Wax Golem
A ritual and monster for Wolves Upon the Coast
Create Wax Golem
Take the corpse of a man and hollow it. Place a queen bee within the cavity and entice it to nest. Harvest the wax and honey as the hive grows. Set the honey aside—it has its own potent magic.
Mold the wax into human form and embed it with a wick woven from rush and soaked in the fat of the corpse. When the wick is lit, the golem will animate under its own cognizance. If extinguished it stills, inanimate once again. The wick is fully consumed after lit for 2d6 weeks.
If a name is carved into the right arm of the golem, it will serve the named unquestioningly. If a name is carved into the left arm, the golem will hunt the named relentlessly. If the names are removed the golem will attempt to kill the one who inscribed it.
Wax Golem
HD 2
AC as Armor
Damage as Weapon
While the golem’s wick is lit or the golem exposed to fire, re-roll HP at the beginning of each round. If dealt damage with fire exceeding its HP, the golem melts and is destroyed.
The essence of man distilled into wax. Not truly alive, yet all things strive. This is but one way artifice may join the path of mortality.
01.07 Candlemaker
An old hermit, Cinaed, has raised a shack in a clearing in the hills. The field blooms with wildflowers. Dark lumps scattered among the dark ground buzz with activity as honeybees gather nectar from the flowers. On close inspection these are found to be the hollowed corpses of people.
Cinaed stole a queen bee from 01.08 Stamullen to form his hives, and offers goods formed from corpse wax and honey. He knows the art of creating a wax golem and will do so for 1000sp. He will offer half price if a corpse is brought for him to expand his hive. He can instruct on carving names into the golem for control, but neglects to mention what happens should they be removed.
Two wax golems with Cinaed’s name inscribed on their right arms stand inert at the rear of his shack. He lights their wicks should he hear visitors approach.
Cinaed offers the following goods:
- Corpse wax candle (100sp): Invisible and incorporeal undead are rendered visible and corporeal while in the light of the candle.
- Corpse honey (50sp/dose): Smearing a dose of corpse honey on a wound adds +2 HP per HD recovered during rest. Corpse honey may be used in place of blood in any spell. If consumed it is as normal honey, though its flavor has a tang of iron.
Changelings
An 17th century scenario for Violence.
On Firearms
A firearm may be fired once in a violent altercation, only able to be reloaded when there is a moment of calm.
Someone trained in violence may spend two combat rounds reloading instead.
Players
Fleeing the bustle and sin of the colonial cities, a group of devout settlers struck out for the mountains west of the Virginia territory. Among the forest-cloaked hills they settled Moorested, named for their righteous patriarch Josiah Moore. Under his stern leadership, the settlers eke out an arduous and humble living. Moments not spent towards survival are filled with prayer.
The players are among the settlers, as those who chose this life or their children who had no choice in the matter. Decide if you are one family or multiple, and add family homes as appropriate.
It is the late summer of 1689 and the first bite of chill air heralds the turning of the season. Christopher Wheeler, age 16, has gone missing.
Moorested
A cluster of one room homes hewn from local trees, huddled on the edge of the Appalachian wilderness. There are no roads, barely a trail formed from the settlers migration. Once or twice a year, a handful of the villagers take carts to the nearest settlement several days away to trade for goods they can’t produce on their own.
Church
A single room wooden structure, its steeple reaching skyward desperate to clear the tree line of the surrounding wood yet falling short. At twice the size of the family homes the largest building in Moorested, services are cramped affairs on narrow pews.
Josiah Moore leads sermons from the drafty pulpit daily, sickness, injury, or necessity the only excuse for absence of attendees, but not without judgement. His favored topics are the sanctity of strife and struggle, commendation of excess, and the strength that God will provide in taming this wild land.
Family Homes
Moore House
Josiah rules his home as he does the community, crushing anything that does not conform to his concepts of godliness and humility. His wife, Comfort, is executor of his will, carried out in steely-eyed silence.
Eldest son Roger strives toward worthiness in his father’s eyes, always falling short of the impossibly high mark. Middle child Hugh, despite conspiracy of parentage and environment, is jovial and kind, traits for which he is made to suffer dearly. The youngest, daughter Mercy, is not given much consideration at all except by Hugh, who dotes on her.
In their home a blunderbuss can be found above the doorframe of his home, and a flintlock in a cabinet. Josiah hides away a tightly bound lock of hair in a small, carved box by his bedside that he prays to each night beside his bible. No changeling will approach a someone who possesses this item, their family, or enter their home.
Roger did a stint in the military before the family moved. He is trained in violence.
Neale House
Joel Neale and wife Tabitha have born a clutch of sturdy sons, minds as thick as their shoulders: Benjamin, Daniel, Henry, Isaac, Noah, and Samuel. Neale and his sons are fanatically loyal to Moore. In return their crude behavior is excused by the patriarch as ‘boys being boys’.
Tabitha is just happy their family has been blessed with so many helping hands, despite the dubious quality of aid they provide. They can do no wrong in her eyes, regardless. She can usually be found outside churning goat milk into butter.
The Neale home has 7 muskets and an assortment of bladed weapons.
Joel and all the sons are blooded in violence.
Wheeler House
Chester Wheeler and wife Margery have three children, Christopher, Sally, and Lavina. Chester is a cousin of Josiah’s but bears none of his iron will. Instead he has been cowed under Josiah’s authority, lead to this place despite his reservations. The Wheeler family is miserable here. Margery curses her husband’s spinelessness, and would have left him long ago if not for the strength of her religious convictions.
Christopher inherited his father’s pusillanimity, often bullied by the Neale boys who are fond of leaving him lost in the woods on “accident” during hunting trips.
Sally and Lavina are feral, left to their own devices and wanderings, much to the scornful reprobation of Moore.
Mullis House
George Mullis and wife Lydia are relative newcomers to Moore’s flock. They had barely been acquainted when Josiah proposed his idea for resettlement, but despite this eagerly agreed. George seems a fish out of water in such wild environs, but is trying his best. Lydia is furtive and jumpy. George is wanted for fraud, and has substantial bounty on his head should he be returned to civilization.
They have one daughter, Olive, who is dutiful to her family and has adapted remarkably well to these harsh conditions.
In their home are found two flintlocks in a locked chest.
Simons House
Arndt and Editha Simons are German immigrants and devoutly religious. They speak little English, but found themselves under the sway of Moore’s proselytization, largely due to misunderstanding.
While they do not mind the strictness of the current community atmosphere, they will be disturbed by any show of escalating violence. Arndt is a capable carpenter who was instrumental in raising the homes in Moorested. Editha is a fine seamstress and has a green thumb. The Simons have yet to be blessed with children, and never will be.
In their home are found extensive woodworking tools and an abundance of jarred fermented vegetables.
Menhenick House
Amos and Grace live here with children Sarah and Joshua. In private they combine their protestant prayers with ritual carried from the old country, covering their heads in rough sackcloth and communing with God in the darkness. Their faith is kindled by the visions they receive in return. What has been answering them is no god known to this world.
Should this practice be discovered by others in the community, Josiah Moore will lead the other villagers in an accusation of witchcraft, barring the Menhenicks in their home while it is burned to the ground.
In their home are secreted away the sackcloth hoods and an ancient vellum parchment scrawled in dark ink.
Rowe House
Zebedee Rowe lives alone in a home that is little more than a sturdy shack. He was drawn toward this settlement project more for the thrill of surviving on the frontier than any piety. His is an expert hunter, and can identify all useful local flora. His home is adorned with furs, with more outside drying on racks.
Rowe’s hunting and trapping largely keeps the community afloat as far as trade to the outside world, as the community can offer little else of value. Rowe doesn’t mind as long as he can continue to stalk the woods for new prey.
Inside his home can be found three muskets, two flintlock pistols, a crossbow, and a variety of shot, black powder, and bolts for all. Additionally, there are several hunting and game knives, fishing rods and nets, small snares, and two iron bear traps.
Rowe is trained in violence.
Shed
A makeshift work shed to dry wood and store tools. Found inside are axes, saws, plows, etc.
Fields
The settlers’ toil against the forest has yielded a modest clearing in which to grow crops. The harvest is enough to barely sustain the colony.
A section of clearing has been fenced off to hold a modest herd of 8 goats and ramshackle barn. The fences require constant mending, lest the goats get into the field and destroy the crops or run off into the forest. Only 7 goats remain in the pen, one has escaped and is nowhere to be found.
The Woods
Stepping into woods quickly invites gloom even on the sunniest of days. The tangle of tree roots is only too happy to trip the unwary, and howls and hoots of wild creatures echo with no discernable direction. Deer trails crisscross the undergrowth.
Encounters in the Woods
For every hour spent in the woods, there is a 1-in-6 chance of an encounter. Proceed along the list of encounters in order.
- The missing goat, yellow drips about its mouth and eyes. It attacks (as animal changeling).
- 1d6 Neale boys hunting, scaring away local wildlife.
- Wild animal, being stalked by Rowe.
- Body of Christopher Wheeler, half swallowed by deer that has choked to death. Yellow ichor weeps from its eyes.
- Animal Changeling
- Changeling Villager
After this list is exhausted, any future encounters are 50% Animal Changelings and 50% Changeling Villagers until there are no unchanged villagers left.
Changelings
Wild beasts, transformed. They greedily, impossibly, swallow humans, seeking to steal their enlightened lives, appearing as those they have consumed. They speak with only simple comprehension, are ignorant of tools, and act on instinct when stressed. In moonlight, bestial features are visible as a haze around the human form: scales, feathers, fur, teeth. They want for the other changelings what they have, and will kidnap villagers to be consumed.
Animal type:
- Deer - Evasion: -2 (skittish).
- Owl - Evasion: -4 (silent flight), Melee: 1d6
- Porcupine - Melee: 1d6. Spines as shooting, but Downs are Injuries instead.
- Copperhead - Melee: 1d6. Injuries require an injury check every hour.
- Red wolf - Melee: 2d8.
- Bear - Evasion: +1 (large target), Melee: 2d10.
Upon encountering a human, a changeling animal will attempt to grapple and swallow them, their jaws distending and bodies stretching over the top of their victim (As hand-to-hand, swallowing when Downed. It takes 2 rounds to swallow a victim).
When complete, they appear as the human curled inside their belly. The victim may be rescued if cut free from the changeling within a day of being swallowed. After a week the victim is digested and the changeling reverts to animal form, forlorn and desperate to consume a new human.
The Cave
The tracks of varied wildlife lead in and out of the cave mouth cleaving a stone rise in the forest. Deep inside the cave a shaft of light from a crack in the ceiling shines down on the body empaled upon a rocky outcropping. The dead thing is 9 feet tall and chalk white except where spattered with a spray of yellow fluid, each otherwise human-like limbs sporting an extra joint. Its face is a bony mask bearing four eyes now dulled with death, and no discernable mouth. The impaled wound drips yellow ichor into a pool of clear water at its base.
Animal tracks dot the shoreline of the pool. When an animal drinks the yellow ichor it becomes an animal changeling, and seeks out humans to swallow.
If a human were to drink the ichor, they would transform in explosive spasms into a chalk-white 9-foot tall humanoid with extra joints, bony mask bearing four eyes bright with malice and no discernable mouth. When they wish to consume, their face splits down the middle revealing endless depths.
Evasion: -1 (speed) Shooting: N/A Melee: 2d8. Swallows target instantly when Downed. Harm: Ignores the first time Downed, taking an Injury instead.
Timeline
Should no intervention be made by the players, the following occurs:
- Day 1: Christopher Wheeler does not return.
- Day 2: Samuel Neale goes missing in the morning. He returns a changeling in the evening (porcupine). His behavior is indistinguishable from normal.
- Day 3: George Mullis goes missing in the morning. He returns a changeling in the evening (owl). He tries repeatedly to convince his wife and daughter to go to the woods with him in the middle of the night.
- Day 4: Margery Wheeler goes to the woods to search for Christopher. She returns a changeling in the evening (bear). When confronted her anger spills over and she tears apart the home, sending the family running.
- Day 5: Rowe gathers a search party of Neale boys and Roger Moore. They are set upon by 2d6 animal changelings and separated in the woods. Rowe returns a changeling in the evening (deer). Benjamin, Henry, and Isaac return as changelings (owl, deer, copperhead) an hour later. Daniel is dead. Roger stumbles back to the village in the middle of the night, injured and terrified.
- Day 6: Changelings and animal changelings surround the village, and begin dragging the unchanged out of their homes to convert (excepting the Moores). Josiah Moore fires upon the changed with his flintlocks, then attempts to beat them back with a walking stick, while make loud appeals to God. The changelings flee before him, but not before the other villagers are captured or swallowed, leaving the Moores in uneasy silence.
High Altitude Object
A scenario for Violence or the Panic Engine.
In February of 2023, an unidentified high altitude object flying over northern Alaska near Deadhorse was detected by radar. Flybys by U.S. fighters reported a cylindrical, silver, and apparently uncrewed object appearing to float by unknown means of propulsion. Some of the pilots reported the object interfered with their sensors.
The object was shot down by an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 Raptor, citing risk to safety of civilian flight and an abundance of caution. The debris fell onto the frozen Beaufort Sea.
Despite thorough attempts to retrieve the debris, the search was abandoned due to poor weather conditions and harsh environment. The object was never recovered.
One month later, Fred Ackerman, a roughneck on the arctic oil rig Mackova 13A, disappears.
Players
The players are a work crew on an artic oil rig. They are five days in on a two week rotation, before getting two weeks off.
2-in-6 chance you are a roustabout: you are a young, (18-20), unskilled laborer lowest on the pecking order. You do scut work, cleaning and hauling gear. You make more money than you know what to do with.
Otherwise you are a roughneck: hot shit of the oil rigs, because roughnecks drill the oil, and without oil no one gets paid. You have skills related to working a rig.
Everyone answers to the toolpusher, responsible for all operations, who answers to the company man, the oil company representative on site.
If running a paranormal agency/investigator type game have the investigators show up after Rogelio Santos, a friendly, calls the situation in. He doesn’t have details—can’t even be sure there is anything paranormal, just a gut feeling. Investigators will need some pretext for being on a private drill site and no weapons are allowed. The roughnecks are not thrilled to have to babysit outsiders getting in the way of the job.
The North Slope, Winter
Frigid wind whips over the flat expanse of northern Alaska coast, nothing to break its constant howl. Summers replete with herds of caribou and seals crowding the shore are a distant memory, the desolate ice haunted only by the occasional polar bear and big rigs crawling over ice roads.
The temperature is regularly 20 below zero, or colder. Unprotected, frostbite sets in in minutes, hypothermia close behind.
Mackova 13A
Breaking the flat expanse of ice and snow is a towering lattice of steel overshadowing huddled clusters of low-slung prefabricated buildings. Mackova 13A is newly established, the first grinding penetrations of the drill ring out across the rig, seeking the nectar below that will feed an unsatiable hunger just a little big longer.
Metal pipes and tubes wind between the rig and the pre-fab buildings, requiring careful navigation. Shipping container-sized dot the work site. Ice and snow rimes the parked trucks and a bulldozer parked outside. Long metal tubes rest on raised stands, waiting to be fed to the earth.
All descriptions of the work site and people within are as the situation stands the morning of the first day.
Camp
Three stories of long, prefabricated housing raised on pylons, kept at balmy temperatures to stave off the cold outside. Exterior stairs on the east and west sides of the structure are enclosed in heavy duty steel cages. The steps lead to double doors keeping the unrelenting wind and cold at bay. Taped to them are printed pages warning to secure the doors tight, accompanied by a printed photo of a young polar bear leering curiously in a camp hallway.
There are a few empty rooms in the rare case of visitors, laden heavily with lemon disinfectant spray, bedsheets and pillows folded neatly on the small beds. If the players are part of the oil crew assign them to these rooms instead.
1st Floor
Mud Room
The entry leads to a long low bench wrapping around the room, lined with boots. Heavy coats and high viz vests hang on hooks on the wall. On shelves above are hard hats and alone can of cola.
Meatball and Pettersen just came off shift from the drilling floor, looking pale. Meatball pukes his guts out on the floor to swearing from Pettersen.
Kitchen and Break Room
Well stocked with surprisingly good food. Quality and abundance serve to maintain worker morale. No alcohol though—the oil fields are dry, possession will get you booted and blacklisted. Hot meals are served up three times a day.
Casado scoops enormous piles of food onto his tray from the buffet before joining Wind Up at a table. Wind Up speaks in an increasingly animated matter about conspiracy theories and alien abductions and some secret research lab near Deadhorse where they experiment on people. Wind Up wants to save everyone from the hidden threats and tangles he sees in every conspiracy. Casado laughs and try to calm him down. No stranger to seeking salvation, he quietly tries to save Wind Up from himself.
Squirrel, a young roustabout, sits at a cafeteria table, nervously jiggling his leg and picking at a hangnail. Ackerman had taken him under his wing, and Squirrel looks up to him as a kind of father figure. Now that he’s missing, Squirrel is freaking out. Has a gut feeling something bad happened to Ackerman but can’t pin down what or why.
Offices
Two offices bursting with paperwork detail the rig’s operations and progress.
Fred MacNeil is doing paperwork in one office, preparing for the daily conference call to the company. Everything so far is running smoothly, aside from his missing roughneck, so McNeil is calm and reasonable. His notorious temper flares if delays start to pile up, hundreds of thousands of dollars burning up as time is wasted.
Bedroom 101
A single bed room with private bath, a luxury reserved for few in a camp building. Columbo, the cook, is one of the lucky few. A skinny, awkwardly lanky kid, Columbo got his nickname because all he watches in his spare time are old episodes of the show. He’s here because it’s just about the farthest he could get from his home in Florida. Whenever he can, he slips away to smoke outside, shivering just inside the bear cages.
Mechanics Shop
16ft high ceilings and a roller door to the outside. A three-ton overhead crane hangs from the ceiling. Tools and equipment for the rig are kept here and the attached workshop. The workbench in the back is strewn with clamps, pipes, drill bits and assorted tools.
Reese and Piece are working in the shop, Reese grinding down a length of metal at the work bench, Piece hauling in metal pipes. They earned their rig names because they are always found together. Even when they work other rigs for other companies, they always manage to find work on the same rigs, the same rotations.
Generators
Two power generators with 5000 gallons of fuel storage.
Water Treatment
6000 gallons of potable water storage and treatment systems.
2nd Floor
Worker bedrooms, two beds to a room. Stored away are each worker’s possessions, whatever can fit in an offshore bag that isn’t provided by the company. Two shared washrooms are centrally located on the floor. Lately they stink of bile.
Two exits lead to yellow railed catwalks across the roof and down stairs on the west end of the building.
Laundry
Washers and dryers thump as they work to wash the grime of the worksite away. Tim sits on a folding chair in his underwear, reading a book. “Miscalculated”, his only explanation. After this he’ll earn the rig nickname “Tighty Whity”.
Recreation
A large screen TV surrounded by several comfortable chairs, a gaming console someone brought in their personal effects hooked up to the display. The game is paused, a smear of muzzle flash and alien gore.
A roughneck called Boots is sitting in a chair in contemplation. He’s earned the nickname Boots because he never takes his fucking boots off, even though you aren’t supposed to wear them inside the camp, boot chains digging scratches into the cheap carpet. He’s eager to help anyone investigating missing persons. He expounds that MacNeil is really dropping the ball on this. He says he thinks there might be clues at the pit floor, he’s happy to lead you there…
Boots has been infected by the Riddoch in the pit room, his mind burrowed with wriggling bio-mechanical larvae. A process the creature dispenses reluctantly—too much risk of discovery. Too much risk the infection should slip its leash, transform from slave to child to rival. For now Boots serves to lure others to the pit when the Riddoch needs to feed, and to sabotage any efforts to investigate it. But even now he feels the potential squirming around in his brain.
Boots Boots’ nascent infection allows him to cause short-term memory loss, making targets forget they were interacting with him.
Violence:
- Evasion: -1 (accelerated reflexes)
- Shooting: Standard Melee: Standard.
- Harm: Treat first Down as an injury instead.
Panic Engine: C:30 Pipe 1d5 DMG or Doorway Effect I:60 W:3(10)
- Doorway Effect: Boot causes target to forget what they were doing.
Bedroom 201 — Meatball and Acosta
Acosta sleeps restlessly. He’s dreaming of horrible blooms of flesh and the pathetic cries of a wounded animal.
Bedroom 202 — Jasper and Squirrel
Unoccupied. A laptop sit closed on top of one bed, an unlocked user account for Jasper greets anyone who opens it.
Bedroom 203
Empty. Two beds, bedding folded up on top of bare mattresses.
Bedroom 204 — Pettersen and Kameroff
Kameroff is sitting in bed, texting. He tells anyone interrupting him to fuck off.
Bedroom 205 — TwoWords
Unoccupied. A single bed room with private path assigned to the toolpusher, TwoWords. It is tidy and clean, bed neatly made. A small frame rests on the desk: A weather-worn, smiling woman and a passel of children crowding the photo.
Bedroom 206 — Fred MacNeil
Unoccupied. A single bed room with private path assigned to the Company Man, Fred MacNeil.
3rd Floor
More bedrooms, and two more bathrooms.
Bedroom 301 — Doc Moses
A spartan single bed room assigned to Doc Moses, the drill foreman, an overnight bag half kicked under the bed, some crumpled photos of his wife and daughter taped to the wall.
Bedroom 302 — Rogelio Santos and Tim
Santos has been holed up in his bunk since Ackerman’s went missing, claiming the flu. In reality, he is intuitively sensitive to the paranormal, and has been in enough situations to know when something is very wrong. The pit floor sets off all his internal alarm bells and he is avoiding it, though he has no more memory of what lurks there than anyone else.
Tim has been avoiding his bunk, not wanting to get sick.
Bedroom 303 — Reese and Piece
Unoccupied. Posters of 80s and 90s action movies plaster the walls.
Bedroom 304 — Wrong Way Earl and Boots
Unoccupied. One bed is a crumpled mess, mud prints tracked on the floor. The other bed is made a book left open and face down: Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard.
Bedroom 305 — Wind Up and Meyrick
Meyrick is in bed snoring loud enough to be heard from outside the room, one arm flung over his head.
Bedroom 306 — Herman and Casado
Unoccupied. A white noise machine runs, left on from whoever was sleeping here last.
Bedroom 307
Empty. Two beds, bedding folded up on top of bare mattresses.
Bedroom 308
Empty. Two beds, bedding missing.
Storage
A closet with spare sheets and pillows, cleaning supplies, and a vacuum cleaner.
Mechanic Shop
Warehouse for working on rig parts with large roller door. A 3-ton overhead crane dangles overhead. Separate storage area holds tools and equipment: various valves, clamps, pipes, and other specialty parts alongside more standard tools.
Reese and Piece work together here, prepping parts for the rig. Reese is working a welder in the main bay while Piece is working on specialized drill components on the workbench. Reese and Piece earned their nicknames because they are never apart. Event across jobs on different rigs they always manage to get stints together on the same shifts.
The Rig
The latticed steel derrick rises high above the operating heart of the operation. Below are several enclosed structures around the dig site.
The Doghouse
Enclosed command and oversight of the pit floor, where the drill grinds away endlessly. Consoles give readouts of the drilling status. A microphone pipes out to the pit floor.
TwoWords, the rig toolpusher and Doc Moses, the drill foreman, monitor drilling progress from the control room, analyzing readouts and watching the roughnecks below. They murmur about the crew acting sick and strange, they hope a flu isn’t hitting the camp. TwoWords is also concerned about Ackerman going missing. People don’t just walk off a rig into the tundra, and Ackerman was a reliable roughneck who isn’t the type to go AWOL. Calls to local authorities haven’t turned up any clues.
TwoWords is a 25 year veteran of oil work, long accustomed to the long hard hours. He got is nickname because no one hardly hears him say two words. He approaches in the crew and work problems with the empathy of someone who’s been on the wrong side of the issue too many times to count. He aims to retire in a year or two, which scares him more than any kick from a well. He’s not sure what he’d do with himself down among the noise and warmth of a normal family life, without the work and the stark silence of the tundra to comfort him.
Doc Moses restlessly checks the equipment and checks again. He just got promoted to this position and doesn’t want his first shift in this role to be marred by a jammed drill or other setback. He especially doesn’t want that asshole MacNeil breathing down his neck.
Wrong Way Earl wanders into the doghouse to yells from TwoWords and Doc—he’s supposed to be down monitoring the mud tanks.
Pit Floor
The room where the drill disappears into the earth, accompanied by the grinding and shuddering of heavy machinery. Augers beneath the metal floor draw up drilling mud and waste rock, carrying the waste into side structures to be filtered and recycled in the mud tanks attached to the building.
No one likes to enter this room anymore. When they do their hearts beat a staccato against their chests, their guts churn, and they want to scream—but they don’t know why. It stinks of wet iron and sickly brine. Panic engine: Gain 1d5 Stress whenever entering this room. Panic if present when “seeing” someone consumed by the Riddoch. In neither case do you know why you are reacting this way.
Herman and Jasper are here now, monitoring the drill. Jasper just vomited in the corner. Herman can’t blame him, he feel like doing the same for some reason.
The pit floor, like many of the camp’s interiors, is kept balmy and warm. When the door to the outside is opened, billowing condensation fills the room as fog. In this obscurity, the vague and looming strands of the Riddoch can be made out in shifting silhouette. Obtaining further clarity allows the Riddoch’s manipulations to snap back into place, erasing memory of the horrid sight.
The Riddoch
An alien bloom of flesh and artifice has embedded itself in the wall of the pit floor, recuperating after a long crawl out of the frozen sea. It snatched Ackerman with its long pseudopods for sustenance. He’s still there, embedded in the ropy mounds of growth, whimpering slightly as he is slowly unraveled. The Riddoch keeps him alive as long as possible to extract the most nutrients.
No one who sees this remembers it, the horrifying visual instantly erased from conscious thought. The fear and disgust of the encounter is felt in the moment before erasure, spiking adrenaline and triggering nausea, lodging in the subconscious, a splinter of revulsion. The powerful mental suppression of the entity only works at close range. At a distance the Riddoch must rely on more mundane illusions, projecting visual lies and false telemetry.
Just because the Riddoch has anchored it self doesn’t mean it’s immobile. Should it be threatened sufficiently it will flee to the safety of another building to recuperate, likely the camp.
When the drill strikes true and opens up the black veins deep beneath, the Riddoch will have access to all the energy it needs to launch itself back into the sky, leaving behind the burning ruin of the derrick and an uncontrolled gout of flame.
The Riddoch
Violence:
- Evasion: -4 (Disorienting)
- Shooting: N/A
- Melee: 2d10. Can strike two targets at once. Anyone injured by a pseudopod is immobilized, and takes and automatically injury each round. Unless the Riddoch has been revealed, treat the melee contest as 4+ in the Riddoch’s favor.
- Special: Each person the Riddoch consumes adds a Disadvantage to the Harm d20 roll.
- Harm: Whenever the Riddoch would be Injured or Downed roll 1d20 and consult the results:
| d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1-6 | Miss, the Riddoch is not where you thought it was. |
| 7-12 | Injury. |
| 13-15 | Injury and the Riddoch loses ability to suppress memories. If the result again, it loses abilities to project illusions. |
| 16+ | Resolve injured/downed normally. |
Panic Engine: C: 75 2xPseudopod 1d10 DMG I:80 W:3(20)
- Surprise: The nature of the Riddoch’s manipulations means it automatically hits, unless it is revealed.
- Wounds: The Riddoch loses its memory suppression upon gaining a Wound. It loses its power of illusion after gaining a second.
- Pseudopod: Entangles and immobilizes victim. Deals 1 DMG per round automatically afterward.
- Each person the Riddoch consumes give it +10 max HP.
Timeline
Day 1: As evening sets a storm rises up. Transport out of the camp is impossible until it passes.
Day 2: In the morning the Riddoch will take Casado as another victim to feed off. Then Wrong Way Earl in the evening.
Day 3: In the early hours the storm becomes too dangerous to continue work, so the drilling operation is halted. Roughnecks retire to camp, bored. McNeil fumes and paces like a caged tiger. Boots will attempt to lead others to the Riddoch, despite conditions. If unimpeded, this spells the demise of Squirrel, Meatball, and Kameroff. The storm finally breaks in the late afternoon.
In the middle of the night the drill strikes oil. The Riddoch consumes as many people as it can, then siphons the oil and uses it for fuel to launch itself into the upper atmosphere.
February 28, 2026 Adventures Violence Verdigris Paranormal Scenarios
Carousing XP Bonus for Worn Items
Synthesizing this idea into a more “traditional” elfgame with XP and carousing, which I’ll probably end up using for Dolmenwood and similar campaigns I’m running. I like the idea of tying this to carousing, because then your players can wear their normal adventuring gear in the dungeon then get all dressed up to party.
This assumes using one of the many carousing rules out there, where money spent gives you bonus XP.
The basic idea is this:
When carousing, add the value of any worn clothes, jewelry, or other items of significant cost to carousing XP gained.
- The items should be visible and shown off. The point is you are flaunting your wealth.
- I’m inclined not to include magic item value to this, as magic items often don’t count when bring back treasure for XP. If magic items count, they may be at risk (see next point).
- If a carousing event or consequence ends up being rolled worn items are at risk. This should follow logically from the event: If you wake up in a muddy ditch, your nice silk shirt will be ruined. If you blacked out among a cadre of thieves, say goodbye to your jeweled rings. Had a rendezvous with a special someone? Maybe they expect a token of your affection to keep–failure to do so could mean they badmouth you around town.
Addendum for wearing fancy stuff around town
If you wear items of at least 1000 gp x Your Level of value, gain +1 to reaction rolls in settlements, generally. Some factions (disgruntled peasants, revolutionaries, or clerical orders of poverty) might incur an equivalent penalty instead.
Mothership Slush Pile
Ideas from my notes that are unlikely to make it into anything published so I’ll put them here.
Items
ShareMind: Cyberware, 1 slot. 10kcr. Must be installed in two or more people to function. This cyberware uses quantum entanglement to provide instantaneous communication and shared experience across installed users on the same “network”, no matter the distance. Unfortunately one drawback is a shared experience of pain and trauma. If one user in the network takes damage, the others gain an equivalent amount of Stress.
Dead Man’s Suit: Prototype battle suit, so called because it can continue to be operated remotely when the operator is killed. As Advanced Battle Dress, but when the user is killed gains 1 Wound and 10 HP, and can be controlled by remote control. Optional autonomous AI controller will automatically continue to engage last hostile targets (25% chance safeties fail and attacks anyone nearby instead).
Pale Voice: A pharmacological breakthrough, as a injectable “truth serum” that functions with 99% confidence. The subject becomes pliant, talkative, and honest following administration. Unfortunately, the drug is fatal, the subject invariably dying in 1d10 minutes.
Secret Android
A class modifier. You act and appear human in every respect (unless examined with specialist equipment, suffer damage that would expose your internal mechanics, etc.). Any Company issued limiters on behavior are loosened so you can act more naturally, and you even have a shallow layer of human blood circulating to keep up appearances in case of minor injuries.
Take stats as an Android with the following:
Trauma Response: You have the trauma response from another class of your choice until you are discovered, then this reverts to the Android trauma response.
Luck save
This save can be used in the place of any other save or skill check. The Luck Save starts at 100 (rolls fail automatically on 90-99 as usual). When this save is used, deduct the result from the save score—succeed or fail. Apply critical rolls as usual. When it’s gone, it’s gone… your luck has run out.
Company Man
The Company Man is one who has devoted themselves utterly to the Company. Their bodies are laced with cyberware dedicated only to enforce the loyalty of the bearer, their veins thrum with chemical cocktails that reinforce their commitment to shareholder value. A Company Man cannot betray the Company’s secrets, sabotage its efforts, or betray its members. To do so is an impossibility sewn into their flesh. Any who would try to pry such things free would only leave behind a molten, radioactive crater; a threat of deterrence for anyone who would think of the attempt.
One wonders why the Company would not just use an android, but no matter the prevailing thought of artificial personhood it is clear the Company thinks of androids as only objects to be used. They are unworthy of bearing the mission of Company Loyalty.
A Company Man is often proudly marked, a subsidiary logo or brand prominently displayed on their face to show the world what lengths they have gone through to prove themselves, and show what they are capable of.
Anyone can be a Company Man, just sign the relevant paperwork to get started.
C: 45 as Weapon I: 60 W: 3(20) AP: 5
MAD Protocol: If the Company Man’s internal datastores are tampered with or when manually triggered they explode, dealing 5d10 dmg to all in Close range and 2d10 DMG to all in Far range. All in Far range suffer the effects of level 2 Radiation while in the area.
Echny Alien Pet
Echnies are an alien species resembling a cat-sized, jellified tardigrade. Echnies have the bizarre property of having a linked memory and personality with every other specimen across any distance. In effect, all Echnies are one organism. Though by all accounts non-sapient, with the measured intelligence of a particularly smart dog, Echnies carry all the training and experience of each other leading to the unexpected expression of new skills and behaviors at random times. Additionally, someone well liked by a Echny is liked by all of them, and vice versa.
Echnies are capable of simple tasks, such as fetching items or simple object manipulation. They “vocalize” by vibrating their jelly-like bodies, but are incapable of speech.
Echnies are favored as pets, especially because in the unfortunate case of a fatality, another procured will still remember its owner just the same. Forgo the Stress gain or Panic check if an Echny pet is lost.
C:10 I:25 W:3
Adhere: An Echny may stick to and move along any surface.
Bouncy: Echnies roll up in a ball as a defensive measure (when taking a Wound), becoming extremely elastic. They will careen off any surfaces at high speed while in this state.
Ship Mind Class (Auxiliary)
Inspired by Culture ship minds and Ancillary Justice
You are a ship’s mind created to pilot with cutting edge sophistication and control artificial auxiliary units onboard. Use the ship stats of a ship you are installed in, but you may add your skills to ship rolls.
Stats & saves: +60 Int, +30 Fear save
Skills: Robotics, Planetology, Hyperspace
Auxiliary Body: Embody a humanoid sleeve that is controlled by your ship mind. Your physical stats (Strength, Speed, Body save) only apply to this body. Re-roll them each time you embody a new copy.
Trauma Response: if the auxiliary loses signal to the ship, the body acts autonomously: it gains +1 minimum Stress and loses stats and save bonuses from this class.
Cult of the Gloom
The Cult of the Gloom worships darkness and void, antithetical to the Solarian church. In a secretive occult ceremony, they may become Gloombrides, marrying the void by binding their left hand to an aspect of darkness. As a result is this limb withers away.
The cult has no hierarchical structure or official presence. Some of the more devoted also blind themselves, to better commune with the dark, and these are looked to by other Gloombrides as sages and teachers.
Alien Player Class (Morgi)
Morgi (pronounced more-guy, singular Morgus, though many call them “more-gee”). This alien race was discovered aboard wandering ships, but don’t seem to have a world to call their own. They have a septapodal configuration (a head and 6 limbs each ending in hand-like appendeges). Their limbs are powerful and versatile, allowing movement in various configurations, but when interacting with humans they mimic a roughly humanoid appearance. The Morgi are friendly enough, and fairly credulous.
Details about Morgi history can be difficult to come by, but it seems they were used as an underclass of laborers for another alien species—though no sign of such overlords has been found. The Company, of course, is happy to exploit them for labor. Morgi are not aggressive, and when attacked emit a calming pheromone as a physiological defense mechanism.
Stats: +30 Strength, +10 speed, -20 Combat
Saves: +20 Body save. +20 Sanity save, -10 Fear save
Trauma response: When you Panic, all other nearby non-androids lose 2 stress and spend their next turn in a stupor.
Skills: Industrial equipment, jury-rigging, zero-g. Bonus: 3 trained skills.
| d10 | Loadout |
|---|---|
| 00 | Morgi outfit (AP 1), multitool, light orb |
| 01 | Morgi outfit (AP 1), bioscanner, data cube |
| 02 | Standard crew attire (AP 1), assorted toolkit, Flashlight |
| 03 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Nailgun, paracord, rucksack |
| 04 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Electronic tool kit, chemlights (x5), body cam |
| 05 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Crowbar, lockpick set, emergency beacon |
| 06 | Vaccsuit (AP 3), Mag gloves, Hand welder, patch kit |
| 07 | Vaccsuit (AP 3), long range comms, Geiger counter, personal locator |
| 08 | Hazard suit (AP 5), sample collection kit, tranq gun, water filtration kit |
| 09 | Morgi powered harness (AP 5), heavy multitool, jetpack |
Rat With a Gun
You’re a rat with a gun. How does that work? Tiny gun? Big rat? Who knows.
- -15 STR, +30 SPD
- -20 FEAR, +15 BODY, +15 SAN
- Jury-rigging, Rimwise, Athletics. Bonus: 1 Trained skill.
Trauma response: You may choose to make a Panic check to gain [+] on a Speed check or Body save.
Loadout: Revolver (6 Shots)
