Archive for Gaming

The Angel’s Glow

A single session, 1920s micro-scenario. Suitable for 1 or more investigators.

Pigs have unearthed bodies at Shiloh National Military Park—oddly well-preserved bodies. Farmers from nearby Savannah, TN, have petitioned the War Department to relocate the dead. 

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The Gabriel Hounds

A dog’s body, large and muscular and devoid of fur. The head is that of a human baby, with glowing eyes.

British – A Northern English version of the supernatural Hellhounds, that fly across the heavens looking for the souls of unbaptized children. Some legends link them to the Hounds of Tindalos of blasphemous lore. The sound of their diabolical yelping can indicate a pending death. They are said to travel in pairs, and described as having the body of a dog with the head of an infant. – Owen, Rev Elias, Welsh Folklore, pp 179. 1887.

For overhead are sweeping Gabriel’s hounds

Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart

To chase for ever on aërial ground.”

– Wordsworth, William, The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, Volume 3, pp. 156. 1820

Monstrous human-headed dogs, who traverse the air, and are often heard although seldom seen.” – Henderson, William, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England of 1879, pp 202. 1880

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Lost of the Labyrinth

a large humanoid figure, wearing shreds of clothing, muscular arms and shoulders, webbed 3 finger hands with hooked claws. Heads covered with eyes of different size, no ears, nose or mouth. Wide Shoulders, chest and back covered with small sharp toothed maws, with insect like mandibles to hold bits of food in place, and small nonfunctioning insect legs sprouting from its lower abdomen and legs.

These unfortunate creatures were once men, who through betrayal or misfortunate ended up wandering the labyrinth of the Great Old One Eihort. They either never encountered Eihort or refused its bargain to become a host for its brood in exchange for being released from the Labyrinth. They then either escaped the Great Old One’s wrath or were spared to wander endlessly in the endless passages of the labyrinth. Lost, desperate, and likely dying of thirst or hunger these people then drank from one of the maze’s pools fed by dripping water or ate some of the strange glowing fungus found growing throughout the labyrinth. Once this alien material entered their bodies they were doomed, spiraling into a vortex of madness and mutation.  

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Echo Swine

A very large domestic pic, moving its mouth to speak.

These pigs are extremely rare, the result of selective breeding by blasphemous cultists, sorcerers, and covens with skills in animal husbandry. Despite a keepers’ best efforts, the special traits of this pig do not often breed true. It is estimated that few as 1 in 250 piglets sired or born of an Echo Swine inherit the special genes which makes them unique. 

At a glance an Echo Swine appears identical to regular domestic pigs. Those making a hard Natural History roll, or whom are familiar with raising pigs, may notice these creatures have a three dewclaws on each trotter, whereas normal pigs only have two. In behavior they are also similar to normal pigs, but seem to always be hungry no matter how much they eat. They maintain good muscle mass no matter how much they ingest or how little physical activity they have. They also do not like to be around other pigs, unless they are in season for breeding.  Otherwise they are usually kept in solitary pens to prevent them from killing and eating their passel mates.

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Ghouls – A Dipterous Reflavoring

Ghouls: A Dipterous Reflavoring

“Ghouls are usually described as doglike or canine in appearance, a description that has as much to do with their pack behavior and habit of digging as it does their specific skull shape.

To change up ghoul imagery, try other graveyard scavengers. Ghouls in your campaign might also resemble or at least evoke:

Flies (bristles on arms, segmented eyes, green-blue sheen on flesh)”

— Kenneth Hite et al., “Hideous Creatures – A Bestiary of the Cthulhu Mythos”

I decided to take Mr. Hite’s advice to heart, and write a retheme for one of my favorite monsters in Delta Green. The book lists several other aesthetic options, but I had the most ideas for flies and they were the most different from your ‘stereotypical ghoul.’ I also took the opportunity to elaborate on and rewrite some existing mechanics I felt were too vague or just didn’t like.

Ghouls are ageless creatures that dwell underground and emerge to feed on the dead. Any corpse will do, but for some reason, they have a taste for humanity. Despite their scavenger-like behavior, ghouls are as dangerous as any predator. They are big and tough, four arms bristling with hairs and tipped with claws, nearly every inch of their skin hardened into a green-blue shell. Their mouths appear human at first glance, but open to reveal gummy jaws with a few prehensile fangs and a long rasping tongue.

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West’s Nurses

Genderless constructs of legs and hands, crawling around attempting to re-animate the dead even if they're not dead yet

Dedicated Re-animators

“How dare you judge my work”

– Herbert West

No doctor is complete without their helpers. Attending Physicians, and especially nurses. Skill and genius carry us all forward but without those smaller, meaner helping hands, no progress can ever be made. A certain Dr. West was a man of exceeding hubris but even he knew the above to be true.

After breaking the laws of the sane by reanimating the dead. West capriciously toyed with the mechanical parts and produced many abominations. Some were toys to satisfy his curiosity others were meant to aid his mighty work. Aid he needed but without those pesky protests that so often belch from the mouths of lesser minds.

West’s Nurses. Genderless fusions of legs and hands gathered from the aftermaths of West’s more vigorous creations. Infused with a will to aid in the work of defeating death. Even after the Good doctor’s disappearance, they still lurk in long forgotten haunts.

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The Children of Mars

The Arid wastes of mars have been the home of the children of mars for some time. Either an experiment in terraforming gone wrong or some twisted joke of the Elder Gods, these insect-like parasites hunger for water in all its forms. Measuring under a foot long, with a transparent exoskeleton, 12 spindly segmented legs, and powerful cutting pinchers they can tear through steel, flesh, and bone like butter. Having consumed all the natural water sources the parasite had to evolve, now being able to take control of other living beings. They bore into the chest cavity, severing the spinal cords’ motor controls and leaving the host’s natural living processes intact. Its exoskeleton looks much like a smaller spinal column of a cat, during its host phase it will slowly absorb and eventually replace the spinal column of its victim, using the bones to create a new exoskeleton.

Houston this is Mars Rover 1, we have found something that well, I don’t think we’re the first ones here…We’re in a cave but it has stone inscriptions of some sort of…wait somethings moving down here…Rawlings did you see that it looks like an insect only…ARRAAAGGGHHHHH…radio silence for 20 minutes…Houston, cough cough, this …is…Mars Ro….its taken over…its taking me home…cough…you have to shoot us down Houston…radio coms shutdown. 

The last communication from Mars 1 mission, 2045, the shuttle was shot down in re-entry. The wreckage, witnesses, and all materials were seized before the CDC were able to secure the site. The only evidence of the unknown force was witnesses claiming to see green signal smoke and a black helicopter leaving the site
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The Yellow Miasma

“Where are you? We said 2am @ sector 9 plaza. The one on Breton. Call me!” Gloria glared at her phone and opened their chat app as well. It probably wouldn’t work either. The Wi-Fi here was so spotty. She texted, Where ru? Im @ plaza 9 x Breton. Call me.

She mentally shook her head and tried to relax. It wasn’t that bad. Frank was only 30 min late. Tons of people still swarmed the streets. She knew how to get back to their camper. Gloria traced the seam on her orange plastic rape whistle that was tangled in the mass of plastic bead necklaces covering her chest. She was safe enough.

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Krampus

A krampus

First born of a Thousand Young

“The man screams dropping to his knees as his vocal cords rip and the cry splits into a roar. His dinner jacket swells and bursts at the seams, his body beneath breaking and bulging.

Popping and snapping, the man’s suit rips to accommodate the new form beneath. One last scream through torn vocal cords echoes and with a ground shuddering stomp, he now stands eight feet tall, matted fur covering his body and poking out through the tears in the black-tie dinner suit, horns curving out and up ending in a deadly point, hooves exploding through the brogues once worn on his feet and yellow goat eyes with a sideways slit pupil blinking with each turn of the head, accounting for everyone in the room.” — Daniel Gulliver – Holmouth Times

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The Great He-Goat

A goat sitting cross-legged like a person, arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture. Despite its goat-like body, its hands and feet are a man's. A pair of horns rise up from its head. A crown of flowers sits on the horns, right above the head.

“…a thing all over hairy, all the face hayry & a long nose & I don’t know how to tell you the face looks w’ith two Leggs itt goeth upright & is about two or three foot high & goeth upright like a man…” – Elaine G. Breslaw, “Tituba’s Confession: The Multicultural Dimensions of the 1692 Salem Witch-Hunt,” published in Ethnohistory Vol. 44, No 3 (Summer 1997). 

Alternative names: Great God Pan, Husband to Witches, Witch King.

This mask of Nyarlathotep takes the shape of a goat with the hands and feet of a man, walking upright. A crown of flowers in constant bloom adorns his horns. In this form, he is the mate of the Black Goat of the Woods and her high priest (von Juntz, 1839). 

The being is held in reverence by witches that worship Mythos gods, especially those that follow the Black Goat. He is often called to lead sabbats, forcing followers to dance until they collapse from exhaustion. Such sabbats often involve a willing sacrifice giving themselves over to the He-Goat’s urges. Often these ritualized matings descend into frenzied orgies. 

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