Tuesday, March 26, 2024

At Sea Once More

In the last session, the party successfully rescued Lenore and Emily from the machinations of the Convent of Our Lady of the Blood Reborn. In this session, they chose to direct their attentions toward getting the Brineblade into the hands of Scylla, the eldritch "goddess" of the sea responsible for raising Asudem from the dead and whom Catarina reveres as her patron.


Characters

Catarina, unconventional prioress

Pendleton, rogue anatomist

Raoul, necromancer

Geradd, swashbuckling nobleman

Daytona, dhampir gunslinger

Panthalassa, empowered feral child

Asudem, undead antiquarian


Events

On the way to Lachryma, the party deposited Emily and Lenore at Chateau Frankenstein for safekeeping. Serafina and the Widow also left the party at this point; Serafina promised to dig up information about where the Skarnesti Circus was headed, as that was to be their next destination once the business with the Brineblade was at an end. 

Every night on their journey to Lachryma, Panthalassa and Catarina had the same dream: they approached an island by sea, and once they was upon it they found themselves ascending the tower of a fortress. The tower's roof was compromised; rain was pelting down from above and running down the stairs. Drops of blood were mixed in with the rain. Looking up, they could see a winged humanoid suspended from chains at the top of the tower--the blood was coming from several wounds on the creature's torso. The dream's perspective then shifted. They could now see the blood dripping into the sea, where it hardened into a cage that kept Scylla trapped in the depths. 

When the group arrived in Lachryma, they found the town in a state of turmoil. They had spotted people on the road fleeing the town, taking whatever worldly possessions they could load onto wagons or carry on their backs. From the vantage afforded by the hill, it was clear that a few ships were on fire in the harbor. Daytona stopped a man who was leaving the town to ask him what was happening. The man told them that the Church had stepped up its efforts to reclaim Lachryma from Scylla's cult and the chaos they saw was the result of Church terrorism.

As they hurried to the temple presided over by their ally Belle Silvra, they saw a towering angel with a sword of flame also making its way to the temple. Correctly ascertaining that the angel meant to destroy the temple and all within it, Panthalassa ran forward to strike at the angel with her maul. What really got the angel's attention, however, was Daytona unloading a devil's blood bullet into it. It made a beeline for the gunslinger and very nearly dealt him a crippling blow. The angel was ultimately destroyed by one of Raoul's necrotic bolts. Daytona recovered what was left of the flaming sword--merely a hilt they did not yet know how to activate. 

Inside the temple, they were escorted to Belle Silvra's sitting room. There was a pistol laying on the desk in front of her--less a method of self-defense and more insurance that she would not be taken alive should the angel have breached the temple. In their conversation, it turned out that Belle had been having the same dream as Panthalassa and Catarina. As to why that would be, Belle conjectured that the primordial sea spirits that Panthalassa had forged a pact with were possibly Scylla's children and that Catarina's possession of the Brineblade drew her into connection with Scylla.

Asudem managed to piece together the dream island's location from their description of it and his recollections of his own travels at sea. Belle summoned Captain Laurant to give the party passage aboard her ship, the Dawnrazor. Captain Laurant's presence was the cause of some nervousness among the party, as they were not sure how much of a grudge she nursed against them for blowing up not one, but two of the ships she had captained. 

Wanting to get underway as soon as possible, the group made their way with Captain Laurant to where the Dawnrazor was docked. The Dawnrazor proved to be a man o' war bristling with armor and cannons. Half of the ship's crew were human pirates and fish-man hybrids. The other half were undead under Laurant's control. Speaking of awkward interactions, on the second night of their voyage Captain Laurant sent her zombies with invitations for the party to dine with her in her cabin. It became clear what she thought of several party members: she respected Asudem's navigational abilities and saw him as favored by Scylla; she was intrigued by Daytona and Geradd's capacity for violence; she still held enmity toward Pendleton, who was responsible for planting the explosives that scarred her body.

Soon after, the night was interrupted by the sound of cannon fire. Everyone rushed on deck and discovered that the Dawnrazor was under attack by a vessel flying the flag of Churchmen. Captain Laurant gave orders to her crew to engage the ship; meanwhile, two rowboats were prepared for the party to make their way ashore and enter the fortress. However, the party saw that their rowboats were being pursued to shore by a similar boat launched from the Churchmen's ship. The party fought the interlopers on the beach, with Panthalassa staving in one of their heads with a well-thrown rock. 

However, Daytona and Catarina's pistol shots had alerted the guards at the fortress that they were about to be infiltrated; the group could hear the sound of a warning bell clanging madly. As they looked up toward the fortress, they could see a number of armed combatants spilling from within.

We will find out how they deal with that obstacle next time.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Live Girls

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 75: Live Girls

Ray Garton’s 1986 horror novel Live Girls may have the perfect bad book pitch: vampire hookers in seedy vintage Times Square. Jack and Kate travel back to a golden age of sleaze and encounter smokeshow bloodsucking strippers, donut-inspired dirty talk, and dancefloor remixes of “The Old Rugged Cross.”

What perverted compulsion makes a vampire turn the worst dudes in the world immortal? Why are nightclubs never, ever as cool as the ones in bad books? What do table tennis and the Anarchist’s Cookbook have in common? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People!

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Two Kinds of Game I Have Little Love For

This might be what the kids call a "hot take": there are simply too many small games out there with names like Tunnel Jerks or Tomb Losers or Die in a Damp Cave or just Mound that all essentially do the same thing. They all seem to be bought by the same people too. I find their existence and proliferation mystifying.

This might be an even hotter take: I think one of the biggest scourges in the indie rpg space are games that are actually more like graphic design projects than actual games. It often feels like all the effort went into the presentation and visual tomfoolery instead of the making the game feel complete or even fun. The folks behind that stuff seem like the kind of nebbishes who spend more time figuring out the perfect placement of the band patches on their "battle vests" than on actually listening to metal.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Helena and Ivara Graymalk

Hemlock Hollow’s most powerful villains are Helena and Ivara Graymalk, two Devil-bound witches.

Helena Graymalk
Helena Graymalk is the matriarch of the Graymalk family and the unofficial burgomaster of Hemlock. The townsfolk look to her for guidance, as it is acknowledged openly that her witchery keeps the town and its mines thriving. 
    • Appearance: Helena appears to be a comely woman in her mid-thirties; she is especially proud of her mane of curly auburn hair. 
    • Personality: She finds pleasure in exercising power and bending others to her will.
    • Motive: She hopes to summon the Devil from Hell so that he might bring the world under his sole dominion.
    • Flaw: She knows that if she were to ever displease her master, he would revoke her longevity and let time ravage her body.

Ivara Graymalk
Although she plays the part of a bookish and naive young woman, Ivara Graymalk is an accomplished witch who does the Devil’s bidding. She is unafraid of using others to get what she wants. Ivara is currently Helena Graymalk’s favored child, but they both know it is inevitable that they will strive against each other.
    • Appearance: Ivara poses as innocent and scholarly girl, dressing like a prim and proper schoolteacher, but this guise is calculated to make her appear harmless or perhaps even in need of protection. 
    • Personality: She is a patient schemer.
    • Motive: She desires to replace her mother as matriarch of the Graymalk witches.
    • Flaw: She burns with impatience to to recognized as a powerful witch in her own right.
      

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Philosophy of Hellraiser, Devil's Rejects: Anatomy of a Franchise, The Crow

Three videos that I think are worth your time:

The Morbid Zoo, The Philosophy of Hellraiser
Really solid analysis of Hellraiser and how it transcends a Judeo-Christian understanding of its main themes.

In Praise of Shadow, The Devil's Rejects: Anatomy of a Franchise
I don't agree with everything in this retrospective on Rob Zombie's "Firefly Family" movies, but there's a lot here for fans of the movies.

Cartoonist Kayfabe, The Crow
This is pure appreciation of a classic comic. It makes me want to dig it out and read it again.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Our Lady of the Blood Reborn

After a big cliffhanger last time with the arrival of a mysterious stranger, we had to wait a week to pick up our Savage Krevborna campaign. We are definitely in the part of the campaign where the consequences of prior adventures are now coming home to roost. 

Characters

Catarina, unconventional prioress

Pendleton, rogue anatomist

Raoul, necromancer

Geradd, swashbuckling nobleman

Daytona, dhampir gunslinger

Panthalassa, empowered feral child

Asudem, undead antiquarian

Events

Catarina, Panthalassa, and Serafina approached the Convent of the Blood Reborn from the road. They found the gate in the outer wall guarded by two templars, who relieved them of their more obvious weapons before letting them inside. Upon entering the convent's chapel, they found a nun, Sister Bronwen, praying at the altar. Posing as folks in need of healing, Catarina and Panthalassa expressed interest in taking advantage of the convent's sanitarium treatments. Serafina posed as their servant, but took the first opportunity to sneak away.

Sister Bronwen took the pair on a tour of the facilities, which included some grim, asylum-like treatment rooms and an operating theater, and also performed an examination of both women--though she could find nothing physically wrong with either of them. Panthalassa had to distract the nun while Catarina stripped to make sure that Sister Bronwen didn't notice Catarina's hidden pistols.

After signing themselves over into the convent's care, Panthalassa and Catarina were shown to their lodgings in the infirmary ward. Inside was a tall young woman who bore a resemblance to Raoul. They had discovered where Lenore had been stashed away in the convent! Once the nun had left, they introduced themselves and told Lenore that they were friends of her brother and that her rescue was immanent. 

Meanwhile, Geradd had independently made his way to Selvik's Hollow because his great enemy, Cardinal Radinov, had been spotted headed for the town. (Cardinal Radinov had a habit of extorting noble families for tithes to the Church; Geradd's family had suffered the Cardinal's depredations.) As Geradd approached the Green Cauldron inn, he saw Raoul, Daytona, Pendleton, Asudem, and the Widow talking to a very tall, pale man of military mien out front. 

The stranger was exceedingly polite and introduced himself as "Count M." Count M. invited the group to dinner; Daytona wanted to decline, but he felt the Count bending his will. Count M. remarked, "Extraordinary how quickly the fog rolls in." When the group turned to look, they watched as a solid wall of gray fog sped down the valley, obscuring everything from view.

Once the group retired to their rented chambers, Daytona was able to divulge Count M.'s identity: they had come face-to-face with Count Magnus Draghul, one of the more powerful and feared vampire nobles of Sibersk. During this conversation, part of Daytona's history was revealed: he outed himself a dhampir. Later, during dinner hosted by Count Magnus, the vampire lord made it clear why he had taken an interest in the group: when they killed Countess Vlodeska, they killed a vampire of his bloodline. As recompense, he wanted one of the party to take her place as one of his vampire vassals. However, he was willing to give them time to think over who the sacrificial lamb shall be; after all, he has eternity on his side.

Catarina and Daytona communicated via the psychic connection enabled by one of the bone daggers in the prioress's possession. Daytona informed Catarina about Count Magnus. Asudem brought a very excellent plan to the fore here as well: he had Catarina summon the convent's matria, tell the nun that the real reason they had sought sanctuary was that there was a vampire afoot, and pleaded with her to send templars to hunt the undead beast in town. This would at least keep Count Magnus busy while they attempted to rescue Emily and Lenore from the convent.

Under the cover of the unnatural fog, the rest of the group was able to make their way to the convent unseen. They found a hastily constructed rope ladder thrown over the convent wall. Once again utilizing the psychic connection, the group was able to locate the infirmary. However, they saw that there was a figuring lurching toward them down the dark hall; the figure was dragging something heavy with it. When the figure heaved into Daytona's eyeline, it was revealed to be Serafina, who was dragging Panthalassa's maul--which she had managed to steal from the guards at the front gate. 

Raoul and Lenore had a touching reunion. The Widow was put in charge of Lenore's safety while the group searched for Emily's body in the convent. Exploration led them to an elevator guarded by a nun and several templars. After battling their way down into the next level of the convent, the group were confronted by another nun and more templars. The nun used her miraculous prayers to bolster the armor of the templars, making them quite difficult for the party to put down. 

Things went from bad to worse as waves of enemies began to stream in from adjoining doors. Sister Mary Augustine, the convent's matria, arrived with templars in tow. Catarina managed to put two bullets into the matria, but before she died she uttered a prayer and struck Catarina with a cat o' nine tails; the lash blazed with holy light and sent Catarina to the ground incapacitated. Cardinal Radinov also arrived with a squad of templars. "Geradd, I should have known that you would be involved in this!" he bellowed as he attacked the swashbuckler with a poisoned sword. Geradd was grievously injured, but he managed to rally and plunge his glaive through the cardinal's heart. 

After a harrowing battle, the group stood victorious and was able to tend to their wounded. They quickly explored the remaining chambers of the convent's cellar until the found a ritual chamber with twelve incorruptible corpses in glass caskets arranged in a circle. At the center of the circle was an empty pedestal. They quickly identified the casket that held Emily's remains. Before they made their escape, Pendleton sawed the heads from the rest of the corpses so that they could not be used in the ritual; he took them as objects of scientific curiosity for Viktoria Frankenstein to examine.

Before leaving Selvik's Hollow, they stopped in to see the apothecary. Irena had packed up all of her belongings and moved on, but she left behind a letter for them under a rock painted with peonies. The letter read:

If you want to return the dead to life, you may wish to seek the Mantle of Iron Tears–a magical artifact crafted by the first members of the Crucifuge. As I am sure you are well aware, the ultimate goal of restoring life to the departed requires a tremendous amount of arcane energy and occult mastery. It’s also an endeavor fraught with peril. Even the slightest mistake can prove catastrophic. The Mantle of Iron Tears can mitigate that peril.

If you wish to lay your hands on the Mantle of Iron Tears, it was last known to be hidden among the oddities of the Skarnesti Circus.

Will the group find the Mantle of Iron Tears and be able to restore Emily to life? Will they choose one of their number to join Count Magnus Draghul among the undead or will they stand defiant against him? When will Dorian Margrave call upon them to honor their commitment to him as he plans for conquest? And what of the Brineblade and its ties to the Cult of Scylla? 

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

The Liturgy of the Twelve Radiant Apostles

"Theory board" made by Pendleton's player
After a cliff-hanger in our last Krevborna game, we reconvened a month or so later to see how our "heroes" deal with the new twist that promises to complicate and comprise their lives. We left off last time with Raoul receiving a letter that caused him to visibly pale; at the start of this game, the rest of the players found about about the contents of the letter: the magically preserved corpse of Raoul's beloved, Emily Rosaline Daae, had been stolen from the secret crypt in which she rested. 


The Characters

Pendleton Torst, rogue anatomist

Catarina Redmoor, prioress of an unusual convent

Panthalassa Laurentide, a very weird orphan

Raoul Carathis, necromancer

Daytona Midnight, dhampir gunslinger

Asudem, a drowned antiquarian brought back from the dead


Events

Once the party left Port Omera, the warm, sultry trade winds gave way to a howling tempest that buffeted and rocked the vessel they had booked passage on. Despite the violent gales, which did their best to send their ship to a watery grave, they eventually reached Piskaro. When they disembarked, the weather hadn’t improved. It was now the tail end of winter, and the pounding rain turned the snow and frozen earth to a morass of mud and slush. The group opted for speed over comfort, hiring horses and sleeping rough in the cold to make their way to Creedhall in haste.

The Widow was waiting for them with Viktoria Frankenstein's boat and dry cloaks. After the Widow ferried them to Viktoria's island at the center of Loch Riven, they had a brief encounter with Father Prim, the strange fey creature employed as guardian of the isle. He dragged a metal pail from his cottage because he had something to show Pendleton. After rummaging around in the pail, and tossing out a severed foot and an unidentifiable chunk of meat, Father Prim produced the head of the leader of the Black Rats gang--his mouth still hanging wide open in a silent scream. According to Father Prim, the remaining Black Rats had become desperate to locate and apprehend Pendleton, so they came to the island in search of him. In Father Prim's words, this was "a big mistake."

At Chateau Frankenstein, they were fed and given a place to rest before setting off to investigate the theft of Emily's corpse. The Widow and Serafina offered to accompany the group on this quest, but first Viktoria had her construct servants bring forth a number of belated Khristmas presents for each member of the party. Panthalassa received a maul made from galvanic stone; Catarina was given a number of pretty (and armored) corsets; Daytona was gifted a masterwork pistol and several special bullets; Pendleton was given what appeared to be a sheaf of paperwork; Raoul was presented with a reanimated draft horse to pull his cart; and Asudem was entrusted with a reanimated cat. 

Under the cover of night, the group stole into the secret tomb Emily had been taken from within Blackwater Estates. Catarina found a dropped medallion depicting St. Filiona; the medallion was identified as being from a convent known as Our Lady of the Blood Reborn. Asudem examined the secret door and determined that it had not been forced; whoever broke in might have shown some respect for a place of burial. Daytona could tell from the footprints in the dust that six figures wearing military boots were behind the theft; he also knew from the color of the some soil tracked in that the inreuders had recently been in the town of Selvik's Hollow in the Vespermark. Lastly, Raoul noticed that the arcane symbols he had scrawled upon the walls of the chamber had been "defaced" with holy symbols in an act of reconsecration.

Before they left, Raoul held a seance to contact the spirit of Emily Rosaline Daae. The temperature dropped in the chamber and swirls of green and purple eldritch energy lit the room. Emily did not appear as a spectral apparition, but Raoul could feel her presence in the room. She was able to relate that her body was still whole, that she was being kept in a holy space, and that there were eleven bodies in a similar state to her own wherever she was. The party's working theory was that her body had been stolen by religious zealots--quite possibly in league with both Raoul and Emily's families--and taken to the convent to be venerated as an incorruptible saint.

The group left Blackwater and lit out for the territories of the Vespermark. Selvik's Hollow was a small town nestled in a forested valley; they could see the Convent of Our Lady of the Blood Reborn perched on a hill above the town. Their first stop was the local inn and tavern, the Green Cauldron, which was owned by a man named Rogan Sheriday. They party ordered beef and stout stew, as well as ale from the convent. Also within the common room of the Green Cauldron was an acne-scarred young scholar, who had rented one of the inn's rooms, and a teenage girl with pointed ears who was busy scrubbing the dining tables with a rag.

The mention of the incorruptible corpses caught the young girl's attention; she seemed to know something. The group booked four rooms for their use in the inn; they also discovered that besides the scholar, a servant had rented two rooms: one for himself and one for his wealthy master who had yet to arrive. 

With lodging acquired, the group explored the town a bit, plying the shrine maiden at the Chapel of St. Vionka, Irena Gravloski (proprietor of the local apothecary shop), and Elusia (the barmaid, who they later found writing poetry in the graveyard). From their various sources, the group managed to put together the following picture:

  • The Convent of Our Lady of the Blood Reborn was an obscure ascetic site and sanitarium, until the arrival of Sister Mary Augustina.
  • Sister Mary Augustina was afflicted with holy visions, possibly madness, and had been thrown out of her previous convent for delving into forbidden tomes in the convent's archives.
  • Irena was able to tell them that one of the tomes kept in the convent archive was the Adeptus Gnostica, a book that contained a ritual known as the Liturgy of the Twelve Radiant Apostles. 
  • The purpose of the Liturgy of the Twelve Radiant Apostles was to infuse twelve incorruptible corpses with holy entities who would then scourge "evil" from the land.
  • Templars had been arriving at the convent over the last few years; the templars were patrolling the woods around the convent.
  • Elusia had seen the templars moving casket-shaped boxes on carts from parts unknown to the convent.

It seemed that Emily's body had been stolen to be used as one of the twelve corpses needed for the Liturgy of the Twelve Radiant Apostles. 

Irena managed to glean Raoul's plans to resurrect Emily; she asked him if he knew of the Mantle of Iron Tears. He did not. She told the group to return to her shop if they managed to rescue Emily's body.

Speaking of rescuing Emily's body, Catarina, Panthalassa, and Serafina hatched a plan to infiltrate the convent and figure out a way to get the doors open to the rest of the group at night. Meanwhile, the remainder of the group returned to the Green Cauldron. However, the mysterious guest had arrived in their absence was busy directing the porters unloading his carriage. The man, a very tall, muscular man of military bearing, caught Daytona's eye. Daytona recognized the man and felt his heart sink within his chest--their mission in Selvik's Hollow just became infinitely more complicated and dangerous.

We'll find out who this newcomer is next time.