2024 Year in Review and the Year to Come

Looking back at 2024, looking ahead to 2025.

On the Gaming Front

By far, the unchallenged high point was finishing the Krevborna campaign that started last year. To paraphrase Arch Merrill, the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York," it feels like "we will never see its like again." That was easily the more fun and exciting campaign I've ever been part of and I suspect it will remain something I remember fondly for the rest of my days. If you want to read the recaps from it, go here and scroll down to the posts for Lachryma Rising.

On the other hand, we started a new Krevborna campaign that had massive peaks of great times (a jailbreak! a tiki inspired infiltration adventure! a ball inspired by Dante's Inferno!) and some very low points that left me feeling down about the whole thing. However, you can learn valuable things from when a game isn't going well, so I definitely have some necessary changes in mind for the next Krevborna game I start.

Of course, we may get back to this campaign but it remains to be seen whether it has already truly ended or is just on hiatus. That's entirely dependent on how I feel about it in the future and if the players retain any enthusiasm for it after we take a break to play other people's games. We got to a decent stopping point for the campaign so I'm good either way.

Aside from the Krevborna campaigns, I ran some great one-shots in 2024. I really enjoyed the Euro-Gothic Hellraiser-themed Call of Cthulhu game we played in October, I playtested my mysterious AG3NTS of C0NTR0L game to good effect, and the vampire truck stop adventure for PLANET MOTHERFUCKER fucked.

I've already got a couple fun ideas cooking for games to come once I'm back in the GM seat, but I think I want to explore both shorter arcs and different settings in 2025. Right now my list includes a Warhammer hexcrawl in Lustria, something I'm calling Krevborna High (Dark Shadows Gothic soap opera meets Stephen Graham Jones's Angel of Indian Lake trilogy), and another thing I can't even really mention or it would spoil the experience for the players. Aside from those, I'm sure PLANET MOTHERFUCKER will get some play and hey maybe this is the year I run Deadlands again.

On the Podcast Front

Bad Books for Bad People chugged along. With only eight episodes in 2024 we didn't quite hit our once-a-month target, but there was real-life stuff that came up and, hey man, we do the podcast for free with no sponsors so the audience gets what they get. Still, I think our Sudden Death episode is one of the best we've ever produced.

On the Writing Front

2024 was the year I got back into writing fiction in a serious way. I went from completing one story in 2023 to completing seven stories--one of which is novella length!--over the course of the year. And I know you're supposed to sit down and be humble but I'm going to be honest with you: some of these stories are really, really fuckin' good. So good, in fact, that I'll probably try to find a way to get them in front of readers this year. I made it look easy in 2024. I think some people were shook by that, but that's between them and the draft they'll never finish or whatever.

I'm going to try to expand that novella into a novel-length project in 2025. I've never written a novel before, so we'll see.

In terms of game writing, I pumped out three good-ass supplements for PLANET MOTHERFUCKER this year: DEMONOID PHENOMENON, BLACK SUNSHINE, and DEAD GIRL SUPERSTAR. The problem is...that very few people saw them. PMF is a niche game, but I think I need to figure out how to help it find its audience that isn't Drivetrurpg because the game is languishing behind the "adult content" saloon doors. 

There's one more PMF supplement coming, by the way, because I don't really care about popularity or the line going up. It's tentatively titled PUSSY LIQUOR. After that, I'm considering compiling all of them with the core rules into a single book. It's the funniest game you don't own yet. You should buy it and encourage me to have more bad ideas.

I thought I would get a revised Krevborna setting book out in 2024, but it didn't happen. The manuscript is looking good, but there's still a bunch of editing to be done on it. 2025 will probably see its release. And, as always, it will be a free pdf update so if you've already bought the book you're going to be good to go. Again, I'm not in this for the money or the microfame, I'm here to help you have a good time and also make the shit I want to use in my games.

On the Discord Front

My Discord server continued to be a fun place to hang out at. You can join too, it's open invite, just make sure you read the rules and keep it cool. It's slow-paced compared to big servers, which is exactly what I want. It's also non-denominational, so don't show up if you've got a weird axe to grind about a style of gaming, authors who are more popular than you will ever be, etc. Had to clean out a couple fools for being foolish this year, and I'm happy to do it again.

This year I started streaming movies for the folks there alongside running games and shooting the breeze. The Krevborna Film Festival and PLANET MOTHERFUCKER Film Festival were both blasts, and I'll probably run both again in 2025. I love sharing some messed-up movies that people maybe haven't seen before.

On the Movie Front

2024 was a phenomenal year for horror movies, particularly in the theaters. My favorite theatrical releases of the year:

• Abigail 
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• Blink Twice 
• Furiosa
• Immaculate
• Kinds of Kindness
• Lisa Frankenstein 
• Longlegs
• Nosferatu
• The Substance

On the Reading Front

I managed to hit two reading goals in 2024: read a hundred books and finish re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Of the books I read over the course of the year, these were my favorites from among the new-to-me pile:

• Alisa Aerling, Smothermoss
• Nathan Ballingrud, Crypt of the Moon Spider
• Monica Brashears, House of Cotton
• Essie Fox, The Fascination
• Kate Griffin, Fyneshade
• Lee Mandelo, The Woods All Black
• Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard
• Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend's Exorcism 
• ML Rio, Graveyard Shift
• Richard Swan, The Justice of Kings

On the Music Front

We went to see Ministry, Alice Cooper, and Rob Zombie again, which was cool. I also souped up a hand me down guitar so I can jam doom metal at home. Need some dope records? These were the cream of the 2024 crop for me:

• Ad Infinitum, Abyss
• Castle Rat, Into the Realm
• Chat Pile, Cool World
• Chelsea Wolfe, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
• Funeral, Gospel of Bones
• Knocked Loose, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
• Oxxo Xoox, +
• Ponte del Diavolo, Fire Blades from the Tomb
• Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God
• Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Nell' Ora Blu

That was the year. Let's see what 2025 will bring.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 81: Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is a 2021 graphic novel that pairs historical true crime author Harold Schechter and Eric Powell, writer and illustrator of the monster punch-up comic The Goon. Jack and Kate revisit the horrifying true tale of the Butcher of Plainfield–this time, in comic book style.

What impact did this case have on pop culture, and why does it continue to fascinate us? How were the ‘90s a different country, and why did that country smell like grunge? Is the true crime genre Horrible Exploitation or Cool Exploitation? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.

The Death of Patchwork Jack

Before the holidays, we were able to reach a good stopping point for the current Savage Krevborna campaign. In this episode they found and defeated their quarry, the genius corpse golem known as Patchwork Jack, though this one could have gone either way depending on the dice. We'll see if or when we return to this in the new year, but if we don't I'm at least satisfied we got to a little moment of closure on it one way or another.

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events

When we last left the party, they were unlocking a large, metal-plated door with a key they had obtained in a lower level of the complex. Beyond the door was a cage elevator big enough to move equipment--or cadavers--from level to level. They noticed that the elevator shaft proceeded both up and down. They decided to first use the elevator to ascend the shaft. The ride terminated at the top of a low mountain peak, with an rocky overhang to shelter the elevator from the snowfall. From the deep wheel ruts tracing up the path through the snow to this area, they guessed that something had been transported into the complex via the elevator recently. 

The group then decided to try their luck descending into the shaft. The elevator moved down the shaft for a very long time, taking them much deeper into the complex than they had previously ventured. The short corridor leading from where the elevator came to rest joined an octagonal room decorated with statues of Vlaak surgeon-priests, each of which held sharp obsidian surgical implements of alien design. There was an iron-bound door behind head statue. Willard noticed that there were scratch marks leading to the easternmost door, so they approached and opened that one. 

The corridor leading from that room ended in a stone door carved with the face of a Vlaakish queen that was slightly ajar. Peering beyond it, they could see a large chamber with pillars carved into the likenesses of misshapen monsters supporting the vaulted ceiling. Inside, three of Patchwork Jack's corpse golems stood guard by an eldritch metal throne. These golems differed from the ones they had previously encountered in one respect: gas masks had been sewn in place where their faces should have been. 

Deciding that they wanted no part of that action for the moment, the group retreated back to the octagonal room to try the other doors. This was, in fact, a tactical mistake on their part that would leave them in bad shape for the confrontation to come because when Willard approached a door that did not have scratches in front of it--which were proof that the door they entered before was seeing regular use--he triggered the statues to wildly swing their obsidian blades, which wounded several members of the party quite badly. 

Their lesson learned, they returned to the octagonal room and opened fire on the corpse golems from the doorway. This may also have been a strategic error, as Daytona's gunshots simply caused the golems to seek cover behind the throne and the group quickly learned that the creatures were highly resistant to any long-range sorceries they might hurl their way. The only solution was to charge them and fight it out hand-to-hand. Which they did, and handily won.

(Well, technically they could have parlayed with the corpse golems because they belonged to a faction that wanted to be free of Patchwork Jack, but they didn't explore that angle; thus, violence.)

After a bit of further exploration, and tangling with a few more corpse golems, they discovered a chasm down which a waterfall cascaded into an underground lake below. There was a chain ladder fastened to the side of the chasm, going into the dark. As they climbed down the swaying chain ladder, Daytona received a vision about Garazi--but did not divulge its contents to the rest of the group. 

At the bottom of the chain ladder, the group found themselves on the far shore of the underground lake. There was an island at the center of the lake, and on that island was a small fortress over which electricity was arcing chaotically--an eerie repetition of Viktoria Frankenstein's island chateau at the center of Loch Riven. The shore had a small dock; the boats at the dock were strange, advanced technology, but Serafina was able to get one working so that they could head to the island.

Once docked on the island, Patchwork Jack and his compatriots--a man in an exoskeleton of steel and six corpse golems--emerged from the fortress to meet them. Checking his pocket watch, Patchwork Jack announced that he had expected their arrival ten minutes earlier--no matter, though, he was happy to send them to their graves NOW. 

The first round of this long battle did not go in the characters' favor. Panthalassa initially found herself unable to summon dinosaur aid. Heck found Patchwork Jack to be more than a match for his previously unassailable undead vigor--Patchwork Jack grabbed him by the face, threw him onto his back, and began pummeling him with steam-hammer fists. Worse, when Heck let himself slip into a berserk rage, Patchwork Jack followed suit with a murderous rage of his own! 

Beaten and bruised by the first exchange of blows, things appeared dire for the party when a demonic gate erupted from the ground, its portal filled with fire. However, this gate was help on the way, as their ally Nightsong emerged from it and immediately cast a spell that knit and cauterized their wounds, giving them the wherewithal to keep fighting and turn the tide. Panthalassa was finally able to summon her raptors, which tore into the corpse golems, and even a massive herbivore--though that was quickly put down by a blow from Patchwork Jack. Nightong threw down her Judas coin, exclaiming "Now you dance with me" to a corpse golem that was about to rend Khamaat in two--there was a flash of bright light and the smell of brimstone as Nightsong and the golem vanished to duke it out in Hell's arena. Serafina was able to sneak up on the man in the exoskeleton suit and assassinate him from behind. Heck was finally able to land some blows in return against Patchwork Jack, and Daytona was able to finish him off with a bullet to the head.

When they regrouped, Nightsong announced that she hadn't just come to aid them in their time of need--she had business with them as well. She told them that, in her capacity as Hell's Herald, she was entrusted with the duty of recruiting a team capable of pulling off a job that just might end the Hellwar before it spilled out onto the Mortal Realm in earnest. She had considered many options, but decided that this group of ragtag misfits might be the best candidates for the job. As such, she asked them to sign a black book and become satanic agents in return for a boon to be bestowed upon the completion of their task. 

Garazi was the first to sign the book, and she signed in blood. Everyone signed the book save for Willard and Khamaat, who are either suspicious of what is being offered or repulsed by the idea of getting a rich favor from a Dark Power.

In the end, the group decided to part ways for the time being. Panthalassa would accompany Serafina and Nightsong to retrieve Viktoria from her safe haven. After that, Pathalassa would set sail aboard the Dawnrazor with Thomasina to find Pendleton. Nightsong told Garazi that she should return to Hemlock Hollow and spend time with her family because "it might be some time before you are able to see them again." Ominous and cryptic. 

She also suggested that Heck accompany her and perhaps take the opportunity to get to know Ivara Graymalk better. Daytona would return to Lachryma and to Catarina--and also send the Widow and Viktoria's creations home. Khamaat was charged with keeping a finial safe--it would be needed in the task ahead. Also ominous and cryptic. And as for Willard...well, we assume he will keep looking for this three-legged dog in the interim.

A History of Horrible Experiments

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

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trilobite and Vilewind Isle

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

The Trilobite

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

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

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

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

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

Vilewind Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fall of the Vlaak

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

***

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

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

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

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

Into the Vivisectum

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

Characters

Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures

Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)

Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar

Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances

Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters

Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy

Events  

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

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

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

To Those Who Seek My Death,

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

Doctor Jack Frankenstein

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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