Cult of Undeath ... tonight

My current gamer buddies are a bit unusual. I often get invited to join their "side group" (more accurately, I am part of the side group; I often get invited to join the main group) often with very little notice, and I'm often asked if I want to run. So yesterday evening, I was asked if I wanted to run a one-shot tonight. Sadly, my schedule is a bit constrained; I can do it, but it's going to make for a tight evening. I have a first pass job interview at 6 PM, missionaries over for dinner at 6:30, and D&D at 7:30. And, naturally, my day was packed full as it always is with no free time during the day to look at anything. I re-read, or skimmed rather, "Curse of the Brine Witch" and took some notes, which I printed off. I printed off a few AI generated pictures; one of Bridgetown and one of the Blackwater Hag, and I asked ChatGPT to generate me some 1st level renditions of the Scooby Gang as D&D characters, which I also printed off. Technically, I have five characters, because it made Scooby-doo into one too.

I told Tanya, the one who asked me, that I don't think my game is a one-shot. It's too hard to run a game, especially a 5e game, in 2½-3 hours. So, we'll call it a 2-3 shot... although I'm not going to point out until we get further along, that it's an optional campaign opener, because not knowing what else to do and having recently finished the Cult of Undeath outline, I decided to run Cult of Undeath. Honestly, it might well take more than 2-3 sessions to do this first part. But if it goes really well, and if we want to continue it, I'll be glad of the slower pace.

Alternate Blackwater Hag image

So tonight will be fairly low-key. I'll kill all of the PCs first, in their Scooby gang incarnation, which I'm going to give to them. Then, the regular PCs will be investigating the murder of the Scoobers. My favorite way to start a campaign, or even a season of an ongoing campaign. I've got enough roleplaying and investigatory notes, plus some towny random encounters, that'll keep them busy for easily two sessions, probably three, and possibly four depending on how hung up we get on looking in to anything that we end up looking in to. 

I'm not going to worry over-much beyond that. I'll have to adapt to D&D, which I'm not thrilled with, but which I absolutely am capable of doing. I hope I don't get a bunch of stupid Muppets characters, but I probably will. Probably have some dragonborn, some kenku, or some other crap like that. That's what I get for not disallowing them up front, but then again, this isn't even my normal group, this was last minute, and I don't know a lot of these players yet, at least not as players, to feel comfortable laying all kinds of restrictions on them yet. I'll just subtly influence them, I hope, by presenting a more grounded, darker fantasy, and hope that they get with the program if the campaign continues. If it doesn't... well, that's OK too, I guess. I'll at least have laid some seeds for the future. I never know what to expect from a last minute session like this, when I don't even know for sure who's playing or what kinds of characters I'll get. 

Anyway, I'll keep this post fairly short, and come edit it sometime tomorrow with a report of how it went.

UPDATE: As promised; the session went relatively well. It was a little rushed. I had little time to prepare, I had little warning that it was coming, I had no time to review characters (granted, from their perspective, these are one-shot characters, so I have no idea how much thought they even put into them—the guy who named his character Hey New Guy, which we decided to spell Hanu Guy obviously didn't create any backstory) and I had a busy evening, rushing from one thing to another to another until I got here, about fifteen minutes late compared to our targeted start time. We obviously didn't finish, but we did OK. I kind of rushed them through some investigation, threw them a lot of clues that I'd otherwise possibly have made them work a little harder for (although probably not)

It was otherwise pretty much what I'd hoped. Maybe a little sillier, but that's on me for giving them the Scooby gang as pregens to get killed at the beginning, and making it very obvious that they were, indeed, the Scooby gang. 

I do feel a little rusty as a GM. Other than a few one-shots here and there, I've not really run anything in several years, and I find that some of my bad habits, like moving too quickly through stuff, are ones that I definitely need to keep an eye on. Part of that was a function of me feeling so rushed, both to prepare for the game, to try and get a lot done in about three hours or even slightly less, and the whole hecticness of the evening in general. Without those factors, I'd have reviewed my notes and outline one more time, made a few more notes with some names of NPCs that they'd likely run into instead of having to improvise them on the spot, or if I did improvise them on the spot, I'd have taken a little bit more time to look them up on my DM screen's name list panel at least. I would have been just a bit more prepared, I guess. And I like running pretty fast and loose; don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I'd be a lot more prepared; I'd just have spent a little more time in prep and reviewed what prep I did do one more time so the whole thing went a little bit smoother.

Good news is, we're meeting next week to continue, and because I know about it in advance, I can do that. Although there are two more players who are normally part of that group, so there's a possibility that I'll have more players and more things going on. While this "one shot" doesn't end on a cliff-hanger exactly, it does leave places for it to go as a more campaign-ish type thing. If we get to that point and people still want to play, then I'll need a little bit more on their characters.

I'm not super thrilled about adapting my campaign to 5e with a group where I'm kind of a back-up, but y'know... it beats not doing anything at all. And I feel like we did maybe a third of what I prepared. My outline is a good three sessions; probably four if I slow down a bit and take things a little bit more deliberately. Enough time to get my sea legs under me with running, I hope. River legs, maybe, as the case may be in this campaign.

Cult of Undeath Supercut Add-on

At one point, I thought it would be interesting to not only have a super complete and complex 5x5 (plus add-ons) for Darkness in the Hill Country, and I created another 1x5 leg specific to the iconic characters as an example of what I'd like to do with the actual PCs, even though the actual PCs, of course, wouldn't be the iconic characters. I now think that this was not a good idea. I created some NPCs that made the iconics seems much more interesting and deep, but that means that they work better as novel characters rather than ... DM NPCs, which is what they effectively would be otherwise. Unfortunately, I think some of the NPCs that I created to be foils of these iconics are quite good, and I find myself wanting to find ways to use them. In fact, I've even made AI images for campaign use for some of them, including Vaspar Oksandros, Audley Hardwicke and a few others. One of my favorites though, and one that I initially created for Darkness in the Hill Country, but which I think would fit extremely well in Cult of Undeath is Alys. 

Alys is an agent, or support character, added to the PCs group like a cohort, but she comes from a source that is perhaps not the most trustworthy. I think that she would come up in Cult of Undeath in Gaskarfells, where she could represent the interests of either Dietmar von Hohenstahl or Roderich von Szarad. Maybe, even, she's an uneasy compromise between the two of them, who are rivals, but who both might want to convince the PCs to help with the depredations of feral vampire Velgar Tzarnik and his proto-vampire and ghoulish minions. Of course, von Hohenstahl is himself a more cultured Timischburg vampire, although the PCs wouldn't be expected to know that at first, or potentially even at all if they aren't very curious, and while von Szarad is known to be a necromancer, it's a different kind of thing in Gaskarfells, and not necessarily villainous. So yeah, they're not expected to know that von Szarad is obviously a villain himself angling at becoming a lich, no doubt at the expense of the town and the greater Timischburg population around it. Assuming that they do find out about that, it's probably not going to be surprising to eventually discover that Alys herself isn't the pretty young helpful pseudomage prodigy that she presents herself as. 

Oh, sure, she is young, pretty and probably kind of likeable. And yeah, she does offer a lot of benefit to the PC group as a potential sage to be consulted, as a non-combatant travel companion who can offer limited healing and magical buffs, as well as be consulted in all kinds of things. But she was assigned to them not only to help with the specific task of defeating Tzarnik, but also to keep an eye on the PCs, who neither von Szarad nor von Hohenstahl really trust. They also don't trust each other, and to some extent, probably not Alys neither. 

See, Alys is actually an ancient wight-witch, i.e., a wight who has access to some spells and pseudomagery (imitation of spells through magic items.) Her pleasant exterior is merely an illusion, and in certain circumstances, the PCs should have the opportunity to see through it. She's the "wife" of Tarush, the Charnel God who fell to the earth, created the first vampires (allegedly), is buried and sealed under the constant nightfall of Grozavest, and is the primary source of all undeath in the world. Although "wife" is more like the way in which Catholic nuns are considered "brides" of Christ; she's not literally his wife, of course, and she post-dates his fall to earth by many centuries. 

That said, in spite of Alys' true dark and disturbing demeanor and practices, and the casual way in which she doesn't care about most people around her and willingly and thoughtlessly sacrifices them if it helps her pursue her goals in any way, she does come to become genuinely fond of the PCs, I think. I like the idea that the PCs have an ally who is genuinely helpful and they genuinely probably want to keep around because of it, but that she genuinely creeps them out and makes them nervous too.

I may add other of these NPCs to the potential outline, i.e., Hardwicke as a corrupt fallen Shadow ranger, or Oksandros as a sinister Chersky mafia gangster, or a few of the other characters which help to make the setting a bit more rich and the plots a bit more complex. Maybe some of the former iconics who were "demoted" to cohort or NPC status, like Shule, Oisin Dughall, Dean Bannermane, etc. too.

Cult of Undeath Supercut—FINALLY!

At the last minute, I'm considering a significant change to the Cult of Undeath plan that I have. I think that I'll probably not make the change, but I'll briefly describe it before I move on. The main reason not to do it is that being on an island surrounded by saltwater is important to the adventure that I'm thinking of adapting as a substitute for the Strangers column on the 5x5 Front, so I think I'm going to save it for one of the two 5x5s that I've thought of that have sailing on the open ocean as part of their M.O. already; TERROR IN TIMISCHBURG and CURSE OF THE CORSAIR COAST. One of the two of them will do it quite well.

That is an adaptation of the second part of the Second Darkness Adventure Path ("Children of the Void"); the actual adventure part of which I just read. The Second Darkness AP is not super well regarded, although a big part of that is the major tone shift that happens at some point after this adventure, which means that as far as content goes in the AP, it's not as well known, so adapting it requires less modification to disguise its ultimate source. As a kind of Aliens/Predator rip-off in fantasy drag, the module is actually quite good, and it certainly fits my nearly horror-themed vibe quite well. I was so enamored of the module as one that I could take out of its context and adapt it to be used as a stand-alone front that I even modified one of my earlier images to be the NPC Akron Erix from this adventure; although I'll likely rename him. He was a monk/fighter, but this is still a 3.5 product. In my own 3.5/PF1e hybrid, of course he'd be a brawler.

Anyway, I can get to that front when I do the 5x5 that ends up including it. I think the idea of replacing the Devil's Elbow with one of the islands of the Nizrekh Archipelago, and therefore being part of the Terror in Timischburg seems like a good place for it, but then again, I have a little bit more in mind for that 5x5 Front than I do for Curse of the Corsair Coast so far. Although what exactly I'll have my guys doing on Nizrekh is pretty wide open, so that's what I'm favoring right now. That said, I'll likely defer the Stranger front to another 5x5 anyway; if I add the "Kastor Lieberung" routine to this campaign, that's worth being considered its own front already, meaning that the Strangers can become part of some other front. I still have several more I need to adapt, after all. I think putting that one in the so far undeveloped MIND-WIZARDS OF THE DAEMON WASTES works quite well, so provisionally I'll consider that the plan.

With that said, let's move on to the actual Cult of Undeath supercut, i.e., let's make a full enough outline of what I want to do with this campaign that I could actually sit down in the near future and run it, if it comes to that. And, honestly, it may. I've talked a bit before about the gaming environment where I am right now, and there's a good likelihood that within weeks, or at most a couple of months, I'll be asked to run something, and I want to be prepared for it when it happens. As I said in some other earlier posts, this resembles more an outline for a traditional campaign rather than a 5x5 Front, even though it started as a 5x5. The fronts got sufficiently intertwined that it doesn't really feel like one exactly anymore. That's OK as long as I keep this outline fairly high level and know that I have a strong tendency and likelihood of making modifications to it as I go, depending on PC actions and interest; although of course, like I've also said before, I usually tend to be able to predict pretty accurately what players are likely to want to do.

To begin, the PCs will be in the town of Bridgetown, crossing the Humber River. There, they are friends with Professor Anton von Lechfeld, a respectable retired professor (although not that old; maybe late 40s early 50s) from Mittermarkt originally who lives in a rather stately row house with his seventeen year old daughter Revecca. He's widowed, but a few staff live with him; a butler, a cook and a housekeeper, at the very least. Strange things start going on in Bridgetown. Bad things. Murders. This will be a pretty much straight-forward adaptation of the Freeport module "Curse of the Brine Witch" in which a strange "daemonic" entity from Carcosa or Yuggoth or some-such, that takes on the identity—by accident—of a local superstition of the Brine Witch, which will be adapted to the Blackwater Hag, Blackwater Killer or Blackwater Reaper in local superstition. (I'm not saying that I can't choose between them. I think all of them are variations on the same theme that the locals could use.) I quite like the idea of the black sand side effect, although I have less use for it than the ties that it eventually has to the Return to Freeport campaign, although here I'm going to suggest that the black sand will show traces of alien substance of some kind and the problems that that can cause in driving people towards mutation and insanity... although the quantities left behind in the black sand isn't sufficient by itself to do more than cause nightmares and unsettling feelings and occasional hallucinations or minor sickness. Von Lechfeld is probably the only person in town who is qualified to identify it as some kind of Far Realm or Dark Tapestry, or Black Void Behind the Stars or whatever I call it entity that's actually committing the murders. But why is it here, and who brought it? The von Szell cult, obviously has done it, and they've actually done it to target von Lechfeld himself, although they don't know that yet, they just know that Pandallo's Periapt is in town somewhere and they're using the Blackwater Reaper's ability to hone in on the magical energy from beyond the stars to close in on von Lechfeld. The first part here will end as the PCs defeat the Blackwater Hag only to discover that von Lechfeld has passed away himself. Loriana Stefanescu, a daemonologist who summoned the Blackwater Killer had identified him as the owner of the periapt. She's also summoned an invisible killer of some kind that murdered the professor while they were dealing with her Blackwater thingy. However, because they returned quickly, she was not able to enter the house and recover the periapt before they returned, and the invisible killer turned out to be more than she could really handle, so she can't attempt to summon one again for quite some time. So, the professor is dead, putting us very close to the situation in which the actual Carrion Crown campaign starts although in a very different context. The PCs are staying at the professor's house when he turns up dead, and as in the original that I'm basing this on, they'll be in his will; stick around for the funeral and until Revecca's legal guardian, her uncle Bertram Vogt de Heselholt (on her mother's side) can get here to assume responsibility for Revecca, since she's not yet of legal majority. But nobody has been sent to summon him yet when things start happening. There's be some dodge Lovecraftian books that they're supposed to take to Mittermarkt and return to his old friend Werner Otten. Actually, that's also were Uncle Bertie is from; let's assume that they're all making plans to accompany Revecca and the books there.

While preparing and waiting for the official disposition of the will, etc., all kinds of strange things will happen, haunts, maybe imps, etc. This is Loriana using lesser magic to try and get into the house and steal the periapt, which of course has been her entire goal. This part of the campaign will end when the professor's grave is desecrated; of course, he was buried with the periapt, because he wore it as a talisman around his neck. Loriana discovered this, robbed his grave and left town. This will be the PCs' cue to get out of Bridgetown too, as they follow in the wake of the stolen periapt. They don't know what it's about yet, but I'll make sure that they know where these guys went, so that they can follow them.  The PCs will need to speak to Otten, and warn him that this cult of grave-robbers, whomever they are, is after him. Plus, Uncle Bertie is in Mittermarkt, so it's a convenient trip to take with Revecca too as noted just above. Buh-bye to Bridgetown.

Sadly. I need to come up with reasons in subsequent campaigns to use that place again.

Two additional fronts get attention during the journey—I always like to make journeys feel like journeys. While traveling on the forest road, the Grendlings of the Haunted Forest; who usually stay farther to the West in the more remote sections seem to be agitated and bands of them are causing trouble, attacking their group. And not just them; strange spirits of the forest (the name, after all) seem to be agitated as well. The reality is the passing of the periapts with Loriana has stirred them up and caused this trouble. There doesn't necessarily need to be any resolution to this front. It's just something that has to be survived. They'll be repeatedly attacked during the journey, they'll find evidence of other groups that have been attacked, they'll hear ominous drumming deep in the forest, etc. It might be easier for them, both because they'll be more intimidating and be attacked less, and because if they are attacked they'll have more force to bring to bear, if they travel with another caravan or group, but if not, that's fine too. Here, I think, is where it's appropriate for them to find the wreck of the coach carrying Aidan van der Walt, the "Kastor Lieberung" person; a dead-ringer for one of the characters, and the supposed heir of an estate in southern Timischburg, in Ruthven County, on the edges of the Bitterwood Forest not far from the prosperous but of strange rumor and report city of Gaskarfells. 

Savage Grendlings, devolving as they do into man-apes

Perhaps they find Aidan nearly at the end of the forest, when the road goes up over Crow's Notch Pass, where they leave the Grendling threats behind. Maybe they've even beat back enough Grendlings that their agitation is ended and they retreat back into the deeper woods to lick their wounds. I don't know. It depends on what they do. Either way, this marks a change in the journey. Now they're meeting cultists who are attempting to communicate with them, and wearing notable accents of saffron. This front will play out much as it does in the Enemy Within campaign; the cultists start to get more and more insistent, and it's clear that they think that the PC who looks like Aidan van der Walt really is Aidan van der Walt, and that he's gone off the reservation somehow and betrayed them, trying to stiff the cult and run off with the inheritance. The barrister office in Mittermarkt is, as in Enemy Within, a trap with a bounty hunter and a daemon, but Gaskarfells really is a real place, of course, and there are clues that they need to go there. Not only that, they will need to uncover a cache of fellshard weapons; they'll need them shortly to deal with the Otten beast, but also with the daemons and undead that they're likely to encounter the rest of the campaign.

The order of a couple of things is TBD. There are things that will happen in Mittermarkt. Whether they happen before a trip to Gaskarfells or not I don't know. There are reasons to set them later. Let me first talk about Gaskarfells. 

While in Gaskarfells, they will find that the town is in a bit of trouble, and is somewhat under siege. Ghouls and even proto-vampires are assailing anyone coming or going from the city. Even the farmers are struggling, and most are now living inside city limits. The pseudomage necromancers of Gaskarfells have redirected some of the undead workers to work on the farms so that the city isn't starved out by these attacks, but that, of course, impacts the production of magic items, which is Gaskarfells main economic activity.

What exactly is going on, and what's driving these attacks? Well, there are ghouls, of course. Where else does a proto-vampire come from? These ghouls are mostly coming from deep in the wildest reaches of the Bitterwood both because they're drawn by more plentiful prey, and are drawn by the corruption of the fellshard ore, although this is subconscious. The leader of the ghouls is not just a proto-vampire, he's now advanced to becoming an actual vampire, but because he's a feral one, he's completely outside of the hierarchy of Timischburg's vampire population. This individual, the feral vampire, is Velgar Tzarnik and he has a small hierarchy of proto-vampire lieutenants; Rask, Kroven, Morvak, and Volach.

However, there is a minor noble vampire in Gaskarfells already, and he's not amused at the rise of this feral vampire attempting to destroy Gaskarfells, which is an important strategic resource for the vampires and the human nobles alike (remember, that the vampires operate kind of like a Deep State. Most of the nobility at least suspect their existence, if not actually know it, but they don't really interact directly with it. Plenty of people in Timischburg think that the idea that a cabal of vampire deep state agents actually run the country is a wild conspiracy theory. It just happens to be true.) This vampire is Dietmar von Hohenstahl and he could actually be a patron of sorts for the PCs, since he needs some help ending the threat of Tzarnik's attacks on shipments out of the town.

Of course, the head of the pseudomage/necromancer/artificer's guild is actually less happy about an overbearing vampire noble (who's being coy about being a vampire, but this guy knows) in "his" town attempting to run things his way when Gaskarfells was running smoothly without him before than he is about the feral vampire attacking from the countryside. This is Roderich von Szarad, and he's a powerful mover and shaker in his own right, without being a vampire (in fact, he's researching turning himself into a lich instead!) Although none of these three is a "good guy"; but what's best for the regular folks in town? That's up to the PCs to decide, I suppose. Probably letting von Szarad get back to running things the way he used to. But maybe taking him out so a successor who isn't so obviously crazy that he wants to become a lich is the way to go? This three way power struggle means that either of the two in town could be seeking to have the PCs as agents against not only the feral vampire and his ghouls, who have increased in numbers tremendously in the last few weeks (or so it seems).

Potential sites of interest: A) a camp or lair or something in the woods on the swamp boundary where Tzarnik and his ghouls are. B) von Hohenstahl's lair in a manor in town, or at least near town. C) the necromancer guild house, where von Szarad is trying to turn himself into a lich. D) deep lairs under the city where Kholgorath, the Watcher Beneath the Clay lurks, made somewhat self-aware or at least awake by the corruption of the fellshard ore. The undead are being drawn subconsciously by this Elder Evil wanting to essentially birth itself into "undead fullness", which is the real threat lurking behind the feral vampires and the cultured one both, as well as part of what drove von Szarad to undead related madness. Can the PCs defeat a nascent "Elder Evil"? I dunno. I like the idea of it being out there, whether they actually do or not, though.

Dietmar von Hohenstahl

A Gaskarfells pseudomage necromancer

Meanwhile, back in Mittermarkt, Loriana needs to steal something else, from a museum, the Gol-Goroth Swamp Idol. There have been rumors of murders and attacks by some kind of monster in town for some time, but the attack on the museum was more brazen than most; the monster was clearly seen, clearly killed some guards, and someone else associated with the attack was caught on the scene, unconscious. Revecca! Of course, she's been framed; she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Loriana thought it ironic and fitting that she take the blame, so she made it look like she was the witch controlling the monster rather than, of course, herself. The PCs get back in town with barely time to spare before Uncle Bertie, beside himself, asks for their help. The magistrate knows its unlikely Revecca is to blame, but the mob is determined to see her pay, so it's going to be a tight walk to clear her name and find out what really happened without riling them up. 

The first deaths happened at little farming hamlets outside of town, like Ebenbach, and it will turn out, of course, that that’s where the beast is hiding. But it has attacked people on the road into town, and more recently in town itself, prior to the museum attack. Research on Werner Otten's papers will suggest that the stolen periapt's undead suppression ability can work on the monster. There's a one-off undead suppression ritual that should cause it to lose its animating energy. It'd otherwise likely be beyond the capabilities of the PCs to defeat—unless they've got fellshard weapons from Gaskarfells.

Otten can't be consulted in person, however—he was killed earlier, and part of his body was used to create this golem. He's actually been dead for weeks, maybe even months now. But items in his ruined home and office are portions of communications with Lechfeld from previously about the periapt. The remaining portions are found in the monster's 'lair'. They will point to communications received from a suspicious character in Eltdown, which is where the name Otto von Szell will come up.

Also, while exploring this countryside just out of town, they'll find evidence of missing persons not directly related to the Otten-beast. Tarushan gypsies have been kidnapping isolated or helpless people for some time and taking them to Dragos Tihomir in a town even smaller than Ebenbach called Tiganbruck. The gypsy camp, that moves back and forth from Tiganbruck to Mittermarkt, often with new victims in tow, was feeding them to Dragos, a modified wight with some spells and special attacks here and there. Of course, there will be sneaky gypsies to fight as well; in fact, I think the first thing that will happen is that they are ambushed by gypsies, who are adept at separating the PCs from each other and attempting to bring just one or two of them to Dragos. Dragos is a bit of a sorcerer himself, and he's the one who's been given authority to dominate the monster and work in Loriana's behalf, but the PCs will eventually find this out while investigating to clear Revecca's name.

What's left of Werner Otten

Not quite sure yet exactly how I'll dole out these clues, but they'll discover that Stefanescu has discovered that the periapt isn't useable properly by just anyone; it was keyed to Anton, and his death has made the periapt unreliable. The only solution is someone in his direct bloodline, and the only person that applies to is Revecca. Agents (Bartal Roziak and Francor Torsail) have been dispatched to kidnap her already and probably kill Uncle Bertie. It isn't my intention that the PCs would stop or interrupt this kidnapping, but depending on what they actually manage to do, maybe it could happen, I suppose. Either way, they know that Revecca isn't safe until the threat is blunted. They'll hear more of von Szell, who hopefully by now they realize is seriously bad news, and they're either motivated by intense dislike or fear of this guy. Eltdown is the next and final destination in this campaign.

Either by rescuing Revecca or preventing her kidnapping entirely, or whatever, the PCs will finally face Stefanescu, her two skilled Tarushan gypsy thugs, and some undead and bad black magic. But the periapt itself has been sent deep into the Fens near Eltdown, where Otto von Szell intends to use it to try and revivify Gol-Goroth, some kind of early Atlantean-era (if not earlier) creature that is best left alone. I'm a little over the "bring back some ancient evil" plot lines, but at the same time, it's such a classic, and works particularly well in a Gothic and Cosmic Horror themed game. This is the main finale of the main plotline of the campaign.

But that's not, of course, the only thing going on in Eltdown concurrently. Eltdown is a place on my map that stands at the gap between the Knifetop Mountains in the south and the Sabertooth Mountains in the north. While this is "on paper" the border region between the Hill Country and Timischburg, the reality is that neither nation controls, nor even has much interest in the region of Eltdown. It would seem that Eltdown would be a regular trade route between the two, but for a variety of reasons, it's actually not. Rather, there's more traffic up the river through Timischburg to Mittermarkt, and from there across well-traveled overland routes, over some relatively gentle low passes in the southern Sabertooths (like Crow Notch Pass, which they've already probably used) skirting around the southern edge of the Haunted Forest and from thence to Barrowmere. This is a change from what I've previously published, where I implied or even stated in vague terms that the Fenroad was the only reliable route; I now consider the Fenroad to be an alternate with an evil reputation; in fact, the Fenroad has fallen in many cases to disuse and disrepair because of the opening of safer routes over lower passes. Eltdown has, therefore become a bit more of a backwater than it already was. There is still some traffic between Barrowmere and the hamlets and towns of southeastern Timischburg on the Fenroad, and some even travel between Barrowmere and Mittermarkt on the Fenroad, but not much. It is—in theory—faster than going over the mountain passes, even if the passes are relatively easy, and certainly in the dead of winter when the passes might be snowed in, the Fenroad is the only good choice, but the Fenroad is known to be dangerous and undesirable. Eltdown itself has a reputation as a grim backwater best avoided, and the Fens have a fell notoriety, and the quality of the road is poor, which could negate whatever benefit there is for crossing the lower road instead of the passes—even in the winter.

The Fens themselves are, of course, soggy and reeking of decay as rotten grasses and sedges gradually turn into peat. Heavy brush, matted grasses, bushes and low-growing or choked out trees are also common, and the Eltdown Fens are infamous for being almost constantly socked in with persistent thick fog. Sullen and unfriendly swampies, of uncertain ethnic origin live in small hamlets along the Fenroad, and even maintain a few stops for travelers, and they have more farmers, hunters, and swampie relatives who live a bit further from the road, but nobody human goes very deep into the fens, and what exactly is lurking in the center is the subject of garbled rumor and legend. 

Of course, column #1: The Murder of Anton von Lechfeld, has its finale in the fens themselves; that's where Otto von Szell and Loriana Stefanescu are hiding out, because they're trying to awaken Gol-Goroth. That's part of what lurks in the center of the swamps; the half-buried city that was destroyed by Gol-Goroth eons ago, and where he still lingers in torpor or hibernation, or death or whatever exactly his status is. But there's more to the fens than just this, and this column highlights more of the dangers of the Fens. Clever or enterprising PCs could even, potentially, get this "cult of the reptile god" and the cultists of von Szell to cross paths; they're not likely to be amicable or happy with each other's agendas, although the PCs would have to put some real effort into actually getting to the "let's you and him fight" solution to dealing with either of them. The cultists do have enough discipline to not jeopardize their agendas fighting another unrelated cult that happens to share geography. But it remains a potential idea for enterprising PCs to even the odds against both cults from both columns.

Eltdown itself is a pretty sinister place, and many of the people who live there are part of a cult called the Learned Children of Heqeteh. Heqeteh is a blinded medusa, who in spite of the fact that (because she's been blinded in her main eyes) she can't turn anyone to stone, she can dominate them instead and the dominated gradually start to take on snake traits as the domination fades, so that they become willing cultists. The snakemen also mate with some of the people of Eltdown, and as in Innsmouth of the Lovecraft story, they will eventually, as adults, turn into snakemen, although they first spend time as human-looking, albeit sometimes with funny features. Passers-by attribute these funny-looking features to the ethnically mysterious background of the Eltdowners combined with inbreeding that sometimes happens in small, backwoods places, so the truth is not suspected. In any case, these cultists don't really like strangers much, and most of the rumors about the Fenroad actually are attributable to Eltdown. The PCs might be accosted to be kidnapped and taken before Heqeteh on the road into or out of Eltdown, or if they look like trouble-makers, they might be accosted at night in their lodgings in town. (I'd give them a chance to escape before being taken to Heqeteh; that's more of a finale after they've been working the reptile cult for some time.)

Secondly, the PCs might well discover others who have been kidnapped by the snake cult (cult of the reptile god!) Some of them are beyond saving; they've either been too converted into snake people themselves to be savable, or they've been blinded as part of a sacrificial ritual (makes sense for a blind medusa) and temporarily enslaved until they can be killed. Many of these are in town, and I anticipate that there's a lot of work to do to clean up the town, or at least save some of the people in town who aren't already cultists.

Thirdly, some of the smaller villages might be under attack by cultists too, or people have been kidnapped in large numbers, etc. A small swampie village called Rael Kernal could face an all out assault, if you want to just have a good, tense combat. If you want the whole thing to be more sinister than an all out assault, on the other hand, you could have snakes or burrowing snake-men attacking more surreptitiously. Depends on how you need the game to play out at this juncture if you're running it; is a more straightforward defense of a village what you need, or a desperate attempt to root out hidden enemies that you can't see coming? Alien vs Aliens, so to speak. They can also both be done, which would make this block three and four, I guess.

Fourth, and this is the last one of what is a slightly abbreviated column, the PCs would presumably root out the cult by entering the fens, finding Heqeteh's temple or lair, and killing her. Maybe they do something else with her, but I'm going to assume that by far the most likely result is that's how they handle it. Especially if they've had NPCs that they liked who were blinded or killed, or if they were themselves captured at some point. Most PCs I've known are motivated at least as much by revenge as by anything else. 

Maybe there can be a fifth element as an epilogue too; what to do with the cultists? Most of them are irredeemable, many of the captives are maimed; but some of the snake cultists, because of the domination effect of Heqeteh, are victims rather than monsters. Of course, the PCs might say; "we beat the bad guy; the clean-up is on you now." And they might even have good reasons for doing so, because the rest of the campaign 5x5 of Cult of Undeath isn't sitting around waiting for them to set up the Eltdown Charity or whatever. But I'll leave open the idea that Eltdown has been decimated, and if it's even possible to recover is not clear, without some help or intervention from someone. 

I actually kind of like the idea that if the PCs decide that they can't help Eltdown and move on that some other group of NPCs, maybe even my thoroughly despicable anti-PC group, comes in after them, sets something up, and even claims credit for liberating the town. Maybe it will eventually come out that these anti-PCs were allied with Heqeteh's cult all along. I did mention that they're the worst, right? Terrible, terrible people. I don't actually intend to set them up as an enemy to be confronted in this 5x5, but I still like the idea. When they show up in some other 5x5, if that's what happens, the PCs will automatically hate them.

Otherwise, though, I'll just keep the last box empty for now. I'm sure in play something will suggest itself. 

Updates

I read the next chapter of Princes of the Apocalypse last night, so I just have the mechanics chapter left to read. It's lengthy, but I can skim or even skip stat-blocks, so it'll probably go fast. I've also been giving some more thought to my Cult of Undeath supercut, although I still haven't written anything for it yet. But, that's what the weekend will be for, and if it takes a couple of hours of work, well I have it. Tonight we're going out to see Spiderman and get dinner, but tomorrow, my wife is meeting one of her girlfriends for lunch, and I'm only doing a few errands like the weed-eater, maybe getting a haircut and a car wash. Those are literally all of my plans for the entire day other than getting this post done. And if for some reason I still don't finish it on Saturday, I have time on Sunday.

Anyway, one of the thoughts that I had was that I want to actually integrate some of the Freeport material into it, even though it's not the Curse of the Corsair Coast campaign. The initial module of the Return to Freeport campaign (or adventure path), "Curse of the Brine Witch" can very easily be adapted to not being in a seaside port town, and can take place anywhere. If I start Cult of Undeath in Bridgetown, it actually is a river-port city still after all, although it doesn't actually have to be. The brine witch will certainly not be briny since it's not on the coast of a salty sea, but that's OK. As nice as the Brine Witch is as a title, she also wasn't actually a witch either. So, if I start with a loose adaptation of that module, leading up to Anton von Lechfeld's suspicious death and funeral, and then starting with a loose adaptation of some haunted house (maybe "Shadows in Freeport" is a better one to adapt than "The Haunting of Harrowstone" anyway, honestly, but I'll have a look at some other potential haunted house modules that I have to see if any of them are better alternatives. "The Haunting" from the Call of Cthulhu book has a good reputation. I'll have to see if that's something I can use. If not, there's a lot to love about "The Skinsaw Murders" if it's truncated too.

I'm going to downplay the Strangers and the Grendling threats; I want them to be present, but I don't necessarily want a really robust "story" around them that the players would spend a lot of time delving in to. I'd rather that be more like creepy side stories or, especially in the case of the Grendlings, almost like a side effect of what's going on, rather than something that they really dig in to for its own sake. That means that I also have less work to do to to finish those legs of the campaign. 

Honestly, this is going to start looking a little bit less like a "formal" 5x5 front and more like just an outline for a campaign that has five threads in it, more or less weaved together, but with one of them clearly much more prominent and important than the others. 

Here's some more AI images, in the meantime. Audley Hardwicke was always meant to be a personal nemesis to an iconic character, Dominic Clevenger (and to a lesser extent his partner, Kimnor Rugova, and his brother Ragnar Clevenger.) But he's a great villain, so I'm going to find a way to use him one way or another. 

The AI really struggled with the idea that I wanted a boom shot of him walking along a dock, and constantly had him walking off the edge of a dock! Stupid AI. Anyway, other than that, the images were all pretty good.

I also have an updated AI illustration of the brine witch, which I'm now thinking of using. Ironically, Audley is shown in Port Liure above, my kind of counterpart to Freeport, while the brine witch will be set in Bridgetown.

And finally, speaking of Freeport, I asked Nano Banana 2 to change the main character of the main cover art to a male pirate. I'm never quite as happy with that AI as with the others, but the results aren't bad. Maybe I'll run them through Grok later and see if the results are less cartoony.

The original

First pass

More charismatic version

I just noticed that he has no expression at all in the last one. He needs to either be scowling determinedly, or smirking like a happy-go-lucky swashbuckler, but that deadpan face ain't it. 

Let's try one of each.

Lol. The first one is definitely better than the second.

Here's a slightly different take on it.

The Black Stone

I've decided that Gol-Goroth is indeed going to be the villain of Cult of Undeath rather than Bokrug. Here it is, perched on the Black Stone. Sure, sure... Gol-Goroth wasn't really the monster of "The Black Stone", that was a Gemini AI Google search request hallucination, but I'm going to use it anyway, and treat Gol-Goroth like he's a little juvenile Tsathoggua. 

I got the HorrorBabble audio of "The Black Stone" and listened to it on the commute this morning. Turning the speed to x1.5, I had just enough time to finish it before getting to work. "The Black Stone" is, perhaps ironically, one of the absolute best Lovecraft stories, and yet it wasn't written by Lovecraft, but by Robert E. Howard. It has none, or at least very little of Howards' typical masculine "fight instead of flight" reaction that often makes his stories contrast with Lovecraft's, and could be one of HP's himself in many respects... but it isn't. If you haven't ever read it, you absolutely should. I have several copies of it in several different books, but the audio version I just listened to is free on YouTube (and I believe Spotify too), and quite well done. My favorite print version is in The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard, another book I strongly recommend to any fan of Yog-Sothothery. 

Gemini may have hallucinated into giving me answers about "The Black Stone" but I utilized its Nano Banana 2 image generator (since both Grok and ChatGPT were waiting on the reset) to give me this illustration of the story. It's missing a few details; I didn't think the naked sacrificial girl would make the cut of the built-in AI censors, so I didn't even ask for it, and it over-exaggerated the snake-like features of the cultists, a nod I was trying to make to Howard's other excellent (yet more sword & sorcery-like) Lovecraftian story "Worms of the Earth." It's often believed among fans that the titular Worms and the cultists of this story are supposed to be the same sub-human beings. I'll take the exaggeration. I have snake cultists going on in my Eltdown Fens already anyway.

In any case, I haven't done a lot of work on my supercut; I may have to finish it on Saturday if I haven't already by then, or even Sunday morning before church, but I'll get it done this weekend. I promise! I'll also finish in the next day or two the game book I'm reading (the 3e version of Oriental Adventures) and hopefully this week I can push to finish up Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, the novel I've been reading (except I haven't picked it up in three weeks or more). And, with any luck, Princes of the Apocalypse too, which I'm getting reasonably close to finishing. But I especially want to finish that supercut post and have the Cult of Undeath all finished up. Again. Now in new and revised under new management status. 

I'm still trying to think a little bit about the Strangers, though. How do you do classic X-files style UFO mythos stuff in a fantasy setting? I think that the Strangers aren't from outer space, obviously, but from some place very much like the Plane of Shadow, or Shadowfell for all you youngsters who only know it from 4e or 5e. When the Strangers shift into the Plane of Shadows, they can travel very quickly, and it creates a "light echo" that bounces around in the air or even in the sky in the normal world, very much like the fast-moving lights associated with UFOs. Except, of course, that nothing is physically there... it's just an echo in the real world of movement in a coterminous dimension. They also have cysts that are like little sections of the Underdark, but in the Shadow Plane, which are their lairs where they take abductees for experimentation. 

I wonder if I need to actually figure out what the Strangers are up to? I mean, UFO folklore is still a fascinating subject even without any real answers as to what it's all supposed to mean. The X-Files itself never really completely answered what was up either, partly because Chris Carter thought he could keep making bank forever, so he declined to actually end any story elements, unfortunately. (The show would have been dramatically better if it lasted half as long, and was always intended to wrap up satisfactorily. That's one thing that streaming shows have finally brought to our TV watching in America; shows that aren't mean to be open ended and keep going until they stop making money at which point they get abruptly canceled.) But I'll keep thinking about that the next few days before I actually post my supercut. I'd like to have at least some idea of what's going on, even if I don't explain literally everything. 

The bandit/Grendling threat is otherwise the least developed leg of this many-legged stool, so I need to think on that too. Maybe it doesn't have to be something that's deep, though. While people are either carrying or chasing the periapt, it stirs up all kinds of supernatural, which in turn stirs up the Grendlings, and they attack anyone passing through. I can make that pretty creepy with drums coming out of the forest, and finding remnants of cannibal attacks where people have been "gnawed upon" to use Antonio Banderas' character's line from The 13th Warrior. Ambushes and chases through the woods, until the players (well, their characters) either fight them off or successfully run away; it may well be sufficient without having to add anything else to that. But I'll continue to think on that and see if there's anything I want to add or not. Having the Wendaks be related to the people of the Black Stone, and therefore related to Otto von Szell's activities after all. I do like tying more of this stuff together, which probably makes it feel more like a campaign and less like just disconnected adventures that happen to be interwoven by fiat. 

Anyway, this post ended up being a bit of me brainstorming with myself, but that works well for me, so cool. Now I have a record of what I want to do before I get to my big supercut post, which will overwrite and supersede any previous stuff I may have said about Cult of Undeath.

Cult of Undeath: taking stock

I spent a fair bit of time looking over my latest Cult of Undeath stuff late last week to take stock of where I actually am, and it occurred to me after looking that I actually am closer to being done than I thought. In fact, I probably have more material than I can reasonably use, and if anything, I should cut back rather than look to add more. First off, let's take a look at my recent(ish) updates.

Old illustration from "The Black Stone"

1. The first front is basically a summarized version of the entire through-line story of the Carrion Crown itself, except with significant modifications, like Anton von Lechfeld actually being alive when it starts, etc. Honestly, this one is too busy. There's so much going on in this one, that all of the rest feel like minor side-quests in comparison. Which, I dunno, maybe that's not a problem. But I'm going to have a look at it and see if I can decouple some of the stuff out of the main arc and make it feel a little bit more like it's own story. The Frankenstein Werner Otten stuff in particular I feel is a little tacked on feeling, or is justified in being its own thing. Some of the rest of the stuff here can maybe be pared down or split off and associated with one of the fronts below. 

I'm also less and less happy with Bokrug being the villain at the end. I think I'm going to re-read Howard's "The Black Stone" and see if the monster from that works. I can't remember this being true when I read it a year or so ago. but Gemini thinks that it's Gol-goroth, while other references "posit" that it's actually Tsathoggua, or at least meant to be, even though Howard never actually claimed that. I had thought Gol-goroth was from "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" but it's been a while since I read either, so maybe there's a detail I'm not remembering. UPDATE: I streamed the HorrorBabble audio version of "The Black Stone" at x1.5 speed while commuting this morning (about the right speed for podcasts and audio, I find, for most applications. It actually sounds very natural.) It doesn't ever mention Gol-Goroth. I thought that Gemini was hallucinating, and it was. Still, Gol-Goroth is described very similarly in many ways to Tsathoggua, and many people believe that Gol-Goroth is the inspiration for the froghemoth from "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" or whatever exactly that old module was called. As I recall, that's a bit iffy, even though the claim is commonplace. "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" doesn't ever describe Gol-Goroth physically. It's just a monster that is referred to pretty obliquely. Still... I can use it. If Howard didn't bother to really describe it/him, then I can do whatever I want to with him for the most part.

2. The grafting of, essentially, "Cult of the Reptile God" but pretty heavily modified and blended with Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth" story, but next to a swamp instead of next to the sea and snake people instead of fish people works very well. I don't think that that needs any additional help.

3. The feral vampire/ghoul attack on Gaskarfels also works very well. I just need to find a slightly more intriguing reason to make sure that the PCs feel motivation to go to Gaskarfells in the first place. 

4. The Strangers storyline isn't a storyline, it's just a collection of UFO-like things to investigate. I need to do just a little bit of connecting them to some kind of reason for them to exist. But once I come up with that, I've got plenty of material for the PCs to investigate.

5. The one that I hadn't done anything with previously was the bandits or outlaw attacks, but in one of my summaries of front 1 I talked about Grendlings attacking the PCs because of the periapt that they had. I think that's the solution there; not only does it connect to the first front better, but it's probably a little bit more interesting than just literally random bandits. 

So, I think I've got all of the material that I need to do my big supercut version of Cult of Undeath other than a few "connective tissue" items to make it all fit together better, and then I can consider that one "completed" too, after which I'll turn to adapting a bunch of Freeport stuff to Curse of the Corsair Coast. Not the order I originally meant to do it in, but let's deal with where we are today, not with where I thought I'd be a few years ago.

Bridgetown Part II

Made some very slight improvements to Bridgetown's images, and made a major decision; Bridgetown is going to be where Alpon von Lechfeld lives, Revecca's father, an important sage-like NPC in DARKNESS IN THE HILL COUNTRY, and a raison d'etre for what happens in CULT OF UNDEATH. I also want to change Alpon's first name, since I believe that I subconsciously got it from the original Carrion Crown adventure path, although it applies to a very different character there, so I'm going to go with some similar like Anton or Albrecht von Lechfeld. 

Bridgetown will be a large town, as you can probably see from the image, although rather crammed. Not much more than two hundred feet wide, and about three quarters of a mile long, crossing the Humber River at nearly it's widest point; but at a relatively flat one. A number of hamlets and villages are within just a few miles, or even less than a mile in some cases, but they are simply farming communities that support the "greater Bridgetown" region, north of the Copper Hills and Haunted Forest and south of the Golden Wolds, which is what the farming frontier gives way to in the south and north respectively. The waters around the wide spot in the river on either side of Bridgetown are also rather slow and shallow, as the water spreads out and eddies in its especially wide channel, making for rich fishing.

Professor Anton von Lechfeld and his only daughter Revecca live in a townhouse, as nearly everyone does, but as a relatively wealthy fellow, his is wider than most and actually spans the entire width of the bridge (minus the walkways up against the water on either side, of course) and occupies every floor of his building (a real rarity in a town like this) including a peaked tower where his study, laboratory and library are.

The immediate vicinity around Bridgetown is relatively quiet and peaceful; orderly and safe. But, as always, not everything is as it seems. About a year and a half ago, a serial killer stalked the streets of Bridgetown, striking seemingly at random and widely enough separated in time that it took some time to put together the clues to identify him. The man was hanged, of course, but persistent rumors of either his ghost or the ghost of at least some of his victims linger on certain foggy nights, and small attached building to the main buildings where he lived has never been reoccupied, and still gives off a sinister mien to those sensitive to such things. Worse, he seems to have been some kind of strange cultist, and persistent rumors that he wasn't the only one in town also still linger. 

Danger from hostile Tazitta tribesmen wandering further afield than normal from the Haunted Forest or even the downriver Tazitta Bandlands is one thing, but rumors of some other kind of mysterious threat occasionally striking isolated farming homesteads of ranches have started coming in to town from its more far-flung neighbors. Strange cryptids, including the skunk ape are said to lurk in marshes along the riverbanks and rumor claims that they attack lone boats late at night... although always with some degree of separation from the person telling the rumor. Strange cattle mutilations occurring out isolated ranches far from the homes of any people have also started to spread.

The most obvious ominous feature is the Blackstone menhir, a tall standing stone of dark basalt, with heavily weathered carvings or runes that are undecipherable on it. This stone stands about a mile outside of town, but can be seen from taller towers. It has a notable sinister feel to it, and even those not sensitive to occult or psychic "emanations" report feeling uneasy, light-headed and anxious just being within a few hundred yards of it. Few indeed can approach it close enough to study it up close without being triggered into a fainting spell, a panic attack, or a bout of such unease and nausea that they must withdraw from it. On moonless nights it is especially avoided, when the people of Bridgetown claim that some form of queerness from the distant (but not as distant as they may like) Plateau of Leng or from deep within the Haunted Forest approach the Blackstone menhir, although if there is any truth to this local legend, nobody has any idea what it is that they do. Professor Anton von Lechfeld may be the foremost expert on this phenomena, although he doesn't advertise his deep expertise in matters of occult.

Anyway, here's the fixed images.

AI images are all about doing enough iterations to get what you really want. Here's probably my favorite; slight variations on the ones above.

Campaign Banners and Briefs

I'm going to write up some new campaign briefs, even though I don't yet have a solid idea on what exactly each of the potential Old Night campaigns will look like yet. But first, I want to have some solid banners for them, because I like having them. I'm going to go a little more with my current banner style, so let's see how these work. I may have more than one option for each.

Cult of Undeath A uses the Necrofonticon runes on the top, JungleSlang runes on the bottom, and the Kothika font for the main title. Add some drop and inner shadow and extra outline on the main title, and it looks pretty good. I made it transparent so I can use it over background images, but that might make it hard to read on a black background.

This next one simply swaps the Kothika for LLPaladin. I also noticed that I accidentally outlined the drop shadow, so I didn't do it this time. Let me try the Kothika one more time with the outline and drop shadow applications reversed.

Huh. That doesn't look quite as different as I'd thought. Rather subtle. Of course, I also increased the opacity of the drop shadow a bit. I'm not sure that I have a favorite between them, or care even about the difference. Let's try one more Cult of Undeath main font, and then I'll switch to another campaign.

This one uses Season of the Witch Black, which is a relatively chunky looking font. I think that's enough for this one. I might need alternative color schemes too, depending on where I want to use it. But I like this one for now, and it looks good with the blog, at least.

This Curse of the Corsair Coast banner uses CybertronianFinal for the runes and Treasure Map Deadhand for the text. For the one below, I swapped the main text to Treasure Hunt PERSONAL USE, which is just slightly more ragged looking than the very similar Treasure Hunt. I'm obviously going for a bit of a Pirates of the Caribbean look on this one. Let me try a couple more options. I have a lot of piratey fonts, although many of them are actually quite similar to each other.

This one is called The Rum is Gone. I like how the lower case Os are skulls. Given that it's an all caps style font, I probably should have had some upper case Os to mix it up. Let's try one more that's a bit of a different style...

This one is Sovereign, and it's surprisingly not quite as legible.

This is a lot of banners, even though I've got several more campaigns to do. I'm only a third of the way done! I'll continue to think about it, #3 for Cult of Undeath and #1 for Curse of the Corsair Coast, at least right now. Let's see if I decide late to change my mind.