaw is an ability to navigate homosocial bonds and homosexual desires. (Curiously, I haven't seen Hogg's novel mentioned in any of the copy written about the novel. Why hide that? Feels like stolen valor, in a way.) In any case, Dumas's book is very much a strong modern Gothic, with the haze of vagueness surrounding whether the murderous grad student at the heart of the tale was motivated to kill by the Devil or suffered a mental breakdown due to sexual repression. 

 

Double Door

Pre-code films are almost always a treat, and Double Door was originally a theatrical production that was dubbed "the play that made Broadway gasp." (In fact, two actors from the play version reprise their roles in the movie adaptation.) Double Door is a fun little Gothic family drama about a new bride who has to contend with her husband's insane spinster half-sister and the sinister hidden vault within their NYC mansion. I love how tight and concise Double Door is; it gets in, delivers on plot and theme, and gives you a satisfying comeuppance in the bargain.

 

Elizabeth Harvest 

I went into Elizabeth Harvest with admittedly low expectations, but the cinematography and cast are amazing. Seriously, it's impossible to take your eyes off Abbey Lee as the protagonist, and Ciaran Hinds and Carla Gugino always enliven a film. Elizabeth Harvest is a Gothic sci-fi riff on Bluebeard, but that added to the appeal for me. I can imagine a viewer for whom Elizabeth Harvest has at least one too many plot twists, but it delivered what I often hope an A24 movie will be (and just as often fails at): a visually striking movie with an actual story, and themes that aren't rooted in pop psyche theories of trauma.

 

Blackwater Holylight, Not Here Not Gone

Blackwater Holylight is a new band to me, but their mix of shoegaze and sadgirl doom really hit the spot in late July. Not Here Not Gone feels like an album the band has been building up to for quite some time, especially in terms of heaviness, but the songs on this record never really lose their essentially ethereal, mist-like quality. 

 

The Witch's Mirror 

The Witch's Mirror is here to teach you an important lesson: even if you hate your wife, it's a bad idea to murder her if her godmother, who is also your housekeeper, is a witch with a magic mirror that acts as a direct hotline to Hell. The first half of the movie is a "using black magic to torment the doctor and his new wife" Gothic romp, but the second half unexpectedly weaves in elements of body snatching and medical horror--a bit like a Mexican Eyes Without a Face. Maybe a little less ethereal and a good click more earthily gory.
 

Consummate Graveside Manner

I had planned to make a mix a month for all of 2026, but nobody seemed to listen to the mix for last May, so I fell off on that. Some projects get left by the wayside. 

The Tower of the Black Prince

The Friday night Krevborna campaign continued, this time with a special guest joining for the evening.

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

Johanna, lycan bard and fallen noble 

Routh, cauldronborn servant of the Graymalks

 

Events

The Charnel Hounds arrived in Hemlock Hollow after weeks of traveling. They found the Graymalk's sprawling, city-block sized house easily; after knocking on the door, they were ushered into a conference with Vandra Graymalk, a witch with a particular focus on herbalism. She offered terms for treating the hideous plant growths that had taken root in Anastasia and Morwenna: she would cure one of them now and other later, and in return the Hounds would retrieve an item lost in the Hellwar that the Graymalks wanted. Vandra also planned to send her cauldronborn servant Routh with them to keep the group on task. (And to facilitate her plan to betray the group, but of course they didn't know that.)

After accepting her terms, the group was led into the labyrinthine basements of the Graymalk house until Vandra unlocked an iron-bound door that opened into utter darkness. The item they were meant to retrieve, which she would not name, was hidden somewhere in the Tower of the Black Prince's Corruption...in Hell. 

By stepping through the portal, they literally entered Hell.

They walked across a red plateau until they saw a strange tower in the distance. The tower proved to be made entirely of flesh--scabby, puss-leaking flesh. Morwenna flew to the top of the tower and spotted a wound large enough to enter, so she ferried each Hound up to the top one by one. 

The tower's internal wounds acted as tunnels leading downward through the mass of flesh. They encountered pools of blood and puss, as well as a stained glass window depicting an angel in flight embedded into the "skin" of one room. They also encountered demons trying to fish a dead Graymalk witch from a vast puddle of bodily fluids--they charged in, defeated the devils, and looted the witch's purse as their prize. In another "chamber," they surprised a number of shovel and pickaxe-wielding demons hard at work digging tunnels into the flesh below their feet. After fighting the vulture-like overseer, they let the demons creep off as they clearly weren't looking for a fight once their leader was dispatched.

In one of the tunnels heading deeper into the tower, they saw something large and reptilian scuttling in the shadows. They choose another tunnel that eventually brought them to a large brass door. A sentient man mad of shadow lurked nearby. Morwenna approached him--and he proved to be the shadow of the Black Prince, the first necromancer the world had ever known. Contrary to their suspicion that he was there to prevent them from opening the door, he wanted  them to do it--it would allow him to slip out of Hell to pursue his terrible goals in the Mortal World once more. 

Opening the brass door suddenly didn't sound like a good idea. However, he also assured the group that the item they sought was beyond the door. The only catch was that someone had to speak the Enothian words etched on the door as it was opened, and the Black Prince was unable to say such holy words. Seeing no other way forward, they group did what was necessary and--

--found themselves in an uncanny approximation of Creedhall, the color palette reduced to red-on-red and the twisted street they were on leading up a hill to where a dark mansion sat. From one of the skeletal trees flanking the manse, they could see a bag made of human skin hanging from a branch--and they knew that was the mysterious item Vandra had sent them for. Unfortunately, as they made their way up the hill the doors of the mansion opened and a veritable army of the undead trooped out to meet them. In the lead was their commander--a lizard-headed woman missing an arm.

The battle to gain the bag was fierce. Routh was nearly killed by the army's leader, and when Anastasia ran to heal Routh she was cut down in turn. Only quick strategizing (and the initiative cards falling in their favor) prevented a death in the party. Morwenna swooped in and grabbed the bag; rather than fight until every last foe was defeated, they ran for it.

Strangely, when they again crossed through the brass door it did not lead them back to the Tower of the Black Prince's Corruption. Instead, they realized they were inside a large tent with a campfire burning at its center. The tent's occupant introduced herself as Cassie Mabcrowe. Cassie was the friend that Serafina contacted on their behalf because they wanted information on Yavor Mikalek and the otherworldly entity known as Krusikal.

Cassie was happy to provide the information they sought, but she had a deal of her own she wanted to strike with the Charnel Hounds. She explained that the Graymalks planned to kill them as soon as they handed the bag over to them, and that Routh would be commanded to aid in the betrayal. Cassie offered them better terms--she would heal the remaining Hound afflicted with the unnatural plant, free Routh from the Graymalks and bestow him with free will, and give them the name of someone who could help them find Yavor. All in return for what was in the bag, of course.

Knowing a bargain when they saw one, the characters accepted. 

Dragonwyck

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 95: Dragonwyck

Anya Seton is a grande dame of historical fiction, a reputation earned by novels like Dragonwyck, her 1944 gothic romance. Join Jack and Kate as they explore the dark corridors and even darker history of a 19th Century Hudson Valley manor home.

What are some warning signs that you’re in for a rough ride with a romance protagonist? How many times will our hosts mispronounce Ms. Seton’s name? Does breast size (once again) hold the key to understanding this book’s female characters? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast. 

Cauldronborn

Since these guys have popped up a few times in the current Krevborna campaign, I thought I should add them to the world-building blog posts. If it wasn't obvious from what follows, the cauldronborn are Krevborna's answer to the idea of "orcs."

 

Cauldronborn

As a last-ditch tactic in their war to push mankind out of their territory, the aelvani submerged their human prisoners of war in magical cauldrons gifted to them by Baba Vasaga, the Hag-Queen of the Autumn Court. When these captives emerged, they were the first of the cauldronborn—a race of transmogrified warriors who were stronger and more savage than the raw material that created them. When it was obvious that they had lost the war against humanity, the aelvani freed the cauldronborn from servitude. Only small pockets of cauldronborn remain in Krevborna.

Cauldronborn are hulking and brutish in appearance; they often possess gray or greenish skin, sloping foreheads, and jutting teeth. They tend to be physically imposing, strong, and resilient.

 

Suggested Stats: I just use the orc stats from the Fantasy Companion for cauldronborn. 

Ornamental Women Bookmarks

Ornamental Women, my debut Gothic Fantasy novel, has been out for just about two months now, so I'd like to offer a little something to everyone who bought a print copy: a silly bookmark drawn by yours truly. (If you bought an ebook copy, I still love you, but you won't need a physical bookmark for that, right?) Anyway, here's the bookmark:

 

The bookmark is a doodle depicting Serafina, the "Angel of the Graves," main character of Ornamental Women. Since Sera is a dangerous grave robber, she's shown with dagger and shovel in hand.

Want one? Here's how to get it: send a pic of your print copy of Ornamental Women to me at totgad AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address and I'll get one out to you. (Or a copy of your receipt or order history or whatever--I do not need to see your credit card details, obviously!)

If you haven't bought a copy yet--there's still time! I made a bunch of these, so while supplies won't last forever I should have enough if you want to purchase a copy soon. Consider that your incentive! 

The Bad Seeds

More fun with nuns in the latest Krevborna adventure!

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest 

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

Johanna, lycan bard

 

Events

We last left the Charnel Hounds investigating the Convent of St. Nostalia of the Bladed Mercy because they suspected the nuns were connected to the strange, plant-infected sisters who had attacked Braelin hours before. The Hounds hadn't made a great impression on the nuns after breaking into the convent, leveling guns at them, and announcing their allegiance to heretical saints. 

Things didn't improve much after one of the nuns, Sister Evangeline, offered to take them on a tour of the convent to show that nothing nefarious was going on and they just stood there dickering about it for quite some time. Their behavior toward the nuns effectively cut off any negotiation or the possibility of deceiving them--it was clear they weren't there in good faith.

When they finally decided to let themselves be escorted by three of the nuns (Sister Bronwyn stayed behind in the chapel to finish her prayers), they were shown that nothing was amiss in the laundry. Sister Evangeline was adamant that the strangers could NOT interrupt the rest of any of their sick and dying patients. They were also shown the kitchen, where again nothing was amiss.

Ulu and Varro left the convent to investigate the adjoining cemetery, after promising not to disturb the dead. Again, nothing was amiss...until they searched the nearby bake house. It was evident that the ovens had not been fired in some time, which made them suspect that the nuns weren't actually eating. Also strange was the covered cauldron they found that contained more of the Borcheza perfume they had smelled earlier, and a ladder leading down into tunnels--tunnels where they could hear water rushing.

Back in the kitchen, Dario and Johanna were led down into the basement larder by Sister Petra. The nun beckoned them into the reaches of the larder--then blew out her candelabra. At the same moment, Sister Evangelina kicked the trapdoor leading into the larder shut. A sudden rush of perfumed scent assailed Anastasia and Morwenna, knocking them both out. 

Down in the darkness, Johanna and Dario found themselves attacked by thorny tendrils--things immediately went poorly for them as they were savaged by a surprise attack. They attempted to fight back, but the absence of any light made it impossible. When they finally got a lantern lit, they saw that Sister Petra was no longer standing on two feet; she had sprouted a number of vine-like tendrils from her back that allowed her to scuttle around. The battle in the larder was a very near thing; both Johanna and Dario emerged wounded.

Morwenna and Anastasia awoke blindfolded, gagged, and bound. They felt a small blade cutting each of their ankles, then felt the pain of a walnut-sized seed being pushed into their flesh. 

Varro and Ulu returned to the convent proper and now found the front door barred from within. A window was broken so that Varro could crawl inside and unbar it. They then met up with Dario and Johanna, and the group discovered Morwenna and Anastasia face down and bound in one of the nun's cells. Anastasia determined that trying to remove the seeds from their ankles would cause catastrophic damage, as the seeds had already started sending roots throughout their legs--if not further into their flesh.

Ulu explained about the tunnel system they had found, so it was decided that the best bet was to explore that and hope to find the nuns and perhaps uncover a way to remove the growing seeds from Morwenna and Anastasia. Disconcertingly, as they traversed the tunnels, they found the nuns' discarded habits...and then the nuns' discarded skins.

Further in the tunnels, they faced their most dangerous foe yet: a rushing underground river. Ulu, the strongest and largest of the group, attempted to ford it first--and was promptly swept away by the current. Varro jumped in after her, but was also swept away. Luckily, Morwenna had just enough room to fly and follow them to where they washed up in a little debris-strewn alcove. Clearing away the detritus allowed them to find a passage that circled around to the other side of the underground river, and also netted them a bottle imp to the bargain. With two strong members of the party on the other side of the river, using a rope to help everyone else ford became a much safer prospect.

However, they may have wished they hadn't forded the river when they stumbled upon the three remaining "nuns" (who were now fully plant creatures made of writhing thorny tendrils) caught in the act of merging to form a larger, deadlier creature. Battle was joined and it did not go well. An attempt was made to douse the creature with oil and set it alight, but the thrown torch missed the mark entirely. 

Any initial momentum squandered, the Hounds faced a barrage of attacks that left them all badly wounded and already wrong-footed. Their attempts to rally met with minimal success--ill luck seemed to dog them: guns jammed, attacks missed, and the creature shrugged off some powerful blows. Ultimately, though they were teetering on the brink of defeat, the cavern resounded with the sound of wood cracking as Ulu tore the creature in half. 

With no obvious solution to the problem of the seeds in sight, the Hounds made their way back to Braelin. Raenessa, their alchemist, analyzed the perfume and concluded that it was probably meant to poison the town's water supplies to make everyone transform into plant creatures. Unfortunately, Raenessa had no way to stop the seeds' progress.

Aivra Williams was rounded up from the schoolhouse, since it now occurred to the group that it was strange that she had been targeted by the mutated nuns--they hoped that her blood possessed some sort of anti-plant property--and she was taken to Dr. Ilsa's office. Dr. Ilsa had no way of removing the seeds either, but when questioned Aivra closed the office's door and made all within swear a blood oath not to share what she was about to tell them. She then took down her bun of auburn hair and revealed that she was actually Ivara Graymalk, the eldest sister of the infamous witch clan of Hemlock Hollow. 

She had no way to affect a cure either, but she insisted that her family might be able to help. To that end, she gave them a sealed letter of introduction and urged them to make their way to Hemlock Hollow. The clock was ticking for Anastasia and Morwenna. 

Ornamental Women Playlist

Now, I know exactly what you're thinking: I would buy and read Ornamental Women, Jack's Gothic Fantasy novel, if only it had an official playlist...

Well, friend, you're in luck: here's the official Spotify playlist for Ornamental Women. And here's your link to buy a copy of the novel.

What's on there? Glad you asked:

1. Tristania, Deadlocked

2. Theatres des Vampires, The Gates of Hades

3. Paradise Lost, Joys of the Emptiness

4. Katatonia, My Twin

5. Moonspell, Abyssmo

6. Sirenia, Sister Nightfall

7. Theatre of Tragedy, Cassandra

8. Nightwish, Sleeping Sun

9. Draconian, Bloodflower

10. Therion, The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah

11. The Gathering, In Motion #1

12. Lacuna Coil, My Wings

13. The Sins of Thy Beloved, All Alone

14. My Dying Bride, For You

15. Lacrimas Profundere, I Know and Will Forever Know 

Bladed Mercy

We picked up from the level-up session, and a new adventure began in the current Krevborna campaign!

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange things about blood

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

 

Events

After the duel between Varro and Embrelle last session, Varro invited his opponent, her friends Serafina and Alejandra, and their daughter Constance to dinner at the Kaul House. Beaumont D'orleac was glad to see that the party was mixing socially, but since they planned for the dinner to be a seafood boil eaten outside, he left most of the preparations in the hands of Irenya. 

After dinner, they asked Serafina inside to their new library so that she could tell them what she knew of Yavor and Krusikal. Serafina hesitated on the threshold when she saw D'orleac, and when asked to explain her reaction to the butler, she said, "I'm not an expert on the occult, but I know a ghost when I see one."

Serafina was able to shed some light on Yavor and Krusikal: she had a "friend" who sometimes taught at the Malcovat, the school of black magic hidden high in the Karthax Mountains. Yavor was also an instructor at the school, but he turned away from diabolism and embraced the alien magic of the Outer Dark instead--and cheated Hell of an entire cohort of witches and warlocks. Serafina knew that Yavor was a disciple of Krusikal--also known as Kusikal the Unvanquished and Krusikal the Heartless. That last name was especially important because Krusikal had removed his "heart" and sundered it in two so that he could not be slain. Serafina didn't know what the heart was, but she related that her friend considered each half to be a particularly fell weapon. She further promised to contact her friend on their behalf to see if she could provide further aid.

The evening was interrupted with the arrival of a young man who came to tell them that the schoolhouse in Braelin was under attack. Alejandra, Serafina, and Constance sheltered with Raenessa and Irenya in the alchemist's lab; Embrelle borrowed Raenessa's husband's sword to accompany the group to see what the trouble was. 

The schoolhouse was, in fact, under attack--by women with greenish tinted skin wearing nun's habits. They had the schoolhouse surrounded and were banging on the doors and windows with their fists. When talking to them failed, a big battle ensued--and it was big, as there were thirteen of the nuns in total. It quickly became apparent that the nuns were not normal--flowering blooms and thorn-studded tendrils erupted from their flesh. Eventually, the Hounds were joined by Pandora and Morrigan Rue, which helped even the odds. 

(Morrigan was highly proficient with the two swords they always saw her carrying, and Pandora was able to conjure creatures made of shadow.) 

They were also aided by a mysterious gunshot that took the head off of one of the marauding nuns.  

Once the dust settled, the nuns were searched--one of them had a bottle of expensive perfume from the Borcheza company on her person. Curious, that.

Dario also knocked on the door of Crispin Telimov, the tailor who lives across from the school, and detected the smell of gunpowder on him. Did he fire the helpful shot that took out a nun?

The Rues reported that other areas of Braelin had also come under attack, but had been repelled. The Rue sisters agreed to supply the Hounds with horses if they wanted to venture to the Convent of St. Nostalia of the Bladed Mercy up in the hills to see if it had any connection to the attack. 

It was night when the group reached the convent. Anastasia came through the doors into the chapel with guns drawn, disturbing  a nun with scars on her hands during her prayers. The nun was not intimidated by Anastasia or the group in the least, and denied the convent's involvement with the attack on Braelin. Morwenna tried to smooth things over, but mentioning that she was an acolyte of a heretical saint didn't improve matters. 

Things appeared to be in a stalemate when a group of three more nuns arrived, one bearing a lit candelabra. Another, her eyes a bright blue that reflected the candlelight, proposed they talk through whatever issue brought the group to St. Nostalia's convent.

We'll see how well that works next time. 

Total Skull: June, 2026

Things that brought me delight in June, 2026.

 

Johanna van Veen, Bone of My Bone

I enjoyed Johanna van Veen's haunting novel My Darling Dreadful Thing, but I really enjoyed Bone of My Bone. Bone of My Bone centers on a Catholic nun and a Protestant peasant girl who are carting around the skull of a saint that wants to be reunited with its body, but a necromancer and his mercenary thrall are in hot pursuit across the bloody landscape of the Thirty Years' War. The novel is fast moving, grim when it needs to be, but with its eye on the possibility of redemption. Fans of Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires and Robert Eggers's films should lap this up. Highly recommended; it's one of the best things I've read this year.

 

Evanescence, Sanctuary and Synthesis

It's kind of crazy that Evanescence dropped one of their best, most cohesive albums in June, 2026. There's a level of refinement here that comes with experience, but at the same time there is also a passionate fire to these tracks that you don't often get with a band commanding this much popularity and longevity. It's certainly welcome to hear, that's for sure. Sanctuary is plenty heavy, and Amy Lee still knows her way around a piano ballad.

I also got into Synthesis, an album in which Evanescence revisits past glories via new orchestral and electronic versions.

 

When Nothing Remains, Echoes of Eternal Night

I could have sworn that When Nothing Remains had called it a day and broken up, but if so they got back together and released a new album that I only just heard about in June. Though not as well known as My Dying Bride or Draconian, When Nothing Remains toils in the same funereal garden of doom metal. The riffs are slow and heavy, the vocals veer between death growls and clean singing, and melancholy piano elements add a certain gravitas to the proceedings. The spoken word bits on Echoes of Eternal Night won't be to everyone's taste, but overall I thought this was a great slab of dark storytelling from practiced hands in the melodic death doom genre. 

 

Devil May Cry, Season Two 

The second season of Devil May Cry isn't perfect; it's often hard to discern what anyone's actual scheme is, and the show relies way too much on flashbacks. That said, when it hits it really hits. And it really hits when some awful anthemic nu-metal song kicks in right before a big action sequence. That's the stuff right there. Apparently we're getting one last season of this--which feels about right to me. Kudos to the team for not wearing out their welcome on this absolutely ridiculous animated series.

 

Jessica Alexander, Agnes, We're Not Murderers!

For some reason, I thought Agnes, We're Not Murderers! was going to be a bit more like Victorian Psycho, which I loved. Instead, I found something entirely different to love instead. Agnes, We're Not Murderers! is a Gothic novel made from the interconnected raw material drawn from some of the Gothic's foundational texts. Astute readers will note the borrowings from Northanger Abbey, Wieland, Frankenstein, and Carmilla. But more than that--there's an intertextual element here, with footnotes and phrases bolded in red ink to act as both a roadmap through the complexities of this short book and to tell a different, but related, story as a counterpoint to the main tale.

 

Cloak, The Venomous Depths, The Burning Dawn, and Black Flames Eternal

As proof of the absolute abundance we live in, consider that it's still possible to find a band you've never heard and then discover that they have an entire discography of treasures to explore. Such was the case for me with Cloak, whose albums The Venomous Depths, The Burning Dawn, and Black Flames Eternal I delved into in June. Cloak deal in Gothic black metal; they offer a wide sonic palette, working in eerie passages, all-out tremolo assaults, and some straight-ahead riff fests too. If you are as unfamiliar as I was, their work is definitely worth spending some time with. 

  

The Dreadful

I enjoyed Natasha Kermani's Abraham's Boys, though I thought it was a little slow and perhaps based on a short story that didn't have enough meat on its bones for a full-fledged movie. The Dreadful is similarly slow moving, but the atmosphere of manic fear it exudes is pretty potent. In The Dreadful, a woman lives with her mother-in-law during the Wars of the Roses; both await his return from the war. When his childhood best friend mysteriously returns instead, and the woman realizes that her mother-in-law is up to some bloodthirsty stuff, things begin to spiral out of control--and then a nightmarish knight shows up.

 

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Summoned to visit her dying gangster father, a pious child finds herself menaced by an imperious vampiress with a thirst for children. Although it's never really explained--and little in this movie is--there is a war going on between two factions of vampires, too. There is a dreamlike quality to Lemora that makes for a compelling experience. In my opinion, Lemora would make an excellent double feature with Valerie and Her Week of Wonders as both of them focus on pubescent women learning to navigate the desires of all the potentially predatory adults around them.

 

Cynthia Gomez, Muneca

This is a very fun little Gothic novella. In Cynthia Gomez's Muneca, the protagonist takes a job as the caretaker to a non-communicative, paralyzed woman she believes is actually afflicted by a witch's hex. By inserting herself into the household, she's putting herself in grave danger--and positioning herself so that she must confront the dark history of her own family, as well as her identity as a lesbian woman. This one has some really tense sequences, an interesting main character, and--okay, the doll stuff! The blurb on the cover is right about the doll stuff--that brings a nice dose of unique weirdness into play.

 

How Like a Winter, self-titled

We were talking about the band The Foreshadowing (terrible name, I know) on the Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque Discord, and one of my pals mentioned How Like a Winter, an older band fronted by The Foreshadowing's singer. That set me on the path of checking out How Like a Winter, a band from the mid-1990s specializing in Gothic doom metal. Their record is refreshing in its rawness--remember when not everything had to polished? The beauty is in the imperfections. 

The Sentinel

The Sentinel is a movie I've been meaning to watch for a long time, and I finally got the chance to sit down with it in June. In The Sentinel, a young model moves into a brownstone apartment and meets a pack of "quirky" neighbors who quickly prove to be far more sinister than they first appear. The cast is absolutely stacked with great performers, even in the minor roles, and the film makes extremely effective use of red herrings. I wasn't entirely sure how all the narrative pieces fit together until the end, but when the climax came it felt entirely earned. 

 

Daniel Corrick (ed), Ghosts and Robbers: An Anthology of German Gothic Fiction

I badly needed a palate cleanser after a particularly inept novel experience toward the end of the month, and I found my solace in Ghosts and Robbers: An Anthology of German Gothic Fiction. This anthology is full of classic stuff: a man elopes with a spectral nun, diabolic wishes (via a bottle imp!) grant you get more than you bargained for, being dared to spend the night in a haunted chamber should always be answered in the negative, etc. All that, plus one of the first vampire stories to be committed to prose! You really can't go wrong with this collection if, like me, you're addicted to cruising the dark entries of obscure Gothic fiction.

Second Novice Advance

The characters in the current Krevborna campaign recently earned their second advance in the Novice tier. Here's what everyone grabbed:

Dario: the Feint edge

Johanna: the Savagery edge

Anastasia: the Two-Gun Kid edge

Varro: increased Spirit to d6

Ulu: the Martial Artist edge

Morwenna: gained the Spellcasting edge at d4 and increased Common Knowledge to d6

The group also got to upgrade the Kaul house: they've chosen to add a Library.

We also made time to let the characters interact more with the various NPCs they've encountered so far:

Dario met with Beaumont D'Orleac to get a better sense of how the Kaul household is being managed. D'Orleac explained that Raenessa has not been receiving a wage for her labor as the Hounds' alchemist-in-residence, but D'Orleac has been providing funds from the household account to supply her with ingredients she can't forage from the local countryside. Irenya, on the other hand, is employed by D'Orleac directly. Rather than drawing a wage from the household itself, D'Orleac pays her from his own personal account. Why he does that has not yet been fully broached.

Varro ventured to the Wolf & Rose to see Embrelle and set up a time for their duel. Since Embrelle had friends coming into town to visit on the weekend, they decided that was the perfect time for the fight. They planned to rope off part of the lot behind the tavern, get the Nokoviks to set up a food cart, and have Johanna play the after party--you know, really make an EVENT out of it for the town.

Ulu wanted to meet with the Rue sisters, but she only found Morrigan Rue, the icier of the two sisters, having tea at the Blue Room. Ulu hesitantly asked for the Rues' patronage to help fund her experiments as an artificer, which Morrigan agreed to. The only catch was that, from time to time, the Rues might have a request for Ulu to craft something for them to further their own mysterious ends. Ulu also went to the Nokoviks' shop to buy paints and get their bun recipe; she was told to expect her trees within the next few weeks.

Anastasia and Dario paid a visit to the Honey Pot to see if Doctor Ilsa knew anything about Krucikal or Yavor. She did, in fact, know of Yavor--she referred to him as an occultist particularly interested in the eldritch entities of the Outer Dark.

Johanna and Morwenna trekked up to see Wyatt at Fort Onataiga, which they discovered was extremely dilapidated. Wyatt was his typical sad-sack self, but he did have a book that mentioned Krucikal. Krucikal was an abomination from the eldritch dark, also know as Krucikal the Unvanquished. Something something eating of souls and whatnot.

 

The Fight

A large crowd gathered for the Varro versus Embrelle fight, including town luminaries such as Doctor Ilsa and Aivra Williams. Embrelle's friends were also in attendance: a leggy blonde with crazy green eyes, a pale, black-clad woman, and their unruly-haired child. 

The rules for the duel were simple: the combatants were going to strike with the flats of their blades, full armor was allowed, and they'd fight until one of them couldn't fight any longer.

The fight began! Varro took a massive hit just trying to close the gap to get to Embrelle. When she gave him the death stare and tried to walk him down, though, he stayed resolute and didn't flinch. Somewhat miraculously, he was able to rally toward the end--essentially evening the score between them, but he couldn't quite put her down. Ultimately, she took him out--sending him ass over heels--but then she hoisted him back up in celebration of what a close fight they had. Even if he was unsteady on his feet, she was determined to show that they both fought well and were comrades in arms. The outcome was certain, but in a way it was a shared victory.

Things got wild during the after party, with Dario disappearing to get up to who knows what, Morwenna eating rats, and Johanna getting a massive tip from Alejandra, Embrelle's blonde friend. Alejandra also took a turn playing for the locals so Johanna could get in a dance with Wyatt. Varro, still punch drunk, was peer-pressured into drinking some beer--until Raenessa cut him off. In the late hours of the morning, they stumbled back into the Kaul house. Luckily, Raenessa had already brewed some hangover remedies for them.