No Security

HORROR SCENARIOS IN THE

GREAT DEPRESSION
 No Security
HORROR SCENARIOS IN THE
GREAT DEPRESSION

Caleb Stokes

Hebanon Games
Written by Caleb Stokes
Edited by Caleb Stokes, Ross Payton, and Thaddeus Stoklasa
Layout by Ean Moody, Ross Payton, and Caleb Stokes

Illustrations:
Christopher Cirillo: Title Page, 4-5
Steffon Worthington: 71
Caleb Stokes: 28, 46, 52, 102, 133, 134
Caleb Stokes and Ean Moody: 92
Georgia Historical Society Online Photo Archive: 38
Ean Moody: Cover, 1, 2, 11, 43, 48, 49, 53, 61, 62, 77, 93, 94, 99, 102, 114, 115, 116, 131

Copyright 2013 Caleb Stokes

First Edition 2013

Printed in the United States

Many thanks to all the Kickstarter backers. This dream could not have come true without such an outpouring of
generosity. I wouldn’t have even rediscovered gaming without my good friends Ross Payton, Tom Church, Aaron
Carston, Jason Ariciu, Thaddeus Stoklasa, Andrew Grattendick, and David Dobelman. This book is as much
yours as it is mine.

Thanks to Ean Moody, Violet Kirk, Steffon Worthington, and Christopher Cirillo. You saved this from being a
Word document in my “Ideas” folder (AKA the graveyard).

The RPPR listeners have been enormously supportive, and I look forward to putting them through my death-
traps for a long time to come.

Finally, thanks to my folks for making me a nerd, Splenda for getting off the friggin’ keyboard, and Sara for being
the best woman a husfriend could ask for.
 Table of Contents
The Wives of March 1
Bryson Springs 48
Revelations 61
The Red Tower 93
The Fall Without End 115
 Foreword

The world is not just, but we need to think it is. We think that hard work is rewarded, but the idle rich bankrupt
the country, destroying the wealth of millions of innocent people. Children go hungry because their parents
cannot find work and our answer is a pittance given to charity or welfare. We justify our indifference by blaming
the victims for their lot in life. Any who speak out against the current system are branded as dangerous radicals.
We persecute them because in our mind’s eye, the critics threaten our way of life, not the businesses that gutted
the economy in the first place.

Did you think of the Great Depression or your own life when you read the last paragraph?

Our beliefs in a fair and just world keep us going, which is the greatest cruelty of all. To persevere in a world
ruled by chaos and pain while believing it is fair requires more than willpower. It’s a delusion, a fairy tale we are
told as children, yet we never give it up. Philosophers call it the just-world fallacy, but it’s really an illusion more
addicting than any drug. No matter how wretched life becomes, we cannot give up the belief that good is re-
warded, evil is punished, and all things work out in the end. We need to think that love awaits us in this life or
the next because the idea of greeting death alone is too terrifying to contemplate. Fear not. No Security fixes that
existential crisis.

Death is no longer the worst case scenario.

Caleb Stokes has created a menagerie of cosmic horrors that do more than stalk and kill hapless mortals. They
drag victims into the sky to an unknowable fate, trap them in a hellish ‘family’ older than civilization, and worse.
The antagonists of this book are as dangerous and nightmarish as anything out of Lovecraft, but no player will be
able to guess what they are or what they can do until it’s too late. Teach your players what fear really is by tossing
them into the dark with the inhabitants of this book.

Know that the players can’t rely on the tried and true tactics of other games. There are few grimoires or tomes in
No Security and burning them won’t solve any problems. Dynamite and Tommy guns are too expensive for the
protagonists. It is the Great Depression, after all. The would-be heroes of No Security live in horror stories even
before the scenarios begin. They are part of the forgotten masses in poverty struck areas like the Hoovervilles of
California, the meatpacking district in Chicago, and the boll weevil infested farmlands of the Deep South. All
they have left are their hopes that life will get better, someday, and the belief that things can’t get any worse.

When they encounter the thing from beyond time and space, the ultimate horror of the scenario doesn’t come
from the revelation of its existence. It is the truth. The dark stretches out forever, lurking at the edge of vision,
always ready to swallow up another victim. Even if the player characters survive No Security, they will never for-
get what they have seen. The lies they grew up with will longer no comfort them. In some ways, life is the worst
case scenario.

Enjoy the book.

Ross Payton


 Introduction
or
A Systemless Apologia from the Author
Ron Edwards is famous for bluntly stating the following in an essay of the same name: “System matters.”

I agree, and so do many other gamers. But as the book you’re reading might suggest, I have my reservations. Sys-
tem does matter, but it doesn’t matter all that much.

“Blasphemy!” cries the browser skimming this introduction in the local game store. “Poppycock!” exclaims
some…Victorian time traveler reading an RPG book, I guess? To those with understandable reservations about a
book of horror scenarios written with no particular system in mind, I have but two humble requests.

First, finish reading this introduction so that, even if you disagree with my reasoning, we can enrich the field of
tabletop gaming with our intellectual discourse.

Then, please buy the book anyway.

System Isn’t Sacred

Mr. Edwards, in the same essay that sparked this little rant, provides the example of Herbie to prove his point.
Herbie is a brilliant GM that can tweak even the worst systems to make them fun for his players. But Ron points
out that his players should imagine how much better Herbie’s game would be if he weren’t wasting his talents
compensating for poor mechanics.

This argument relies on the assumption that Herbie will only screw with the rules if they’re broken. Tabletop
RPG history, despite its relative brevity, has proven this false. Most RPG Kickstarter campaigns now offer con-
version guides in their stretch goals. The amount of “homebrew” material available on the internet dwarfs the
content available from actual publishers. The scenarios in this book have been playtested in systems and settings
as various as Call of Cthulhu, CthulhuDark, Trail of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Esoterrorists, GURPS, Nemesis, Savage
Worlds, FateCore, New World of Darkness, Chill, Monster of the Week, and many more. I didn’t write the book
with half those systems in mind; some I hadn’t even heard of.

Players are going to hack, remix, and transfer published adventures to other systems whether they need to or not.
The only difference between No Security scenarios and those other cases is that this book stays out of the way.
The adventures operate in a certain fictional genre, but beyond that the GM’s inevitable tinkering is presumed.

Games as Fiction

Systemless game writing emphasizes gaming as narrative. Who among us hasn’t read and enjoyed a scenario we
never got around to playing? Well, No Security seeks to function as a closet drama as well as a great game. Each
scenario is immanently playable, but the mundane mechanical concerns are minimized to avoid distracting too
heavily from the prose.

Mechanical systems are very often married to fictional worlds, and some groups can have trouble stepping out-
side these comfort zones to find more examples of the experience they’ve come to love. Which brings me to my
next point…
Novelty

It’s no secret that No Security is heavily-inspired by Lovecraftian themes, but horror games like Call of Cthulhu
remain titans in RPG history because they invoke a certain mood. Yet at this point, many gamers have had longer
relationships with the monsters of their preferred mythos than with their spouses. When players can recite the
vital statistics and entire history of a mind-flaying abomination from outside reality like they serve as the thing’s
family physician, that thrilling terror they came looking for isn’t likely to happen. Familiarity usurps tension, and
another good horror scenario winds up dead on arrival, killed by player expectations.

No player is going to see No Security coming. The monsters are brand new and will wreak havoc no matter what
system they’re thrown into. It’s a way to reacquaint those groups so jaded by repetition to the fear of the un-
known that got them into scary games in the first place.

And finally…

Copyright and game licensing is, like, really expensive. I can’t afford that shit, so I just made some stuff up.

In all seriousness, I hope No Security provides your gaming group some tense, frightful, and fun nights of role-
playing. All of us here at Hebanon Games truly appreciate your support and can’t wait to hear about your expe-
riences at hebanongames.com.

Now please go buy the damned book.

The Author
the
Wives of March
INTRODUCTION

Wives of March
INTRODUCTION
The Wives of March is a horror mystery set in Barefoot Crossing, a sharecropping community on the
outskirts of Savannah, Georgia. Three to six players take on the roles of investigators examining the
murder of a Methodist preacher. They accidently reveal an ancient, inhuman conspiracy in the process.
Thematically, the game confronts players with a supernatural evil masquerading its actions as the
banal atrocities so commonly perpetrated by mankind.

This adventure starts with an overall description of the setting and plot for the GM’s use. Information
for the players can be found in the gameplay section, the details of which should only be revealed to the
characters though roleplaying.

2

July 1933: Barefoot Crossing, GA:
The Depression hits the South hard. The drought
of ‘31 reduces cotton yields by half, and financial
desperation leads to an excessive planting of the
lucrative cash crop in the following years. The
market flooded, sharecroppers find themselves
receiving mere fractions of the former price per
pound. Forced to last the winter with far less food
and stuck with fields drained by continual use,
entire communities get caught in a death spiral of
poverty. People flee to the city’s slums only to find
50% unemployment rates. Children starve. Disease
runs rampant. Landowners go bust and sell out to
those peers unscrupulous enough to survive. The
new paymasters demand only one thing of their
beleaguered tenants: more cotton.
Boll weevils continue to plague the crops, reducing
the state’s production by over 30 million pounds in
the 10 years since their arrival. The cotton saps the
soil of nutrients even as it starves the farmers, only
to die inevitably in a swarm of hungry pests. And
still, the landowners demand the farmers repeat
the process.
There isn’t much of Barefoot Crossing left: a dry
goods shop, a post office, some ancient plantations.
Everything else is made up of dirt roads and small,
failing farms.
The only hope comes in the form of the Unifying
Word Revival, a Methodist ministry. Holding
services every Sunday under a massive tent, the
minister Dashell March claims to have chosen
Barefoot Crossing by providence. Supposedly,
the devastating forest fire that wiped clean the
property the church now rests on spoke to March
with the voice of God, like the flaming bush spoke
to Moses. Founding a church in that failing rural
community was his divine duty.
Wives of March - No Security
And by all accounts, he might be telling the truth.
The Unifying Word provides work and food to all
those in the congregation with need. Attendance is
spectacular, and many have moved to the otherwise
destitute Barefoot Crossing to bask in the bounty
of its spiritual wealth. Remarkably, even the land
appears to be recovering, reporting some of the
healthiest crop yields in all of Georgia for the past
two years. The March family has become the pillar
of the whole area, purchasing a huge plantation
home and farm with funds generously donated
by the congregation. Though still suffering from
the hard times gripping the rest of the nation, Mr.
March is set to lead the people of Barefoot Crossing
to prosperity like a divine savior.
But sorrow merely uses hope to sharpen its blades.
When March is found in his study with a stomach
full of buckshot, the whole community launches
into an uproar. Who would want to kill such a noble
man? What will happen to the Unifying Word? Will
the fate of the congregation mirror that of their
champion?
As the community of Barefoot Crossing recruits
those capable of finding answers, they may not
like what the unfortunate investigators uncover.
The philanthropy of Dashell March was neither as
selfless, nor as human, as it first appeared.
3
GM INFORMATION

with its own pain. The family’s reluctance to take

GM INFORMATION
The Tragedy
On a quiet Sunday evening after supper, a single
lamp burns in the study of an ancient plantation
home. A gunshot rings out. A woman screams. The
screen door smashes open, and a young girl with
blood all over her church dress goes sprinting
off the porch into the night. Minutes later, a truck
screeches to a halt on the main road. The man
inside knows that to be caught alone with the
terrified creature huddled in the road is to invite
death, but he can already see the torches and
lanterns amassing at the top of the hill, rolling
towards the road like an angry wave. He opens the
door, the blood-soaked girl crawls in, and he speeds
off as fast as the old truck will carry him, praying
it’s too dark to make out the color of his skin.
interviews only manages to stir the feeding frenzy:
why keep the accusations so secret? Why not let the
public help find the killer? The mobs are geared up
to execute every black man they can find in hopes
of getting the killer. Why hold them back with the
silent treatment? What is the March clan trying to
hide? Is it something to do with their money? Are
they trying to cover up some scandalous sin?
A month after his death, Dashell March’s murder
remains as mysterious as ever, tempting more and
more interested parties to come tug at the threads.
If someone actually manages to unravel the whole
web of intrigue, they might not like what they
expose beneath…
Or survive long enough to tell anyone about it.

Dashell March is reported dead the next morning

by his family, his body found gunned down
behind the desk in his study, murdered with his
own shotgun. The media reaction in Savannah is
immediate and ravenous: the death of Barefoot
Crossing’s savior is the most deliciously
tragic story in a nation already obsessed
4

The Monsters:
The Companions
The Companions are complex and subtle monsters
with a history stretching eons. The origins and
mechanics detailed here are enough to play through
scenario. For a more complete exploration of the
immortal couple, please check out the short story “A
Cult of Two” at Smashwords.
Dashell March is not dead. He quite literally lives on
in the bodies of every male member of his family.
Lydia March, though alive, inhabits an identical fate.
She comprises the female half of the March family –
the entire female half.
Put simply, the males and females are all clones:
the same man and woman, identities masked
by varying ages, diets, disguises, and scars. The
entire March family, all the Carter children, all
the Lee children, and many other undiscovered
clans around the world are genetically composed
of only two people that differ solely in terms of
bodily experience. Mentally, they all share the same
memories.
Wives of March - No Security
And they are older than recorded history.
“March” is merely the latest permutation of
countless aliases. Their true names have been lost
to history along with the language that once spoke
them. Those that would have known what to call
them long ago decomposed down to carbon in the
remains of a nation so old it isn’t known to have
ever existed. But they remain, the eternal He and
She – The Companions.
The Companions predate the invention of
agriculture by an age. They lived in a time where
brutal death was the norm and survival a moment-
by-moment struggle. If disease, predators, warfare,
or other accidents allowed one to survive into
maturity, mating was at best a pragmatic concern
to replenish the ranks of the tribe, at worst an act of
desperate slavery and force.
But the Companions were in love. Theirs was
a deeply passionate romance in a time where
the savage conditions made such a concept
unthinkable. Considering the non-existent records
of the period, it’s quite possible they invented love
as a concept; and considering the daily strife
required to stay together, it may well have
5
The Monsters: The Companions
been the first form of insanity. Like all firsts in
the world, the Companions’ love was terrible and
bloody to behold.
To defend His bride, He fought with ferocity
unheard of in the tribe’s memory. He even
eschewed the sacred rights of conquest demanded
by ancestral law and killed all of His slave wives.
And when the tribal elders objected to His
blasphemy, He killed them too.
She was just as vicious; Her devotion grew
inseparable from the ruthlessness required for
survival in general. She learned dark arts, picked
forbidden herbs of the forest, and hid flint blades
throughout Her leathers and hair. Competitors
seeking to steal Her mate found themselves
poisoned and convulsing by the campfire. Rival
warriors that tried to usurp His place in the
hierarchy were found screaming in the night,
cradling missing appendages and bleeding out. She
came to be worshipped as the most powerful witch
in the land.
Their love was so fierce it refused even the
interference of death. And as the Companions aged,
they sought to defeat mortality itself, the one true
threat to their union.
That early in man’s history, the things that prefaced
the human age still lurked in the dark corners of
the earth. Un-things and not-Gods that murdered
even the comforting definition of language,
creatures of the void forced to retreat from an
encroaching reality they found abhorrent. Back
then, there were still places that housed such
nightmares, places that would become the basis of
every subsequent culture’s idea of Hell. Forbidden
paths still connected our worlds in those times,
though they were secret and tenuous even then.
The Companions, brazen in their love, strode
down the secret ways and made a deal with the
Un-things. They would carry the monsters back
with them, serving as the bridge into a reality that
denied their forms. In return, the abominations
from the darkness before history would teach them
how to defeat Death.
6
In whatever amounted to language for them, the
terrors out of time agreed to the terms.
The Companions returned to the world, and the
Hell behind them shriveled to nothing in their
wake. The forbidden paths collapsed at their
passing, no longer necessary. The entire non-space
ceased to exist in the world as a physical place, the
entire fathomless cosmos now carried inside its
new hosts.
Returned, they looked into each other’s eyes and
saw them free of humanity’s defining fear. They
celebrated, and their coupling made Her swell
with life. It was their first child: the beginning of
millennia of regret.
The child was not human. It wasn’t even natural.
It was one of the Un-things, making good on
the bargain. A universe with stars wasn’t meant
to contain such darkness, and flesh couldn’t
hold such pure, abstract negation. The creature
writhed on too many limbs and screamed shrill
nightmare sounds from countless beaked mouths.
In their attempt to put the abomination down,
the Companions were killed by their own spawn’s
tentacles and claws…
… Only to be born again out of one of the thing’s
countless black orifices. Confused and screaming
with the voices of babes, each lover had to relearn
to open their eyes. What they saw was their
opposite transformed into an infant, writhing in a
muddy pool of pestilent afterbirth next to them.
There were more of the Un-things to bring into
the world. Countless more. And death, even if
carried out by the same unholy seed infesting the
pair, would not free them from their contract. The
nightmares from before time would respawn the
Companions into the world ceaselessly until the
bargain was fulfilled. As this terrible truth dawned
on the adult minds trapped in the frail infant
bodies, the lovers realized what a terrible mistake
they had made… and how far away they were from
the nearest village.

The dark creature resurrected them every time
they died, but it was no nursemaid. They were
left to starve, only to be birthed anew atop the
emacaited corpses of their last interation. Over and
over and over.
Nomads eventually found the infant pair amidst a
field of tiny skeletons, but by then it was too late:
the endless minds housed inside the babies were
already quite mad.
The love of the Companions, once strong enough
to escape death itself, had turned to an equally
powerful hate under the hot sun, biting predators,
and endless hunger. By the time they were rescued
and allowed to grow, each had already suffered
countless agonizing deaths. They separated
in disgust as soon as they were old enough,
determined to find partners that would not remind
them of terrible agony for all eternity.
But as He tried to sire a new heir and She
attempted to birth her first human child, both
brought new insult to their existence. No matter
how many wives he took, they birthed only girls…
the same girl. Girls that said hateful, jealous things
to their mothers as soon as they could talk and
referenced the old ways as if they’d lived through
them. They grew into a coven of identical toddlers
that knew more of the dark arts than the most
ancient witch doctor.
She got the worse horror of being the mother of
Her former husband, a devil child whose cold eyes
had seem more death than the worst warlords of
legend.
If they sleep together, the Companions will bring
more nightmares into the world. If they sleep
with other humans, they reproduce only copies
of themselves, complete with the same haunting
memories of every previous version. It’s a
nightmare existence, offering complete isolation
even as it denies solitude.
Wives of March - No Security
Despite the risk of their passions sparking anew
and bringing another monster into the world
(which happened, many times), the Companions
were driven back together. Spawning such eerily
identical families inflamed superstitions quite
easily back then, and things only grew worse
as the pair’s immortality deepened. They grew
increasingly distant and alien in their thinking,
each copy possessing untold knowledge but
distracted by the memories of a thousand deaths.
The Companions could only speak and relate to
each other. Their wish to stay together forever was
thus granted, an exponentially expanding madness
cementing their bond rather than passion.
They have persisted this way for millennia,
preferring the endless cycle of proliferation to the
agony of renewal and starvation through their
dark spawn. Despite their best efforts, they’ve
been culled many times over: starved during the
fall of Rome, hunted down by holy orders, plagued
by the Spanish flu, etc. But they always return –
sometimes gifted a different skin tone or features
by their dark patrons. Their work fathering the
apocalypse never ends.
The Companions accept their roles as harbingers
of doom. They will either spawn an army of
monstrosities that will consume the world, or
they’ll drown out every human bloodline with their
seed. Despite the hatred they feel towards each
other, the couple grows more dedicated to this goal
with every century. It’s the only chance they’ll ever
have to know death.
Roleplaying Companions
The Companions can present a challenge to
GMs. They are neither so human as cultists nor
so mindless as monsters. When roleplaying a
Companion NPC, the GM should remember that
there is likely no tactical lesson that the eternal
lovers have not learned many times over. In most
situations, they have epochs more experience than
the characters they face.
In The Wives of March, the Companions plan to
speed along their own deaths by spawning as
many of their clones as possible in an isolated
7
The Monsters: The Companions
location. They do this by building a network of
human confederates through financial, emotional,
and physical coercion. These humans spend their
lives serving as the surrogate parents of various
clones, their livelihoods dependent on their ability
to obscure the truth. Once someone joins the family,
they can only leave in a casket. Most don’t realize
this until it’s too late.
The clones themselves are birthed in the
most discrete environments possible. Female
Companions will impersonate women of loose
morals in far away urban environments, returning
home with good news for their fake “husbands.”
Occasionally, a male surrogate willingly serves as
father to an entire harem of female Companions,
but only the most deluded or sick men find this
little fantasy enjoyable after encountering the
dead-eyes and perfunctory love-making of their
many wives. More often, male companions will visit
human prostitutes, monitor them in secret for the
duration of a pregnancy, then send deniable assets
to kidnap the newborns (see The Deformed,
p.21). The male half will also seduce deluded or
desperate women into becoming a wife, promising
them a lifetime of financial support in exchange
for their discretion. Those aware of the truth from
the start are paired with male surrogates in sexless
marriages that serve as a cover for the children.
Those that believe a Companion truly loves them
only discover the truth after giving birth to a clone,
but by then it’s too late to escape.
The Companions avoid outright sexual violence.
This has not always been the case, and it surely
isn’t due to any ethical impulse; they are inhuman
monsters comfortable with every imaginable sin.
They abstain because such horrific crimes risk
exposing their plans, and spur otherwise docile
financial slaves into rebellion. All humans that join
the family eventually come to suspect the truth,
but they remain silent primarily out of fear. So long
as surrogates maintain secrecy and foster clones
on paper, they aren’t forced to do anything against
their will. Only in the rare instances where threats
of poverty prove inadequate are cooperating
humans threatened with murder.
8
If all goes according to plan, after a family has
matured, the clones disperse and repeat the
process elsewhere. The Companions have been
working on this conspiracy to hurry along the
apocalypse for centuries, but world events,
superstitions, and brave investigators have thus far
kept their numbers in check.
Exposed, the Companions will first try to
stonewall inquiries through lies, silence, and
political pressure. Failing that, their considerable
accumulated wealth makes bribery an option. In
rare instances where investigators can’t be fooled
or bought, the pair will then tap deniable assets
(see The Deformed, p.21) to coerce silence
through intimidation or assassinate troublemakers
outright. The failure of their deniable assets
means discovery is inevitable; the Companions
then prepare an ambush for whatever response is
incoming, every clone at their command executing
suicidal violence in sudden, rehearsed unison. The
goal of this process is to cause as much damage to
the investigators and surrounding area as possible
to discourage pursuit, allowing clones of various
ages and sex to escape. Finally, years later, survivors
start the process anew somewhere else.
Mechanically, Companions are merely human.
They have neither special resistance to damage
nor unique attack abilities. If the rules set supports
magic, Companions know pretty much all of it,
but they resist using it in most instances for fear
of making themselves more noticeable. Young and
elderly versions of Him and Her are naturally more
weak and frail; their muscle development and
coordination still follow human timelines. However,
in both hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons,
all Companions are peerless warriors, especially if
able-bodied adults. They’ve had centuries to hone
their skills, find physical pain boring, and harbor no
fear of death.

PCs must find some weaknesses if there’s any hope
of besting such experienced killers. Thankfully,
the source of the Companions’ power can also be
exploited to destroy them:
1. The unwieldy weight of their lived
experience makes adapting difficult for
Companions. Generally, treat any skill that’s
been around for a thousand years or more
as mastered, anything newer as a “fad” the
clones are just getting familiar with. For
instance, while they can use firearms, the
Companions aren’t nearly as supernaturally
skilled with them compared to other
armaments; the pair was just getting used
to muskets when repeaters hit the scene.
An even better idea would be to take the
fight to the streets using cars. The newer the
technology, the better off the PCs are using it
in a contest.
2. The Companions do not have a hive mind;
they merely behave in remarkably uniform
patterns engrained by centuries of shared
experience. A male companion will only
gain the experience of His dead brothers
between death and rebirth. Even then, He
must wait a year or more before biology
allows the infant body to convey anything
learned to other living clones through
writing or speech. Female Companions
suffer the same restrictions. Without
traditional communication such as letters
or phone calls, one hand of the conspiracy
doesn’t know what the other is doing. Thus,
players can divide and conquer, gaining the
benefit of surprise many times over if they
are clever.
3. The sheer volume of memories triggered
by everyday associations can slow the
Companions down, especially in stressful
situations such as combat. This can provide
a bonus to PCs, even though witnessing the
result will likely cause deep psychological
scars (see Optional Rule: Suicide Fugue
State, p.10). This could also be an
excuse for GMs to exercise a little mercy:
the relentless onslaught of the Companions
Wives of March - No Security
could be halted by nothing more then their
own ennui. After all, the plot of The Wives
of March represents the thousandth or so
attempt at speeding along their own demise.
Perhaps the mere presence of investigators
disheartens the Companions to the point
of surrender; what is the point of fighting
when they can just die and start anew? The
entire clan won’t succumb to this nihilism at
once, but it can take out a few targets if PCs
talk up the hopelessness of the situation.
4. The two halves of the Companions hate
each other. Each harbors a millennia’s
worth of unresolved grudges, both real
and imagined. But as each pair requires
the help of the other to stay free of their
monstrous child’s womb, they are forced
to swallow that resentment a thousand
times every day. PCs that recognize this
perverse “staying-together-for-the-kids”
dynamic can manipulate Him to attack Her
and vice versa. After all, there is nothing the
Companions will fight more fiercely for than
getting free of each other.
5. More poisonous than their relationship to
each other is the Companions’ relationship
to their true children. They need to keep
one of the creatures close at all times (Clue
12E, p.42) lest they be trapped again in
another cycle of rebirth, abandonment, and
starvation in the wild; yet the abomination
scares them more than anything else. The
creature has no care for its parents’ safety (it
can always make more), and it would much
rather kill them than be restrained again.
Letting the baby out of its crib, so to speak,
is the most devastating attack available
to PCs, but the violent repercussions of
loosing such a horror on the world are likely
to reach far beyond the Companions (see
Expose, p.44).
9
 The Monsters: The Companions
In terms of narrative, Companions reveal
themselves primarily through perfection. Brothers
and sisters playing games never fight or disagree
about rules. The use of local accents and customs
are exacting enough to imply a purely academic
understanding. No one ever displays unpopular
opinions, and family members operate in harmony
and eerie unison. They are disconcertingly eager
to please guests if they believe they can be brought
into the conspiracy. Homes display unusual
splendor, usually employing as decoration the same
inexplicable antiquities with which clone families
maintain their wealth.
The physical similarities of the Companions often
betray them. Though they can shift skin tone and
features according to the design of their dark
children, their genotypes remain purely identical
for hundreds of years. Attempts to disguise this
fact are just as telling to those already clued-
in. Body modifications are commonly used to
create the illusion of difference among members,
masquerading as amputations, tattoos, and
accidental scars. Hair dye, regimented over-eating,
anorexia, false glasses, and deceptive cuts of
clothing are also widespread.
When characters talk to a Companion, they never
speak to the actual Him or Her; they speak to the
cover identity being played at the moment. After
millennia of persecution, the pair never breaks
character. However, in those rare instances where
“the jig is up,” most Companions cannot resist a bit
of conversation before going in for the kill. They’ve
had no one to speak to for centuries other than the
one they’re cursed to hate forever. Exploiting this
impulse is usually the last chance characters have
to turn defeat into victory, but never believe that
the clones aren’t aware that pausing to chat is a
bad idea. They just don’t care all that much; there’s
always next time, after all.
10
In The Wives of March, a Companion might express
some of the following ideas to PCs before silencing
them forever:
• Offering victims one last chance to “join the
family” as a mother/father.
• Remarking that they haven’t had so worthy
an opponent since Ferdinand II.
• Musing that it has been a long time since
they scalped anybody and wondering aloud
if they’ve still “got it.”
• Critiquing the PCs tactics, including an
argument for the use of the Tetsudo
formation. Bemoaning the shield’s fall from
fashion.
• Apologizing for all the hostility. Claiming
things would have been much easier for
everyone if slavery were still around.
• Assuring victims of their envy. They’re about
to take a journey they imagine to be truly
wonderful.
• Giving characters a choice, the choice the
Companions face every day: feel the sting
of the knife, or go meet their dark offspring
face-to-face.
Optional Rule: Suicide Fugue State
If the system selected for play utilizes fumbles,
critical failures, or botches, GMs should consider
punishing the Companions for failed dice checks.
It might even be a good idea to set a certain range
of possible dice values as automatic failure for the
Companions, such as a 1 on a d10, or 0-10 on a
d100.
The reasons for this are two-fold: firstly, the
mechanic will make the game a bit easier for
PCs likely to be outnumbered and outmatched.
“Nerfing” the Companions ensures the pulp
adventure experience that some groups prefer.
Secondly, such failures are easily in line with the
narrative. Everyone gets lost in the past sometimes,
and the Companions have a lot of past to get lost
in. Stressful situations may trigger decades’ worth
of associations within them at once, effectively
overloading their minds. This glitch might be the

only chance PCs have to survive an attack. In games
with a madness mechanic, a failed Companion
attack should just mean they rip into the PC’s sanity
rather than their flesh.
When a Companion fails a roll, pick one of the
results off the following table or roll a d10.
1. The Companion starts muttering to itself in
a dead language, talking to someone only it
can see.
2. The Companion carves into its flesh with a
sharp object, seemingly fascinated by the
blood spilling out. It watches the crimson
trickle, ignoring all other activities, even if
other wounds are being inflicted on it at the
time.
3. The Companion is crippled by a sudden
surge of memory. It falls to the floor and
curls into the fetal position, completely
catatonic.
4. The Companion is drawn to stare at the sun
or moon, falling into the religious awe of
its proto-human origins as an escape from
stress.
Wives of March - No Security
8. The Companion mistakes the PC for a
long dead human lover, one who briefly
distracted them from their endless pain
and temporarily restored their humanity.
The Companion rejoices and shouts for joy
in the language of their love affair. It tries
to embrace the character, looking hurt and
confused if attacked or scorned.
9. The Companion mistakes a PC for another
Companion. If in combat, it will move to the
character’s side and look for a new target.
If out of combat, it gives the PC an order in
an ancient language, looking confused if the
player ignores the command.
10. The Companion drops to its knees, starts
chanting, and prepares an honest-to-god
magical spell. The air kicks up around it
as magical blue ley lines start spiraling
outwards from the ground. Its eyes turn red
and roll back in the sockets. The Companion
can’t defend itself in this state, and letting
it finish the spell is a very, very bad idea (at
the GM’s discretion, of course).

5. The Companion completely forgets how to

use all modern technology: crashing the car,
tearing off clothes, using a machine gun as a
club, etc.

6. The Companion, having lost all grasp

on standard human behavior, begins
unreasonable negotiations for peace. For
instance, it might try to apologize for killing
a character’s loved one by paying a blood
debt to the chieftain in the form of fatted
cattle.

7. The Companion is somehow reminded of

the futility of it all and violently commits
suicide with the nearest available weapon.

11
 GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
GAMEPLAY
INFORMATION
Character Selection
Characters should all be people who are recognized
for finding hidden information, enough so that
they might be hired to look into March’s death.
Private investigators are the obvious choice, but
there are many other aspects of the situation under
examination besides the murder itself. Nearly any
learned profession would do. Trusted community
doctors might be consulted, or local historians,
amateur journalists, thugs willing to do some
extra-legal snooping, etc. So long as someone might
realistically hire the PC for their discretion and
investigative abilities, a character can come from
almost any 1930’s occupation.
Aside from having a realistic skill set, players
should be concerned about which faction would
hire their character. This is something players
should pick for themselves. There are four possible
employers, and what follows is all the information
players get before deciding which one they’ll work
for.
• Rathbone, Rathbone, and Wilks: the most
prestigious law firm in Savannah, charged
with executing the March estate.
• The Prophetic Baptist Assembly: concerned
with possible violence towards the black
community as a result of March’s murder.
• The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office:
seeking March’s killer.
• Atticus Wambles: a carpet-bagger claiming
to be March’s illegitimate son and seeking a
portion of the inheritance
It should be noted that factions will not hire
indiscriminately. It’s unlikely a prestigious southern
law firm in the Jim-Crow South would hire anyone
of color for any reason. It’s equally unlikely a black
pastor would trust a white man to protect his flock.
A lot of this is going to depend on how the GM
intends to deal with issues of race, gender, and
class in the game (see The Problem with
12
History, p.12). Just be open with players about
how you intend to tackle historical issues and urge
players to pick a realistic employer for the time
period.
The Problem with History
It’s fun to delve into the past for a game setting.
It provides escapism by separating us from our
lived experience with a vast gulf of time. It allows
us to make the setting more alive than any purely
fictional place, using history to infuse the locations
with vitality and depth. But placing a game in the
past (especially America’s past) also forces us to
deal with the undeniable racism and sexism that
ruled in those times, issues which justifiably still
cause a lot of discomfort today.
Thematically, The Wives of March seeks to
engage this subject directly. Part of the terror the
Companions represent is derived from the casual
cruelty that is so ubiquitous in mankind’s past. Yet
it’s possible to go too far with such material and
sap the fun out of the game.
There are a few options for dealing with this
situation. The simplest is to ignore the subject
completely, never mentioning a character’s race
and keeping occupations open to all sexes. While
this might hurt verisimilitude, it will sidestep any
delicate issues that could come up. Never sacrifice
fun for realism.
The other option for “ignoring it” is to make all the
PCs share the same race and gender. Keep in mind
that this only prevents PC-on-PC conflict; issues
might still come up in interactions with NPCs.
Furthermore, practicing eugenics during character
creation (i.e. “All of you have to be white males!”) is
really tasteless. Make sure if the characters all share
the same race and gender, it’s just a coincidence of
player choice.
This writer’s preferred option is to incorporate real
historical struggles into the narrative as another
source of conflict. Female journalists are even more
admirable for doing the job in a time as patriarchal
as 1933. Black investigators that risk their lives
against the institutional hatred of the old South
 Wives of March - No Security
AND eldritch horrors are that much more heroic. Plot Hooks (Getting Characters Together)
In general, the story will be richer for including
The game starts on a Saturday afternoon. Players
such delicate issues alongside the escapism of a
begin at the location of the faction responsible for
supernatural investigation, and refusing to “white-
employing them. Since their bosses want them to
wash” the uncomfortable truths shows respect for
succeed, characters should be provided all the clues
the gravity of such issues. The only downside is
available at that location immediately. NPCs will be
that this approach requires a lot of maturity from
more reluctant to give information to PCs working
everyone at the table.
for other parties, but it’s still possible to get those
clues by visiting that location later in the game and
First off, make sure everyone takes care to avoid
making dice checks. For instance, someone working
racial and sexist slurs of all kinds. Abstract such
for Columbus Rathbone will learn everything his
language where it would naturally occur in a
employer knows at the very start, but that doesn’t
paraphrase, whereas all other character dialogue
mean the character can’t go pump the Sheriff for
can appear in “direct quotes,” so to speak. Keep in
information later.
mind that RPGs are a primarily verbal medium. A
racist NPC is still going to be using the voice of the
Once their employers brief the characters,
GM to spout their hate; make sure no one starts
encourage each investigator to attend the next
finding their buddies loathsome when it’s the NPC
service at the Unifying Word Revival
that deserves a lesson in tolerance. Abstracting
(Location 0, p.14). It’s the best way to see
hate speech helps make this distinction clear.
what is going on with the March family and hear
the gossip from those closest to them. Once they
In general, everyone should enter the game fully
arrive at the service, make sure that the one
aware of the first maxim of a writer’s workshop:
clue everybody notices is the presence of other
the author is not synonymous with his or her
investigators. None of them seem to really fit in, for
characters. Even if a player wants to play a racist
some reason…
and/or sexist character for the sake of realism,
make sure it’s understood that flaw belongs to the
Once everybody is aware of all the characters on
character rather than the person rolling the dice.
the case, it’s up to players to decide between being
Leaving nasty words out altogether helps remind
cooperative or cagey. If they talk things through,
everyone of this fact.
they’ll realize none of the factions are really at
odds. Working together only increases everyone’s
Though realism is nice, players are much better off
chance of success. If they still insist on working
using their more enlightened place in history as an
alone, the GM has provided an opportunity and it’s
advantage. After all, even the most small-minded
a matter of player choice.
character is going to have to cooperate if they want
to survive (which could make for a nice character
arc towards tolerance, incidentally). Characters
should use their anachronistic acceptance of each
other as a source of power over the prejudiced
environment. A black investigator can pick up
gossip in the West Savannah slums; a white
investigator can interrogate an upscale antiques
dealer; a female investigator can shame the
“chivalrous” officer into letting her see the police
report. But only by cooperating together can they
put all the pieces together and get a clear picture.
Prejudice separates people in the real world; use
acceptance to strengthen the bonds between
characters instead.
13
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
0. Unifying Word Revival
The Unifying Word Revival isn’t an actual church.
Services are held under a gigantic tent set up in a
field by the main road entering Barefoot Crossing.
Pews are moved in by truck. The stage and altar,
such as they are, get reassembled every week.
Attendees park cars and wagons in the area
surrounding, and the popularity of the services
are making the area quite a spectacle on Sunday
mornings. The congregation is entirely white, but
a number of local black sharecroppers make extra
money setting up the tent before everyone arrives.
Many then return to their own church
(Location 2, p.18), but a few can be found
smoking in the makeshift parking lot as they wait
for services to end so they can strike the tent down.
As such, The Unifying Word Revival is strikingly
progressive for the time and allows access (to some
degree) to all races.
Since the tragic passing of Dashell March, his
eldest son (Dashell March Jr.) has become the
pastor. In his 30s, the young man bears a striking
resemblance to his father and commands the
attention of the crowd with the practiced ease of a
man 20 years his senior.
0A. Well-behaved Children
Anyone that attends services regularly will notice
the remarkable discipline of the children at The
Unifying Word Revival. With very few exceptions,
the typical shenanigans of bored church kids are
absent, regardless of age. No one is fidgeting in
their seat or messing with stuffy Sunday clothes.
No one falls asleep or tries to sneak a funny book
into the hymnal. Parents are free to devote their full
attention to the lesson; in some cases, they actually
seem less attentive than the children. There’s
nothing overtly supernatural about the lack of bad
behavior: perhaps The Unifying Word is merely
doing things right or the community is particularly
godly. Still, characters will have a tough time
remembering another congregation so… focused.
14
List of NPCs
Dashell March – pastor of the Unifying Word
Revival Church, deceased
Lydia March – wife of Dashell and matriarch
of the Church
Lorraine Carter – wife of Dave, church
patron, and pregnant with her fifth child
Dave Carter – husband of Lorraine, church
deacon, and “father” to Carter clan
Annabelle Lee – widowed church patron and
mother of four
Atticus Wambles – possibly a bastard son of
March; claiming inheritance for mother
Becky Spratt – impoverished church
attendee and mother to Claudette
Claudette Spratt – teenage girl suspected of
shooting Dashell March
Alphonso Banks – black sharecropper that
assisted in Claudette’s escape to the city
Theo Phillips – pastor of the Prophetic
Baptist Assembly, concerned for Banks
Columbus Rathbone – lawyer hired by
Lloyd’s of London to invalidate March’s will
Sheriff Reed Ritson – beleaguered lawman
tasked with solving the March shooting
Caiden Garrod – visiting Lloyd’s of London
investigator gone missing in town
Players with any kind of skill in history, especially
theological or local, will notice that the attention
is that much more odd. The sermon itself seems
downright archaic, both in terms of vocabulary
and religious doctrine. The lesson is academically
dense, makes almost no mention of current events,
and employs few modern metaphors. Those
familiar are reminded of John Wesley’s historic
writings upon landing in Georgia in 1735.
0B. Pastor’s Pets
The front pews in most churches are typically
reserved for the pastor’s family. Lydia March
– recognizable from her photo in the Savannah
papers covering her husband’s murder – sits on the
left-hand pew with her son’s wife, grandchildren,
and extended family. It seems as if the March clan
stretches onto the right-hand pew as well, but

there are a few faces that don’t seem to belong. A
dark-haired woman corrals a whole group of young
girls to sit down, and a couple which appears to be
as old as Lydia fills the rest of the space with their
sizable family. Some of the March children seem
peppered in amongst the right side, mingling with
the other families.
Asking around the church will let players know that
the two families on the right are the Lee and Carter
clans. They are long-time favorites of March’s,
and a few of the back pew families backhandedly
express their resentment towards the favoritism.
Questioned subtly enough, these malcontents might
even give up where the pastor’s pets live
(Location 8, p.31 and Location 9, p.34.)
0C. Rough Crowd
The people of Barefoot Crossing apparently
live hard lives. Facial scars and eye patches are
disconcertingly common. There are a number of
cleft palettes amongst the congregation, slightly
more than the PCs can recall ever seeing in the
same place. A few amputations dot the crowd, even
a few children missing arms and legs. The majority
of the crowd appears healthy and happy, but even
considering the rough existence of a sharecropper,
the community seems unsettlingly prone to
disfiguring accidents. On the other hand, no one
likes to see a little girl walking around with one
sleeve of her dress empty. Perhaps the characters
are being unfairly prejudiced or alarmist…
0D. Collections and Tithes
A few coins are to be expected in the collection
plate: enough to show piety, not enough to make
the hard times harder. But everyone in the tent is
putting a disconcerting amount of money in the
collection plate. There are a couple of ten dollar
bills in the mix, and any character not emptying
their wallet as the plate is passed receives side-long
glances of disapproval. How can these struggling
farmers afford to tithe so much? What makes them
so enthusiastic to do so?
Questioning attendees after the service reveals
that the church “takes care of everyone.” Pushing
the issue reveals that the Marches use their land
Wives of March - No Security
to operate a communal farm to which everyone
in the congregation contributes labor at least one
day a week. In return, the church takes care of the
whole community’s food needs, and the Marches
themselves donate any other money or services
required by needy members. By expressing interest
in joining the church, characters can be told where
the farm operates and instructed to go sign up for a
shift (Location 7, p.27).
0E. Church Gossip
There has never been a more readily accessible
source of intelligence than church gossip.
Characters that insinuate themselves into the meet-
and-greet session that occurs after the sermon
ends can learn a ton about Barefoot Crossing. This
source is available to investigators of color as well,
seeing as they are moving about the crowd loading
pews and breaking down the tent. Listening in can
reveal the subtle resentment some feel towards
the Lee and Carter families as well as the existence
of the communal farming operation. Other gossip
includes whispers about the continuing scandal of
Dashell’s murder. Rumors about an illegitimate heir
seeking inheritance circulate and get scolded for
being disrespectful. Parishioners complain about
the slow progress of the sheriff’s investigation and
express hateful, unreasoning suspicions toward
the black community. Everyone resolves to pray
that Lydia’s troubles in seeking the elder March’s
inheritance are soon resolved.
The otherwise positive prattle of the church
families grows downright venomous on the
subject of Becky Spratt. Her absence at the
morning’s service seems simultaneously offensive,
predictable, and welcome. More Pollyanna-ish
attendees commend the sense of mercy that
compelled the Marches to let such a piece of white
trash into their church. Younger congregants
remark that they don’t miss the daughter’s “slutty”
black singing during the hymns and gossip about
her having something to do with the “negroes” that
killed Dashell. The general consensus seems to be
that everyone would like the Spratts to stay in that
“little swamp shack they call a house” every Sunday
(Location 10, p.36).
15
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
(GM NOTE: In game terms, GMs should use the
murmurs of the crowd to clue investigators in on
what they may have missed during the service itself.
More importantly, the bustle and chatter of the
congregation is an opportunity to spot investigators
working for other factions and speak with them
without attracting too much attention.)
0F. Greeting a March
If the characters work their way to the front,
they can greet Lydia March or one of her adult
children. Immediately upon making one-on-one
contact, characters notice the sheer intensity of
a March gaze. It seems to both look past and into
them simultaneously. Characters with experience
in war might recognize the stare in victims of
shell shock, whereas the more religiously-minded
might be impressed by what appears to be a deep,
fathomless piety. Either way, the eye contact that
occurs during conversation – though not in any
way outwardly inappropriate – leaves a nagging
sensation of awe in any who experience it.
March children, when speaking to an outsider, will
eagerly and politely introduce PCs to talk to Lydia.
If characters comment on the sermon or express
interest in the Unifying Word, the matriarch
will generously greet them and ask if they need
anything. The church is there to serve, after all, and
she wants to see that everyone has their essentials
taken care of: Dashell would have wanted his
family to work through their grief by rededicating
themselves to God. Of course, Lydia needs to know
where the investigator lives so the charity truck can
add their address to the rounds…
If characters are open about their role in
investigating the March murder (revealing that
they work for Rathbone or the Sheriff, for instance),
Lydia offers any assistance she could possibly give
and thanks them for their service. Even if working
for a faction openly hostile to the family (such as
Pastor Phillips or Atticus Wambles), mother March
insists that Dashell was a godly man with nothing
to hide and expresses hope that the investigator
will stick around after realizing the baseless nature
of claims against her family. In either instance,
Lydia March does everything in her power
16
to ingratiate herself with the PCs. She’ll offer to
help with any businesses they operate in Savannah
(she seems familiar with them, somehow) by
introducing lucrative new clients or becoming a
patron herself. She’ll introduce single investigators
to eligible suitors and southern belles in her family.
She may even invite them over for Sunday dinner.
It’s clear by the end of the conversation that the
whole March family is either on the investigators’
side or really wants to get the investigators on their
side.
1. Offices of Rathbone, Rathbone, and Wilks
The offices of Rathbone, Rathbone, and Wilks
are housed within a renovated townhouse in
downtown Savannah that predates the Civil War.
Inside its warm walnut halls, the Depression might
as well be occurring on another planet. Servants in
full formal dress answer the door and serve drinks
to the firm’s lucrative clients. The hallways reek of
cigar smoke and money.
Columbus Rathbone is the only lawyer not out of
town on business, and he urgently needs someone
to help with the most lucrative contract in the
firm’s impressive history. He’s been subcontracted
by the prestigious Lloyd’s of London to help with
a claims investigation regarding Dashell March’s
will. The pastor was known to be well off, but
nothing ever suggested he possessed enough
wealth to have multiple accounts with the most
prestigious banking and insurance operation in the
world. While Rathbone is not the executor of the
state himself, he’s been promised a considerable
fee if he can help the Brits resolve the issue, and
complications with the previous inquiries made
in the last month have caused him to seek outside
help.
1A. The March Will
For legal reasons, Rathbone does not have Dashell
March’s complete Last Will and Testament.
However, he has been informed of the particular
clause that is causing concern for Lloyd’s:
“I, Dashell Mann March, do hereby bequeath my
residuary estate, constituting all property and
money held in escrow by Lloyd’s of London, under

the consolidation of the Unifying Word Revival
Church, and in the name of Dashell Mann March, to
my second wife, Lydia Fille March. In the event my
second wife does not survive me, the aforementioned
residuary estate will transfer to my first wife,
Virginia Gurwilon Maia. In the event my first wife
does not survive me, the aforementioned residuary
estate will transfer to my third wife.”
There are records of a divorce between Virginia
Maia and Dashell March in the state of Missouri
dating back to 1918. However, authorities in the
region report that Virginia Maia has been missing
and presumed dead since a house fire in 1927. The
mere existence of this former spouse makes the
case a delicate matter: a pastor having undergone
a secret divorce is a massive scandal. Revealing this
information to the public would make both Lloyd’s
and Rathbone liable to a civil suit neither could
hope to win. More importantly, why bequeath all
property to an ex-wife rather than the children? Yet
despite all that, the Missouri wife isn’t the problem.
The third wife in the will is never named, and
Dashell’s marriage to Lydia is still active and
recognized by the state of Georgia. Who is this third
wife, and why was she not named when March
updated his will a scant three months before his
death? What was Dashell March hiding when he
was unexpectedly gunned down in his study?
Rathbone wants to know. If there is any illegal
activity being carried out via the will, the document
becomes null and void. That would mean the assets
held by Lloyds’ of London (which are apparently
vast) revert immediately to the bank, and all
property held by the church would go through
probate in Georgia before moving to next of kin.
Columbus Rathbone would not only be entitled to
the percentage fee paid by the state, it would net
the lawyer a huge bonus from Lloyd’s and their
professional gratitude. While the firm doesn’t
want any part in illegal activity, the partners are
seeing dollar signs. Rathbone and his cohorts
will be extremely grateful to anyone that can
reveal March’s transgressions while maintaining
discretion and the appearance of working for the
family.
Wives of March - No Security
Rathbone’s first suggestion for investigators is
to familiarize themselves with the March family
(Location 0, p.14). He also suggests ferreting
out a paper trail on the family by sifting through the
Chatham County Records Office for deeds held in
the family or church’s name (Location 5, p.23)
1B. Missing Predecessor
Lloyd’s of London’s reliance on Rathbone is new.
They originally paid to send their own investigator
to the states and merely used the law office for its
in-house wire service. However, Caiden Garrod has
been missing for over a week now.
Rathbone has been stymied in his attempts to
access Garrod’s room at the Hotel de Soto. The man
paid for his accommodations a month in advance
out of his own pocket, and the prestigious hotel
is refusing anyone access until the payment is up.
If, somehow, the investigators were to stumble
through the locked door and into his room, there is
nothing Rathbone could do to stop it (hint nudge
wink). The firm certainly wouldn’t care to know
anything discovered within because they are solely
focused on the results of a successful investigation
(HINT NUDGE WINK).
Rathbone provides the address of the Hotel de Soto
as well as Garrod’s room number
(Location 6, p.25).
1C. Accusations of Misconduct
Complicating the disappearance of Caiden Garrod
are accusations that he may have stolen from
his employers. It was discovered only after the
investigator’s departure that Garrod accessed a
vault in a Swiss bank owned by Lloyd’s using false
credentials. It’s uncertain yet what he may have
done there or if anything was taken, but it certainly
casts suspicion on the man’s sudden vanishing.
1D.The Atticus Wambles Angle
Finally, Rathbone is concerned about recent
claims in the press that a northerner by the name
of Atticus Wambles is the bastard son of Dashell
March. Though the young man has remained
vague in the press and cagey about hiding
his presence in town, it’s possible that
17
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
his claim could be true, especially in the light of Unaware of the situation but completely certain it
March’s suspicious will. The lawyer has no idea could spell death for the young man, Phillips urged
where the young man is staying, but he encourages Banks to run anyway; the white woman could
investigators to question the man if they see him take care of herself. Banks remained unconvinced,
and provides a photo pulled from his newspaper arguing that he had to help her or he couldn’t live
clipping service. with himself as a Christian. He begged for money.
Phillips gave him what little he had and hasn’t seen
2. Prophetic Baptist Assembly Banks since.
The Prophetic Baptist Assembly serves the black
Recently, the pastor has heard rumors that Banks’
sharecropping community outside Savannah. It’s
bed-less ’24 Model TT was seen in Savannah. He’s
modest in every sense of the word, though they do
scared that the young man is still around town. The
operate out of a building unlike the Unifying Word
mob is already screaming for justice and needs no
Revival. The sudden popularity of the neophyte
excuse to kill a black man without evidence; if they
white church is a matter of some concern among
discover Banks in the presence of this mysterious
the black congregation, but most are wisely
white girl, there’ll be no stopping them from
determined to mind their own business. Pastor
lynching an innocent man. He wants Banks found
Theo Phillips, however, has put out some subtle
and smuggled out of town for his own safety.
inquiries into the community looking for help into a
delicate matter.
While the reverend is doing his best to track
Alphonso down through his own means, the angle
(GM NOTE: The danger posed to a black community
he can’t pursue is the rescued white woman. He
in the years of Jim Crow was omnipresent and
encourages investigators to attend a service at
brutal. Reprisal could occur for completely imagined
Unifying Word (either as worshippers or hired help
offenses and was almost always outside the due
to strike the tent, depending on race) to see if they
process of law. Any characters employed by Pastor
can discover the identity of this woman
Phillips need to have history that explains his
(Location 0, p.14).
trust for them, especially if they are from another
race. While the pastor himself is a progressive and
tolerant man, the risk presented to his congregation 2B. The Missing Bluesman
is too great to seek help from anyone but the most Reverend Phillips knows that Alphonso Banks is
trusted of friends.) making a name for himself in the West Savannah
Slums as a blues singer under the name “Country
2A. A Late Night Confession Large.” If Banks is trying to make money to support
the woman he’s taken under his protection, his
Pastor Phillips is concerned about a member of his
only real option is taking gigs at juke-joints in
congregation, Alphonso Banks, who came banging
the area. Phillips, obviously, can’t be seen in such
on his door in the middle of the night over a month
disreputable establishments without drawing too
ago. It was the night of the murder, and Banks sat
much attention, but he hopes investigators might
on the porch shaking and covered in blood. While
be able to find Banks by asking around about his
Phillips couldn’t get many details out of him, the
blues persona or just scouring the streets for his
panicked young man managed to get out that he’d
distinctive truck (Location 11, p.38).
gotten in “some trouble with a white girl out by the
March place.” The pastor immediately advised he
get out of town – out of Georgia, if possible – but
Banks refused. He said the girl was in a real bad
spot and he was the only one that could help her.

18

2C. Garrod’s Questioning
What sparked Phillips’ urgency is an interview
he had with Caiden Garrod two weeks previous.
The Englishman seemed unaccustomed to the
racial divide in the South and had a conversation
with the pastor as an equal. This peaked the holy
man’s paranoia, and it only deepened as questions
focused increasingly on Dashell March, the Unifying
Word Revival, and the shooting. Concerned for the
safety of Banks and the community at large, Phillips
feigned ignorance at every turn. Garrod eventually
left discouraged, but not before revealing he was
working for Rathbone, Rathbone, and Wilks.
Nothing about the Brit’s pressing interrogation
implied the relaxed inquiry of an insurance
investigator, and Phillips thinks there might be
something to discover at the law firm (Location 1,
p.16). After all, if incontrovertible evidence of
wrong-doing can be proven of some other party,
it might distract the increasingly bloodthirsty
press from directing suspicion towards the black
community.
3. Chatham County Sheriff ’s Department
Located in Savannah proper, the Sheriff’s
Department is far more sophisticated than any
other law enforcement agency that might be found
elsewhere in Georgia. Still, about all this amounts
to is a few functioning jail cells, some desks, and a
reception area. While more equipped for murder
investigation than anyone else, the department
is still woefully understaffed and poorly trained.
Couple these woes with the distance from the
station to the crime scene and the odd political
pressure coming from all sides, Sheriff Reed Ritson
finds himself out of his depth. If he doesn’t get a
lead soon, an angry mob is going to take all the
credit for finding the killer, whether they actually
do or not. He’s calling in outside help in the form of
consultants to supplement his inept deputies.
3A. Police Report
Sheriff Ritson begins by familiarizing investigators
with the police report from the incident itself. On
a Wednesday evening six weeks previous, Dashell
March was shot in his study some time around
9 p.m. The murder weapon was March’s own
shotgun, which rested above his mantle and should
Wives of March - No Security
not have been loaded. Lydia March, after hearing
the shot, rushed into the room to find her husband
already dead. She then heard an engine starting up
outside. When she went to the window to see, she
witnessed Claudette Spratt getting into a “getaway
truck with a negro man.”
While the presence of a black man has been
leaked to the public (or perhaps just sadistically
imagined), Claudette Spratt’s presence has been
kept a secret for the sake of sparing the family
any gossip that might result from a young woman
having been left unattended in the house of a
married man. Lydia insists that Claudette was
merely there as a guest for dinner. The pastor
often had her and her mother over for supper to
help alleviate their crushing poverty. Additionally,
Claudette is reported to be a sinful and indiscreet
young girl; Mr. March used the free meals as an
excuse to minister to the teen. Claudette Spratt is
still missing.
Ritson’s prevailing theory – an alarmist,
sensationalist, and completely unsupported
hypothesis – is that Claudette Spratt is under
the thrall of the black male driving the truck. He
thinks the black man used the girl to break in, the
robbery went bad, and the pair fled. He’s afraid
this is just the beginning what is “surely” to be a
long and bloody crime spree by interracial Bonnie
and Clyde copycats. He suggests investigators get
a fresh perspective on the case by re-interviewing
witnesses after Sunday services at the Unifying
Word Revival (Location 0, p.14)
3B. Becky Spratt’s Statement
To Ritson’s credit, there is at least some
corroborating testimony to back up the claims
in the police report. Becky Spratt, Claudette’s
mother, gave a sworn statement two weeks ago
that confirmed her daughter’s wild ways. In the
deposition, the woman admits to attending dinner
at the March home multiple times and bemoans her
daughter’s “consorting with the lowliest trash in
all of West Savannah.” Upon reviewing the report,
investigators can copy down directions to Spratt’s
little shack tucked away in a swamp
(Location 1, p.16). The officer taking the
19
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
notes did write in the margin “Under duress?” It
might be worth checking up on.
3C. Lydia March’s Statement
A few details from Lydia March’s account of the
murder stand out. The presence of a negro man
obviously received the majority of her emphasis.
Sheriff Ritson doubts that a black man from
Savannah proper would be familiar enough with
March to plan a robbery, and he can’t even fathom
the notion that it may have been Claudette’s idea.
Thus, he suggests his private investigators check
at the Prophetic Baptist Assembly (Location
2, p.18). The church serves the rural black
sharecroppers around Barefoot Crossing, and as
such it’s the best bet for finding someone that
knows the mysterious man in the truck.
Lydia March also made out the make and model of
the getaway vehicle: a bed-less ’24 Model TT truck.
The Sheriff suggests that if no one at the church is
willing to talk, characters should ask around about
the vehicle in the West Savannah Slums (Location
11, p.38). It’s the only location nearby where a
black man could hope to hide, and if he’s gone to
ground in the country or left the state, the case is
hopeless anyway.
3D. Letter from the Governor
Eugene Talmadge, the governor of the great state
of Georgia, has sent Reed Ritson a letter. It can be
spotted lying on the Sheriff’s desk, but he’s just
as likely to show it to characters to emphasize the
importance of speed and discretion. The governor
is a personal friend of the Marches (asking around
reveals that they donated quite generously to
his campaign and are very civic-minded). In the
flowery language of a politician, Talmadge promises
to generously reward anyone responsible for seeing
this “grievous crime against Christendom avenged”
in the same breath that seems to imply anyone
incapable of the task can expect unemployment
very soon.
20
3E. Protection Order for Wambles
As an afterthought, the Sheriff will tell investigators
to watch out for Atticus Wambles. The man is
currently in town filing a civil suit against the
March family under the claim that he’s Dashell’s
illegitimate son from a previous marriage. Some
northern lawyers have already filed a restraining
order with the Sheriff’s Office requiring that
Wambles be kept 500 yards away from all members
of the March family at all times. The order was
granted in Indiana, so there is no telling what
evidence of abuse was used to sue for the order –
or indication if any was provided at all. Regardless,
violating the order would complicate matters in an
already tangled situation. The sheriff informs those
in his employ that Wambles is currently staying at
the hotel Le Fruit de la Rose (Location 4, p.20).
He urges everyone to make sure he stays away from
the March family, even if his name comes up in their
inquiries.
4. Le Fruit de la Rose (Atticus Wambles’
Room)
While it doesn’t share the legendary quality of
the Hotel de Soto, Le Fruit de la Rose is a pleasant
alternative. It sports a popular restaurant next to
its lobby and fine service despite its location in a
less-reputable part of town. Atticus Wambles has
been trying to find a lawyer he can afford to hire.
He wishes to sue the March family for the entirety
of Dashell’s estate, arguing he is the man’s firstborn
heir. His claim is based on being the beneficiary
of his mother, who he claims March neglected and
abandoned.
Until such time as he can secure counsel and begin
filing papers, Wambles gathers evidence against the
March family. Since they might recognize his face,
he needs outside help to do so.
4A. March or May?
Wambles is in his forties and not hard up for
money; he owns a lucrative shipping business up
north. However, no wealth could ever ease the sting
of what his father did in abandoning his mother.
His entire adult life, he has employed a national
news clipping service to look for mentions of his

disappeared father. Much to his surprise, they
found a hit three weeks ago... though only for two
out of three names.
Atticus claims that Dashell Mann March was
originally named Dashell Mann May. The portrait
printed of March standing at the pulpit is identical
to his childhood memories, and Wambles is
convinced he has finally found his quarry in death.
The scorned son doesn’t need the money from
the March estate and has no special hatred for the
other members of the family, but he is determined
to get revenge for what March/May did to his
mother all those years ago. He plans to bankrupt
the corrupt and fraudulent church that he suspects
March founded solely to hide his former crimes
(Location 0, p.14).
4B. The Fate of Gibson, Indiana
Wambles was born in 1902 in Gibson, Indiana.
It was a coal-mining town. His mother, Bertha
Wambles, had been previously married, but her
first husband died in a tunnel collapse a few
short months after their wedding. Left alone and
without any means to support herself, she soon
found companionship with Dashell May, a foreman
at the same mine. They married quickly: he took
care of her finances, and Atticus was born shortly
thereafter.
The marriage was loveless from as early as Atticus
could remember. His father maintained a constant
attitude of approachability and humor at work, but
he’d immediately become cold and distant upon
returning home. He rambled about nonsensical
historical and quasi-academic subjects, then grew
furious when Atticus and his mother failed to show
interest. The two sisters born in subsequent years
suffered some sort of mental imbalance that kept
them from laughing or crying. The pair rarely even
spoke to anyone save themselves, and they seemed
to hate their father almost more than they hated
their brother. Of course, all of this weird behavior
was stamped out in public. Dashell insisted his
family maintain the appearance of perfection at all
times… or else.
Wives of March - No Security
The Deformed
The Companions maintain a contingency of
specialized soldiers to dissuade any curiosity into
their affairs. Though all versions of He and She
share the same martial prowess, this tiny squad
of duplicates knows from birth that this life is
dedicated solely to the protecting the clan. Their
births are never reported. They never attend school.
They spend their whole lives in the most isolated
residence the Companions can secure. Each
member’s first mission is essentially His or Her
debut in society.
Though meant to kill or intimidate everything from
law enforcement officials to military personnel,
the Deformed do no actual training for war.
The Companions long ago realized that physical
perfection does nothing save reveal their identical
nature. Malady and misfortune are far easier to
pawn off as unique. As such, every member of
the Deformed has clearly visible, self-inflicted
mutilations.
They pluck out their eyes, brand their faces, and
scar their flesh. They starve themselves or gorge
to manipulate their weight. Amputations aren’t at
all uncommon, and each is performed in isolation
without anesthetic. To the Companions, pain is no
more than another hellish tedium to be endured.
If witnesses manage to survive an attack by the
hideous death squad, they only ever report the
assailants’ distinguishing deformities, never even
noticing an otherwise perfect resemblance to many
other functioning members of the community. If
ever captured, the Deformed have no ID, no records,
and no one that recognizes them. They never, ever
speak under interrogation, passively staring at
nothing no matter what tortures are inflicted. Once
this disconcerting tactic drives captors into other
rooms, the modified Companion bites off its tongue.
Every Companion, even the ones passing off
as normal citizens, goes through each day with
memories of having lived multiple Spartan lives that
ended choking on blood.
21
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
In 1912, when Atticus was ten, he returned home
from school to find his mother nearly beaten to
death. Later, she would claim that two men came by
that morning. They looked like professors and had
a lot of questions about Bertha’s husband. In the
middle of the questioning, Mrs. Wambles claimed
that both her daughters suddenly went running out
the back door. The two men gave chase, ignoring
the woman’s screams.
No more than half an hour later, Dashell May
came home early from work with only one of his
daughters in tow. He proceeded to beat Bertha to a
pulp, screaming that she had “ruined everything.”
He then packed a bag and left with the girl.
As young Atticus was tending to his mother, shots
could be heard in the distance. Apparently, there
was some altercation with the strangers at the
coal mine. The firefight spread into the tunnels
and dynamite got used in the wrong vein. The coal
mine burned with nearly fifty men still inside. The
town of Gibson still burns today, no more than a
smoldering crater with a spiderweb maze of hell
blazing beneath it. Atticus managed to help his
mother escape the inferno only to watch her sanity
whither away until she committed suicide when
he was fifteen. Dashell May was never seen again…
until Wambles found a picture in a Savannah
newspaper nearly two decades later.
(GM NOTE: March and May are the same Companion
under a different alias. It should be noted that
Wambles is not the Companion’s biological son: the
first husband conceived Atticus before his death and
his mother never told the truth. Atticus’s “sisters,” on
the other hand, are female Companions and part of
the conspiracy. That is why they never bore him any
affection and disappeared with their “father.”)
4C. The Fire of ’29
During his weeks in town, Mr. Wambles has only
become more and more certain that March is the
man he is looking for. The holy man apparently
settled after witnessing a wildfire as he “drove
through” Barefoot Crossing. March frequently cited
the event in his sermons, claiming that the fire
was a signal to him that the people needed
22
him. But Atticus doesn’t think it was a coincidence
that the former white church and its pastor,
Thomas Atkins, suffered the most damage in the
bushfire. The abandoned son has no way to prove
it, but he suspects his runaway father set the fire
to carve a place for himself in the community, just
like he destroyed Gibson to cover his escape from
the law. The Atkins place has since recovered and is
again a functioning farm run by the March clan
(Location 7, p.27). Wambles wants to go check
it out, but he fears he’d be recognized.
4D. Meeting with Garrod
The best lead Wambles has is Caiden Garrod. The
Lloyd’s of London investigator, despite the conflict
of interest between his employers’ motivations and
Atticus’s case, met with Wambles and discussed
matters a few weeks previous. Mr. Wambles got
the impression that Garrod was legitimately on
his side; the Brit seemed interested in everything
he had to say and spared him the usual disbelief.
But shortly after agreeing to meet again in a safer
location, Garrod disappeared. Wambles has been
unable to reach him at his room in the Hotel de
Soto for over a week and fears the worst. While the
man is too paranoid to go investigate himself, he’ll
give characters Garrod’s room number and suggest
they search the room. (Location 6, p.25).
4E. The Deformed Attack
(GM NOTE: This event only occurs if PCs find and
talk to Wambles as a secondary location, not if he
hires them initially. The illegitimate heir is under
surveillance, and while talk with strangers in the
hotel lobby can be dismissed as friendly chatter,
seeing the “new members” of the Unifying Word
Revival pop up at Wambles hotel in the same week is
too much of a coincidence. The Companions decide to
put a scare into Wambles and the PCs to get them off
the trail.)
Wary characters can notice an odd group of
unfortunates loitering around Le Fruit de la Rose,
dispersed around the lobby, in the restaurant, and
on the street outside. Each appears to be noticeably
scarred in some obvious way (see The Deformed,
p.21). One woman is missing an arm, another
is morbidly obese – there’s a man with an eye

patch and another barely conceals the burn marks
covering his head under a fedora. If they’re noticed
at all, characters can see that the group obviously
looks to a hulking brute propping up the lunch
counter for leadership. The man-mountain has a
startling cleft palette that dribbles as he nurses his
tea, and his eyes can be caught straying towards
Wambles when he’s not launching discouraging
glares at anyone who tries to start a conversation.
If characters don’t notice the Deformed, or if the
Deformed don’t know they’ve been spotted, they
will wait until Wambles returns to his room with
the PCs or goes to some other secluded place. Once
isolated, the whole group will attack in freakish,
uncanny unison.
Seeing this human hive mentality in action strikes
a blow against any sane person’s mind, and actual
blows are soon to follow. While the Deformed don’t
want to kill Wambles and the PCs yet (it would
draw too much attention), they intend to terrify
and cripple anyone looking into the March family.
Their broken frames don’t disguise the ferocity and
tactical precision of their hand-to-hand attacks.
They’ll keep attacking relentlessly until their
victims are at the point of death. The hare-lipped
leader then lisps a warning: “Stay away from the
Marches or you die. Get out of Savannah and don’t
come back.” Finally, the raiders do their best to
escape, leaving Wambles and the PCs broken and
unconscious.
If PCs manage to best the attackers’ simply
astounding hand-to-hand skills, the Deformed that
can flee will do so. Any captured by the police say
nothing, no matter the interrogation method. Any
killed don’t carry ID on them, but their corpses
provide a whole new set of problems to everyone
involved.
5. Chatham County Records Office
Were it not for the efforts of the Historical
Preservation Society and the building’s utility
in financial disputes, the Records Office would
have likely decayed into a heap of rubble years
ago. Housed in one of Savannah’s oldest civic
buildings, the dusty file cabinets and mildewed
Wives of March - No Security
bookshelves might as well be holding up the ceiling
rather than resting underneath it. Between the
incompetence, deregulation, and outright graft of
local officials, proper paperwork was only ever a
polite suggestion for citizens of Chatham County.
Only the fastidious and paranoid bother to get their
forms filled out, and even then the records are
thrown onto the whims of whatever disinterested
clerk gets charged with filing them. The document
a man needs might very well be there, but finding
anything means a long, sweaty day in the stacks.
5A. March Birth Certificates and
Marriage Licenses
March’s marriage to Lydia occurred in 1925.
Care appears to have been taken to transfer this
document to Georgia from Kansas – which is odd
– but their marriage is still remarkably fresh for
people of their advanced age. The March children
don’t appear to have had their birth certificates
re-filed since coming to the state though, and all
appear to be single on paper. Anyone that’s seen
the family’s pew at the Unifying Word Revival
knows this isn’t true; Dashell March Jr., for certain,
was seen holding hands with a woman wearing
a wedding band… a woman that looked like a
younger version of his mother.
5B. Lee Birth Certificates and Husband’s Death
Those that noticed the favoritism shown towards
the Lee family might be inspired to look up their
paperwork (Clue 0B, p.14). While their direct
connection to the March family isn’t immediately
apparent, investigators with a keen eye notice
similarities between the family’s address and the
Church deeds (Clue 5D, p.24) as well as the
close proximity of the signing dates. Intrinsically,
the family’s documents don’t make mathematical
sense. If the dates on the Lee birth certificates
are correct, of the four children in the family, the
youngest is two months old. That means Annabelle
Lee had the child when she was forty-six years
old. Furthermore, her marriage license notes
that her husband, Frank Lee, died in 1928. But
there are no records of a Frank Lee having died in
Chatham County that year. If characters have the
wherewithal to call for Annabelle’s maiden
name in other states where March was
23
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
known to have lived, they find more information in
Missouri. A kindly clerk will inform them that there
are no records of a woman with that maiden name,
but they do have an Annabelle Cipolla married to a
man named Frank Cipolla in St. Louis. Frank Cipolla
died in 1915 under mysterious circumstances. If
asked, the Missouri clerk doesn’t think the couple
originated from his state; there are notes that
Annabelle originally came from Indiana and went
by the maiden name of Rosetti.
Lastly, the family’s address is listed
(Location 9, p.34).
5C. Carter Birth Certificates,
Marriage License, and Felonies
Those that noticed the favoritism shown towards
the Carter family might be inspired to look up their
paperwork (Clue 0B, p.14). While their direct
connection to the March family isn’t immediately
apparent, investigators with a keen eye notice
similarities between the family’s address and the
Church deeds (Clue 5D, p.24) as well as the
close proximity of the signing dates. A number
of other inconsistencies and red flags show upon
further investigation. The marriage license for
Mary Beth and David Carter is dated Oct. 11th,
1929. If the birth certificates of their children are
to be believed, this means that 3 out of 4 of their
children were born out of wedlock, the earliest
over a decade before the pair wed. There are also
notes that indicate David Carter’s name should
be stricken from all ballots either as candidate or
voter. Further inquiries are to be directed to the
Sheriff’s Office. Characters with the credentials
to follow up on this find that Mr. Carter has an
impressive list of felonies on his record: assault,
assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, and a
number of domestic disputes with various women.
His criminal career only appears to have died down
after marrying Mary Beth.
Lastly, the family’s address is listed
(Location 8, p.31).
24
5D. Unifying Word Revival Deeds
For a church that holds services out of a tent
every week, the Unifying Word Revival owns an
alarming amount of property. The largest tract of
land is the Old Atkins place (Location 7, p.27)
and was purchased for pennies an acre after being
ravaged by the wildfire of 1929 (Clue 4C, p.22).
The March clan also owns the homes of Carter
(Location 8, p.31), Lee (Location 9, p.34),
and a few other family farms in the area. In regards
to Lee, the church owned the home from the very
start. The date of sale for the Carter home is the
same day Mary Beth and David filed their marriage
license.
5E. Alias Deeds (if known)
If characters have already discovered Caiden
Garrod’s bibliographic notes (Clue 6B, p.25),
they can find more revealing information. Garrod
discovered that the past few years have seen a lot
of property change hands in Chatham County. In
addition to bills of sale for all the March property
and that held under the name of the church, every
failed farm in Barefoot Crossing (of which there
are many) has been quickly bought out after
foreclosure. The same names that purchase the
farms also deal with very lucrative storefront and
dockside properties in Savannah.
A particularly sharp mind can spot similarities
amongst all the owners, and anyone familiar with
the March Will (Clue 1A, p.16) finds one of the
names (Gurwilon Maia) familiar. All the names
involved in the Chatham County land grab share
eerie similarities: the last names are all names of
months in varying languages (March, Mars, Maart,
Marz, etc) and the middle names translate the
typical gender assigned to the first name (Dashell
Mann March, Steve Macho Abril, Liam Kerl Januar,
Tony Ragazzo Augustus, etc.)
The system is too perfect to be coincidence. The
huge amount of property being purchased in and
around Barefoot Crossing is either the work of a
single man using systematic aliases or the focus of
a vast conspiracy whose members use their own
names as code.

6. Hotel de Soto (Caiden Garrod’s Room)
Savannah’s finest lodging establishment boasts
gourmet chefs, professional service, and a lavish
décor. Only the city’s elite can afford the decadent
accommodations, making the De Soto’s restaurant
infamous for hosting negotiations of high finance
and political power. The hotel’s reputation for
excellence is only matched by its reputation for
discretion.
Behind a “Don’t Disturb” sign, Caiden Garrod’s
room couldn’t further undermine the building’s
opulence if it tried. The bed and desk are littered
with documents, scraps of torn paper, and barely
legible notes. Dirty clothes are strewn about
everywhere. There’s an elaborate hierarchy of
names and strange tribal doodles painted onto the
walls in ink and…something else. The bathroom
has been converted into a makeshift dark room. A
half-finished plate of food that’s been sitting on the
nightstand for over a week writhes with maggots.
6A. Tailed
If players advertised their interests or otherwise
revealed their identities, the March family will tail
them (see The Deformed, p.21). They know
that Garrod was staying at the De Soto, but they
don’t know in which room. They’ll hang back
and monitor any characters looking for the man,
striking if they find the room. Their hope is to
secure whatever evidence the Lloyd’s employee
gathered against them.
If the characters haven’t revealed themselves to
the Marches yet, they’ll just notice a number of
mutilated people looking suspiciously attentive
outside the lobby. The sight of so many suspicious
people with cleft palettes, missing eyes, and
amputated arms is enough to put the most tolerant
of people on edge and warn them to use subtlety.
Discovering Garrod’s room number requires
knowledge gleaned from Columbus Rathbone
(Location 1, p.16), Garrod’s key (see
Clue 7E, p.30), or successfully persuading
the front desk manager (not easy without some
elaborate deception). The room is located on third
floor. Gaining entry requires acquiring the key,
Wives of March - No Security
picking the lock, scaling the building to the window,
or kicking the door open. Even then, characters that
failed to notice their tail will be quickly attacked by
The Deformed.
6B.Bibliographic Notes
As an insurance investigator, Garrod was a
consummate professional. The man did his
homework on the targets of his case. Amongst the
nonsensical scraps littering the room, investigators
can find a wrinkled sheet with bibliographic notes
for finding documents at the Chatham County
Records Office (Location 5, p.23).
In game terms, possessing this sheet of paper
provides all the clues available at the Records Office
without a dice check and in much less time. Garrod
used his knowledge of the Lloyd’s of London
accounts to discover all the aliases operating in the
area and every paperwork inconsistency.
6C. Annotated Photograph
In the bathroom-turned-makeshift-dark-room,
PCs can find Garrod’s cover. It appears the Brit
was making inquiries of the Marches disguised as
a reporter for the Savannah Daily News. The ruse
seems professional: the dark room has a complete
outfit, forged press credentials, and “drafts” of
a human interest story on the Unifying Word
Revival. Pictures of the congregation members
hang about the room. In the sink, one photograph
has been extensively annotated and modified using
information Garrod found in his records research
(show players the handout “Sunday 6.25.1933”).
On the back, the amateur detective pasted a copy of
his “caption notes” taken when the photo was shot.
It reveals the addresses of the Carters (Location 8,
p.31) and Lee’s (Location 9, p.34).
25
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
6D. Annotated Contents of Bank Vault Under
Alias
A typewritten inventory of items in a Swiss bank
vault sits submerged under a tide of documents
on the bed. The list is written on official Lloyd’s
of London letterhead; it appears this is the vault
that Garrod used his credentials to access before
coming to America. The vault apparently belongs
to a Finnish national named Abel Homme Iokakuu.
The inventory is heavily annotated in Garrod’s own
handwriting, which appears in parentheses:
• Owner: Abel Home Iokakuu (account
number the same as the March case, in
reverse. Can’t be a coincidence. Must check
on holiday)
• Spanish Land Holdings (El Castillo! I thought
it was a dead end, but those paintings in
the cave…I MUST REMEMBER. Was there
really something in the woods, stalking
me, the entire time. What does it know?
Is it the thing from the painting? I MUST
REMEMBER. WHY CAN’T I?)
• Assorted Family Portraits (dear god! What is
going on!? Needed for evidence)
• Five Faberge Eggs (missing for years!)
• Gold (stamped as CSA currency…how? Why
ship overseas?)
• Assorted Mesoamerican Objects (the
infamous La Noche Triste treasure?)
• Turkish Tapestry (lost in the Vault of
Snagov)
• French Tapestry portion (Missing Bayeux
section? Impossible!)
• Altarpiece (“Raising of the Cross” thought
lost in bombardment of Brussels)
• Numerous paintings (I should have taken
these too, but I’m no thief)
o “The Fisherman’s Daughter/ Mender
of Nets” (Jules Breton, missing WWI)
o “Time Saving Truth From Envy and
Discord” (by Nicolas Poussin, missing
1840)
o Miscellaneous works (BY Sandra
Botticelli, lost since Bonfire of the
Vanities)
o “The Circumcision” (by...Rembrandt,
lost in the 18th century)
26
Any characters with a background in art history
recognize this as a list of some of history’s greatest
lost masterpieces. If such treasures truly survived
squirreled away in a secluded vault, the contents
would be worth millions of dollars.
6E. Folio of Portraits
Sharp-eyed characters notice that the vent grate
underneath the nightstand sticks out. Tampering
with the screws reveals that the grating was
removed and improperly replaced. Inside, a rolled
up artist’s folio has been concealed. It appears this
bit of paranoia was done in a hurry since “rolled-up
inside a vent” is the absolute last place one would
want to store some of the more aged contents.
The folio contains dozens of family portraits.
The artistic medium varies from oil painting to
watercolor to photographs of sculptures and
woodcuts. The perceptive notice an eerie similarity
between all the images. Mothers look like time-
lapse photos of daughters, even as paintings
turn to black-and-white photography. The bust
of a patriarch bears striking resemblance to the
younger brother in another painting. Identical
twins abound. Nobody ever smiles.
Those with a working knowledge of art can arrange
the pieces in a rough chronological order. If this
is done, it becomes apparent that some of the
portraits were taken simultaneously. Italian and
German brushstrokes, contemporaneous in art
history, are used to depict families with identical
features in strikingly different locales. Regardless of
time period or setting, everyone displays a startling
resemblance to the men and women of the March
family.

6F. Recreated Cave Painting
As Garrod’s global inquiry into the Marches grew
increasingly strange, the man’s calm seemed to
degrade. The slovenly disarray and the obsessed
world travel certainly suggest this fact, but nothing
advertises the educated young gentleman’s descent
into madness quite like the walls of his room.
Above the bed – using paint, ink, food dyes, and
other less-savory substances – Garrod spent his
nights in Savannah trying to recreate a painting
from memory. Though players have no access to
the original, the insurance investigator actually
did a passable job (see The Monsters, p.5).
Characters with sufficient knowledge of the
occult, anthropology, or archeological can learn
a bit from the mad scribbling. The note about the
vault contents (see Clue 6D, p.26) indicates
the deeds he found led him to Spain before he
made his way to America. Apparently, the insane
mural is a recreation of what he found there. If
Garrod accurately mimicked the style and his
label of “El Castillo” is to be believed, the original
paintings would be more ancient than anything
ever discovered and located somewhere within a
labyrinthine Spanish cave system.
(GM NOTE: The truly knowledgeable are able to
piece together a condensed narrative from the
pictures. Read the following to a player that dares
parse the ancient images: “A great warrior and a…
witch woman, I guess? They fall in love. But they
feared death as all do. They went to the Gods and…
parleyed? Communed? They would let Gods into the
world if they could beat death.
So they agree, and there is much death among the
people – indicated by the bloody palms. But the God
killed the couple when it came into the world and…
rebirthed them? Many times? And now the warrior
gives birth to the witch, and the witch gives birth to
the warrior. Forever.
And the pair of them, if they touch, give birth to the
God…but they don’t want to, I think. So they just keep
birthing each other, over and over, and then there
is nothing but the warrior and the witch. See? They
even drown out the bloody hands, the deaths of the
people. I think there aren’t even any people left to
Wives of March - No Security
die, by the end. Just those two.”
7. March Farms
The farmland formerly owned by Thomas Atkins is
largely unused. Granted, its previous owner sold to
the March’s at a cheap price when fire devastated
much of the acreage, but years have passed since
that day. The areas cleared by the fire now offer
rich, fertile soil in countryside otherwise drained
by cotton, yet huge tracts have gone to seed or
been left as piles of ash. The only landmarks on
the massive property are the barns for the food
growing operation, some forest that survived
the ’29 fire, and the dilapidated former Atkins
residence located on the outskirts.
The only people ever present are the volunteer
field hands from the church and a single member of
the March clan operating as foreman. Though many
are suspicious to see outsiders at the farm, they
won’t be outwardly hostile. Most merely have too
much to do to waste time on curious parties, and
they have nothing to hide besides. They’re merely
cooperating to feed their families… as far as they
know.
7A. Where are the Weevils?
Though used entirely for food farming now, it
appears that at one time some of the fields on the
property were used for cotton crops. The stalks
remain withered where they were planted in
previous seasons; some have sat so long that wild
cotton springs up between the rows. Characters
with any experience in agriculture know this
makes no sense. Even if the Marches could afford to
practice proper crop rotation (most can’t), leaving
the stalks planted does nothing for soil recovery
and is in clear violation of Georgia quarantine
protocols. Boll weevils can still breed amongst
dead stalks and leaving them after a harvest is an
invitation for the creatures to decimate every crop
for miles around. Yet Barefoot Crossing is one of the
few places in Georgia supposedly recovering from
the infestation.
27
Clue 6C

Investigating the dead fields closer, amateur
botanists can see that there are absolutely no signs
of boll weevil infection amongst the fields. More
startlingly, the cotton bolls are still full. No one ever
harvested these cash crops; they were planted,
cultivated, and left to rot.
Anyone asked about the abandoned cotton crops
dotting the property doesn’t know anything about
it. They’ve only ever seen the farm used for church
food production since the Marches took over. They
claim it must have been Atkins that planted and
abandoned the cotton, despite the fact that the
rotting plants couldn’t have stuck around since ’29.
7B. Duty Schedule
Characters that get inside the barn notice a thick
clipboard hanging from a nail. The sheaf of papers
attached reads “Duty Schedule” at the top and
contains an exhausting list of names. Players that
take the time to study the ream of dates and names
discover that every member of the church appears
at semi-regular intervals for years. It seems that
members of the Unifying Word Revival dedicate
one out of every six days to farming for the church.
While dates and times for each member are listed,
there are neither payroll records, crops sales
receipts, nor share agreements. The people do
the work for no other pay than food to feed their
families, apparently dedicating the entirety of their
land to cotton production. In short, the Unifying
Word Revival has transformed its congregation into
a socialist food collective, leaving the workers five
days a week to profit from their inexplicably pest-
free cash crops. How the Marches manage to pay
for all livestock, seed, and equipment required to
run such an operation remains a mystery.
At the back of the clipboard rests a separate list
of contact information for all the workers. The
additional names of Annabelle Lee and Dave Carter
(Locations 8, p.31 and 9, p.34) appear in
the contact list without ever showing up for a
scheduled shift. Those checking for the name of
Spratt won’t find an address, but the names of
Becky and Claudette Spratt show up a few times
before ceasing work a month ago.
Wives of March - No Security
7C. Ancient Practices
The volunteers at the March farm use archaic
practices. Rows are made by a horse-drawn plow,
not the shallow disc plows of recent invention.
Tractors are used rarely, if ever, instead opting for
beasts of burden. Seeds are planted by hand. It
seems to be quite an adjustment for some of the
sharecroppers used to more modern conveniences,
but such things are apparently forbidden on the
premises.
7D. Arcane Borders
Those that spend an extensive amount of time
wandering the miles of empty farmland will notice
grid lines cut into the grass, criss-crossing the
entire property. Nothing seems to grow on these
perfectly straight mounds of dirt, and they aren’t
very practical compared to a fence as a means of
separating property. There’s no explanation as to
why the grass doesn’t grow over them besides the
possibility of salting the earth. At over two feet
across, it’s possible the lines operate as fire breaks,
but that seems a remarkably paranoid and labor-
intensive precaution considering the relatively
barren fields.
Really curious investigators might get the urge to
dig beneath the dirt: perhaps some massive pipe
could explain the grid of exposed earth? If they do
so, PCs find an odd braid about six inches deep and
in the center of the disruption. The braid appears to
be made of leather, hair, and raw cotton entwined
together, and knots tie the materials together into
lines that stretch for miles.
While initially confusing, the buried braid gets
more disturbing the longer characters think about
it. What’s the purpose of the entire endeavor? How
long would it take to create miles of such a braid
and bury it? What kind of surveyor would map out
the geometrical perfection required of the grid for
such a useless project? Why is all the hair brunette?
How long would it take to tie that much hair
together? To grow it? What animal is that leather
made out of?
29
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
7E. The Abandoned House
The farmhouse of Thomas Atkins has been empty
ever since the sale of his burned property in 1929.
Broken windows, peeling paint, and knee-high
grass advertise the property’s abandonment. The
only thing that appears to have been maintained is
the new barbed-wire fence that has been installed
around the building.
The interior is barren, but characters with
experience in tracking can tell it hasn’t been empty
all these years. Amongst the glass shards and
animal droppings, drag marks can bee seen leading
towards the basement door. Characters that brave
the lightless stairwell wish they hadn’t. Propped
against one of the dirt walls sits a weeks-old rotting
corpse.
Those with the stomach to overcome the stink can
investigate closer. The putrescent, bloated body
appears to be the freshest of several corpses. It
rests on a pile of mummified flesh and human
skeletons. Forensics experts can tell that the
methods of murder varied, but all victims appeared
to have died violent deaths with the latest corpse
resulting from multiple stab wounds. Were it
not for the bloodstains and necrotic excretions,
the victim would be wearing a very sharp suit.
Otherwise, decay makes identification impossible
on the spot.
Fighting off the rats and roaches proves not to have
been worth it; the man carries no ID (the Marches
already took it). However, one of the rats gnawing
at the man’s shoe leather has revealed something
shiny. Hidden away in a hidden compartment
within the heel rests a hotel key. The chain
identifies it as belonging to the Hotel de Soto, Rm.
315 (Location 6, p.25).
30
Most horrifying of all, the body appears to have
been bound postmortem. Braids of hair, leather,
and cotton lead from both wrists – their ends
actually embed into the dead man’s veins surgically.
Each oddly constructed tether buries itself into the
earthen walls of the unfinished basement. Players
familiar with the odd grid running throughout the
entire compound (Clue 7D, p.29) recognize
these weird restraints.
If characters keep their heads after seeing such a
grisly sight, they may notice the parcel resting in
the opposite corner of the basement. On a pile of
bloody rags rests a tin of boot black, a lighter, and
a flint knife. The chemicals in the tin haven’t dried
out and the lighter still works, so it appears as if
someone is regularly visiting the basement to use
these items.
(GM NOTE: Players have no way of knowing for
certain that the body is that of Caiden Garrod until
they visit the Hotel de Soto. Furthermore, take note of
whether or not characters were seen headed towards
the abandoned house. The March family only keeps
one member at the farm at any given time, and they
won’t risk an attack if they’re outnumbered. The
more likely tactic would be to report to the rest of the
family and ambush PCs later.)
7F. Blood Sacrifice
Players might get the idea to stake out the
abandoned farmhouse to see who returns to the
crime scene. Those with knowledge of the occult
might already recognize the workings of dark
magic and realize that, with the approaching full
moon, the mad culprit is likely to return soon.
PCs that manage to stay hidden and observe are
rewarded for such diligent detective work.
Anyone on stakeout spots a lantern approaching
from the northwest at around 11 p.m. A hooded
figure riding a mule ambles towards the house,
dismounts, unlocks the gate, and enters. Along
with the lantern, the figure is carrying some sort of
parcel wrapped in cloth close to the chest.
 Wives of March - No Security
The figure stays inside for a few moments. If If PCs still haven’t intervened or fled, Wilhelmina
allowed to exit without being disturbed, the figure reaches towards the infant. She places the babe
disrobes and can be recognized upon exit. Naked into the body cavity of the dead mule, finishes her
save for cloth undergarments, Wilhelmina March – incantation with a fierce cry, and dashes the lantern
the eldest March daughter – is recognizable in the against the ground. As the March’s savage daughter
lantern light. She’s painted her entire body with flees, the bone-dry field bursts into conflagration.
unrecognizable arcane symbols. In her left hand, The boll weevils don’t flee from the heat, burning
she holds the lantern; in her right, a flint knife. The with the stalks in the most unnatural manner. The
parcel turns out to be an infant child, asleep in a baby, terrifyingly, never screams.
sarong wrapped around her body. Equipped, the
savage lady returns to her mule and walks towards If Wilhelmina is captured or stopped, she’ll try and
the nearest abandoned cotton field. fight to the death. After all, there is nothing they
can do to her that won’t be explained away as the
Players can easily follow the strange young woman: depravity of the poor white girl’s murderers. In the
it’s far too late and secluded to expect company, and unlikely event she is captured, investigators can’t
she seems preoccupied with chanting something expect anything save unsettling taunts, though
in an incomprehensible language. Tailing her and her very presence is enough to indicate that the
the mule once they get to the dried cotton stalks March plantation is the origin of all this madness
becomes more problematic, but it’s still possible for (Location 12, p.40).
those that step lightly.
Rescuing the infant is equally unrewarding. The
Wilhelmina stamps out a perfect circle in the baby is just another male Companion, born off the
middle of the field and steers the mule to its center. books and sacrificed as no more than a magical
She lays down the swaddled infant and, fast as a pesticide. The horrible little thing just stares at
snake, lashes back to cut the mule’s throat with the them with its ancient eyes.
flint knife. The move is almost preternaturally fast
and kills the animal instantly in a spray of blood. (GM NOTE: GMs should feel free to introduce
The practiced ease of the movement is deeply unforeseen consequences if PCs tamper with the
unsettling to behold. magical spell. Side effects might be codified in some
systems, but keep in mind that the only arcane secret
As the animal collapses, Wilhelmina immediately the Companions haven’t had time to learn is the one
begins gutting the poor beast. She raises the that ends their pain. Perhaps cutting the braided
entrails to the full moon, now at its apex in the cord that segments the land releases the boll weevils
witching hour, and lets the offal rain down upon her and sends the burning little creatures flying like a
bare skin while continuing her inexplicable chant. swarm of sparks. Maybe ending the incantation early
The air hums with a dark energy and wind begins magically revives the mule and flays the sanity of
whipping towards the field from every direction. anyone forced to hear its undead bray.)

If characters have managed thus far to suppress 8. Carter House
their screams, the task grows harder as, seemingly
The Carters live on the outskirts of Savannah, too
from nowhere, thousands of boll weevils begin
close to town to run a farm. The “parents” are Mary
blanketing the field. The tiny insects crash into
Beth and David Carter. They have four children:
the stalks in a living downpour, lifted up on a
Virginia (15), Merle (13), George (9), and Lorraine
supernatural wind and carried farther than their
(4). When players arrive, Merle is playing jacks
wings could ever hope to fly. They writhe across
with Virginia on the porch, George is reading a
everything, but none fly up to leave. They seem held
book in a rocking chair, and Lorraine is walking her
in place by some invisible force.
doll down the steps. They somehow give the
impression that they could be found here at
31
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
any time of day. It could be four in the morning –
there would still be the jacks, the book, and the doll.
The children try to tell any visitors that their
parents aren’t home, but David Carter can plainly
be seen drinking alone at the kitchen table. The
kids will reluctantly retrieve him to speak to any
visitors if pressed. Mrs. Carter can be seen through
the window in the family room. She sits on the
sofa… just sort of staring straight ahead.
8A. Squandered Wealth
The house could be nice – really nice. It has
electricity, spacious rooms, and tasteful decoration.
It’s a better property than could be found anywhere
but downtown Savannah, yet everything looks
sullied by filth and neglect. The exterior paint
has mildewed and peeled. Fragments of a broken
vase in the hall have collected a thick layer of dust,
apparently abandoned where it fell. Clothes and
dirty plates lay strewn about. What does David
Carter do that he can afford a place like this during
such hard times? And how can he care so little for
it?
8B. “Gifted” Children
Wary characters notice that the games and
dalliances of the Carter children exhibit more
dedicated skill than is typically ascribed to
grandmasters in other fields. Virginia and Merle
seem caught in a war of perfection: each one
trades off grabbing all ten jacks with a lightning
fast sweep of the hand, neither ever commenting
on the other’s superb reflexes. George can be
caught reading some dusty tome in Latin behind
his children’s book. Lorraine walks her doll down
the stairs with the predictable movements of a
factory line. Upon closer inspection, it’s uncertain
if the little girl is putting the doll’s feet onto worn
patches in the step’s paint or if the doll’s feet made
the worn patches through thousands of repetitions.
This unnatural perfection seems only to grow more
pronounced the more the character notices it,
seemingly increasing in intensity the longer visitors
keep asking questions.
32
8C. Eerie Similarities
Characters that first encountered the Carters at
the Unifying Word Revival suffer some cognitive
dissonance. It seems they mistook some of the
Carter children as part of the Lee family, or perhaps
some of the Lee family as Carter children. In fact,
even characters with photographic memories
can’t recall exactly who was sitting with whom.
The children of the two families bear far more
resemblance to each other than to their parents.
If they hadn’t already, characters should begin to
suspect the Lee family (Location 9, p.34).
8D. Hair Dye Manufacture
If players manage to get upstairs, they’ll find the
Carters to be living in a sty. Only one of the four
rooms appears to be occupied by a bedroom, and
this is furnished with filthy mattresses that cover
the floor. The whole group sleeps on the floor
together. Strange vats of liquids and bushels of
various herbs take up every other available space.
Characters with backgrounds in chemistry or
cosmetics recognize these strange concoctions as
hair dyes of various color. Each appears to be made
using an ancient herbal recipe, yet it’s prepared
with a factory-like concern for volume. Bottles and
boxes sit ready to ship the various dyes, but no
labels are present. If they aren’t selling the stuff,
what could possibly be the use of that much hair
dye?
8E. Mr. Carter’s House
David Carter will not be pleased to see anyone
visiting his home. Instead of the passive demeanor
displayed at church, the “patriarch” behaves like
a drunken psychopath at home. He’ll immediately
threaten characters with violence if they don’t
leave his property, angrily waving around a half-
finished (and illegal) whisky bottle as he slurs
threats. Attempts to calm him only stir his fury.
The only thing that checks Carter’s irrational rage
is his daughter, Lorraine. As conflict escalates, the
“young” girl tugs on Carter’s overalls and says,
“Daddy, stop.”
The frenzied man reaches back to actually
backhand the four-year old, but the child’s
unearthly glare stops him mid-swing. With

a chilling certainty more fitting a monarch’s
execution sentence, the little girl continues: “Calm
down, Daddy. You might get yourself hurt.” She then
returns to silently playing with her doll.
This interaction between father and daughter calms numerous bastards with women of the March
the madman down, but it’s far from comforting.
Carter is plainly not past hitting a child, but he
seems to back down more out of fear than shame.
After a half-hearted apology, Dave begins poorly
feigning ignorance to all the PCs’ questions. The
only thing that breaks his stonewalling is mention
of Mary Beth. He refuses to let anyone speak to her
and the merest attempt is enough to set him off
again. This time, nothing save a sound beating will
stop the crazed drunk. A physical confrontation
begins (Clue 8F, next).
8F. Confrontation/ Carter’s Arrangement
Carter is an older man that drinks heavily and
rarely labors. While a smack from his bottle
remains dangerous, he isn’t too hard to best in
combat. Once beaten, so long as he still lives, Carter terrible, abhorrent things.
pleads for mercy. He promises to tell PCs whatever
they want so long as they do so in a secluded place
“away from the children.”
Once alone, Carter spills everything he knows about
the Companions. He doesn’t know their origins, but
he’s aware of their immortality and reproductive
habits. In his halting, uneducated speech, he
explains that his past run-ins with the law for
drinking and violence were what drew “Her” (it’s
all he knows to call Her; she has no real name) to
him in the first place. In exchange for getting him
out of jail for what would have been his last offense,
Carter would join Her extended family. He would
marry whomever they told him to and pretend to
raise some children. His payment would be all the
money he could ever spend and a chance to have
sex with Her or any of Her “daughters” whenever
he wished. Thus, Carter was released and married
to the catatonic Mary Beth, a woman’s whose mind
is so broken by life with the Companions that she
lives in a perpetual state of shock.
Wives of March - No Security
Soon enough Carter realized something was amiss:
“Whenever I’d throw one of them a screw, they all
acted the same way. Laid there like a dead fish with
those hateful damn eyes. Never fought or nothing.
Took all the fun out it.” Dave is sure he’s fathered
family and others, but he doesn’t know which
children and doesn’t care to. While Lydia is the first
one to contact him, he’s lost track of how many
versions he’s taken to bed. Obviously, the Marches
have something to do with Carter, even if he just
used them to concoct an unbelievable lie.
While Carter knows something is deeply abnormal
about his situation, the stupid, misogynistic asshole
has fooled himself into thinking he’s penetrated
the conspiracy of all women to control and destroy
men. He hates the Companions as he seems to hate
everything, but he begs the characters to let him go
and not tell anyone what he’s told them. His fear
of his secret wife is as total as his loathing for Her.
She knows magic, he claims, and can use it to do
(GM NOTE: If PCs don’t take Carter far away to talk
(as in getting in a car and leaving), the “children”
will eavesdrop. The Companions do not tolerate
betrayal by those coerced into their service. The
children strike around the time Carter finishes his
confession, each moving with a lightning grace
that would be the envy of professional soldiers
(see Roleplaying Companions, p.7). They’ll
try to kill Carter first, then move to eliminate the
PCs. The older ones, Virginia and Merle, strike with
masterful martial arts techniques. Little George
fetches a cleaver from the kitchen. Lorraine, being
the smallest, uses the distraction of battle to slowly
shift a chair underneath the phone. She intends to
warn the other cells of their blown cover and the
PCs’ suspicions. Mary Beth, as always, remains in her
stupor on the couch.
The Companions will fight to the death. Surviving
the encounter means killing the inhuman things that
look exactly like children. No amount of knowledge
can rationalize the memory of such a monstrous act.
Those that survive might come to wish they hadn’t.)
33
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
9. Lee House
Located on the easternmost edge of the expansive
March landholdings, the Lee household is a
conspicuous jewel amongst an impoverished
setting. The house itself is beautiful, perfectly
staged on a background of lush forest and green
fields. Lee is a widow, left to raise four children on
her own: Aletta (17), Clay (7), Dallas (5), and Ora (2
months). If players arrive at any time of day, Aletta
will be found hanging laundry on the line. Clay and
Dallas fence with toy swords. Ora sleeps in her crib
as Annabelle bakes in the kitchen. If characters visit
at night, the entire family can be found knitting
and sewing in the living room. Even the young boys
participate with impressive skill.
The children summon Annabelle to greet any
visitors. The woman behaves as graciously as
one could want from a host, inviting characters
inside for coffee. Ora, as an infant, is always at her
mother’s side, feigning sleep just as her mother
feigns ignorance to every question asked.
9A. Suspicious Opulence
For being located in the middle of sharecropping
land, the house is disconcertingly modern. Phone
and electric lines have been run out all the way
from the city, no doubt at great expense. The
furniture is all brand-new or tastefully antique.
The interior looks as if it has been cleaned
professionally, devoid of the grime that comes with
a farmer’s life. In fact, it seems the wide-open fields
around the house are completely uncultivated.
One wonders what a widow like Annabelle could
possibly do to maintain such a lavish home. If it’s
not farming, how did she come to live so far outside
the city? What did her former husband do for a
living?
9B. Barren
Medical experience or extensive knowledge of
horticulture enables characters to recognize the
bugwort plants being cultivated in pots around
the house. The herb is known for its ability to
relieve hot flashes and fatigue, both symptoms
of menopause. All folk remedies ascribed to the
plant, such as blood pressure and arthritis
relief, have superior prescription drug
34
treatments that the Carters can obviously afford.
In fact, treatment for menopause is the only
sensible reason to cultivate the plant at home. The
only woman possibly old enough to be having hot
flashes is Annabelle, and she apparently had a
child no more than 2 months ago. This shouldn’t be
possible, and Annabelle has no explanation for it.
9C. Odd Sewing
Anybody in view of the clothesline for a few
moments notices something odd. Either Annabelle
Lee has taken to doing other’s peoples washing, or
the family operates some sort of textile operation
on the premises. There is no consistency in the
types of clothes Aletta is hanging up to dry. Some
are fancy evening gowns and suits, but there are
also overalls and homespun dresses. Further
investigation reveals sizes that match no one in the
Lee family. Most startlingly, a trained eye can see
many of the garments have been deceptively cut.
Some use every trick in the book to be more sliming
while others use distressed seams and billowing
fabric to make the wearer look huge. If characters
can get close enough, they’ll notice some of the
dresses even have false breasts sewn into the bust.
One such disguise bears a floral pattern familiar
to the dress Lydia March was wearing at Sunday
service (Location 12, p.40).
9D. “Playing” War
The boys fencing on the porch appear somewhat
bored with the game, lackadaisically touching
the sticks that serve at their imaginary blades.
However, they never seem to grow tired enough to
quit and find some other distraction. They remain
visible throughout the PCs’ conversations with
Annabelle, waging their fake duel just outside
the sitting room window. Every time a character
looks back the pair seem to grow more and more
enthusiastic in their play. They clash wooden
swords faster and faster, seeming to actually attack
rather than intentionally clatter against each other
like most boys playing swords. The tap tap tap of
their conflict gets ever more frequent the longer
characters take questioning Annabelle, the boys
seemingly mirroring their mother’s nervousness.
Eventually, the fake battle rises to such a pitch that
witnesses grow unsettled by the impossible skill

of the little combatants. Only someone schooled in
fencing or other bladed weapons will recognize the
boys are doing ancient and deadly kata at speeds
that would be beyond even master swordsmen.
9E. Confrontation/ No Mother of Mine
(GM NOTE: If PC’s don’t have enough intel yet to
question Annabelle seriously, the Companions may
not deem them a credible threat. In this instance,
they’ll hold off the attack. The eternal couple won’t
risk exposure on a mere possibility. The likelihood
that players get put under surveillance (see The
Deformed, p.21) goes up substantially though.)
Annabelle is not a very good liar, but she has no
truths she can provide. She’ll claim she doesn’t
know anything about March’s murder, Claudette
Spratt, or Caiden Garrod. She can only suggest
that PCs must be mistaken when they bring up
inconsistencies in both her home and her past.
Each deflection is less convincing than the last,
and the frazzled woman is all but in tears, begging
characters to leave.
If characters ask where Annabelle’s husband is at,
who fathered her children, what happened to Frank
Cipolla in St. Louis, or why she hasn’t reverted to
her maiden name of Rosetti, the woman completely
loses it. She begins wringing her hands, rocking
frantically, and repeating the phrase, “Mi dispiace.”
The worldly recognize this as Italian for “I’m sorry”
before Ora Lee begins crying.
Using the sleeping infant as both a spy and alarm,
the Companions now know that the characters
are too close to the truth. Clay and Dallas cease
their play and run to retrieve real blades from the
garden shed and kitchen. Meanwhile, Aletta dives
into battle with the intensity of a Viking berserker.
The 17 year-old is in peak physical condition and
has more combat experience than an entire army.
Taking her on one-on-one is all but impossible for
even the hardiest of men. While she attacks with
suicidal fervor, the boys will try to sneak in and
strike killing blows from behind. During all this
chaos, Ora continues to cry and Annabelle cowers
on the floor in her continued panic.
Wives of March - No Security
At this point, the Companions’ best chance of
survival is to kill the PCs, burn down the house, and
leave the fate of the Lee family a legend in Barefoot
Crossing. They’ll fight to the death to achieve this
end. Survival for the characters means killing what
looks like a 17 year-old girl and two young boys.
If characters manage to do this and don’t go mad
from disgust, Annabelle suddenly snaps out of
it. She rushes to the hallway, grabbing a packed
suitcase from underneath a loose floorboard. She
promises that she’ll tell everything if they can get
her on a bus out of town, her only other condition
being that they abandon Ora as they flee.
If characters agree, Annabelle relates her sad story
on the way to the Savannah bus station. She fell
in love with a man in Indiana, but he died of TB
only a few years after the marriage. Starving and
alone, she was saved by a brilliant young gentleman
beyond her imagining, so wealthy and full of
class as to be from a storybook. He was fluent in
Italian despite his anglo features, and he loved her
instantly. They married and she had her first child.
Everything was going well until she had her second
child… which was the same child.
Annabelle can’t rightly describe how she knew, but
once she let her husband know her suspicions all
the pretense of love stopped. He told her that if she
breathed another word about the kids to anyone
he’d see her back on the streets where he found
her. He said that if she didn’t want to give him more
children, he’d find others, but she’d still be their
mother if she wanted to keep a roof over head.
Over the years, Annabelle discovered much of how
the Companions’ relationship and reproduction
works. She knows they are older than time, that
each gives birth to the other, and that they hate
each other with intensity beyond imagining. Due
to the fierce restrictions on her travel, she even
suspects they’ve imprisoned something terrible
and unnatural in the plantation’s cellar (Clues
12D and 12E, p.42). While many times people
too smart for their own good have caught the
Companions’ trail, this is the first opportunity
Annabelle has had to escape. Rather than be
dragged behind like a slave when the Marches
change their names and start over yet again,
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
she plans on getting free once and for all: “I’ll starve
to death or I’ll die alone as a fat, old woman. It
doesn’t matter. Just so I don’t have to look those…
those things in the eyes any longer and pretend
they’re my children.”
Before parting for good, Annabelle reveals that
the March family is the center of the Companion
operations (Location 12, p.40). They find
it easier to do their work on a large scale when
one family elevates itself to a central status. She
doesn’t know what happened to Dashell, but she
suspects his attempts to get another “wife” went
wrong; she certainly wishes she had shot the man
that approached her all those years ago. Her final
warning before fleeing is to stay away from the
plantation. Whatever they keep in the basement,
even the Companions fear it. She can’t imagine
anything so terrible as it could scare the monsters
that enslaved her for so many years.
10. Spratt Shack
In a country ravished by poverty, the Spratt home
manages to somehow look more pitiful than most.
The one-room hut is surrounded on all sides by
swamp. Those few patches of land not occupied by
bog have refuse rotting atop them. The backyard is
occupied by a moonshine distillery that looks like
it would cause its customers to go blind. The place
is a disgusting little hovel that could only house
the most achingly impoverished trash. When PCs
arrive, that trash is readily visible through the open
door. Becky Spratt is passed out on her bed inside,
obese, surrounded by empty bottles, and snoring in
her sweaty nightgown.
10A. Signs of Forced Entry
What amounted for a lock – a leather thong hooked
between the door and frame – has been busted
off by a sharp kick. The boot print is still visible
near the handle, but considering the general lack
of maintenance on the property, there is no telling
how long ago the damage was done. The broken
chair and table inside might have resulted from the
same attack, or they might have been that way for
years.
36
10B. Forgotten Coin
It initially appears to be just another hole in the
rotting floorboards, but the sharp-eyed can notice
that the gap in the corner flooring is actually
man-made. Somebody tore into the wood looking
for something. Considering the empty secret
compartment beneath, they must have found
it. Really thorough characters find something
glinting in a crack at the bottom of the space. It’s a
gold coin, seemingly lost in the shuffle to retrieve
whatever other treasures rested there. If any
players took skills related to history or antiquity,
they recognize it as a Spanish doubloon minted in
1798. If the secret compartment had indeed been
filled with them, it would have amounted to a small
fortune.
10C. Spratt’s Face
The injuries on Spratt’s face are apparent the
instant she rises up from her drunken slumber.
The bruises are a few weeks old, but the purplish
hue on one side of her face still conveys the savage
beating she must have received. Becky Spratt
lamely claims that she “fell” if anyone asks about
it. She’ll then try to redirect conversation towards
what people are doing in her home uninvited.
10D. Claudette’s Hangouts
If asked about her daughter’s whereabouts or what
happened on the night of Dashell March’s murder,
Becky is honest: she doesn’t know. If she did, she’d
happily tell. She says the reason she joined the
church is to make sure her hellion of a daughter
found Jesus.
Last year, Claudette was catching rides into
Savannah with local men on some excuse or
another. Becky couldn’t have given a damn what
the girl did with her time until word got back
that Claudette was going into the West Savannah
slums blues clubs (Location 11, p.38). Though
Becky has as much love for her daughter as “that
lowdown bastard what left her to devil us all,” she
wasn’t about to tolerate having the family name
“dragged through the mud” by the girl consorting
with “the negroes.”

Spratt took the girl “to get some Jesus” from
Reverend March that very week, but she imagines
it didn’t take Claudette long to go back to her sinful
ways. The drunken hag claims she’d go looking for
the teenager herself, but she’s a lady and won’t be
seen amongst such “low company.”
10E. Confrontation/ The Dowry
Becky Spratt’s version of events – in addition to
being racist, hypocritical, and generally abhorrent
to hear – doesn’t have much credibility. Some of
the evidence in the woman’s own home contradicts
her statements, not to mention clues available at
numerous other locations. While willing to slander
her daughter all day long, Becky is unprepared
to defend her own character. Pressuring her with
threats, intimidation, lies, or downright persistence
will cause Becky Spratt to break; she is nothing if
not a coward.
Becky did force Claudette to attend the Unifying
Word Revival with her, but it was the first religious
observance Claudette had attended in her young
life. Despite the hostility of many parishioners
towards the Spratt’s low-class lifestyle, the young
girl actually managed to make friends. Jealous
of her girl hogging all the attention, Becky was
prepared never to attend again when she was
approached by Lydia March.
Lydia confided in Becky: she had been diagnosed
with cancer and would soon die. Lest the
congregation grow distraught, this news had been
kept a secret from everyone outside the family.
However, Lydia truly believed in God’s will and his
order that she was to serve her husband, even in
death. The middle-aged woman admitted that she’d
seen Dashell admiring young Becky from afar and
during their counseling sessions to cure her of her
love of sinful music. Eager to see the love of her life
taken care of after her death, Lydia hoped Becky
could get Claudette to agree to marry Dashell after
her passing.
Of course, Claudette would find the idea repulsive
due to the preacher’s age and the fact he was still
happily married. But if Becky could convince her…
well, a mother couldn’t hope for a better match
Wives of March - No Security
than a pastor’s wife, especially one as successful
as March. Furthermore, Dashell would, of course,
pay a sizable bride-price befitting a Southern
gentleman.
Spratt agreed on the spot to the terms, but once
returned home, the dull-witted alcoholic couldn’t
think of a way to break the scandalous news in such
a way that would get her tomboy daughter to agree.
Always the product of her environment, Becky
eventually decided to let Claudette’s marriage start
off like hers had: one night of confused violence,
an unwanted pregnancy, and a lifetime of bondage.
It was the girl’s own damn fault for disgracing her
mother, she rationalized.
One night, two hulking men Spratt had never seen
before showed up to the shack to take Claudette to
the March house (Location 12, p.40). Becky got
her in the truck with a lie about late-night “spiritual
counseling.” Before they left, they unloaded an
apple box filled with honest-to-god gold and told
her to keep her mouth shut.
That was the night of the murder. The next day,
Becky was dragged into the police station to give
a confused statement. She did what she was told:
she kept her mouth shut. By the time she got
back home, the men from the previous night were
kicking in the door. They beat her savagely, took
back the treasure, and encouraged her to find her
daughter lest she wanted to drown in her own
swamp. Becky’s been looking ever since, at least
when she’s not drunk. The woman thinks she’s
done nothing wrong; she found a rich husband for
her daughter like every mother should, and the
ungrateful brat has repaid her with suffering.
(GM NOTE: If players are familiar with the March
will, they’ll know that Spratt’s version of events is
based off faulty information. March revised his will
three months before the night of the shooting. If he’d
known his wife was dying of terminal cancer, he’d
have taken her name off the will altogether. But then
why would Lydia approach Spratt? A public divorce
would destroy the church faster than a fire, and
Dashell couldn’t have married a second wife without
going to jail. The plot only makes sense if Lydia
was somehow planning to die suddenly and
37
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
wanted to keep the family assets from reverting to
the missing wife in Missouri while still avoiding the
lose of funds through probate taxes)
11. West Savannah Slums
The 50% urban unemployment rate of the
Depression looks downright rosy when
compounded by pervasive, institutionalized
racism. The colored residents of West Savannah
doggedly persist by maintaining the infrastructure
themselves and sharing what little they have. Signs
of crushing poverty dot every street, and few white
people ever dare show their faces there. To some
residents of the slums, this is the neighborhood’s
one great virtue.
11A. Bed-less ’24 Model TT
Alphonso Banks’ distinctive ride is the best method
for learning his whereabouts. It’s parked near
a cheap flophouse near the outskirts of town,
only a few blocks away from the road that leads
to Barefoot Crossing. Finding the truck requires
knowledge of its existence and hours spent
aimlessly wandering the streets. This task can be
sped up if the character is familiar with the area or
can enlist the help of locals. Characters accepted
in southern white society will find the task much,
much harder (see The Problem with History,
p.12). While they won’t be accosted, anyone
questioned will lie or feign ignorance in an attempt
to get as far away from the interrogator as possible.
Inquiries that are too obtuse might even tip Banks
off and cause him to flee.
11B. Flophouse Landlord
Allie Turnbull rents out the spare rooms of her
house to supplement income. The occasional
renter and her laundry service are enough to keep
the old grandmother from burdening her family,
but a merciful god would have let the woman
retire years earlier. She’s keen to avoid cleaning
the rooms if at all possible, but she plays if off as
a reputation for maintaining guests’ privacy. As
such, Mrs. Turnbull will be loath to answer any
questions about Alphonso Banks or even admit
to having met him. However, mentioning that
he’s suspected of murdering a white pastor
38
and consorting with a white woman will change
her tune very quickly. Allie has too many children
and grandchildren that depend on her to risk that
much trouble with the law. She says that Alphonso
rented a room nearly a month ago. He’s late on
the rent and about to get thrown out. There’s a
more reliable tenant that wants the room, and Mrs.
Turnbull isn’t sure why Banks rented it in the first
place; she knows for a fact that the Steel Puncher’s
Ballroom always lets him stay in the spare room
upstairs when he comes into town to play. She
urges characters to seek Alphonso there since he
only comes to her house to sleep, arriving late at
night and leaving first thing in the morning.
11C. The Steel Puncher’s Ballroom
The Ballroom is the most popular speakeasy in the
slums. Though nightlife is never really hopping
due to Prohibition, black men with a few dollars
to spare can always go to the Steel Puncher to
escape with a sly beer, passable food, and some
good music. The owner actually pays for musicians
to play (not much, but any compensation is a
rarity) so the place gets the best acts in the area.
A chalkboard out front reads, “Country Large on
git-fiddle all night!” Anybody that asks the owner
for Country Large gets pointed to where the man
is strumming guitar on a makeshift stage. Anybody
that asks for Alphonso Banks gets met with blank
stares and shrugs. The owner is lying, of course,
and will continue to do so until he can find a way

to distract or detain the investigators. Once they’re
obstructed from pursuit, he’ll yell for Alphonso to
get the hell out of there and the chase is on.
11D. “Country Large” Banks
The only person Alphonso is going to talk to
willingly is someone working for a radio station
or record company. He’s done some recordings
of popular country songs posing as a white man
before. The money for such gigs is good and sorely
needed at the moment. Otherwise, Alphonso flees
from anyone looking for him. Nobody is supposed
to know where he is, and the man reasonably
assumes investigators bring trouble. He’ll throw his
guitar at any questioners and make a break for the
backdoor.
If Alphonso wins the foot chase, he’ll head back to
his truck and try to get out of town. If he’s caught,
he can be interrogated. Once trapped, Banks spills
everything; the truth was too unreliable while he
still had his freedom, but he knows that he’s a dead
man once he’s brought in to the authorities.
Alphonso lives in Barefoot Crossing where he
owns a small stake. On nights when he can get a
gig, he’ll drive into to town to play guitar for some
extra money. He was headed to do just when he
almost struck a terrified Claudette Spratt as she
sprinted across the road. The girl was spattered
with blood and her dress was torn. Always a blues
fan, she recognized Alphonso as “Country Large”
and begged him for help. She’d be killed if he didn’t
give her a ride. Against his better judgment, Banks
agreed, and when he heard the girl’s story, he knew
he couldn’t let his responsibilities end there.
When asked where Claudette is now, Alphonso
leads investigators back to the Steel Puncher’s
Ballroom.
11E. Claudette Spratt’s Confession
Claudette Spratt has been holed up in the spare
room of the Steel Puncher’s Ballroom the entire
time. The reason Alphonso is renting a room with
Turnbull is so that he doesn’t have to share the
mattress with the young girl. It’s apparent by
looking around the untidy room that Claudette has
Wives of March - No Security
been staying out of sight of her own volition and
why Banks went through such pains to keep the
young girl hidden. The seclusion and blacked out
windows help conceal what would be interpreted
as race mixing or outright kidnapping by most men
of the South, regardless of Claudette’s testimony.
Alphonso would certainly be lynched if discovered,
along with every other black man the mob could lay
hands on.
For being the daughter of white trash like Becky
Spratt, Claudette is remarkably progressive.
She regards Alphonso as her savior and would
happily start a romantic relationship with him if
he showed any interest. She loves blues music and
jazz, dreaming of one day leaving that stupid hut
in the swamp for a big city like Chicago. She’s a bit
of a rough-and-tumble tomboy, but the events that
occurred in Dashell March’s plantation home that
night have shaken her to her core.
Claudette never much cared for the church her
mother forced her to attend or intended to mend
her “wicked ways” of listening to “devil negro
music.” She went along with the old hag because
it was easier than fighting her. Claudette was out
hunting one day when her mother bellowed to
her. Men from the church were there; the reverend
had invited her to supper (Location 12, p.40).
Claudette was going to change, but Becky said the
preacher didn’t care for putting on airs and she was
fine in the dress she was wearing. Thus, Claudette
went to the March house with a couple of shotgun
shells still in her pocket.
There was no supper. Claudette was ushered
straight into the study where Mr. March waited.
He had a number of legal documents he needed
her to sign and Mrs. March needed to take her
measurements. When Claudette asked what for,
Lydia responded that she had to be fit for her
wedding gown.
39
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Becky hadn’t told her daughter she’d all but been
sold to Dashell March. She didn’t know about
Lydia’s supposed cancer, the bride-price, or any of
it until that night, her drunken coward of a mother
just figuring everything would work out. Claudette
threw a fit. The Marches tried to calm her down,
then threatened her when that didn’t work. She’d
been bought and paid for, said Dashell. She’d seen
too much to be outside the family now. She was a
wife of March, until death bid her part.
Claudette tried to run, but March leapt over the
table and struck her down “fast as a snake.” As she
lay bleeding, Lydia March pulled the man off her
with some kind of crazy throw: “If that old woman
has cancer, it must be the kind what makes you
strong as a hell,” Claudette claims. The two began
screaming at each other in a language Claudette
had never heard before, and that’s when she
glimpsed the shotgun mounted over the fireplace.
The pair was so engrossed in their screaming
match that they didn’t notice Claudette until she
already had the gun down and both barrels loaded.
Dashell instantly made a move for her, still too
fast and graceful for any middle-aged man of God.
Claudette gave him one barrel in the guts, held
the other to keep the rest of the family at bay, and
sprinted away into the night. She found Alphonso,
and he’s been hiding her from the law, the March
family, and her own mother ever since.
12. March Plantation
The March home might be the most lavish house
in Georgia outside the governor’s mansion.
Apparently restored by the family itself, the home
is massive, spotless, and tastefully furnished
throughout. It sports both indoor plumbing and
electricity. Even with the extreme tithes from the
Unifying World Revival, there is no way to explain
the lavishness of the home.
The family is keen to take investigators in once
they learn about their interest in the murder.
So long as they don’t know that the characters
have discovered anything that can’t be explained
away, the March clan will do everything to
ingratiate itself and present the appearance
40
of openness. This could mean tours of the home,
invitations to supper, and even sexual advances
in an attempt to bring the suspicious into the
fold. The locations that follow are places that
family members will steer players away from. To
access the following rooms, characters need to get
free from March supervision through deception,
distraction, or other means.
12A. Office
The office looks somewhat bare since missing
a carpet and bookshelf that kept the furniture
arrangement symmetrical. Both were removed
after being splattered with the Reverend’s blood.
There are still pockmarks in the walls where
some buckshot missed, and a few drops of red
stubbornly remain on the floor. Otherwise, the
library is mostly innocuous save its contents. The
book selection is exhaustive and varied. There are
texts in every Romance language and many others,
some appearing to be hundreds of years old. While
no one would have mistaken Dashell March for an
idiot, the humble revival preacher has a library
fitting a world-class scholar. A true academic
recognizes that amassing such a collection would
require more funds than it would take to buy the
house itself many times over.
12B. The Lost Masterpiece and the Hidden Room
One of the things damaged in Claudette’s shotgun
blast is a painted wooden panel hanging behind
Dashell’s desk; one corner has been peppered with
buckshot and stained by blood. The panel depicts
Christ’s resurrection, looks quite old, and utilizes a
gold background.
True artists and historians have a small chance
of recognizing the piece, though the impossibility
of its existence makes such a realization
indistinguishable from hallucination. The panel is
by famed Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna and
appears to be the missing panel from his Maesta
titled “Christ in Majesty.” The work has been lost
since the 14th century. To own a lost Buoninsegna
would mean wealth beyond imagining, but how
could something so priceless and rare have made
its way to a study in rural Georgia?

Regardless of the panel’s origins, characters
that stay focused on the main investigation see
something glint through one of the buckshot holes.
Examining the damaged masterpiece reveals the
panel is removable; a recessed compartment
hidden behind holds a small lever. Pulling this
causes one of the corner bookshelves to pop away
from the wall and swing outwards, revealing a
door. Similarly, characters with experience in
construction can figure out that the house is hiding
secrets even without finding the lever merely by
familiarizing themselves with the floor plan well
enough to compare it to the outside to the house.
Behind the secret door lays a treasure trove of
information on the Companions’ operations. A
large chalkboard runs the length of the wall. It’s
divided into twelve vertical columns, one for each
month of the year. Each column is filled with dates,
abbreviated locations, and either the letter ‘M’
or ‘F’. A huge ledger sits near a bank of phones;
it’s filled with the typical gender/month aliases
of the Companions, prearranged and crossed out
with a date corresponding to one on the board.
Filing cabinets full of documents line the walls,
and those with the time to snoop can find records
of the March holdings brokered through Lloyd’s
of London, the Swedish bank Garrod visited, and a
dozen other financial institutions.
Investigators discovering this treasure trove of
information suffer the terrible realization that
the strange events occurring in Barefoot Crossing
are just the beginning of an organized worldwide
conspiracy.
12C. Upstairs Nursery
Only one of the oddly modest bedrooms upstairs
remains locked. If opened, the intruders find a
darkly lit nursery. At least a dozen cribs line the
room in neat rows. The exterior walls are decked
with changing stations and spare bottles. There
are no toys, and rather than murals of animals or
festive colors, the wallpaper in the room decays and
peels as if the place had been abandoned for years.
Whoever maintains this nursery obviously has
neither care for the babies’ entertainment nor any
desire to decorate.
Wives of March - No Security
Of the dozen cribs, five are occupied by infants
of both sexes and uncertain parentage. Their
names are nowhere to be seen, and their beds are
completely bare except for a single sheet. Some of
the babies are young enough that to go without
swaddling should send them into a fit, yet none of
the children cry. Two are even asleep.
The babies can’t be seen over the sides of the
crib, but as investigators edge closer they notice
a reflection of moonlight glinting off the ceiling.
There, amongst the rafters, a mirror has been
secured above each bed. Looking up, players can
see the babies without being necessarily noticed in
return. Aside from the two asleep, the three infants
are engaged in a strange activity. Each moves in
unison, holding up both hands and touching their
thumbs to each finger in a cycle that concludes in
making a fist. Simultaneously, each makes different
shapes with their mouths, biting at the air with the
same eerie uniformity.
The unnatural nature of the infants’ movements
can be understood by anyone, and the unison is
downright supernatural. Those with a deeper
knowledge of child development can only hope to
be more terrified. Babies grow stronger and gain
muscle control through repetition. Similarly, this
neurological development is required for speech.
If a baby somehow possessed the discipline to
practice simple movements in time to the ticking
clock, it could develop these skills much faster.
But such a thing would mean those children were
possessed of adult minds.
If the characters get too close to the babies and
fall within their line of sight, all the Companion
children begin screaming. The alarm brings every
adult Companion within earshot to the room.
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12D. Root Cellar
The root cellar is secured with a padlock and
only accessible from the outside. The steps lead
much deeper than is typical of Savannah’s boggy
climate. There is no light inside the earthen walls,
but lanterns hang from a nail near the entrance.
The cellar has a concrete floor and leads forward
in a long corridor. The hallway is lined with thick
wooden doors. Cells have been constructed and run
underneath the entire property. Some beds inside
appear to have been abandoned for years, while
others have fresh bloodstains on the floor. All are
equipped with manacles that have seen use in the
past.
It’s unclear if this nightmare dungeon is a holdover
from the time of slavery or if it’s something the
Marches had specially constructed. It runs into the
earth for hundreds of yards, the hallway delving
deeper and deeper at slight decline.
12E. Vault
Either the financial means of the March clan must
be truly unfathomable, or their dedication and skill
beyond human understanding. They’ve managed
to construct, in secret, a massive bank vault in an
underground chamber. The height dwarfs a tall
man and a cavernous space had to be dug out of
the raw earth just to allow the door to swing open.
A key rests on a tiny table off to the side, which
implies a question: what could possibly require so
much steel yet remain so easy to unlock?
Characters get all the answers they can hope
for when the thing trapped inside senses their
presence and slams itself against the door. The
impact seems to shake the very ground itself. Dirt
and pebbles rain from the ceiling as the thing’s
muffled rage shakes the foundations of the earth.
Black, viscous liquid smelling of death leaks from
the doorframe. Whatever is imprisoned inside, it
could be the only thing capable of defeating the
Companions. However, if it’s released, characters
that see the monstrous prisoner have no choice
except to run, go mad, or die.
(GM NOTE: Unless characters have managed
to successfully interrogate a March or been
42
subject to one of their monologues, they have no
way of knowing for certain what is inside the vault.
Without the proper intelligence, opening the door
can be no more than a calculated risk; a wild hope
that whatever is kept inside is somehow better than
the terrors they face outside. In actuality, the steel
vault contains one of the dark children from before
reality that the Companions agreed to birth into the
world. The eternal couple keep it caged so that, in
the event that all of the copies are killed, someone
will open the vault out of greed or curiosity. The hope
is that when the creature murders everything in
its escape, the chaos will draw attention to the site.
Thus, the infant Companions will be rescued and save
themselves countless lives spent dying of exposure in
whatever secluded place the abomination chooses
to make its lair. This insurance policy’s risk lies in
the creature’s rage if it’s released before all the
Companions are dead; it will not take kindly to being
locked up by its servants.)
Describing The Un-Thing
The entities that existed before time made a deal
with mankind only because they needed a medium
with which to translate themselves into flesh. Their
very essence is the antithesis of physical existence,
but through the loins of the Companions they’ve
formed a monstrous body capable of containing
them, at least partly. This means that the creature
locked in the vault fundamentally does not fit into
dimensional space, yet it has manifested regardless.
The very act of perceiving it is innately wrong and
unnatural. Just looking at something so basically
unsuited for corporeality results in all sorts of side
effects: nose-bleeding, nausea, vivid hallucinations,
madness. Essentially, the un-Thing is beyond
description.
However, players want to be immersed in the game
and might not buy the GM shouting “words fail to
describe the thing killing you right now!” Consider
reading one of the following descriptions instead.
The goal is to give players an idea of how their
characters attempt, and ultimately fail, to make
sense of the nightmare before them.
 Wives of March - No Security

1. “You remember building a mud fort
with your friends as a child. You used a
pillowcase from the house to carry the
wet earth from the creek to your little
castle. How your mother scolded you that
night…. The thing before you has flesh like
the pillowcase. While it may have once
been shapely and pristine, the flesh is now
stained and lumpy after carrying that which
it was never designed to hold. Just like that
pillowcase, wet filth seeps from between the
woven sinews. Sections cave in and expand
as the poorly suited contents shift inside.
The pillowcase didn’t have so many teeth
though, nor was it screaming.”
2. “It doesn’t have legs or arms or tentacles
or wings, but then it does. It alternates
between bipedal, tripedal, quadrapedal…or
maybe it’s more like a centipede or snake,
perhaps the peristalsis of a swallowing
throat? Regardless, it’s kind of…rolling
towards you. All the appendages seem
vestigial until they push the cancerous mass
closer, but they somehow go back to looking
superfluous and tacked-on again. A bad joke
written in flesh that remains nonetheless
terrifying.”
4. “That night in the French Quarter, before
the Temperance movement. Too much wine
and hot-blooded youth. It was all a blur
except for that fortune-teller you dared each
other to visit right before sunrise. In the
haze, her words still shine in your memory
undiminished. Gone were the vague
predictions of marriage and happiness
your friends scoffed at. She saw your cards
and started screaming, wailing in some
language you’ve never heard before or since.
You masqueraded your fear as skepticism
to match the scorn of your pals, but even
after you left she ran after you, screaming.
Desperate to stop you from meeting
whatever she’d seen. And though you still
don’t understand a word of what she said,
you’re certain her warning was about the
thing in the vault.”

3. “You visited an asylum once. It was a limited

tour. You weren’t allowed to see the ones
they kept chained to the walls and hosed
down. You only heard them through the
ducts, in cells deep below, their screams
vented through the place like a gas. The
ones up top – on the ward they’d actually
allow outsiders to see – they sat there and
choked on that gas all day. You remember
thinking that each one was aware the
madness leaking from the walls would one
day send them to the basement cells too. As
you watched them, they angrily drew what
they imagined lurked down there, gashing
nonsensical scribblings into the paper while
they waited for the end in the common
room. This thing before you, it’s like those
drawings came alive.”

43
 ENDGAME
the iceberg. The murder of Caiden Garrod and
ENDGAME the events of the cotton field can level death-
penalty charges at certain family members. Even
There is no true victory scenario in The Wives of
the socialist overtones of the church’s farming
March. The Companions have superior numbers,
operation would be enough to spark some public
boundless experience, and all the time in the
outrage. Any raids on the plantation reveal
world. Their victory is mathematically inevitable.
numerous shady financial dealings, stolen artwork,
The most PCs can hope for is a futile attempt to
and a full-blown dungeon.
frustrate the immortal pair’s plan. There are a
number of ways PCs might slow the apocalyptic
The benefit of this route is that it leaves PCs in
breeding program, each with their own special
a relatively safe position; any open retaliation
risks and rewards.
is instantly going to throw more light on the
conspiracy and is therefore unlikely. It also
Cleanse allows the fallout from Barefoot Crossing to
Simple – burn it all down. Kill every March, Carter, ripple outwards to other cells in the conspiracy
and Lee. Destroy their hoarded antiquities and as investigators follow the paper trail and seize
treasures so nothing remains. The benefit of this financial assets. However, the leads will eventually
tactic is obvious: their plans won’t work if no one is run cold. The law is bound to rationalize some
alive to carry them out. Those clones that survive motive other than “magic immortal monster-
see their power structure crippled and are forced breeders” and call the case closed. Some
to start the coercion of a community all over again Companions will escape.
under new identities. If the tunnel in the Root
Cellar gets destroyed, even the un-Thing in the vault Expose
might be neutralized.
No amount of evidence will convince the public that
Lydia and Dashell March are two immortal souls
The downside of waging holy war is that the
seeking to bring about the apocalypse by tainting
warriors are unlikely to survive it. The Companions
the bloodlines of mankind with their clones. The
will levy their deadly military skill to destroy their
premise is too far-fetched and the Companions
foes, and even if PCs somehow triumph against all
are too subtle in their tactics. The only way to
odds, the only rewards waiting will be revulsion
expose the whole truth is to present humanity with
and condemnation. To society, they will appear as
something so terrifying that it can’t be denied. That
violent psychopaths guilty of murdering innocent
means releasing the un-Thing from the vault and
men, women, and children. Meanwhile, each
presenting it to the world.
dead Companion will be remembered as a martyr
killed for trying to help the community. No one
The monster from outside of space and time
will ever believe the real story, and the other cells
is unstoppable: it is a force of pure negation
of the Companions’ cult will continue operating
wearing a suit of skin. The betrayal of He and She
unhindered as the heroes flee from the law or await
will provoke the abomination’s bloody fury so
execution.
much so that eating its way through all the local
Companions won’t be enough to quench the rage.
Convict Before the vault creature knows satisfaction and
The March clan is guilty of countless crimes slinks off to some abandoned corner of the world
that leave mountains of evidence in their wake. to await the end with its brothers, it will rampage
If investigators can convince authorities to act through Barefoot Crossing, the city of Savannah,
despite the family’s political power, the combined and beyond. The death toll could reach into the
force of law and order can overwhelm even hundreds.
the Companions. Claudette’s sale into a
polygamous relationship is the tip of
44
 Wives of March - No Security
The strength of this tactic is that no greater damage
can be done to the Companions. A global panic
about “The Savannah Massacre” will ensue, and
it won’t be hard to trace the creature’s path of
destruction back to the splintered remains of the
March plantation. Government agencies around the
world will investigate the cover identities and seek
to bring the entire conspiracy to justice. The public,
forever disillusioned, will revert to the superstition
and small-mindedness that kept the pair in check
for so many centuries. History will play out very
differently and the Companions will be hunted
everywhere they go.

But at what cost? Assuming that investigators

manage to escape the nightmare they let loose,
their minds will be blasted by witnessing a thing
abhorrent to the very fabric of reality. Recovering
from such trauma would be the work of years,
and the return to lucidity would only mean
realizing responsibility for countless deaths.
Sure, humanity’s survival might be dramatically
lengthened, but how can the “hero” really know
that for certain? And is such a thought comforting
when faced with a city full of widows and orphans?

Flee
PCs ignore the truth and deny the apocalyptic
family that grows around the world. They do the
job they were paid to do: finding a murderer,
helping the accused leave town, discrediting a
will, etc. Characters leave all the crazy stuff out of
reports, take their money, and move as far away as
possible.

Obviously, this plan is the safest and the sanest. The

Companions have no reason to strike at the PCs
because no real damage was done, and it’s not like
they could be truly stopped anyway. But the price
of this peace of mind is the damnation of soul. The
character becomes complicit in an ongoing atrocity,
tortured daily by the knowledge that every vaguely
familiar face in the crowd might be one of “them.”
The character’s cowardice has wedded them to the
family, helping them sow their evil through silence.

45
Flowchart of Clues and Locations
BRYSON SPRINGS
 INTRODUCTION

BRYSON SPRINGS
June 1935: Bryson Spring, CA
INTRODUCTION
The town of Bryson Springs is located near the
Bryson Springs is a cosmic horror/mystery adventure
easternmost border of Southern California. By
set in the desert wastes of the post-Dust Bowl America.
the time the players enter into the story, the town
Three to six players take on the role of characters
has dwindled along with the railroad that saw it
unwittingly confronted with an ancient horror
founded. The only reason any population remains is
preying on a downtrodden populace. Thematically,
the location’s proximity to major roadways and the
the adventure juxtaposes the petty cruelty of mankind
Bryson Springs Ranch, a once successful orange grove
with an uncaring, enigmatic terror existing outside
that provided a living to the few remaining residents.
human perception.
However, even the stability of the ranch has been
thrown into question now that the blight affecting
This adventure starts with an overall description of
the rest of the country has sent its tendrils probing
the setting and plot for the GM’s use. Information
westward. The fields are dead, an entire year’s crop
for the players can be found in the gameplay section,
lost, and the people are left with nothing but their
the details of which should only be revealed to the
unanswered prayers for rain.
characters though roleplaying.
The hard times have left the Okies — refugees of
the Midwestern Dust Bowl —stranded without the
migrant work they bet their survival on. Unable
to move on without funds, the transients have
constructed a semi-permanent shantytown out of
found materials and their own cars.
48

The first stirrings of the WPA have built a concrete
washhouse in the middle of the encampment, but
otherwise there is no relief to be had from their
oppressive poverty.
Otis Grangerford runs a gas station that supplies these
transients with what few goods they can afford until
they move on. Further away, the State police maintain
a small substation, if only to stage periodic eviction
raids on the Hoover-town. Off the beaten path, an
abandoned ghost town persists in a valley cut into
the hills. It is no more than a strip of long derelict
buildings, abandoned after rail traffic atrophied and
left the town to its slow dwindling.
Important Dates for the Setting
• Prohibition 1920-1933
• Dust Bowl 1930-36
• FBI gets its name in ’35, shifts to anti-com-
munist agenda in ‘36
• Herbert Hoover loses election in ‘33, FDR
takes power in ‘34
• Emergency Relief Act (WPA) passed on
April 8th 1935
GM INFORMATION
The Kelly’s
Operating on a tiny plot of New Mexico land, the
Kelly’s had never imagined hardship quite so bad as the
dustbowl. After suffering the death of family members
and the loss of their farm, Paul “Pa” Kelly packed up
his family and what few belongings they still possessed
and headed to California. Paul had originally made his
stake there working on the railroad, and he hoped old
Bryson Springs - No Security
contacts could provide him and his sons some work.
Luck was not on the Kelly’s side. All doors remained
closed, and the Kelly’s found themselves scrapping by
on daily work at the Bryson Ranch. Desperate, Paul
began selling off the last of the family’s possessions.
He wrote an old acquaintance from his railroad days,
Liang Wang, to come appraise an ancient scroll he’d
acquired years ago while sifting through the belongings
of a member of his work crew, killed in an accident and
without an heir. It pained the old man to part with it;
though unable to read a word of its writing, Paul had
been known to gaze at the thing for hours in the night,
admiring the way moonlight gleamed off the
ornately-carved jade handles.
The Fisher’s Scroll
Liang Wang, promised payment for a few hours
appraisal work by a foreman he worked for during his
first years in the country, traveled from San Francisco
with his daughter, Ye. Upon arriving at Bryson Springs,
it quickly became apparent that Kelly would have no
means of paying for any services, but Liang lingered,
partly out of joy of seeing his old tormentor brought so
low, and partly out of fascination for the strange scroll
he presented.
A sense of morbid curiosity turned into an extended
stay. Liang forced his daughter to sleep in the cab of
his truck as he spent hours pouring over the archaic
language of the scroll. Its stories were bizarre, its
writing sometimes nonsensical, its claims of heritage
impossibly old. But as Liang prepared a rough
translation with Paul Kelly watching over his shoulder,
the two men soon realized that there perceptions had
been forever altered by the words in the scroll.
They now saw the world as a sick puppet show, a
poorly set stage production in which free will was a
myth. Reality was no more than a child’s diorama, a
shallow, dimensionless approximation of the terrible
truth. Mankind was but a game preserve, the sky a
porous veil through which the Fisher of Men pulled his
unwitting prey.
49
 GM INFORMATION
As the days passed, Liang saw nothing but horror
in the scroll, dark truths that a human mind could
never square itself with. Kelly, having been exposed
subconsciously to the contagion within the scroll for
decades, saw a direct line to God and a way out of his
sorrows. He saw salvation in the nightmare.
The Terror Begins
Anabelle Fabler had never given ear to Ryan Spelling’s
advances, especially not after Bryson let her father go
but kept that pervert on the payroll. That’s why she was
so stunned when he showed up out of the darkness
as she returned from relieving herself in the barren
groves, claiming he was there to give her what she’d
always wanted. As he pinned her to the ground and
worked her skirt up, she wondered what she could
have possible done to lead him on.
She managed to get out a scream before his hand
clamped down over her mouth. She saw two men in
the camp that might have heard her: one walked down
a makeshift street, carrying a gas lamp. The other was
no more than a shadow, leaning against one of the
trucks disinterestedly.
She rejoiced when she saw the lamp man start and
begin running towards her cries. Then the shadow
man moved, every part of it suddenly alive in wild,
flailing motion towards the man’s light, its feet
skittering across the dust and made the sound of
chicken bones clicking together. The Samaritan was
struck, and then the two figures were falling, tumbling
end over end into the air, the gas lamp receding into
the night sky like an added star in the constellations
that she suddenly noticed were subtly wrong.
Spelling didn’t notice as he rutted atop his victim, not
even when Anabelle went stone still. The sick bastard
mistook her shift from disgust into maniac terror as
recognition of his prowess.
The Wrong Lawman at the Wrong Time
Over the course of the next few days, seven people
in total went missing from the shantytown outside
the Bryson Ranch property. The local law
enforcement, Sheriff Buford Kraft, took reports
50 from grief-stricken family members with more
than a healthy share of skepticism; hobos disappeared
in the middle of the night all the time, and he was all
too happy to have a few less to deal with.
Even Kraft learned something was up when he found
himself cleaning up two brutally mutilated corpses in a
single morning, both single men without families, both
pulverized into unrecognizable heaps of broken bone.
One was found in the middle of desert, the other in
the shattered remains of his shack, which appeared to
have been bombed from on high. Something nefarious
had definitely seeped into the Hooverville. As Buford
dumped the corpses into a pauper’s grave outside his
station, he hoped the culprit would hurry up, move on
down the line, and become someone else’s problem.
The Dead Chinaman
On the night everything boiled over, Buford Kraft
was called out to the shantytown by Annabelle Fabler,
one of the transient girls. Her old man had gotten
himself beaten half-to-death by Ryan Spelling, one of
the few ranch hands still actually working for Bryson.
She was crying rape and claiming the drunken old
sot was defending her honor. Then she started saying
something about men falling into the sky....
As Buford dealt with Spelling at the ranch, apologizing
for all the trouble and false accusations, a god-awful
wail could be heard across the fields from the shanty-
town. By the time he got there, some Chinese woman
was screaming to high heaven, waving a bloody
briefcase and keeping a horde of curious Okies from
entering the washhouse. She seemed grateful for
Buford to arrive and allowed him to enter, though he
couldn’t make out what she was so worked up about.
He soon found out.
When Buford had finished puking up his dinner, the
Chinese was yelling at him, demanding he arrest “Kelly
and his monsters.” He had to threaten the woman with
his nightstick before she shut up, driving her away even
as she vowed to bring real help in her broken English.
When she was gone, Buford recovered himself, closed
off the crime scene, and moved what few remains he
could gather into the shed at the station. Then he called
it in. There was no hope of keeping this nonsense quiet
anymore. Bryson Springs was back on the map.
Bryson Springs - No Security

51
 GM INFORMATION
The Chosen Family
The family had been skeptical at first, but when he had
made them stop feeling hunger, they had begun to
listen. Then he’d gotten rid of the man that stole their
gasoline, then the others, each more satiating then the
last. He showed them the strings that pulled the world,
and they had finally understood. Now the heretic
chinaman was gone, and all there was left to do was
show their new god that his game had grown sick and
needed a cull.

List of NPC’s
Emil Bryson—Ranch Owner
Lydia Bryson—Emil’s 7-year-old daughter
Buford Kraft—Local state police
Liang Wang—San Franciscan laundry owner
murdered in WPA washhouse
Ye Wang—daughter of Liang Wang
Otis Grangerford—drunkard and owner of
Grangerford’s gas
Ryan Spelling—Sadistic ranch-hand for the
Brysons
Annabelle Fabler—Abused Okie who
witnessed a strange event
Paul “Pa” Kelly—mad patriarch and servant Marionettes appear as such because reality has no code
of the Fisher of Men capable of representing them, so they manifest as a
Kelly Family (Ma, Tom, Jessup, Buela Mae, metaphor to their purpose: uncanny doppelgangers
and Edmund)—Cultists pantomiming human behavior, under the control of an
infinitely more complex being. They are no more than
the lures of the Fisher of Men, a dark, predatory god
existing outside space and time.

The Monster At a distance in low light, Marionettes resemble people

Marionettes, or “Kuileixi Shi”
The viewer’s eye seems to balk at the sight of them. At
close range, the air around these creatures seems to
wave unnaturally, as if reality decided on their shape
at the last second. After a few eye-straining seconds,
their appearance seems to settle on that of a man-sized
artist’s perspective doll, limbs expertly carved from
wood and scored with crude, asymmetrical slashes
depicting features. This image is merely a desperate
approximation on the part of a human mind
unequipped to understand such horrors. The
52
doing regular activities: sleeping, bending over a
car engine, leaning against a wall, etc. However, the
locations for these poses are wildly improbable and
selected by an alien mind: sleeping in the middle of
the street, bending over and inspecting a fencepost,
leaning on nothing, etc. Those unlucky enough to
investigate this curiosity see the automaton spring into
life, skittering forward on feet that barely touch the
ground, limbs gyrating wildly as they attack.
There is no way to be certain a Marionette is dangerous
from afar unless one has cast the spell “See the Strings”
from the Fisher Scroll. At that point, the location of the

creatures can be traced by the strings of fire dangling
down from inky-black vortexes in the sky.
Other signs of danger include craters where trees
have been uprooted from the ground, but no drag
marks or footprints can be found in the dust and the
trunks are missing. These occur from failed “bites,”
where the marionette has run into a tree and ripped
it into the sky, thinking it a victim. If out at night,
characters might also notice that the constellations
above the grove resemble nothing ever before seen in
the night sky.
If attacked, there is little hope for survival save
escape. Even then, marionettes are deceptively fast,
not so much running as hovering towards targets
like bad puppetry. Should a character choose to fight,
death is almost certain. Firearms are as effective as
they would be against a solid tree trunk. Chopping
instruments fair better, but few could get in more
than one swing with an axe before the thing was
upon them. Fire would work best, as the marionette
still has the properties of dry wood despite being
wooden in metaphor only. Still, even if aflame,
the creature need only grab its prey once before
being “reeled in,” flying up into the sky, carrying its
screaming victim to the Fisher of Men.
Bryson Springs - No Security
Killing your Players
Characters should be given a chance to run, disable,
burn, or otherwise resist marionette attacks. They
are, after all, servants of an enigmatic god and not
the god itself. However, if a Marionette grabs some-
one, the character should only be able to focus on
breaking the thing’s grip. If the character succeeds,
give them 10 feet worth of fall damage for every turn
they spent in the Marionette’s hooks. After a certain
amount of time, escape is effectively futile.
If the GM wants to make things really creepy, give
doomed characters a final choice. Once the pair
reaches the upper atmosphere and the inky portal to
other realms, have the Marionette gesture to indicate
the character can go through or be let go. So what
is it? Plummet to certain death, or be sucked into the
sky to visit some nightmare god beyond imagining?
Characters choosing the latter should either just
cease to be in the game or receive an appropriately
terrifying description of their demise. Perhaps the
“Fisher of Men” is a mass of cancerous flesh the size
of a star, pulling in unwitting victims from thou-
sands of dimensions at once to plummet into its
ravenous maws like meteors to Earth. Maybe human
senses aren’t even capable of perceiving their own
doom. The characters eyes could go blind at “the
smell” of a millennia’s worth of terrified death. The
skin could flash freeze as it “hears” the icy
symphony of deep space.
53
 GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
Character Selection
What type of character each player chooses is, of
course, up to the players and the GM. However, certain
types of characters lend themselves to the scenario
better than others. There are three types of “hooks”
that can lead characters into the scenario: investigative,
personal, and happenstance. Here are some suggested
character concepts that work well with the
plot and setting:
• State police investigating the murder of Liang
Wang in the bathhouse
• FBI agents transporting a prisoner in a sensitive
investigation and retasked with investigating an
attack at one of the WPA’s new buildings
• Bank robbers being transported to Leavenworth
for holding until trial
• Academics stranded en route to a conference due
to a car breakdown
• Relatives of the Wang’s seeking answers for Ye
• Socialist labor organizers trying to rally the
transient population
• Ranch-hands seeking work at the Bryson Groves
• Muckraking journalists investigating the missing
persons or doing an interest piece on poverty and
Hoovervilles
• Wife or children of Emil Bryson, the ranch owner,
concerned about rumors she’s heard among the
house staff
Plot Hooks
Getting the players together and facing the same threat
is often the hardest part of any horror roleplaying
game. The GM should make certain that players at
least know about Liang Wang’s death at the outset and
have some plausible reason for going to
Bryson Springs.
Investigative: Direct inquiries into the nature of Liang
Wang’s death are the easiest way to get PC’s involved.
State law enforcement could get involved as soon
54
as Buford phones in a report; obviously, something
more sinister than the typical Okie menace is going on.
Since the WPA washhouse was the site of the murder,
federal authorities could also be dispatched to take
care of the situation before the project is besmirched.
On the other side of the coin, the controversial nature
of the WPA legislation and the social justice issues
involved with the Okies and Asian Americans would
likely attract journalists.
Personal: Though the victims at Bryson Springs are
soon forgotten by the society, their family and friends
might not be so accepting. Ye could secure the help of
a particularly skilled relative to find her father’s killer.
Maybe another transient looking for work arrives at
camp to find the cousin he was expecting inexplicably
missing. Perhaps Mrs. Bryson, always more concerned
with social issues than her husband, notices unrest
among the unfortunates camped outside their
property.
Happenstance: Though difficult to pull into a group
of cohesive players, horror is often at its best when it
yanks unassuming people from their everyday lives.
Perhaps an East coast professor finds himself stranded
and confronted with a terror un-hinted at in his years
of study. A criminal in the midst of transfer could
suddenly find himself in a place far worse than prison,
or a Socialist might be confronted with an evil even
greater than Capitalism.
LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
1. Bryson Ranch
The Bryson Ranch was once a thriving place. Modeled
in a hacienda style, the estate sprawls over several
acres. Ivy crawls up adobe walls peaked with clay
tiled roofs. The two large courtyards were once used
to sort the massive orange harvest and now-empty
bunkhouses could hold nearly a hundred workers at
the peak of the season. Nowadays, it appears as if the
blight that affected the land attacked the house as well.
The gardens are browning or sickly, the paint has come
chipping off the walls, and the staff has been reduced
to a skeleton crew.

1a.The Main House
The former prosperity of the region can be seen in
the ornate nature of the main house. Well-maintained
rooms are filled with fine furniture and artifacts of
the Bryson family’s frontier past. Taxidermy, painting,
and photographs hang from every wall. However, the
whole estate has taken on a ghostly quality with the
coming of the drought. With only a few maids, little
Lydia, and Emil Bryson himself living on the premise,
the household is cloaked in an eerie silence.
Emil Bryson can be found in the main house. He’s
an older man but fit, sporting a greying handlebar
mustache. He dresses in jeans, boots, and a leather
vest. His fine white Stetson and string tie are the only
clues to his status as the owner. Though ultimately
a struggling businessman with a company to worry
about, Emil has nothing but sympathy for the Okies
camped nearby and wishes there was more he
could do to help.
Emil knows very little of the terror that has recently
gripped the Hooverville outside his property. He’s
aware that Buford Kraft was negotiating some kind
of trouble with Ryan Spelling the other night. Emil
is curious as to what the commotion was; he doesn’t
particularly like that Spelling fellow, despite having
kept him on for his skills as a jerkline skinner. He finds
the young man’s morals…questionable.
But he has bigger things to worry about: his ranch
is failing and his daughter is retreating further and
further into her own world. He is happy to help
investigators any way he can.
1b.Courtyard
Lydia Bryson can be found playing with her puppets
in the courtyard, even in the dead of night. She’s been
obsessed with putting on her little show in the past
few weeks. Her favorite doll is no more than a crudely
whittled totem carved from a dead orange tree. She
claims she got it from “Mr. Kelly and the squinty-eyed
man” as they walked to the north of the ranch some
weeks earlier. When asked the doll’s name, she is only
be able to respond that it’s “the man that lives
in the groves.”
Bryson Springs - No Security
If left to her own devices, Lydia will sing the following
song as she plays:
My hand goes right and you go left
My hand goes left and you go right
I raise my hand and up you jump
I lower my hand and you’re in the dumps
I pull your strings and you must obey
If you don’t like it, I don’t care
I sure hope I ain’t got strings up there.
I sure hope I ain’t got strings up there.
1c. Barn
Ryan Spelling and the other remaining ranch hands
often play penny poker in the barn after hours atop
an overturned industrial spool. He’s a handsome
young man in a half-buttoned shirt and chaps,
with a perpetual wry grin plastered across his face.
Spelling is considered a bit insufferable even by his
fellow workers, but he’s good with the mules and
indispensable to the ranch’s operation, even at the
reduced capacity. The old hands grin and bear it as
Spelling brags about his romantic conquests.
Spelling has two favorite stories at the moment. The
first concerns a graphic description of his romantic
conquest of Annabelle Fabler, who was “just begging
for it” as he claims. The second is an exaggerated,
heroic account of how he repelled a “yellow-bellied
ambush” by Anabelle’s father the previous night. The
older hands won’t support this last story, keen to knock
the young man down a peg by pointing out he merely
beat an old drunk up more for fun than protection.
The old men try to change the subject from his
boasting to the strange, missing trees uprooted from
the orchard recently and their theories as to what’s
been happening.
Though certainly stupid, Spelling is not self-
destructive. As soon as he recognizes someone in
authority other than Buford Kraft might know the
truth about his attack on Anabelle, he tries try to flee
the area. If chased, he attempts to mount a horse and
lose any pursuers in the groves.
55
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
2. The Groves
The Grove has been blighted by depleted soil and
drought, though it remains a mystery how the Dust
Bowl conditions reached so far West. Row after row
of dead trees cover acres of dusty ground that crunch
with dead leaves at each step. Despite the desiccation,
a faint citrus smell still clings to the air.
A Marionette can be found here, imitating a scarecrow.
Particularly perceptive characters might notice that
there is no need for a scarecrow in an orange grove.
The shadowy shape seems to track anyone passing by,
shifting almost imperceptibly to face to the passerby.
Anyone that comes within twenty feet of gets attacked.
3. Grangerford’s Gas
A dusty old building by highway 17, Grangerford’s
Gas is the only place within 50 miles to get supplies.
The owner seems to know this and takes no care to
maintain the property. The Hooverville is within
walking distance of the station, making it a frequent
victim of theft from the stranded transient population.
Otis Grangerford is likely to be the first character many
players meet. He wears overalls and a straw hat, has the
barnacle nose of an alcoholic and an unkempt beard.
He eyes nearly everyone suspiciously and brandishes
a shotgun until certain they aren’t Okies out to scam
him.
Otis is well aware of the problems in the shantytown;
he’s heard the rumors and the screams in the night. He
worries most about Anabelle Fabler, a young Okie that
reminds him of his estranged daughter. Otis would
give candy to her younger siblings and chat with the
young girl on a daily basis until about a week ago
when she stopped visiting. Otis is dissatisfied with
Buford Kraft’s police work and quick to gossip about
the officer’s penchant for beating the Okies without
actually doing anything to move them off the property.
4. State Station #39
A one-room jailhouse, this run-down, wooden shack is
little more than a storehouse for the state police’s
old documents and surplus equipment. There
56
is a single, unoccupied cell and a desk. Otherwise,
the room is a disorganized mass of poorly kept files.
Outside, a shed houses lawn tools and whatever won’t
fit into the main building.
Buford Kraft can be found here during his infrequent
trips to the area. He is fat, pimpled, sweaty, and
bursting out of his uniform. He carries a non-standard
issue “Judge” revolver low-slung on his hip, trying to
fulfill his fantasy of being an old West lawman. Though
considered a joke by the rest of the state police and
sent on errands to backwater holes like Bryson Springs,
Buford is keen to think himself as a king and the strip
of highway his kingdom.
Buford is happy to talk about the case, though
he refuses to see anything unusual about the
disappearances. He can’t help but admit Liang’s death
was unusual, but he can’t see getting too worked up
over a dead Chinease man and suspects the killer has
already moved on. He won’t mention the pulverized
bodies in the pauper’s grave out back unless pressed,
dimly aware that he should have reported those long
ago.
4.a: The Office
Primarily filled with file cabinets, the building also has
a cramped desk and a small jail cell. Buford is likely
to imprison any characters that question his authority
without law enforcement credentials. This indefinite
detainment can be broken by other characters, or
perhaps by the Marionettes. The Kelly’s are no fan of
the law and would likely want to see Buford fed to
their new god.
4.a.i: Office Clue: Missing Persons Reports
Buford Kraft’s desk holds a number of half-finished
reports for missing persons out of the Shantytown. It
appears the pig only filled out enough of each report
get whichever distraught family member was in his
face out of the way. The disappearances occur at
random dates over the last few weeks, seven in all. All
people describe similar incidents; the victim leaves to
talk to someone late at night. The person being talked
to moves out of sight. Victim follows…and is never
seen again.

4.b: The Shed
Liang Wang’s body had been kept in the equipment
shed for two days, rotting and waiting for “experts”
from the city. Buford lets any higher ranking officials
in, but the rusty padlock could be forced or picked.
Any character with a background in medicine can
see that Liang died of a slow strangulation. Everyone
can notice the horrific gouges covering every inch of
his flesh, tearing his clothes to tatters. His wounds are
consistent with being dragged behind a horse or car,
but he obviously died inside the washhouse.
4.b.i: Shed Clue: Piece of Liang’s Notes
A slip of paper can be found in one of his hands,
available now that the rigor has let up. The torn slip
has a series of Chinese characters on it and a crude
drawing of the Chinese “Kuileixi Shi,” a death totem
used in ancient Chinese burials. The single, legible
sentence translates into “We are all puppets!”
4.c: Pauper’s Grave
Perceptive investigators notice a large patch of
disturbed earth behind the station. Those with
the clout to press Buford for answers can get an
explanation and exhume, or they could uncover
the shallow grave themselves given enough time.
Underneath, they find the rotting corpses of two Okie
men.
4.c.i: Grave Clue: Pulverized Bodies
The dead men either escaped from the marionettes too
late or chose to fall rather than meet the Fisher of Men.
As such, their bodies are totally crushed, shattered
and ruptured from a fall of hundreds of feet. In his
boundless idiocy, Buford just assumed they’d been
beaten to death, but it is obvious these men met an
extraordinary end.
5. Hooverville
A ramshackle conglomeration of sheet metal, found
wood, and lived-in pick-up trucks, the Hooverville
sprawls outwards from the Washhouse in random,
disjointed streets. Residents are extremely hostile
towards strangers in their business, but otherwise keep
to their miseries.
Bryson Springs - No Security
5.a. The Fablers
Annabelle Fabler spends her days tending to her
badly beaten father and the younger children in their
tent on the orchard side of the camp. Her brothers
are perpetually out, hitching rides and looking for
work. She’s a slightly pudgy girl with brown hair and
a homespun dress. She refuses to leave the side of
her father and wrings her hands in constant anxiety.
Any attempts by men to get close to her are met with
hysterical outbursts of fear.
5.a.i: Annabelle’s Clue: The Account of the Rape
Anyone showing convincing empathy towards either
Annabelle or her father’s condition is told about Ryan
Spelling’s sexual assault the previous week. Annabelle
blames herself for the fact that Buford did nothing
because she “lost control” and told him about “seeing
things” during the attack. She also regrets telling her
father about the attack, which caused him to seek
revenge on Spelling and get badly beaten.
If pressed, Annabelle reveals the “nonsense” that she
told Kraft, recounting the first witnessed attack of the
Marionettes.
5.b. Ye Wang
After driving to the nearest phone to call for more
help, Ye Wang returned to the Hooverville to wait for
more news on the investigation of her father’s death.
She shouts down any curious onlookers trying to enter
the cordoned off men’s side of the washhouse and
harasses Buford Kraft for answers on a daily basis.
Ye is happy to reveal everything she knows to any
party interested in helping. However, Liang was very
protective and didn’t want his daughter mixing with
“the bums,” so she didn’t leave the makeshift camp of
the family truck for the many days he was at the tent
city. She does know that he was working for a man
named Kelly and that his work was likely academic in
nature; he had been a scholar in the old country.
5.b.i: Liang’s Briefcase
After discovering her father’s corpse, Ye pried her
father’s briefcase from his hand least it be stolen by the
Okies. She has yet to make any sense of the contents, as
she can speak but not read English. She is hesitant
to hand over the briefcase, but she allows
57
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
characters to look if she feels they are there to help. A final swath of characters. Translation is in American
The contents are as follows. phonetic alphabet. Marginalia afterwards reads: “More
Gibberish”
Photograph: The crinkled, worn photograph shows
an unfurled scroll with Chinese symbols on it leaning Scrawled over the phonetic translation,“DO NOT
against a weathered, wood wall. The back reads: READ!” It’s followed by a few more characters, un-
translated.
“Old friend, require your expertise. Found this amongst
the trappings of our rail days and curiosity has bested A paperclip and torn scraps of paper indicate some of
me. You need not travel far as the Hardship forces us the pages are missing.
West. Will seek work in Bryson Springs, a day’s drive
from your home. Please visit soon to revisit better times. 5.b.ii: See the Strings
Payment provided for services rendered, of course. –K.” Reading the final section of phonetic gibberish alone
does nothing. However, speaking the syllables aloud
Partial Translation: Written in Liang’s uncertain hand, casts a powerful spell meant to reveal the true nature of
this is a partial translation of the scroll. reality.
Translated into phonetic spelling, the document is
called “Kuileixi Shi” next to the largest characters from Once cast, the character sees the “strings” attached
the scroll’s picture. The full translation is missing, but to and supposedly controlling every living thing.
it should read something like “Death’s Dolls.” Gossamer twine, barely visible, seems tied to limbs
of every person they meet, glinting in the light and
A note in the margin reads, “Claim Shang Dynasty? trailing into a vanishing point in the sky. The strings
Obvious fake. Still remarkable craftsmanship of Jade are always there, passing through ceilings and tree
scroll” cover as if made of no more than mist. Only the
character that read the syllables aloud can see this
Another margin note: phenomenon; all other characters think it madness or
“No mention of burial dolls yet. Gibberish.” a joke if told about it.

A swath of Chinese characters, followed by English As the spell progresses, the character can see a different
translation: “Consider the fish. He lives in darkness. type of strings at night, lines of force seemingly made
The ceiling to his house is soft, yet impenetrable. He of fire that arc into the night sky, a night sky that now
knows nothing of the sun, trees, grass, or air. He knows seems to have an end, a ceiling through which swirling
food, and food only, until one day he sees the lure. He black vortexes peek. These burning strings lead to the
does not know the ways of weaving line, the plants used marionettes and warn of their coming.
for colorful dyes, the strange art of lure making. He
cannot suspect the patient deceptions of men or their Characters under the effect of the spell increasingly
predatory motives. He cannot see a net. He knows food lose their grip on reality. Dimensions begin to appear
only, and knows it well. And so, though the lure seems false or hollow; buildings or mountains might startle
alien, offensive to his eyes, the fish sees food, for it is
the eye as suddenly two-dimensional, nothing more
all he can see. He bites, and he dies a death beyond histhan cardboard cut-outs. Paranoia is the logical
imagining.” conclusion; the character can do nothing but presume
everyone is under the control of some dark puppeteer
Another swath of characters, only partially translated: lurking behind the stars. While casting the spell can
“And such are we to it, the Fisher of Men (underlined certainly help one survive in Bryson Springs, the
with question marks), and we fall prey to our minds’ character under its influence certainly goes mad unless
own metaphors (again underlined with question marks)” the Fisher of Men’s influence of the area can be broken.

58

5.c: The Okies
Beaten down by hardships, the migrant workers
are very reluctant to talk to anyone they don’t know
personally. However, certain methods of persuasion
(bribes) and types of people (blue-collar) can wrestle
information from them. Each Okie gives up a single
piece of information to a character successfully
questioning them. Role 1d6 and select a piece of gossip
at random.
1. Annabelle’s Fabler’s strange behavior
2. Ryan Spelling’s sadism and perversion
3. The exploded shack and the crushed man found
amongst debris
4. Buford’s incompetence and frequent abuse of power
5. Odd, shadowy figures around the outskirts at night
6. The shacks and vehicles being abandoned all
over camp
Knowledge of Buford’s missing person reports can get
up to two pieces of relevant information from Okie
family members for a successful persuasion check.
5.d: The Kelly’s
Ma, Tom, Jessup, Buela Mae, and Edmund — all are
disheveled and wearing home-spun. All have gone
mad with the manipulations of their father.
The Kelly’s, at first, seem like any other reticent family
in the Hooverville. However, if they determine that
the players are after their father, they do anything they
can to manipulate investigators into joining the family
at the Old Ghost Town. They believe entirely in Paul
Kelly’s vision and seek to isolate and kill anyone after
their father. Each is armed with knives or hatchets.
6. The Washhouse
Set in the center of the Hooverville, the washhouse
is one of the first uses of California’s WPA money. It
is an unappealing, concrete bunker set over one of
the springs. The building houses a number of toilets,
showers, and a trough for filling water buckets, all in
the same room. Buford Kraft has roped off the men’s
side of the building.
Knowing how the Marionettes worked and that
Kelly would kill him for his betrayal, Liang fled to
the washhouse in hopes that the stone ceiling would
Bryson Springs - No Security
keep the puppets from reeling him into the sky until
morning. He was only partly right. The Marionette
hunting Liang entered the washhouse, grabbed him,
and began its ascent, slamming the locked pair into
the concrete ceiling over and over again. Liang spent
the rest of the night being dragged about every surface
of the windowless room as the creature tried to find
a way to open sky. His flesh was scoured from his
bones by the rough stone. Literally every corner of
the washhouse is spotted with Liang’s blood and flesh,
even the ceiling.
6.a: Washhouse Clue: Forensics
Anyone with the presence of mind to resist panic at the
site of Liang’s abattoir can learn some interesting facts
from the scene.
The only place on the premise not soaked in blood
is a square on the ground where Liang’s briefcase
landed. A crafty investigator might wonder where
the obstruction has disappeared. Anyone with a
rudimentary understanding of physics can tell there
is no way anything could have thrown Liang against
the walls and ceiling hard enough to kill him without
leaving a massive splatter. However, the blood is evenly
distributed throughout the room, with some spatters
marks on the floor from drips seeming to come from
on high. In fact, a keen eye can see a few of Liang’s
fingernails embedded in the concrete at impossible
heights. The gore in the room must have taken hours
to spread, and the culprit is someone able to defy the
law of gravity.
7. Old Ghost Town
A dilapidated old western town abandoned after the
railway changed tracks — little is left of this settlement
save decrepit wooden frames along an abandoned
main street. The town is surrounded on all sides by
empty plains and desert. Cobwebs wave in the breeze
across every window and entryway. There is a form
huddled in a fetal position in the middle of the
street — Kelly’s guardian Marionette.
7.a: The Abandoned Brothel
Pa Kelly has been summoning the Marionettes from
the basement of the old town brothel. Those
looking for him might recognize the building
59
 ENDGAME
as his base because of the attacking monstrosity.
More subtle adventurers see the disturbed dust on the
brothel door or the arcane Chinese symbols newly
carved on the walls.

In the dirt cellar, Kelly has set up a dark lair to his

Fisher of Men.

7.b: Paul Kelly

He has become disheveled and bloodshot. He’s shirtless
with suspenders on homespun trousers. He’s armed
with a double-barreled shotgun, hunting knife, and the
Fisher’s Scroll.

Pa’s plan is to show the Fisher of Men the poor

condition of his stock by continually culling them. He
feels that the Fisher will have to see this soon enough
and send back the rain and green days to his hunting
grounds. Kelly’s gone completely mad and uses his
family as acolytes in the mad rituals learned
from the scroll.

ENDGAME
There is no spell in Kelly’s evil scroll to dismiss the
Fisher of Men. Destroying the scroll does nothing
either. If characters obtain the scroll’s translation
and can make sense of it, someone can summon a
Marionette to attack Kelly himself. If successful, the
plague ends once the madman is devoured by his dark
god. The caster of this spell must risk having his or her
mind torn asunder by forbidden knowledge, despite
any noble intentions.

Outside of obtaining the scroll, the only way to save

Bryson Springs is to overcome the Kelly family’s
defenses and kill Pa. Pa’s body must be completely
destroyed, both rendered dead and torn apart lest it
become a Marionette made of flesh. However, with his
avatar no longer putting chum in the waters, the Fisher
of Men recedes from time and space again.

Until these solutions are discovered, the dark

silhouettes continue their hunt, ranging ever wider to
feed the Fisher’s insatiable hunger.

60
revelations
 INTRODUCTION
Revelations
INTRODUCTION
Revelations is an apocalyptic horror scenario set in the
small town of Toil, Illinois during the 1930’s. Three to
six players take on the role of the town’s police force
as they struggle with what appears to be the biblical
end of days. Thematically, the scenario highlights the
overwhelming hopelessness and despair brought on by
a loss of faith.
This adventure starts with an overall description of the
setting and plot for the GM’s use. Information that the
players can reveal through roleplaying can be found in
the gameplay section.
1938: Toil, Illinois:
Soybeans helped the little settlement of Toil thrive
during the Great Depression while the rest of the
nation dwindled around it. A number of industrial
applications were discovered for soy oil in the previous
decade, most notably for use in soaps. It was rare
for any farmer in the area to have unsold crop.
62
The more forgiving northern climate meant plentiful
harvests, and while no one was rich, hardly anyone
went without work for very long.
Throughout America’s hardest years, Toil slowly grew
from a collection of wooden huts into a bustling
township. The farmers needed a central location
where everyone could ship their harvest to the city,
repair tractors, shop, and socialize. Industry came
next, and even a few Chicagoans fled the smoky city
for the peace of the plains. Isolated on all sides by
endless fields of beans from the misery wandering the
rest of the nation, the town became an idyllic slice of
Americana in a few short years. It was a good place for
picnics, for hard days of work and quiet nights with the
family. A good place to build a life.
But though the town escaped the economic turmoil
gripping the nation, it harbored a terrible secret at its
heart. Driven by shame and abuse, Toil’s fallen first
son delved ever deeper into mysteries altogether too
troubling and complex for his neighbors. After years
of isolation, the tortured young genius discovered

something not meant for man. A force, simultaneously
holy and profane, that, once seen, evolved the ability
to return a gaze – an abyss that would stare back.
Unknown to the simple folk of Toil, a secret god was
summoned: called down from their skies, raised from
the fertile earth, and invoked from within their very
souls.
And the thing’s very presence did smite the town and
all within it.
Disclaimer
This scenario pulls heavily from the Bible to
inspire its horrors. Acts of violence and terror
depicted in the Old and New Testament – both
divine and hellish in origin –make up the vast
majority of gameplay. Furthermore, this RPG
module is firmly rooted in Lovecraftian horror,
which by its very nature blasphemes against
every traditional faith simultaneously. It could be
argued that the collapse of mankind’s entire belief
system is the central theme of Lovecraft’s fiction,
and this scenario chooses to emphasize that
aspect rather than any specific tentacle-sprouting
monstrosity.
The author wishes to point out that Revelations is
by no means meant as an attack on Christianity,
Judaism, or any other faith. First and foremost,
the goal is to provide a scary and novel scenario
for horror RPG fans. If Revelations has any
broader point to make beyond “have fun,” it is
only that Biblical literalism steals much of the
poetry and meaning from an enlightening text.
No other criticism is intended.
If you or members of your gaming group find any
of these topics uncomfortable, please do not play
Revelations. Hebanon Games has many other
frightening and fun games available.
For those interested, all quoted verse is from the
King James Bible, Cambridge Edition.
Revelations - No Security
GM INFORMATION
A Gifted Child
Even as Toil was spared the deprivations of the rest of
the nation, the pessimism of the times had an effect
on the populace. During the first few years of the
Depression, the townsfolk and local farmers found
solace in a renewed faith. Reverend Yearta’s Abundant
Harvest Fellowship Church came to dominate the
community’s worship in these early years. The
Reverend’s positive message – that the continual faith
and work ethic of the townspeople had spared them
the economic blight – drew many a self-satisfied
parishioner. But the preaching of the father paled in
comparison to that of the son.
Andrew Yearta, the minister’s young son, would have
been a prodigy in any occupation, and tending the
flock was no different. The boy first gave testament
at the age of seven, and by the time he was eleven
he was giving full-blown Sunday sermons. In truth,
the theological density of his analysis would have
been difficult for an experienced biblical scholar to
follow, not to mention a congregation of simple bean
farmers. In spite of difficult content, crowds from
every surrounding county flocked to experience the
disconnect between the boy’s small stature and the
sophistication of his preaching. People felt the only
explanation for his skill was divine selection, and
the elder Yearta was content to let them believe. The
father’s collection plates were as filled with offerings as
his heart was with pride.
Forbidden Fruit
By the time Andrew was 16, he was co-pastor of
Abundant Harvest. Though not nearly as adept at
glad-handing parishioners as his father, the teenager’s
generosity and faith were unquestionable. People
tolerated his awkward and shy demeanor as a side-
effect of being touched by God, and the sense of
family tradition attendants felt seeing the Yearta clan
maintain the church with such unity overcame any
reservations about the boy’s shiftiness.
All of that changed when Andrew volunteered to help
watch over the ailing Buella Sewell.
63
 GM INFORMATION
Diagnosed with stomach cancer, Adrew was tasked Andrew fared even worse. The boy punished himself
with helping Mary Sewell, her shut-in daughter, watch more harshly than his father ever could, though it
over the woman’s final days. Reverend Yearta the elder didn’t stop the old man from trying. The boy thought
had to speak at a convention in Chicago that week, himself damned forever to hell, and Reverend Yearta
and it was thought that the substitution would better would not even let the boy make confession to the
prepare Andrew for taking more responsibility for the townspeople whose faith he had defiled. On a lark,
congregation. some months earlier Andrew had written an essay to
an obscure German divinity college, inquiring about a
Buella Sewell had done too good a job in life protecting specific biblical interpretation in the Book of Numbers.
her daughter’s reputation. Convinced that Mary The school had been so impressed they offered the
was born “a filthy whore” (her pet name for the girl young genius a full scholarship, and he was sent away
since she caught her playing doctor with a neighbor across the ocean, more in exile than triumph.
boy), Buella had kept her daughter a prisoner in her
home for nearly all of the girl’s 26 years. The mother’s Recalling the Deserter God
religious fervor sprawled into madness, and in addition
to driving her husband away, it created a self-fulfilling The college Andrew Yearta attended would have been
prophecy. infamous for the monk-like devotion demanded
of its students if it weren’t so isolated in the Black
Andrew Yearta, handsome and slim, was the first man Forest. Built in the former von Meinhoff estate, little
that had been allowed in the Sewell home in nearly was known about the school save its penchant for
a decade. Both victims of social isolation, repressed producing odd, if not totally heretical, theological
youth, and domineering parents, Andrew and Mary texts.
could have had a lovely courtship had their needs not
been so starved. Alone in the house for days, a nosey While there, Andrew Yearta made the devotion of
neighbor finally stumbled in on the pair as they were… even the most dogmatic staff seem like debauchery.
engaged, as much wrapped up in each other as the He barely ate. He never left his rooms save for study
inevitability of their sin. or organized prayer. He made no friends and spoke to
no one save the librarians, and even then to only ask
The neighbor had been bringing over a pie in for obscure texts. His whole life seemed psychotically,
attempt to alleviate the morbidity of the young pair’s feverishly devoted to redemption, and the scholarly
deathwatch. When she checked on Buella as the young work for his degree seemed performed as an
couple frantically tried to cloth themselves, she found afterthought, albeit flawlessly. His only problem, aside
the elder Sewell dead, seeming to have chosen to expire from being disconcerting to the staff and students, was
at the moment that would maximize her daughter’s an obsession with self-flagellation that saw him in the
shame. infirmary many times.

The scandal burned through the town like wildfire.
Reverend Yearta came home to find his congregation
torn asunder by gossip. Mary was all but formally
shunned from the community, denying the young
woman the freedom she’d hoped could be found
in her mother’s death. In the years that followed,
the repressed girl hardened into a fierce cynic and
holed up alone in her house. She wore the whispered
jeer of “whore” with pride now, making it a point
to cuss out every back-talker encountered and flirt
indiscriminately with no other purpose besides
sparking the town’s ire.
Honestly grateful to be rid of him, the school sent
Andrew back home in ’37. Now a young man, the
returned son didn’t even speak to his parents upon
re-entering his home. He merely walked upstairs with
his trunks of books, went into his old room, and shut
the door. The Reverend, who had been geared up for
a confrontation, found himself baffled. Andrew had
practically snuck back into town. Unwilling to rekindle
the gossip by throwing the young man out, Andrew’s
father let him stay.

64

Alone in his room and finally free from distraction,
Andrew pored over what he’d begun studying at the
college, what he now regarded as the last hope for
mankind’s salvation. In his madness and despair, the
boy had convinced himself that God had abandoned
his people; he called it “Deserter Theology.” The sins
against God’s nature so offended the Lord that, in
despair, He ceased even punishing the wicked. There
was no more salvation to be had, just as the divine
wrath that once rained so quickly from the skies had
dried up after biblical times. The parental love that sent
down the flood was expended, and now God merely
washed his hands of mankind, allowing them to save
or damn themselves. Andrew had damned himself
through his lust, and he could never find forgiveness
for his sin in a world devoid of divinity, a void he felt
he’d personally created through his ingratitude. God
did not hate Andrew; he ignored him, ceased to exist
for him, leaving him alone with his self-loathing.
So the young man set his genius intellect to finding a
way to make God manifest in the world again, to bring
his Truth back into the world, reanimating both His
wrath and His mercy. Andrew hoped to save his soul
by saving everyone on Earth, but the only messenger
capable of relaying a message to the Deserter God was
another God.
In a book by the last heir of the von Meinhoff family,
forgotten dusty and neglected in the library of the
castle-turned-divinity college, Andrew found his
answers. He would use the forbidden knowledge of
the universe’s new ruler to bring about the return of
biblical Truth. Andrew would infuriate his God back
into existence by worshipping something so abhorrent
it escaped the notice of even the most brutal pagans.
Thus, in an attempt to save his own soul, Andrew
Yearta made Earth a living Hell.
The Monster: Noought-Iss
Metaphor – the assertion that two unlike subjects
are, at least partially, the same – is an act of pure will
given voice. It simultaneously creates and negates
the existence of those caught in its eye. It shapes our
understanding and that understanding shapes the
world, is in turn understood anew, and loops back
again.
Revelations - No Security
Metaphor is the only sacred incantation, the single
working alchemy, and the truest form of magic.
The primacy of the Subject over the Object is made
concrete in its two-part ritual. The figurative links do
not make existence, but they are its animating force,
the circulatory system of a universe reserved for those
with the burden of being able to perceive it.
Seen this way, life itself is a metaphor. Inanimate
materials – oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
calcium, phosphorus – are linked and linked and
conflated until there is a man. That which IS NOT,
suddenly IS. The many become one.
Language itself is metaphor, a gestating confusion of
concept and sound. And our minds are built entirely
on this fruitful misunderstanding, each complex idea
stacked on a foundation of simpler precepts. Cognition
is a byproduct of our linguistics, of our ability to
substitute the simple for the complex and vice versa.
Thus every consciousness balances atop an upside-
down pyramid, the infinite complexity of every
thought – reality itself – balanced on a teetering base
of simpler connections, telescoping endlessly towards
some unperceivable base concept. And at the tip of this
semantic spear lives Noought-Iss.
“Lives” is the wrong word, for it is alive and dead all at
once. It exists only in transition, and all words are the
wrong words. It is the link, the connection, the vehicle
between all things and that which is one thing. It is an
unthinking, unfeeling, natural force in the universe
and, as all things of that nature, it is perceived by
mankind as a God.
Being the bearer of this perception, Noought-Iss knows
itself to be a deity, as much it can know anything in
its quantum collapse between consciousness and
mindlessness, existence and non-existence. And it
knows Gods may hear prayers.
Klaus von Meinhoff, a German linguist in the early
1800s, recognized Noought-Iss as the primary catalyst
of existence. A genius of the first order, Klaus was
fluent in an untold number of languages and familiar
with the canons of every great civilization’s recorded
literature. From his family’s castle, he used his vast
estate and nobility to obtain texts for study and
worked at cataloguing them seemingly all the
65
 GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
hours of the day. He reportedly never slept, and his
every brush with other academics ended in unsettling
social disaster. His genius was pure and total, and thus
was his madness.
Klaus’s only publication was The Binding of Noought-
Iss with the Objective Tongue: A Study in the Semantic
Hierarchy of Base Instantiation. As dense academically
as it was sacrilegious, the book went completely
ignored save for bookstores near the castle that were
forced to carry the title out of respect for the family’s
nobility. Eventually, von Meinhoff died (presumably),
and his legacy remained as a few dusty tomes forgotten
in the space between bookshelves.
No one guessed that the book contained the true
language, instructions for speaking metaphor in its
purest form. Von Meinhoff had discovered a way
to express the basest concept, bypassing the endless
hierarchy of semantic connections and accessing
the root of meaning. How a mortal came to discover
this information was lost to history along with von
Meinhoff himself. Perhaps he was the greatest linguist
to ever have lived. Perhaps the God demanded a
prophet…
Though this language would be a profound tool for
philosophical thought, it is far more dangerous than
anyone could have predicted. The language doesn’t
just bypass the animating metaphor; it accesses
and changes it. Noought-Iss, as the title suggests, is
“bound” to the will of the subject. Thus, what IS and IS
NOT becomes the will of a singular mind rather than a
vast, unknowable cosmic force.
Mortal minds cannot hold the entirety of existence in
their thoughts, not to mention express it completely in
any language. Klaus von Meinhoff himself claimed that
to use such power would be apocalyptic and rewrite
the very laws of reality. Andrew Yearta knew this…and
used it anyway.
66
What’s Happening?
Andrew has used what von Meinhoff called the
“Objective Tongue” to bind Noought-Iss to his will.
Rather than serving as the bridge between all that IS
NOT and all that IS, he has performed a sick, profane
ritual that focused Noought-Iss on a single copy of the
King James Bible. His insane hope is that Noought-
Iss will then rewrite his “Deserter God” back into
existence and save the doomed souls of mankind.
But Andrew’s understanding of von Meinhoff ’s work
is incomplete at best, and he’s greatly underestimated
the inadequacy of human language to convey
true meaning. Noought-Iss doesn’t so much make
reality as it composes reality, and like a creature with
chromosomes suddenly cut out of its DNA, existence
is sick and malformed while it follows instructions
written in an inexact human language. The thing
that exists in the barrier between existence and void
now finds itself in the position of arbiter, forced
into consciousness and made to decide what can no
longer exist and how that which remains must be
transformed.
Noought-Iss is not meant for this task. Its intellect (if
it even has any) is cold and alien; it gives no priority
to the survival of mankind. It has no understanding
of historical context, subjective interpretation, or
inter-textuality. Every line of the Bible is now being
used as the code for a new reality, applied literally and
without any regard for possible contradictions. The
incongruities are tearing existence apart, and the world
is faring no better than Noought-Iss in the violent
transition.
Perhaps even the animating force of the universe has
its limits, or maybe the Vehicle has come to perceive
itself as God and exhibits wrath towards a blasphemer’s
tampering. It’s even possible that the will of Andrew
Yearta could have been so malignantly hateful that it
infected the god he called down. Regardless, Noought-
Iss’ chaotic, bloody application of the new reality is
causing existence itself to collapse, and death will seem
a minor problem if the old order cannot be restored in
time.
 Revelations - No Security

The Acts
Act One: The populace is generally aware that something weird is going on. There’s a palpable sense of
unease in the air, and strange occurrences are popping up all over town. However, reactions are mixed:
while some NPCs may have already started to lose it, most are actively seeking a rational explanation for
whatever they are seeing. Some might even be amused. There isn’t any reason to panic yet.

Act Two: Something is wrong. Very wrong. The phenomena are growing increasingly sinister, and their
biblical nature has been recognized by the more religious townfolk. Power is out, people are dying, and the
only apparent explanation as to why is less than comforting. Panic takes hold. NPCs become focused on
taking shelter, finding loved ones, or escaping the town.

Act Three: It’s the end of days. Cosmic alterations occur all over the town. The populace is aware that escape
from Toil is impossible. Survival itself is impossible. The only hope is salvation, and opinions on how to
achieve that are… mixed. NPCs resort to religious mania, insanity, mob rule, and worse. It seems that the
faster madness takes hold, the faster the changes keep occurring. Chaos reigns.

Act Four: Movement to Act Four should wait until all the PCs are dead, insane, or otherwise moments
away incapacitation. The disturbance has gone on too long. Things fall apart. Reality itself fractures under
the stress, resembling neither the Bible nor anything else in the realm of human experience. The universe
ceases to be. GMs are encouraged to take as much poetic license as they wish in describing this event, but as
characters are erased from having ever existed at all, the game can merely end with a fade to black (though,
it should be noted, black as a color and concept is also erased.)

67
 GAMEPLAY INFORMATION

GAMEPLAY INFORMATION Character Selection

Advice for Using Revelations
This scenario is uniquely structured. GMs should be
familiar with the whole scenario before running the
game and convey the information in the following
section to their players at the outset.
Embrace your Destruction: Revelations is a meat-
grinder. Groups that like beating the “bad guys”
and winning against impossible odds should look
elsewhere. This scenario is apocalyptic. No one will
win; at best, some might survive. If the group likes to
play characters that are thrown into a nightmare and
utterly destroyed by it, then this will be great fun!
Groups might want to make some backup characters,
just so everyone can continue having fun once all the
screaming and dying starts.
Accept your Ignorance: The atmosphere of the
scenario is one of escalating, unstoppable doom. There
is a mystery to solve. Players will have the possibility
of ending the threat, but the narrative by no means
depends on this investigation’s completion, or even its
discovery. If players pick up on the right thread and
follow it towards salvation, it will only be by chance or
the GM’s mercy. Expect no such handholding from the
scenario itself; the apocalypse plays no favorites.
Characters are all members of the Toil City Police
department. Though a small town, the farming
community employs a number of peacekeepers due to
their agricultural wealth and the need to keep hobos
“moving down the road.”
As law officers, PCs will be vested with some authority
to control the situation as it unfolds, a car to get
around, and a radio to inform them about the plot
hooks. Encourage players to come up with reasons
their characters have for living in Toil, how they came
to police work, and what family members they have
living in the area. They could even elect a superior to
give orders.
The mechanical side of character creation, of course,
depends on the rules system chosen to run Revelations,
but here are a few guidelines to follow anyway: firstly,
encourage players to avoid builds not in keeping with
the time period. In terms of gear, allow anything that
seems plausible (machine guns and dynamite won’t
help them anyway). If the rules system has a mechanic
for tracking mental health, GM’s might mention that
keeping characters sane will likely be more important
than making sure they can shoot or lift weights. Lastly,
players might find it useful to give their characters
some knowledge of history or Christian theology to
supplement their own understanding of biblical verse.

Enjoy your Fall: The locations within the Toil

(page 69) are fixed, but what can be found there
changes depending on how long the event has been
going on. Each location has three Acts, and the
changes grow increasingly severe with each one. There
is no set guideline for what location the PCs should
visit first or when the GM should move to the next
Act. The dispatches at the start of each location can be
read aloud for the players to pick from, or the GM can
ask them to pick a random number between 1 and 14,
starting them off with that scene. Escalate according to
narrative convenience, or just cycle through the scenes
in order until players move locations and start over. In
terms of narrative, it doesn’t really matter so long as
characters are never allowed to get comfortable.

68

LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Initial Dispatches
Winifred Deandria is the kindly old widow that
dispatches for the Toil City Police Department.
Initially given the work more out of pity than ability
(the last of her family died almost a decade ago and the
car radios were thought to be no more than a passing
fad that would keep her occupied), she has proven
quite reliable over the years. Winifred hasn’t taken a
single sick day in two years, she regularly bakes for
the officers, and her cat Rufus is a source of morale for
prisoners and officers alike.
The kindly woman will serve as the character’s link
to information about what is going on about town. In
fact, Winifred is the party’s only reliable source as to
what’s happening, and it’s her voice the GM should
adopt when dispatching players on initial calls around
the map.
The directions Mrs. Deandria gives sending officers
to each location are understandably vague; so many
panicked reports of impossible things are coming in
that she can’t manage much more than an address
before moving on to the next. She doesn’t have much
time to answer questions either, between talking on the
phone and tying up the radio with dispatches to other
officers.
What follows are the initial dispatches that can
lead PCs to each location on the map. For
additional dispatches Mrs. Deandria provides
later in the scenario, see location 15
(Damned Dispatches, p. 88).
Revelations - No Security
Complaints
Opener: Alright, boys. I hope you had a big breakfast
because I ain’t never seen it so busy out there since
that Hooverville popped up on Route 9. The phones
ringing off the hook and people is acting foolish all
over. It’s gonna be a long day…
The Leowen Bridge
Cora Sulliven says there’s a bunch of boys loitering and
playing in traffic on the bridge. It’s probably them same
what was playing hooky the other day. Head out there
and run them off before one of ‘em gets himself hurt.
J & P’s Lunch Counter
That ol’ gossip Jessie Mae got herself all in a tizzy about
Jenny and Penny again. She called me just a second ago
saying they done poisoned her! Can you believe that?
Better get down there before she causes another scene
like last Fall.
Silverbranch Tap Room
Mr. Jeffery, god bless him, says that Tugger’s “doing
something sick” to his nephew down at the Tap Room.
I don’t know… sound like he might be hitting the poor
child again.
Toil City Hall
Mayor Ford is having a conniption! He says the Ag.
Fair depends on y’all getting down there quick-like.
I’ll be blasted if I could make out what he was saying
through all them curse words.
Toil Public School
Doc Coughlin says he needs your help with a patient
he was called out to see at the school. Sounded serious.
Abundant Harvest Fellowship Church
Now what is the world coming to? Reverend Yearta
called in to say someone has broken in and vandalized
the church. All my lands… kids these days… I swear.
69
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Tennant Funeral Home and Cemetery
Morgan called to report in some sort of insect
infestation. I couldn’t really hear too well; we got a bad
connection. Anyway, not sure what y’all are supposed
to do about it, but he always was so mousy. You might
go out there to calm his nerves.
Toil Dump & Incinerator
Sawyer said he needed a ride into to town to see the
doctor. I guess that ol’ wreck of a truck of his finally
gave up the ghost. Be a dear and go get him; nice man
hauled off that busted chiffarobe for me last week and
he seemed in powerful need.
Brown Grocer’s
This ain’t a crime but I figured I’d pass it along. My
girlfriend Penny called me just now and said Brown
is having a penny sale on bread. A penny for a fresh
loaf! Can you believe that! I’d head down and stock up
myself if I could keep the darn phone on the hook.
Handy Dandy Agricultural Supplies
Handy Dandy foreman called. Said someone broke in
last night and planted a tree? Not sure what law that
breaks, but I suppose that’s why they give you boys the
guns!
Masonic Lodge
Mrs. Wyrick says there’s some sort of problem going
on back at the Masonic lodge. She said, “You got to
see to believe it.” Well, I’ll take her word for it. I ain’t
walking over there with these old knees.
Yearta Residence
The Reverend’s wife was in absolute hysterics when
she called awhile ago. I couldn’t make hide nor hair of
what she was saying through all the tears, but she said
she weren’t in danger so I told her to just hold on and
that help was on the way.
Sewell Residence
Now you know I ain’t got no patience for the hussy, but
that Mary Sewell is moaning about her persecution
again. Said someone done dumped a load of frogs in
her house? You believe that? The gall to accuse
someone of such a thing… I swear. It’s a
70
mercy Buella didn’t live the to see that girl become so
lowdown. Anyway, suppose we got to respond.
The Common
That professor from up in Chicago called saying you
got to come see his work for “post-tear-ity,” whatever
that means. I don’t care for bookish men myself but he
seems the nice sort. Maybe pull over if you’re driving
by the Common.
0. Off the Map (Route 9)
Acts One-Three: Revelations 7:1
and Psalms 104:5
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the
four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor
on the sea, nor on any tree.”
“Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should
not be removed forever.”
Getting out of town is going to seem like the obvious
choice at some point. The only major road leading in
and out of Toil is Route 9. The NPCs are eventually
going to load up their trucks and flee down the
highway. Regardless of whether they head North or
South, the problem with that plan is that they no
longer exist on the same planet.
The Earth is now flat, and it is very, very small.
Initially, the border just appears as unseasonable fog.
Oblivious characters find out too late that the fog is
really a suspended cloudbank rolling across an endless
horizon. The town of Toil has been literally cut off,
and trying to leave only results in sailing off the edge
of the Earth and into the incomprehensible void that
stretches forever.
Players investigating the edge discover how hopeless
the situation is. The land itself has been sliced out
from the rest of the planet, the edge a 90-degree drop
past amputated pipes and truncated stone sliced with
surgical precision. This makes a perfect square around
the town, and each of the four corners rests on an
enormous pillar that pierces endlessly downwards
through the yawning abyss.
Revelations - No Security
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Each corner is guarded by a silhouette of pure light, If they’ve yet to be retrieved, the axe heads sink as
radiant wings outstretched and at attention with a the creek takes a purplish hue. The water has turned
flaming sword. These angels do not speak, and they to wine: brackish, muddy wine. The novelty of the
may not be harmed. They merely watch the humans floating metal is replaced by unease. This phenomenon
struggling beneath them with maddening eyes made of is obviously biblical, though certainly not a bad omen.
pure starlight, distant and disinterested.
Act Three: Psalm 105:29
Staring into the abyss is not healthy for anyone’s
“He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.”
mindset, and seeing one of the pillar guardians is
somehow worse. The edge of the world is the ultimate
As the wine suddenly transforms into a river of blood
precipice, and like tourists atop a high building, the
and tangles of dead wildlife float through the town, the
insane urge to leap off may be too persistent and strong
evil portents of the day’s events become apparent to
to resist.
even the most oblivious residents.

1.The Leowen Bridge 2. J & P’s Lunch Counter

Act One: 2nd Kings 6:5-6 Act One: Psalm 102:9
“But as one was cutting down a tree, the axe head fell
“For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my
into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for
drink with weeping”
it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where did
it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a
Jenny and Penny run the only restaurant in town. The
stick, and cast it in there; and the iron did float.”
“sisters” (actually barely-closeted lovers) always have a
packed house, but a strange occurrence has driven all
A group of children are “loitering” on the bridge,
but the most stalwart customers from the place.
excitedly shouting and pointing at some sticks poking
out of Vermillion Creek. When questioned, they reveal
Jessie Mae Lynnwood, the town busy body and general
that they were playing Cowboys and Indians when
gossip-monger, has filed an official complaint against
Johnny dropped his Dad’s old hatchet in the water.
the restaurant. This is not the first time she’s been after
Before the tears could start, the hatchet’s handle rose
Jenny and Penny (she constantly calls the police to
up out of the water, seemingly swimming against the
their house for “disturbances” in hopes they’ll catch
current.
them living in sin), but this time there are witnesses.
The boys are now running back and forth between
Mrs. Lynnwood’s food has turned to ash in her
the bridge and their homes, dropping every bladed
mouth, quite literally. As characters arrive, they can
garden instrument they can find into the water. Players
see the soot still staining her chin as the woman
that swim out to the “sticks” (really handles) will find
sobs on the corner. The dissatisfied customer claims
that only the axe heads are floating and resisting the
this is some trick being played on her by the “vile
current. Every knife, garden shear, and rake has sunk
fornicators” inside. Penny and Jenny, though nervous
to the bottom… despite being made of the same metal
and infuriated by Mrs. Lynnwood’s now very public
as the axe heads.
accusations, have no idea what is going on. They point
to Mrs. Lynnwood’s sandwich where it still sits on her
Act Two: John 2:9 plate, noting that there are no ashes on it. The pair is
“When the steward of the feast had tasted the water that eager to cooperate, and they’re offering free lunch to
was made wine, and knew not from where it was: (but everyone on account of all the fuss.
the servants who drew the water knew;) the steward of
the feast called the bridegroom.”

72

Any character that eats Mrs. Lynnwood’s bread will
find that the phrase “turned to ash in their mouths”
can have far less poetic meanings, or they can simply
wait for one of the concerned diners to go back to their
meal. Anybody who eats the transforming bread will
be fine after some spitting, but they’ll find afterwards
that they can’t stop themselves from crying, constantly,
regardless of their mood.
Act Two: Revelation 8:7
“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and
fire mingled with blood, and they were cast on the earth:
and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green
grass was burnt up.”
Penny, on her way to fetch more ice for the
complimentary drinks the restaurant is offering to its
perturbed clients, opens the icebox door to an eruption
of flames and blood. She is quite badly burned and
trying to recover in the kitchen to avoid spooking
more customers with her screams. Players can witness
this first-hand if they’re on-site, or they can arrive to
help after a panicked Jenny calls dispatch.
After calming the poor woman down, players can see
that the icebox appears to have melted from the inside.
It somehow turned into a kiln despite being filled with
ice, and the warped metal walls are caked with blood
from an uncertain source.
Though far from the fire, it appears all the vegetation
in the alley out back has burned as well. As characters
investigate, more shouts can be heard from inside the
restaurant. When they return to the lunch counter,
every glass of iced tea in the place is now boiling,
the ice inside suddenly turned to fire. The glasses
eventually break from the heat, spilling a bloody froth
onto the ground.
Those few customers still around after the ashy bread
take this as a cue to leave in a frenzied, panicked
stampede out the door. Unless players can keep the
crowd calm, a few people will be trampled in the
exodus.
Revelations - No Security
Act Three: Genesis 19:24
“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon
Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of
heaven;”
The restaurant lies abandoned as chaos grips the streets
of Toil. Penny and Jenny have hung up a laughable “Be
Back Tomorrow!” sign on the door before leaving their
livelihood for the looters.
It’s for the best. The punishment for a town allowing
the “sinful” love of people like Jenny and Penny has a
precedent. Heralded only by the brief whiff of rotten
eggs, the restaurant is bombed out by a huge streak of
fire falling from the sky. The destruction is fierce and
total, as if a meteor hurled from the other side of the
galaxy has targeted the building.
Any characters standing inside or near the restaurant
would be lucky to survive the explosive blast, and even
then disfiguring burns would be unavoidable. The
fiery rain continues even after the initial strike, falling
indiscriminately amongst the rest of the block and
turning every building into an inferno.
All characters must flee the localized hellstorm if they
wish to survive, but any escape is temporary. So long
as the event continues, the brimstone rain will slowly
continue to expand until all of Toil is engulfed in
flames… though it is unlikely anyone will be left alive
by the time things go so far.
3. Silverbranch Tap Room
Act One: Ephesians 6:5
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and
fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.“
Were it not for Mark Jeffery’s kind heart, the Toil PD
might never have known there was a problem at the
local bar. Mark called from his home to report that
Tugger, the owner of the Silverbranch, was being
exceptionally cruel to Jacob Rich, his young nephew
that works for him.
73
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Tugger has a history of abusing Jacob, sometimes take a nap in Main Street before coming back to work
even going so far as to hit the boy when he’s indulged there.” As Jacob breaks free from the police, he sprints
in too much of his own stock, but he’s never received to do just that. Players must race to prevent an insane
much punishment beyond a night in the drunk tank. tragedy as the boy tries to get himself run over.
As a 16-year-old orphan working for room and board,
Jacob doesn’t have much choice but to put up with the Act Two: Malachi 2:3
man; it’s the only work he’s likely to get from the only
“Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung on
family he has. But according to Jeffery, Tugger’s abusive
your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one
attitude took a turn for the worse in a way he can’t
shall take you away with it.”
quite describe. He just got out of there and called the
cops.
Abasi al Atrash is a fish out of water. An Egyptian
Muslim, he has travelled to America to oversee the
When players arrive, Jacob is inside the bar doing
shipment of a large amount of soy oil extract to his
handstands while the bar’s early patrons laugh and jeer.
country. Employed at a British multinational, he is
His face is bright red from all the blood rushing to his
in charge of developing a soap production operation
face, but he won’t stop despite the tears rolling down
in Egypt, and the soy oil is to be the first industrial
his face. If players stop the sick little show, Tugger will
shipment of their agreement.
claim innocence. He just asked him to do it; he didn’t
force anything.
Abasi, though capable of some English, can understand
very little about what is happening. He arrived from
Apparently, Jacob had bumped into Tugger in the
Chicago to find that the shipment at Handy Dandy
kitchen while he was cooking early in the day. Tugger,
Agricultural Supplies delayed. The factory’s owner sent
abusive as always, had told the boy to stick his own
him to wait at the bar with a few foremen, not realizing
hand in the fire next time before bumping him. He
that Muslims don’t drink. There, Abasi watches the
did… for five long seconds. It wasn’t until Tugger
odd tortures of Jacob Rich, perplexed by this strange
smelled burning flesh that he pulled his nephew’s hand
cultural practice. But nothing compares to the
away. He claims that the boy wouldn’t seek medical
confusion to come.
attention but instead begged to stay and finish the shift.
Suddenly and without warning, Abasi falls to the
In fact, Jacob will do anything Tugger tells him. The
ground screaming. His face and his untouched plate
young man agrees with Tugger’s story 100%, and he
of food have suddenly become covered in dung. Flies
seems eager for the police to leave so he can continue
swarm him, and the poor man doubles over as a pool
serving his “master.” The handstand thing appears to
of blood spreads outward from his lap. Panicked and
have just been a test of this newfound obedience, one
confused, a pained Abasi tries to lock himself in the
of many in the last few hours. The bar patrons have
bathroom to hide his shame. Few are willing to touch
been entertaining themselves with these bar tricks for
the screaming man covered in shit, but players that
the last few hours; asking the boy to drink filthy beer
manage to stop him will find him inconsolable. What
remainders and play five-finger filet just to see if it
little English he had goes forgotten with the pain.
would work. Had the players not arrived when they
Locked in the bathroom, Abasi will barricade the door
did…
and refuse all entry. He only mutters frantically in his
own language.
Jacob Rich’s fanatical devotion to his uncle is
inexplicable. He refers to Tugger only as ‘master” and
Anyone capable of speaking Arabic can hear the man
leaps to perform his every command. At the same
praying to Allah through the door. It appears Abasi is a
time, an unmistakable look of terror haunts the boy’s
very well-educated man, and he has read the religious
eyes. The only way to stop the behavior is to separate
texts of his business partners. He references Malachai
Tugger and Jacob. Tugger will not take this interference
2:3 whilst asking the heavens what he did to deserve
well, blaming the boy’s “shenanigans” of course.
such suffering.
He off-handedly remarks that Jacob “Should
74

Act Three: Exodus 11, Exodus 12
Eventually, the murmurings in the bathroom stop. If
any characters or shell-shocked NPCs haven’t fled the
bar yet, they can knock down the door to find Abasi
al Atrash dead by incomprehensible means. Seeing his
dung and blood covered body is enough to make most
men retch, but those stout enough can search his body
for clues. They won’t find much save his wallet. Family
photos reveal that Abasi was the oldest of five siblings.
The firstborn.
4. Toil City Hall
Act One: Exodus 9:1–7
The Toil City Hall hosts the regional area’s Agricultural
Fair Finals. Farmers from all around journey to the
front lawn and courthouse steps to compete for prizes
like “Largest Pumpkin” and “Best Goat.” Local wives
set up stands and sell baked goods. The kids have fun
with carnival games and a small petting zoo.
That’s on a normal year – today, all the animals are
suspiciously absent and stay locked in their trailers.
All the livestock competitions have been delayed for
hours, and the spokesmen for the WPA Agricultural
Committee desperately stalls for time at the
grandstand.
Mayor Lenard Ford is the one who called. Once police
arrive, the impatient bureaucrat hurriedly trundles
behind the building to where the trailers are parked.
He points the officers towards the slates in a closed
trailer for a horse named Daisy… or what remains of
her.
The animal is frightful to look at – frothing at the
mouth, shaking, covered in running sores, bloodshot
eyes rolling in panic. Every other animal at the fair
suffers equally, and they seem to worsen by the
second. Mayor Ford is furious and wants the officers to
forsake all other calls until the “poisoner” is found. He
threatens the job of anyone leaving, regardless of the
excuse.
Investigating the animals’ food and water reveals
no contagion of any kind, and characters with
medical experience note that the affliction facing the
creatures makes no biological sense. Such a potent
Revelations - No Security
and strange collection of symptoms couldn’t jump
species so completely. More traditional investigators
canvassing the crowd notice that Elmer Hanson, the
nearest farmer to the town and yearly favorite at the
competition, is nowhere to be found. While this is
suspect, it could just mean he didn’t make the regional
this year.
Eventually, Mayor Ford gets the officers’ attention
again. The agonized braying of the livestock is
becoming too obvious to hide and some quarantine
measures need to be taken. In short, he wants officers
to put the animals down. He’s arranged an impromptu
shooting backstop off Park Street. He wants some
officers to entertain the crowd with a marksmanship
competition while one poor bastard uses the gunfire
to mask the creatures’ euthanasia. While this might
prevent the onlookers’ discovery and panic, it certainly
disquiets the character in charge of the slaughter.
Act Two: Psalm 90:3
“You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O
sons of men.’”
It starts slowly. The Mayor takes the grandstand and
tries to explain the cancelled events when a puff of
smoke erupts from a spot in the crowd, as if someone
had walked through an old campfire. Then there’s
another, and another, this time accompanied by a
frenzied grandmother that screams and claws her
hands madly through the dirt.
Mayor Ford gives up the microphone stand to go
suppress this new rabble-rouser. As the WPA rep.
moves to take over, he suddenly freezes mid-step, tips
forward on his momentum, and falls, disintegrating
into a million particles of dust on the stage.
There is a stunned beat, then panic erupts. As chaos
spreads, so does the metamorphosis. Everywhere,
random people are instantaneously crumbling into
dust before their loved ones’ eyes. Others are turning
into solid pillars of salt. The screams are deafening.
Players present for the massacre face two threats:
being trampled and going mad. The people remain
understandably inconsolable, and the only hope
is to seek shelter or get out of the way. In games
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
with a sanity mechanic, GMs should treat irrevocable When the doctor arrived, Ms. Weber was already
madness the same as death. Rather than take control of hysterical in the hallway, crying and desperately
the character as an NPC, turn characters that lose their clasping her hands over her mouth. While the
grip on reality into dust. Coming unhinged merely principal tried to comfort her, the children in the
speeds the process of reality’s revision. classroom were running amok. They were having
sliding contests across the floor, running and slipping
Act Three: Deuteronomy 28:53 on a thin layer of moisture of unknown origin.
“And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of
Dr. Coughlin insists that the players quarantine the
your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your
school to contain an outbreak of whatever it is Ms.
God has given you, in the siege, and in the distress, with
Weber has. He assures them it is airborne and that if it
which your enemies shall distress you.”
is infectious, it is likely the officers should be isolated
too. If asked to describe the symptoms, the doctor
Mayor Ford has lost it, but he’s already started
finds himself incapable. Suspicious characters can
campaigning for the leadership of a new post-
press the doctor, at which point he suggests they enter
apocalyptic tribe. Ford and those that hold up in the
the storage room and see for themselves.
City Hall have convinced themselves that they are
under siege by the Lord’s Will (and aren’t entirely
Alone in the storage room, Ms. Weber’s hands remain
wrong). As they try to secure foodstuffs for the
glued to her mouth. Attempts to get her to speak
upcoming deprivation before sealing themselves in
are met with frantic headshakes, but Coughlin can
the courthouse, their frenzied minds have been co-
cajole her into speaking, urging her just to repeat
opted by the force at work. Armed with knives and
what she was talking about in class when the illness
improvised weapons, they are trying to force the
manifested. When Ms. Weber starts shakily reciting
terrified children fleeing from the bloody Leowen
the multiplication tables, characters witness a thick
Bridge (Location 1, p.72) into the City Hall before
stream of mist spew from her mouth. The pressure
barricading the doors.
isn’t dangerous, nor does it obscure her words, but the
dew comes out with more consistent force than can be
The boys are smart enough to struggle against their
provided by human lungs.
crazed elders, but they’re being overpowered and
slowly dragged up the steps. God knows what will
Ms. Weber has no idea what is happening. Dr.
happen to them if the players can’t stop Mayor Ford
Coughlin doesn’t know where all the moisture is
and his cronies, though his continual muttering of
coming from either, and he fears the condition could
“The flesh of the sons and the daughters” doesn’t breed
cause deadly dehydration if it goes untreated.
confidence.

Act Two: Exodus 8:17

5. Toil Public School
Act One: Deuteronomy 32:2
“My teaching shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and
as the showers upon the grass”
Dr. Dylan Coughlin, the local physician, called in for
help from the office of Toil Public Schools. He’s seeing
one of the teachers, Wendy Ann Weber, for a serious
medical condition. When officers arrive, Dr. Coughlin
briefs them on the situation while escorting them
towards the storage closet where he’s secluded the
woman.
76
“And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with
his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became
lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became
lice throughout all the land of Egypt.”
Whether the quarantine has been enacted or the
police have just arrived, the origin of Ms. Weber’s
rain of words increasingly appears supernatural when
the playground’s sandbox inexplicably, instantly
transforms into a swarm of blood-sucking lice.
Unfortunately, there is a class using the recess yard at
the time.

Characters wishing to save the thrashing children
from the lice pit may do so if they have the fortitude.
Plucking kids from the swarm will be sickening, and
the sheer number of the creatures (one for every grain
of sand) causes damage as long as the officers are
amongst the writhing mound.
Eventually, the insects will disperse from the box. The
quarantine, if players created it, now seems quaint.
Many students and teachers flee to their homes.
Act Three: Matthew 15-18 and Others
“Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and is
very ill: for often he falls into the fire, and often into the
water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they
could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O
faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be
with you? How long shall I endure you? Bring him here
to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon; and he departed
out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”
Revelations - No Security
Bearing Bad News
If players know about the goings on at the Yearta
Residence (Location 12, p.85), they can
inform/question the patriarch at his church. If
told about the death of his son, the elder will be
genuinely grieved and ask his wife be brought
to him at church. He’s ignorant of all other
details save his son’s previous scandal and exile
to the divinity school (which, in lieu of the boy’s
death, he finally seems regretful for). Aside
from pointing out young Andrew’s strange new
proclivities, the old man won’t be very useful, less
so as grief and the frightening new portents of
the “prank” continue to assert themselves at the
church.

Seventh grader Lyle Winstrom has suffered from

epilepsy for most of his life. His mother hasn’t yet
come to pick him up, delayed by the insanity outside.
In keeping with the biblical reality insinuating itself,
Lyle’s condition suddenly stops being neurological and
starts being demonic.

The creature that was formerly Lyle Winstrom cannot

be saved by mortal hands. He is possessed by a
demonic spirit that only a Son of God can exorcise.
The creature is in keeping with its other descriptions
(Mark 5: 1-15, Luke 8:27-39, etc) and therefore
possesses supernatural strength, wields the powers of a
wizard, encourages self-mutilation, and takes joy in the
slaughter of innocents. It cannot be reasoned with and
only wishes to destroy.

The effectiveness of firearms against a demon thrall

is obviously neglected in the texts, so it up to the GM
if the creature can even be harmed. Regardless, the
demon presents serious danger, and attacking a child
– even a fire-eyed, blood-soaked one shooting hellfire
from its hands – won’t be easy.

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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
6. Abundant Harvest Fellowship Church
Act One: Matthew 26-28
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed
it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of it;
For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins.”
Reverend Yearta the elder called in a break-in that he’s
just discovered at the church. As it is early afternoon,
there is no one in the building save the pastor.
It appears that in the night the sacrament was swapped
with a grisly substitute. The bread now pulses and is
covered with a pale, sweaty skin. Cutting it causes an
escape of nauseating gas and a spurt of what appears to
be blood. The bread has been made flesh – impossible
flesh from no animal in existence. Checking the wine
bottles reveals that they have been replaced with blood.
Yearta regards this as a sick, blasphemous prank, but
the news about his son (see Bearing Bad News p.77)
may lead him to more fantastical explanations.
Act Two: Jer. 15:16
“Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for
I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.”
A few patrons seek comfort in the church as events
outside grow increasingly distressing. Reverend Yearta,
either out of duty or self-solace, is ministering to the
flock. But as he does, a distressing cough enters his
voice and soon prevents him from speech.
Eventually, amongst much blood and bile, Yearta pukes
up a number of fleshy bits in odd shapes. The giblets
are sheathed in the same pallid flesh as the sacrament
and pulse in the same vein-y, disgusting manner.
Especially educated characters might recognize the
bits as characters from the Aramaic alphabet. Superbly
knowledgeable officers could spell out the chapter
and verse Yearta quoted before coughing up
the fleshy label.
78
More disturbing than the regurgitation is the palpable
urge everyone feels to put the pulsating letters in
their mouths. It takes serious willpower to resist this
compulsion, and those failing a check find themselves
psychologically damaged by the act of resistance. Of
course, resisting the urge isn’t nearly as distressing as
succumbing to it.
Act Three: John 6:53
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood, you have no life in you.”
The sacrament and the words continually expelled
by Yearta prove too tempting for the ever-increasing
numbers of frenzied worshippers. As they rave about
the end of days, they clamor to rip chunks from the
living bread and guzzle bottles of blood. Those unable
to reach seem to be literally wasting away on the spot,
doing what they can to subsist off the bloody Aramaic
littering the floor around the Reverend. If unable to
reach either, those that have already succumb to the
desire to eat risk starvation and death within minutes
without the sacrament. All present seem to realize this
instinctually despite their repulsion and confusion.
The urge to join in “communion” can still be resisted,
but preventing anyone else from participating in
the horrific sacrament leads to violence. Regardless,
players should exit the scene quickly; it’s too terrifying
to behold for long and stay sane.
7. Tennant Funeral Home and Cemetery
Act One: Judges 14:8
“And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned
aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was
a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.”
Morgan Tennant waits for the police outside his parlor,
flustered and wringing his hands. The dispatch says
only that there has been “an insect attack,” but Tennant
explains that when he opened a coffin for a prepared
viewing there was an explosion of bees from within.
He’s baffled as to what to do, but he urges officers to
stay outside lest they get stung.

Officers entering the building can avoid serious
stings merely by moving cautiously so long as they
don’t disturb any other coffins. Bees infest every dead
body in the place, writhing around like maggots and
secreting honey. All three of the bodies awaiting burial
in the parlor are subject to a literal instance of this
same unfortunate translation of the Aramaic word for
“fly.”
Act Two: Exodus 9:13–35
Outside the bee-infested funeral parlor, an
unseasonable storm strikes the cemetery without
warning. Initially just exceptionally thunderous, when
the hail starts – in the middle of a bright summer’s
day – it’s extremely disconcerting. The storm seems
centered around the cemetery, excluding the rest of the
town at uncannily sharp angles. The unsettling storm
graduates into a life-threatening hazard the longer it
goes on, the mystery hail growing larger and falling
hard enough to chip headstones. Anybody caught in
the maelstrom for long could be seriously injured or
killed.
Act Three: Ezekiel 37:1-10
The nuances of Ezekiel’s prophetic vision for the Jewish
people seem lost on entities existing beyond space and
time. Rather than using death as a symbol for captivity
and resurrection as a representation of the homeland’s
restoration through faith, the dead in Tennant
Cemetery literally reassemble themselves from bones
and claw themselves out of the earth.
The sight of this is horrifying beyond words. The
skeletal and half-rotted remains of every beloved
family member to ever die in Toil bursts from the earth
at once, staring at the living with hollow eye sockets
and agape jaws. Those witnessing the army of dead risk
madness, but thankfully the corpses present no other
threat. The animate remains seem content to march
east, towards Jerusalem, and ignore anything in their
path.
Realizing their peaceful nature in the wake of such a
shock may be difficult for any characters and NPCs in
the area. Harming skeletons is a terrible idea, for they
have been united through resurrection under the same
faith that follows Exodus 21:23-25: “But if there is any
further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for
Revelations - No Security
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for
foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
In short, assaulting the undead army is a good way to
get torn apart.
8. Toil Dump & Incinerator
Act One: Exodus 9:10
“And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before
Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and
it became boils breaking forth with sores upon man, and
upon beast.”
Sawyer Harris doesn’t get much company out at the
dump, and he’s fine with that. The notorious town
malcontent runs the city’s only garbage truck, and
he’s constantly sorting through the mounds for bits
he can sell as scrap or burn in his cobbled together
incinerator.
Officers arriving at the scene may discover the cause of
Sawyer’s distress long before reaching his tiny shack.
Any character caught outside at the dump should face
some test of their luck, either using game mechanics,
a coin-flip, or paper-rock-scissors with other players
present. The loser finds their character hissing in pain
as a painful boil breaks out on their face. The running
sore appears almost instantly and seems as if it’s been
infected for weeks. Standing outside trying to find
the source of the outbreak only leads to more lesions.
Every fleck of ash from the incinerator that lands on
flesh aggravates another boil, and standing outside for
too long causes serious health problems.
The only shelter is Sawyer’s little shack. The garbage
man hides there, bed-ridden and writhing in pain.
He’s horribly disfigured by swollen, pus-filled wounds
that cover every inch of his exposed skin. The sheets
are soaked through with his sickening excretions,
and he’s delirious with pain. The ailing Sawyer is as
filthy as ever, but the ash of the incinerator that once
perpetually covered him has been replaced by blood
and infectious run-off.
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Characters can stop the poisonous soot flying from
the still active incinerator merely by dousing the
flame. Doing so safely requires covering every inch of
exposed skin from the ash floating out of the chimney.
This is easily done with a sheet when approaching the
fire, but dealing with blowback of ash from throwing
water on the flames could potentially leave an officer in
as bad a state as Mr. Harris.
Act Two: Exodus 8:20–30
The flies of the town dump, always numerous, see
their numbers swell from an uncertain source. The air
is suddenly black with the swarm, and the buzzing is
deafening. While not harmful, standing amongst the
filthy maelstrom causes the skin to crawl, figuratively
and literally. If the incinerator is still spewing ash, or
if the exposed characters received boils previously,
the creatures won’t hesitate to lay their young in the
festering wounds. While not lethal, it is disgusting
beyond words, and the itching can prove a distraction
for the rest of the game.
Act Three: Leviticus 10:1-20
As things worsen, many in the community desperately
try to appease the angry God heaping miseries upon
them. In a panic, a few have come to the dump to
perform a sin offering to the Lord. A few dozen are
milling around the fly maelstrom, dragging panicked
goats, steer, and even family pets towards the
incinerator.
If not stopped, the mob will slit the throats of all the
creatures in a blasphemously inadequate parody of the
offering. However, there is no ritual butcher present,
nor is their an alter. The offerings are unauthorized,
and the text makes clear punishments for such an
offense: death by fire. As the first animal is thrown into
the furnace’s flames, the whole crowd spontaneously
combusts, silently collapsing as the very oxygen in
their lungs is burned away.
80
9. Brown Grocer’s
Act One: Mark 6:41
“And when he had taken the five loaves and the two
fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke
the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before
them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.”
Clyde Brown of Brown Grocer’s has nothing to report;
the call came in from the customers themselves. The
“deal on bread” everyone seems so excited about
is about all that could be called a disturbance, but
investigating further reveals something far more
sinister is afoot.
When first confronted, Clyde can say nothing about
his penny loaves save a lame joke that his prices must
be “criminal.” If further pressed, he’ll reveal that his
sale is the direct result of an unexpected overstock. The
bread seems fine, and tasting it causes no ill effects.
However, taking a loaf off the shelf and putting it back
proves problematic… because there is another loaf in
its place.
No matter how many loaves are removed from the
shelf, the second the character looks away, the shelf is
completely restocked. While amusing at first, seeing
the mystery bread pile up quickly becomes scary. It’s
just wrong. Clyde seems unaffected; he’s convinced this
is a miracle bestowed upon his business as a reward for
his faith.
Players looking for the other half of the famous
meal combination will be sore pressed to find it. The
landlocked town doesn’t have much in the way of
fish outside of canned tuna, and taking a tin off the
shelf doesn’t prompt anything unnatural. Opening
the lid and consuming the contents, however, proves
impossible; there is always more tuna in the can.
Overturning the can be downright dangerous. An
endless tide of canned tuna pours forth and won’t stop
until the can is turned upright. If not righted, a single
can of tuna easily could drown everyone in the store in
dead fish.

Act Two: Psalm 137:9
“Happy shall he be, that takes and dashes your little ones
against the stones.”
John Kaywood moves people out of his path as if
an invisible cowcatcher preceded him. He brings a
reminder of the world’s cruelty into a room like a
cloying stink, and it’s all people can do to keep from
crossing the street to avoid his gaze.
John’s wife, Laura, is dead, along with their first child.
The infant’s name wasn’t even known before the poor
woman tripped down her porch steps while carrying
the unfortunate babe. The guilt proved too much for
her, and she put the shotgun in her mouth the first day
John went back to work. He’s a hollow, joyless man,
unable to hold down a job but kept alive by church
donations. He’s shopping for whiskey in the store when
something odd happens: he begins to laugh.
He laughs hysterically, tears of joy streaming down
his face. Nothing appears to prompt it, and he ignores
any questions. While disconcerting in its own right,
the mad cackling is doubly terrifying to anyone aware
of John’s history in town. He starts moving down the
aisles, stumbling in his spastic fits of laughter, towards
Regina Rossini… and her young daughter in the
stroller.
John is just a man, but he’s gone completely mad by
order of the gods. Some small part of his brain can still
register a threat or a pointed gun as a reason to stop,
but it will merely prompt a wild-eyed explanation as he
holds the infant over his head: he’s just trying to make
Regina happy. Happy like him and his wife.
Officers on the scene, regardless of whether they put
Kaywood down before bearing witness to his insane
crime, can look forward to many sleepless nights. If
John succeeds and they see Regina’s reaction – the
same insane laughter following at the sight of her
child’s murder – they may never sleep again.
Act Three: Exodus 10:21–29
Darkness floods through the store as if released from
a dam, an intangible ink that fills the store in a matter
of seconds. While characters can pass through it and
breathe, the darkness is absolutely total: no flashlight,
Revelations - No Security
flame, or other illumination even makes a dent in the
black.
Even though they’re in no physical danger from the
darkness, the panic of refugees hiding in the store can
still be deadly. Mere seconds earlier daylight shone
outside, but now the already horrified crowd in Brown
Grocers thinks itself suddenly stricken blind. People
scream and attempt to flee in all directions at once,
bashing into each other and knocking over shelves.
Calming the frenzied herd is impossible; it is difficult
enough just to avoid getting crushed. The officers’
only hope is to recall the path outside. Once free of
the front door, they find the sunlight restored. The
display windows of the store merely look blacked out,
revealing nothing of the terror happening within.
10. Handy Dandy Agricultural Supplies
Act One: Revelations 22:2
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the
river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner
of fruit, and yielded its fruit every month: and the leaves
of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Handy Dandy produces a number of products, but
their main venture is refining the soybean crops into
oil for soap. The men of the factory compose the
majority of the town’s male population, and in nice
weather they are prone to eat lunch at the fleet of
picnic tables outside rather than the sweltering heat of
the interior.
Today, they found a tree in the middle of the lunch
spot. It’s massive, easily hundreds of years old, and sits
rooted by the river in a spot that was empty just that
morning.
No one seems to be anything but amused by the prank.
The only reason Jason Compton called the police at
all was to report someone trespassing on company
property. The tree is too clever to piss anyone off.
The ground around the trunk remains completely
undisturbed, as if the thing had always been growing
at that spot. The thing is too massive to lift by hand, yet
the bark and leaves bear no mark of heavy machinery.
Most astonishingly, the species of the plant is
completely unidentifiable. Even its fruit is alien;
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
each of the twelve pieces hanging from the branches it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the
is unique, not matching any of its brothers in color, ground, and stamped upon them.”
shape, or texture.
The picnic grounds and factory interior have been
Tasting the fruit is anti-climactic in most instances. reduced to blood-soaked, scattered mess by the bear
It tastes okay, but not much is distinguishable by its attacks. Mangled bodies lay where they fell; all the
flavor. If a character has received injuries in either workers have fled. Then night falls, inexplicably early
body or mind, eating the fruit magically restores them by a number of hours.
to peak condition. The Tree of Life has the same effect
on any NPCs that taste of the fruit. However, there Any characters present witness a goat walk over the
are only twelve fruits to go around. The tree grows no horizon. It has four horns, but otherwise appears to
more, no matter how urgent the need. be a normal, healthy goat. The creature stares intently
with its square pupils, but there seems nothing
Act Two: 2 Kings 2:23-24 threatening about it until a fifth horn begins growing
from its head…
“And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed
them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth
And grows. And grows.
two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two of
the youths.”
The horn reaches impossibly far into the night sky,
growing upwards even as it branches off in a 90 degree
Unable to do much about the strange tree, workers
angle (pointing south and east). The goat, despite the
resume their meal. Jim Flannigan, one of the older
impossible weight, remains staring and chewing its
men on the crew, steals one of Cory Cusik’s ham
cud. As its head moves, so does the horn shooting
sandwiches. This type of hazing is typical for new guys
upwards in the vanishing distance. The odd right
at Handy Dandy. Cory is used to it at this point; as the
angle of the thing oscillates wildly across the night sky,
other men laugh, he just shakes his head and mutters,
making an odd tinkling sound and seeming to erase
“Goddamn you, Jim” under his breath.
the very heavens.
Then there are bears.
The goat begins stamping its hoof as snow starts to fall.
But it’s not snow; it’s the stars themselves. They remain
There just ARE bears. Two gigantic grizzlies appear out
small, all sense of perspective lost, and they hit the
of nowhere and start mauling Jim Flannigan to death.
ground with tiny puffs of smoke. The goat stamps on
And they just keep killing from there, chasing down
one of the eerily beautiful specks as it falls near him,
the fleeing workers, bashing down the doors to the
then resumes chewing its cud…
building if they try to take shelter.
…and staring, always staring with its dead eyes.
Whether they see the sandwich theft that causes the

massacre or arrive with the attack in process, officers
will have no choice but to kill the animals. There are
only 38 men on the workforce (with the exception of
a traumatized Cory Cusick, who seems ignored by the
creatures). They won’t stop until 42 men are dead, and
the grizzlies don’t care if the PCs join that number.

Act Three: Daniel 8:9-10

“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which
waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward
the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it
waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and
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 Revelations - No Security
Act Two: Deuteronomy 32:42
Yearta’s Stash “I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword
shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain
If players have discovered Andrew’s room and the
and of the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the
Masonic key hidden within, they learn that it fits
enemy.”
none of the locks in the building. While searching
for what the key might fit into, perceptive
Officers with keen ears can hear a crunching sound
characters notice locusts crawling in and out of a
coming from the locked office near the back of the
panel on the wall. Experimenting reveals a secret
lodge. Alternately, those with an eye for detail notice
passage leading to a basement door. The key opens
that one of the wall decorations in the lobby remains
this door.
suspiciously free from locusts: a Native American
headdress and bow flanked with crossed arrows.
It appears the basement is only used for Masonic
rituals, and rarely at that. A single set of footprints
Opening up the office reveals a greenish-red stain on
can be seen amongst the dust, traversing back and
the wall surrounding a mounted Masonic sword. Used
forth between the door and a set of cabinets. Inside
in induction ceremonies, the dull blade’s only purpose
rests a grisly sight: bloody clothes, a chemistry set
is to be placed over the initiate’s breast during rites, but
with vials of all sorts of strange, hallucinogenic
now it appears to be repelling locusts somehow. Those
drugs, and a large, bloody knife with a pair of
wise enough to observe the sword before grabbing it
amputated eyelids displayed on the blade. Andrew
find out why.
must have come to this unused space to prepare for
whatever horrific crime he committed.
When one of the bugs crawls too near, the sword
bends in its mount, metal whipping outwards like a
Left behind is a map of town. On it, Hanson Farm
frog’s tongue. The folds of steel at the edge open and
is circled multiple times. A note in Andrew’s
close around the insects, actually chewing them before
handwriting reads, “Best spot. Isolated and
coming to rest again on the wall. The sword doesn’t
westernmost – toward the End of the Day.”
merely slice flesh; it consumes it.

11. Masonic Lodge
Act One: Exodus 10:1–20
Amanda Wyrick, the woman paid to clean up the lodge
the day before meeting, placed the call to the police.
She opened the door to find the building infested
with locusts. While a little shaken and confused, she
merely closed the lodge and walked home to phone
authorities.
The arrows in the lobby operate similarly, though they
do not bend to capture prey. Any locust crawling over
the heads finds itself suddenly cut in half despite a
complete lack of force or leverage. Characters that can
keep their wits about them after witnessing such a sight
will notice that the bug’s fluids seem to be absorbed
by the stone arrowhead. The truly adventurous can get
close enough to hear the slurping sound.

Investigating officers aren’t in danger of anything save

bafflement. The insects cover every single surface of
the lodge and practically deafen with their buzzing.
Despite best efforts there is no way to tell how they
got inside the building. The lodge was open for lunch
yesterday and no Masons reported seeing anything
unusual. There is no way such a horde could have
been bred in such a time, and there is no dirt from
which the bugs could have been unearthed. All doors
and windows are closed tight. It seems the locusts just
suddenly appeared out of nowhere…
83
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
As the sword and arrows suffer from the same
transubstantiation affecting the rest of the town, they
make for extremely powerful weapons if a character
has the archaic skills necessary to wield them. If the
sword sinks into flesh of any kind, it sticks and begin
chewing along its entire length. Anything struck with
the blade not strong enough to dislodge the writhing
steel faces a very agonizing, horrific death. In contrast,
the arrows drink blood, and they will find a way to
drunkenly fly to a source no matter how they are
aimed. The vampiric bolts, if not removed, will leave
their target a desiccated corpse in a matter of seconds.
Though powerful, the weapons are equally dangerous
to their users. The sword will seek to eat flesh
whenever it is unsheathed. If there are no enemies
around the blade will whip around, seeking to feast
on the wielder’s arms and face. Likewise, if the arrows
are launched at anything save a living target, they will
redirect and sink into the closest living thing they can
find, even if that is the man behind the bow. Despite
the risks, when faced with the other nightmares
roaming Toil, the unreal armaments may be the only
hope of survival.

The Deserter God

Though made unique by madness and the linguistics of Klauss von Meinhoff, Andrew Yearta’s theology can
best be described as “deicide.” The writings in his room reveal the musings of an atheist that finds nothing
but despair in a directionless universe. In fact, the young man regarded the Bible as a completely accurate
historical text. It’s not that God never existed; mankind destroyed God. The continued sin and corruption
of humans (specifically Andrew’s lust) made the Lord realize the futility of another flood. As such, the
human race was damned completely in the worst way possible: they were ignored. Rather than show his
love through a rebuke of fire and brimstone, God wiped himself from existence, removing his love from the
universe. Andrew, in his insanity, feels that his tryst with Mary Sewell was the exact sin that destroyed all
mankind’s chance of salvation.

As the slayer of God, Andrew regarded it as his duty to become the prophet of His resurrection.
When he discovered Noought-Iss in von Meinhoff ’s obscure tome (see The Monster: Noought-Iss,
p.65), he saw his chance. Andrew’s scribbled notes are unclear about his feelings towards the monster of
meanings. Sometimes he believed Noought-Iss to be the devil that replaced God in his absence. Other times
he believed von Meinhoff ’s claims that the creature always existed, rationalizing that God would have the
power to wipe his existence from all time once He existed again. Regardless, Andrew saw the ancient force
as his chance to rescue mankind from an uncaring, meaningless universe.

By binding Noought-Iss and rewiring the basic metaphor of reality (that which IS NOT will BE), Andrew
planned to either infuriate his God back into existence through his blasphemous gall, or to mold the
mindless Noought-Iss into his Judeo-Christian deity. The young man didn’t care which or whether it led
to his death and damnation. He didn’t even pause to consider von Meinhoff ’s own warnings about the
possibilities of unmaking reality itself. The boy’s shame was pathological and pervasive, and it combined
with his genius to make a volatile mixture indeed.

Though reading von Meinhoff ’s text itself requires fluent German, there is enough in Andrew’s journals
to figure out the basics of the ritual he performed. Binding Noought-Iss requires a sentient creature to
maintain a supreme focus on the new center of perception, ignoring all earthly distractions, and maintain
that perception through the transition back from IS to IS NOT.

It’s uncertain how the ritual was completed (see ENDGAME, p.90), but investigators can find an odd-
looking key hidden in the back cover of von Meinhoff ’s book. Smart characters will recognize a Masonic
symbol etched into the head (see Yearta’s Stash, p.83)
84

Act Three: Peter 5:8
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour”
The sight of the lion alone poses a serious threat. It
just appears in the dining room of the lodge, blank
space one second and snarling predator the next.
The contortions the human mind has to make when
perceiving this manifestation would drive most mad.
Aside from unholy red eyes and a maw seemingly filled
with flames, the creature is just a lion. This is far from
comforting because “the devil” seeks to devour them
quite literally. It’s up to GMs discretion whether or not
firearms have an effect on the beast. The sword is the
most effective weapon against the hellish creature, but
the arrows will miss or sink into the flesh of any nearby
humans; they are too “drunk with blood” and therefore
not “sober” enough to harm the devil. If officers are not
present when the hell lion manifests or fail to destroy
it, it breaks out of the lodge and roams the town
looking for more victims, perhaps even attacking PCs
at other locations.
12. Yearta Residence
Act One -Three: Deuteronomy 32:33
“Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel
venom of asps.”
Mrs. Yearta is in hysterics when characters arrive. She’s
discovered her son dead in the kitchen, collapsed with
a bottle of wine in his hand.
The young man’s face is contorted in agony, his
mouth surrounded by black veins and tongue already
beginning to rot. He bleeds out of his eyes and nose.
The blood still runs and won’t congeal, yet there is
dried blood under the fingernails. Characters with
exceptional medical skills discover that death resulted
from ingesting some toxin that has both anti-coagulant
and necrotic properties. If there is a character around
with biological knowledge, they realize that the best
bet for that type of substance is the venom of exotic
snakes. But how would someone in Illinois be able to
extract enough snake venom to fill a wine bottle, and
how would they get it inside without popping the cork?
Revelations - No Security
Most importantly, why? (The answer: apparently not
even the harbinger of this biblical apocalypse would
know that the punishment for his disbelief would be so
swift and literal).
Mrs. Yearta is too distraught to be of much use. She
can reveal that her son recently returned from a
divinity school in Germany, though she can’t recall
the name (no one can, oddly enough…). She suspects
he was depressed because he rarely left his room and
never allowed anyone inside. Earlier that morning,
he had stormed through the front door practically
dancing with manic joy. Mrs. Yearta hadn’t even
known her son was out, but there he stood, crying
tears of joy and saying it was time to celebrate. Next
thing she knew, he’d popped open a bottle of wine,
took a long pull, and was convulsing on the floor.
Though utterly confused, Mrs. Yearta casts suspicion
on Mary Sewell for the poisoning. “That harlot has
always been plotting to destroy my sweet boy!” the
woman screams. Beyond that information though,
Andrew’s mother is just a mousy minister’s wife
without much to contribute. She will fall into a stunned
silence, leaving to inform her husband of their son’s
death at the church, if allowed.
Players that kick open the door to Andrew’s room find
it wallpapered in his madness. Obscure diagrams and
notes hastily scrawled in multiple languages cover the
walls and collect in corners. A special place amongst
the academic refuse is reserved for an ancient leather-
bound volume entitled Die Bindung von Noought-Iss
durch die Objektive Sprach: Eine Studie herein der
Semantische Hierarchie der Basis-Auspragung (The
Binding of Noought-Iss with the Objective Tongue: A
Study in the Semantic Hierarchy of Base Instantiation).
Those fluent in German can spend time studying the
tome to discover reality’s master and how it came to
be tamed (see The Monster: Noought-Iss, p.65 and
ENDGAME, p.90). Others without the language
necessary can still find an odd key squirreled away
between the covers with a Masonic symbol etched on
the head (see Location 11, p.83 and Yearta’s Stash,
p.83). English-reading characters can eventually
sift through young Andrew’s notes and learn a vague
paraphrase of Noought-Iss’ powers and
85
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
what the madman hoped to accomplish with it (see
The Deserter God, p. 84/ The Monster: Noought-
Iss, p. 65). Whatever the language, at least one
character must dedicate some time to studying the
dense academic language of Andrew’s notes and source
material. As the ideas and implications grow more
complex, the researchers risk the same maddening
implications that destroyed the boy’s mind.
(GM NOTE: As Andrew Yearta’s room is the only
hope for fully understanding the insanity gripping
Toil, characters staying behind to research are given
refuge from more biblical atrocities. However, GMs are
encouraged to keep the readers in contact with the party
through the police car’s radio. Additionally, it’s a good
touch to throw in the occasional panicked, blood-soaked
citizen running down the street to keep the sense of
dread escalating. Even just having the bushes in the front
yard burst spontaneously into flame can let the group’s
researcher know that they need to read faster.)
13. Sewell Residence
Act One: Exodus 8:1–8:15
Mary’s house is covered in frogs and she’s pissed. Long
ago branded the town whore (characters native to Toil
will have heard the story about her deflowering the
Reverend Yearta’s son), she is convinced that this is a
new brand of ostracism by the petty townsfolk. She
demands they be found, prosecuted for breaking into
her home, and fined for all the frog shit she’s going to
have to clean up.
There appears to be no sign of forced entry, though:
just frogs hopping over every surface of the house.
Mary claims she came home from getting groceries
and they were everywhere, but it’s unclear how so
many frogs could be transported in such a short time.
Mary thinks that the return of Andrew Yearta is the
cause of her newfound bullying. She’ll relate their
initial meeting through her mother’s hospice, the
unfortunate end to their love affair, and Andrew’s
subsequent exile (see Forbidden Fruit, p.63). In
fact, she’s very forthcoming about her sexual relations
in general and flirty with all the policemen. In her
middle age, she’s taken on the label of town slut
willingly as a form of rebellion, and she’s far freer
86
with her sexuality than most other women.
The reason Mary thinks the frogs have something
to do with Andrew’s return is her interaction with
him the other day. Walking to work, she encountered
Andrew carrying a bag down the street. Wanting to
rekindle the old flame and see if “the wine got better
with age,” she ran to catch up with him. Upon seeing
her, Andrew grew terrifically, almost violently agitated.
He buried his hands in his pocket and demanded she
keep away from him. He claimed that he was urgently
needed at the Masonic lodge and sprinted away from
her.
Mary knew this to be a lie because Freemason
meetings were never scheduled for that time of day.
She suspects Andrew’s sexual repression took control
at the sight of her. In Mary’s own words, “If anyone
can spot the handiwork of an overbearing bitch
of a mother, it’s me.” She suspects Mrs. Yearta had
something to do with the frogs after her Momma’s boy
came crying home.
Act Two: Psalm 12:3
“The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the
tongue that speaks proud things”
Still fuming about the frogs infesting her house, Mary
Sewell mutters under her breath about her hatred of
the Toil townsfolk: “Every town’s got to have a whore.
Do they care I was locked up until I was 26? That I
loved Andrew? Naw. Town just needs a slut for all its
husbands to court at night and spit on after Sunday
service. So they pick the sexiest ass in town and…”
Mary’s rant is cut short when her tongue and lips fall
from her face.
The woman launches into an unintelligible, choking
scream as blood suddenly comes gushing from her
face. Depending on their fortitude, officers may be too
stunned to help. Mary’s lips and tongue simply fell off:
there was no assailant, no sign, no noise. It was as if the
air itself decided to disfigure her.

If Mary is to survive, characters need to keep Mary
from choking on her own blood and stitch the stump
of her tongue. Doing so under surgical conditions
wouldn’t be easy, and the agonized woman thrashing
around a frog-infested living room isn’t going to make
things easier. Untrained characters can only hope to
have the woman die in their arms, and that is still a
serious risk for officers with medical experience.
But Mary can be saved from bleeding out…for now.
Act Three: Zechariah 14:12
“And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will
strike all the people that have fought against Jerusalem;
Their flesh shall rot away while they stand upon their
feet, and their eyes shall rot away in their sockets, and
their tongue shall rot away in their mouths.”
Understandably, Mary Sewell’s interactions with the
Yearta family have left her without faith. She views her
very existence as a rebellion against the sanctimonious
busy-bodies at church that ruined her life with scandal.
At many time over the years, her refusal to kowtow to
their gossip and ostracism has led to physical conflict.
It’s uncertain whether these spats or some other
altercation placed her in the path of Zechariah 14:12.
The characters will never know.
Whether she is already dead or merely unconscious
from blood loss, her life-long fight against the holy
finally exacts a terrible, final price. Her body stands up
from wherever it rests, opens eyes and mouth wide,
and begins to rot on the spot. Her eyes pool into blood
and drip down her face. The stump in her already
bloody mouth turns black and decomposes in seconds.
Her very skin peels away until only a sickening pile of
gristle collects on the floor.
Witnessing this is mind-shatteringly scary, more so if
the standing Mrs. Sewell was already dead.
Revelations - No Security
14. ‘The Common’
Act One: Leviticus 11:20-22
“All winged insects that creep, going upon all fours, shall
be an abomination unto you.”
The wildlife living in and around Vermillion Creek
has attracted a number of biologists from the Chicago
universities in recent years. Dr. Cody Wallace is the
latest scientist taking a sabbatical in the town, and
he’s called the police because he needs a witness to the
greatest discovery of his career.
Aside from the very excited little naturalist, the
Common ground at the park appears perfectly normal
upon PC’s arrival: the elderly stroll, couples picnic,
dogs fetch balls. Dr. Wallace, however, practically
shakes with excitement. He demands that the police
come to his car and officially confirm “the find of the
century.”
Wallace’s trunk is filled with glass specimen jars
containing insects of all types: grasshoppers, flies,
beetles, etc. The species are all quite mundane and
abundant in the area, but Wallace insists there is
something remarkable about the creatures. He refuses
to tell the officers though, as he insists that even their
untrained eyes should be enough for “independent
confirmation.”
Indeed, no special skill is necessary to notice
something very off about the creatures. The insects are
all missing two legs. The very definitional portion of
their anatomy is gone – not amputated, but seemingly
never formed. Every insect in the jars has only four
legs, and time spent combing the grass around the
Common reveals the same for every other “insect” in
the area.
Wallace is thrilled when characters confirm his
discovery of the mass mutation. He insists the officers
fill out an official report at once and phone the
university to get his colleagues to Toil immediately.
The bookish little man, his genius verified, continues
feverously collecting specimens.
87
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Act Two: Genesis 2:7
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.”
The Common remains the center of town life even
during the destruction of Toil. As the event moves into
Act Two, a confluence of other horrors begins bleeding
out towards the folks exposed on the idyllic greens.
The pained braying of animals and horrified screaming
can be heard coming from somewhere on Park Street
(Location 4, p.75). A mass of customers seems to
be fleeing the restaurant across the street (Location 2,
p.72) and an odd purplish hue seems to be creeping
up Vermillion Creek (Location 1, p.72).
Damned Dispatches
“Boys, Gabby Candy pulled some scrap wood out of
the trash last week for a soap box car he was making
for his son. If y’all are going by that way, be a dear
and burn his house down, will ya? Make sure to
bar the door good first; remember the code say he’s
got to go along with all his possessions. God bless.”
(Joshua 7:15)
“Calling all cars. Calling all cars. We got a tip
over the wire that Mordachai Sanford called the
score of last week’s ball game against Shelby Creek
dead on. He’s been spotted sleeping on a couch
in his basement. Head on over there and kill the
fortuneteller.” (Leviticus 20:27)
“Gentlemen, I got an easy one for you. Max Evron
and his boy just broke into the Harner place and
raped his kin. Now Max the elder already did for
Mrs. Harner and her husband—so you can save
yourself some stones there—but Max Jr. done went
and left little Missy Harner alive. Now they got to get
hitched. Can one of y’all go out there and officiate
the wedding? Don’t forget to make Max give up his
50 pieces of silver for the dowry.”
(Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
88
Park attendees don’t have much time to process these
terrifying events before an otherworldly wind whips
through the field. The force of the gale is equal to that
of a tornado, but it’s impossibly directed downwards,
blowing hats, picnic blankets, and leaves down and
outwards from the center of the park. Standing up
against the sudden maelstrom is hard enough, and
characters should be hard pressed to make out what
occurs at the center of the storm. Those that do see it
may wish they hadn’t.
In the middle of the park, dust swirls together with
what appears to be agency. The particles form the
shape of a man, then solidify, impossibly transforming
into actual flesh. As the storm winds finally dissipate,
it seems that it is only because the naked man is
breathing them all in. Just as the storm dissolves
completely, the naked man turns and walks towards
the East, disappearing into a copse of impossibly tall
trees that, seconds earlier, didn’t exist.
“Calling all cars. Calling all cars. The fellas over
at the bowling alley done got their blood up and
invaded the row houses across the way. Now, they’re
killing all the married women and children like
good boys, but there’s apparently some fuss about
dividing the virgins equally. Get on over there and
sort them out before there’s a real tussle.” (Judges
5:30 and Numbers 31:7-18)
“Awww, now before y’all start fussing at me, know
I ain’t gossiping over here. We got reports that
Cheyanne Rica been fooling around with that
Owen Virgil character outside matrimony. They’re
huddling together in the crawlspace underneath
Owen’s house at the moment, saying goodbye to
each other and sobbing and such. Let’s play this by
the book, go by there, and make your swords drunk
with their blood. Good hunting.” (Leviticus 20:10)
“Well, gosh darn it—here I was thinking we were
gonna get through this little spat. It appears that Fox
Kunneman lives out by Route 9 still believes in his
pagan gods. That’s technically still in city limits, so
we’re going to have to burn the town to the ground.
It’s been a pleasure working with you fine young
men.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19).

Witnessing such a miracle was never meant for human
eyes, and seeing it will be too much for many minds to
bear. Any NPCs still in the area flee in panic, and the
PCs will be hard pressed to resist doing the same.
Attempting to follow the man into the forest is
fruitless. Any character that does so simply gets lost
in the mysterious new trees until they pop out of
the forest near the same place where they entered. It
appears that wherever the man of dust went, no one
else is granted entry.
Act Three: Genesis 2:17
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you
shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you
shall surely die.”
To the East, on the outskirts of the mysterious new
forest that cropped up (perhaps in front of the PC’s
very eyes), a massive tree has sprouted near the river.
It’s huge and radiantly healthy, covered in fruit of some
indeterminate type. Though seemingly hundreds of
years old, no tree stood there even a few hours before.
Eating one of the glistening red fruits is possible,
but inexplicably foreboding. As this is the Tree of
Knowledge, anyone eating of the fruit will get just
that: knowledge. Of everything. All at once. The
omnipotence provided by the fruit is mind-meltingly
powerful and utterly deadly. Characters eating of the
fruit are doomed to a writhing, poisonous death on the
ground, but they will learn all about Andrew Yearta,
Noought-Iss, and how to stop what is happening
around town. Essentially the player is granted access to
all GM information about the plot, and then told that
they are very soon to die. What remains to be seen is if
eater of the forbidden fruit will be able to convey this
information to someone else before dying in agony
from internal hemorrhaging and madness.
Revelations - No Security
15. Toil Police Station
There isn’t much to see at the Toil Police Station: a
couple of desks, a filing cabinet, some wastebaskets.
It’s where the officers keep the guns they never use, the
jail cells never occupied, and the huge car radio system
most feel the county wasted money on. Mrs. Deandria
and her cat Rufus are about the most interesting thing
present, and the attention of the officers is certainly
being drawn elsewhere. Considering the panic
spreading about town, PCs shouldn’t be spending
much time there.
With her switchboard lighting up, Mrs. Deandria
refuses to leave her post in a time of crisis; she will
continue dispatching around the clock for the officers.
But beyond directing them to locations she can’t be of
any help as to what is actually happening. When things
begin to turn increasingly bleak, power and phone
service fails, making it impossible for the widow to
contribute even in her small way. Or at least it should
make it impossible.
As the situation around town grows out of control
(sometime around Act Two), GMs should shift
Winifred’s role from friendly advisor to inescapable
voice of terror. Increasingly, Winifred will dispatch
officers to incidents she couldn’t possibly know about,
either because they would never have been reported
or no phones remain operational. Equally impossible
is the continued operation of the radio, which should
have gone silent as power started failing across town.
Despite her typically polite and cheery tone Mrs.
Deandria’s advice for these new infractions of law
grows increasingly biblical. The accompanying list
provides some examples of unsettling communiqués
that can come in over the radio (see Damned
Dispatches p.88).
Any attempt to clarify Winifred’s crazed dispatches is
met with radio silence or confused questioning: “What
dispatch?” She doesn’t remember saying anything,
or she was on the phone taking another complaint.
Actually responding to the incidents end up with the
“lawbreakers” long gone or the events never having
happened at all.
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 ENDGAME: THE HANSON FARM
Trying to confront Winifred’s unorthodox messages in
person is problematic. The characters find the doors
and windows to the police station barricaded from the
inside when they return to check on the old lady. If
they manage to break in, they’ll find nothing but Rufus
the cat grooming himself on the floor. Any prisoners
left in the cells are dead, blown apart by a shotgun
before Winifred left for parts unknown.
When characters leave the station again, Winifred
continues her dispatches from the ether until the radio
is completely destroyed; not even unplugging the unit
stops the haunting orders. The effects of hearing the
disembodied voice politely demand biblical justice
certainly doesn’t help the officers’ already threatened
sanity.
ENDGAME: THE HANSON
FARM
The ritual theorized in von Meinhoff ’s writing uses
perception – which both fuels and results from
Noought-Iss’ existence – to convey new rules for reality and focused by Andrew’s strange manipulation of the
and “bind” the force to someone’s will. By anchoring
the god to a single person’s perspective using the mad
German’s “objective tongue,” the basic metaphor of
the univers (that which IS NOT, IS) can be rewritten
by reversing the semantic flow enabling that very
perception (that which IS, IS NOT). The roles of
Subject and Object are temporarily reversed, and the
result is a new reality.
Though described in abstract, academic terms,
von Meinhoff ’s proposed linguistic experiment is
disgustingly brutal in practice. Elmer Hanson’s family
was unfortunate enough to be chosen by Andrew
Yearta to enact the profane ceremony.
Players directed to Hanson’s farm by Yearta’s notes
(see Yearta’s Stash, p.83) find the farmhouse empty.
Overturned furniture and a kicked in door point to
a struggle. Blood-spattered tracks lead out the back
of the house towards the barn. Inside waits a sight
capable of turning a man’s hair white.
90
Hanson’s hands and back have been lashed to a post,
even his forehead bound unmoving against the wood.
His eyelids have been cut off and his torn sleeves flutter
to reveal track marks where Yearta injected him with
strange experimental compounds over the course of
days. The dirt and walls around him are scrawled with
all manner of nonsense in white paint, unintelligible
words written in unrecognizable characters. The dead
man’s glazed stare focuses across the barn to a sick
altar made out of his family’s corpses. Disemboweled
and dismembered, Elmer’s wife and children have been
arranged into concentric circles around what appears
at first to be a miniature tornado. In the eye of the
storm, somehow contained by the human remains, a
single leather bound book appears to float.
The dead innocents served Yearta less as a sacrifice
and more as a symbol, a representation of all his
victim’s worldly concerns. Elmer was kept in a drugged
fugue state for days, forced to literally overlook the
butchering of his family, his perception used to lash
Noought-Iss to the Earth. By the time he passed away
from endless tortures, his perception had been shaped
objective tongue. His death made the object of his
unblinking gaze the new foundation for reality – a
copy of the King’s James Bible.
Even if characters recover from the grisly sight, gazing
upon Yearta’s mad work sears the mind. The Bible
appears to swirl in the vortex, but at the same times it
blinks into the shimmering text of the word “book” or
“truth.” The words written in the wind just as suddenly
translate into hundreds of other languages, shriek the
sound of those words, expand into verses that whip
around, a dizzying flurry of language, sound, and raw
meaning. Beholding the thing as it sprawls into every
realm of perception simultaneously is maddening, and
approaching the bloody nexus just makes things worse.
Characters can feel their skin turn into the mere idea
of skin. Each outstretched finger becomes the word
“finger,” letters curling away and being ripped into
the maelstrom surrounding the book. To reach into
the circle flays the body and mind at once, and there
is no hope for any who dare to physically touch the
nothingness that is Noought-Iss.
 Revelations - No Security
But something must be done. Reality cannot withstand Will the officers drive to the man’s home and murder
the complications of a 66 chapter long code of him in cold blood for sins never committed? Will they
directions, or perhaps Noought-Iss doesn’t wish it to. If allow him to live, despite his responsibility for erasing
anyone is to survive, the Bible must be dislodged and their noble friend’s very existence? What if he tries to
the base metaphor returned to its natural state. Only do it again?
someone willing to sacrifice body, sanity, and soul can
reach into the vortex and rip the book free. Those that remain carry a terrible burden. Their
perception anchors reality itself, but what happens
If one of the characters makes the sacrifice, witnessing to existence after their deaths remains a terrifying
the horrific unmaking of a noble friend is just the uncertainty. Memories of a hero’s death and a
beginning of the survivors’ problems. With the book holocaust survived hound them through a world
wrenched free, the storm spills outward, free from the that has forgotten. Each must play warden to a mass
cage made by Andrew Yearta’s sick attempt at salvation. murderer that committed no crime, forced to choose
Noought-Iss expands to encompass all again, and between carrying out his richly deserved execution or
as the events of the last day could not be under the keeping him under surveillance for the rest of his life;
natural order, they suddenly, never were. each haunted by ceaseless paranoia regardless.

Survivors wake from the discombobulating unraveling These unlucky few live out the rest of their days in
lying in Elmer Hanson’s barn. There is no mutilated silence, cut off forever from the understanding of loved
man tied to a post, no pile of dismembered corpses. ones. They’re trapped in the hopeless, cold universe
The Hansons are alive in the house, about to sit down Andrew Yearta so feared, each certain the only
to supper and confused about why the police are there. salvation from despair lay in madness.
Toil itself is fine: free of both fire and plague. Everyone
that died screaming moments earlier is completely
fine and ignorant. All are alive and safe except the
character that removed the book. All traces of the hero
have been erased. There are no records of the character
having ever existed, and the mention of a name to
former loved ones will only prompt quizzical looks.

But as with Yearta’s attempt, the quick application

of a new reality is sporadic and incomplete. The
survivors’ memories and scars remain; they remember
everything. It was, after all, their perception of the
book’s removal that allowed order to be restored. They
must bear witness, but the indignity of knowing that
Andrew Yearta sits alive and well in his room might be
too heavy a burden.

91
ENDGAME: THE HANSON FARM
THE RED TOWER
 INTRODUCTION

THE RED TOWER

INTRODUCTION 1931: Chicago, IL
Two years into the recession and it seems not even
The Red Tower is a complex supernatural mystery set
illicit economies can survive. Al Capone has been
in the Chicago meatpacking district during the tumul-
arrested, and the big fish is dragging huge sections of
tuous months after the fall of Al Capone. Three to six
his underworld infrastructure down with him. Nitti
players play members of various urban factions that
is attempting to solidify power with the remaining
discover a monstrous threat worming its way through
members of the family, but in the tense months follow-
city’s heart. Thematically, the adventure confronts the
ing Capone’s indictment, a new successor is far from
characters’ prejudices involving politics and class with
certain.
a terror antithetical to life itself. It can be completed in
one or two sessions, depending on the level of detail
With every lowlife in town desperate to clamor higher
employed by the GM and the style of play.
up the pecking order, the politics of the city are fol-
lowing suit. The mob’s decapitation took a number of
This adventure starts with an overall description of
corrupt officials down as well, and power vacuums in
the setting and plot for the GM’s use. Information the
the bureaucracy have civil servants on both the state
players can reveal through roleplaying can be found in
and federal levels trying to become the next Eliot Ness.
the gameplay section.
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Investigation is
cleaning out the last of Capone’s operation, hoping to
squeeze one last big bust out of the Capone ledgers.
The FDA, galvanized by recent scandals involving un-
regulated remedies, has reorganized and is attempting
to boost its PR by re-slaying its first dragon:
94

the Chicago Meatpacking Industry. Finally, with the
police officials on Capone’s payroll out of the job,
there’s finally room for a good cop to advance in the
department.
The regular folks—all they ever do is suffer. The bread-
lines are longer than ever. That recovery they keep
talking about is nowhere in sight. The immigrants keep
coming, and the locals keep fleecing them until they
get conned in turn. Where everyone else sees nothing
but misery and doom, the socialists see an opportuni-
ty. The soil of Chicago’s slums is ripe for revolution; it
needs only those willing to fertilize it. And for some,
the Reds are actually starting to make some sense.
They’re certainly getting all the right people angry.
Yet beneath the city in turmoil, something very old
lurks. Something worse. Waiting. Eating. A few of
Chicago’s unluckiest are about to discover just how
much harder times can get.
Important Dates for the Setting
1894: Edward Herbert Thompson purchases
the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza for American
exploration.
1906: Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle scan-
dalizes Roosevelt into food regulation.
1930: The Communist Party of the USA
begins actively recruiting from the downtrod-
den of the Great Depression.
1930: The Food, Drug, and Insecticide Orga-
nization shortens name to FDA.
1930-31: Muckracking journalists begin
advocating for “prescription-only” drugs and
consumer product oversight
1931: Al Capone is convicted of income tax
evasion and sentenced to 11 years.
1932: Frank Nitti begins to solidify his control
over the Chicago crime families.
1919-1933: The Volestead Act, prohibiting the
sale of alcohol, is in effect.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
GM INFORMATION
The Wayward Son
Andrew Chambliss, heir to an American food process-
ing empire and a fortune in French agricultural hold-
ings, wanted nothing to do with the family business.
It’s not that he found it distasteful; frankly, the hulla-
baloo about “worker exploitation” fell as dead to his
ears as the braying of the cattle in his father’s yards. Put
simply, the whole business was beneath him. His was
an intellect molded by the finest tutors money could
buy and forged in the most exclusive European univer-
sities. His destiny lay in academia, much to his father’s
obvious disappointment.
In the late 1800’s, when one of father’s business ac-
quaintances managed to buy the ruins of a lost civili-
zation from the South Americans for pennies on the
acre, Andrew practically packed his bags overnight. He
finally had his chance to distinguish himself as a man
of science, and his father would be rid of his insuffer-
able embarrassment of a son for a time. Who knew?
Father Chambliss wondered if the harsh jungle expedi-
tion might not finally exorcise the boy’s bookish nature
and return him ready to take over the family business.
The Well of Souls
The guides had been lowering the last of his team into
the sacrificial well when the rope snapped. One of the
men died instantly, but the other screamed for what
seemed like hours in the shadowy dark of the stone pit,
both legs shattered. Andrew tried his best to ignore the
cries as the indigenous dealt with their own. He busied
himself with the strange passages shooting off in every
direction. Why fashion tunnels in the bowels of the
earth for a mound of festering sacrifices? He ordered
the servants still on the surface back to camp for more
line; there were plenty of passages and enough lamps
to keep them occupied exploring until the other half of
expedition returned.
95
 GM INFORMATION
A Forgotten Hell
They knew something was wrong when they returned
to camp to find the dead Indian’s body missing. Sus-
picions of some sort of prank vanished as they heard
the screams of the injured man echoing in the distant
tunnels.
They began picking them off one by one, skeletal
figures scarcely distinguishable from the mounds of
human bones that clogged the stone arteries running
underneath the jungle. They were starved, dessicated
things, older than the very dirt which caked them.
Long eons had passed since they’d eaten anything
beyond the odd fallen animal. The ecstatic hoots of
their feasts echoed through the passages as the ex-
pedition would inevitably leave another one of their
number behind, fleeing deeper into the nightmare.
After a few hours, only Chambliss and his appointed
manservant, Borkowski, survived. The big Pole had
slain one of the things with a shovel and now wore
its corpse as some sort of misguided camouflage or
trophy. Though equally lost to madness, the young heir
retreated to his mind, using the only remaining lamp
to study the odd carvings that seemed to dully glow on
the walls. They were in a form of pictograph similar to
something he’d been forced to transcribe for a profes-
sor in graduate school. They beckoned the pair to some
center, and Andrew followed, rushing towards his
death with an ecstatic joy never before imagined in his
dull days of parlor talk.
Ascending the Throne
Borkowski fought like one of them now, his mind
completely gone and replaced with the same sickening
animal guile and bloodied teeth as the things hunting
them through the bone-clogged caves. Each monster
seemed fatter now, somehow sleeker and faster with
the digested grease of their companions. The pair of
men made their last stand in the ruins themselves,
completely enclosed within the lightless pyramid they
had ascended into. The inky insides seemed to teem
with membranous, alien life. Translucent sacs spewed
forth inexplicable artifacts, foul odors, and whispers.
96
As Borkowski clubbed one to death with a stone,
Andrew spent what were surely his last moments
frantically reading the pictographs his flame had illu-
minated. He screamed a dead language in the throes
of maddening terror, failing to be distracted from his
fugue even as the creature screamed the lost tongue
back to him. He remained undeterred even as his voice
reached inhuman volumes, shaking the very stones
of the ruin apart. As the roof collapsed and tropical
sunlight flooded the cursed chamber, a shriek as old as
millennia tore through the air and was gone.
The creatures retreated away from the two battered
men, heads bowed. Whatever presence had lived in—
become—the ruin, the piercing rays of light had given
it a death delayed to the tune of centuries. As Borkow-
ski gibbered softly to himself and cradled his many
wounds, Andrew Chambliss laughed. He’d killed a god
and would now take its place.
Homecoming
The two survivors from the doomed expedition to
South America sparked a brief wildfire of specula-
tion amongst Chicago’s upper classes. The city’s upper
crust wanted to hear tales of mysterious savages and
El Dorado. When Chambliss and his famed manser-
vant never manifested at the auspicious parties held
in honor of their return, fame quickly curdled into
infamy.
When Cotton Chambliss died suddenly of a mysteri-
ous illness, public opinion all but doomed the Cham-
bliss fortune at the hands of its eccentric heir. However,
Andrew wasted no time consolidating his company.
His lay-off of workers proved to be prodigious, even
by Chicago meat-baron standards. His new, indus-
trialized production model was rumored to be state-
of-the-art, so much so that all construction work and
modifications done to the packing plant were carried
out at night and under strict guard. The company even
ceased trade on the markets, presumably restructuring
for a big debut. All of Chicago’s upper-crust held its
breath in anticipation.
And kept holding it. For years. For decades. People
scoffed. They pretended they had predicted it would
turn out like this all the time. They moved on. They
forgot. They died.

But Chambliss Meatpacking Plant remains, proudly
sticking out of the city like an inoperable tumor.
Obvious, yet unnoticeable, it remains operational in
ways beyond human understanding, and the mad heir
resides over a kingdom altogether more concerned
with slaughter than all its competition combined.
The Business Model
Borkowski and his mad progeny maintain the re-
mainders of Chambliss Meatpacking, buying diseased
and lame cattle with the liquidated fortune and what
little they can scam from the locals. When the herds
arrive, they’re funneled straight from the stockcars into
the Cattle Tunnels, supposedly heading towards the
factory for processing.
But there is no slaughterhouse at Chambliss Meatpack-
ing anymore, or at least not in the traditional sense.
Like the temple the doomed expedition made it’s final
stand in, the red brick of the plant has been complete-
ly sealed to contain the malignant spirit of Andrew
Chambliss, elevated by dark magic into an incorporeal
god. The tunnels beneath the factory were what Cham-
bliss spent huge swaths of his fortune improving before
entering his un-death. They sprawl in a seemingly
endless tangle of lightless, confusing passages through
which terrified steer stampede endlessly, starving and
terrified.
When the animals are exhausted by frothing terror
or trampled, then the Cham-Vi Juntan creep in. The
pestilent creatures feed on the near dead, growing fat
off a wealth of meat their forebears in the sacrificial
well could never dream off. Meanwhile, the horror and
pain felt in the animal’s death throes echo through the
labyrinth towards Chambliss’s gigantic mausoleum,
sustaining the immortality of the presence trapped
there with pure blood and death.
In short, Chambliss Meatpacking is no longer a busi-
ness so much as an ecosystem. An insane cult of
brainwashed immigrants buys and feeds cattle into the
tunnels. Once there, the maze of passages secretly in-
festing the city chokes, cripples, and kills the panicked
steer. Their mass deaths feed the dark energy required
by Chambliss’s new existence.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
List of NPCs
Clyde Hannity – leader of the local meatpacker’s
union
Franklin Pearson – Editor-in-chief of The
Worker and socialist
Eddy Chapa – missing journalist for The Worker
Special Agent Alexander Whittemer –in charge
of Capone case follow-up
Dr. Philbert Cannes – chief chemist in charge of
FDA inspection
Paulie “Roach” Alegretti – missing mobster and
former Capone associate
Guissippi “The Hen” Gallo – upstart mobster
looking to rise
Cyryl Borkowski– patriarch and head of the Bor-
kowski lending scheme
Henryk Borkowski – giant foreman of the
Chambliss stockyard crew
Jacek Borkowski –boy that runs messages from
Chambliss Meatpacking to the tunnels in the
Paulie’s Poolroom
Isabella Borkowski – girl that runs messages
from Paulie’s Poolroom to the Stockyards
Lydia Carmody – current resident of the former
Chambliss estate
Andrew Chambliss – reclusive heir and owner of
the Chambliss meatpacking factory
Cham-Vi Juntan – nightmare creatures feasting
within the cattle tunnels
Finally, the Cham-Vi Juntan feast and live amongst de-
cade-old piles of rotten meat and offal, drunk off the
parasitic bounty of their new master…and protecting
him from any human unlucky enough to fall into his
diseased, stone veins.
97
 GAMEPLAY
The Monsters: Andrew Chambliss
What Andrew Chambliss discovered in the jungle was
a form of death magic that attracted the same ghoulish
beasts who came to wipe out his companions. He mas-
tered it. He studied it until it dominated his thoughts.
Then he used it to launch himself into godhood.
Andrew’s “business plan” was one of self-destruc-
tion. He sold off and reduced the family’s holdings to
a minimum, selling literally everything not directly
useful to the meatpacking business. The goal was to
provide the Chambliss meatpacking plant with an
operating fund that would last as long as possible.
Borkowski, the other mad survivor of the doomed
expedition, would run the day-to-day necessities, his
mind long ago too damaged to resist his master’s new
powers. The Pole’s descendants, brainwashed into their
father’s mad religion, continue to fund and operate the
Chambliss factory’s secret operation
In 1907, when arrangements were made, Chambliss
had himself sealed inside the red brick building that
once housed his father’s business. The factory had long
hollowed out a series of tunnels beneath the site for
the transfer of cattle, and these Andrew prepared using
the dark rituals he learned. The tunnels became his
new circulatory system, the bricks and mortar his new
flesh. Slowly, Andrew Chambliss killed himself using
the secret arts, his soul expanding to fill the perverted
cathedral he’d built to his new immortality.
Over the decades, the Borkowski family has fed
countless scores of sick, terrified animals into the
tunnels, leaving them to starve and perish in agony.
The siphoned life energy from living things now feeds
whatever Chambliss has become, fueling the building’s
impenetrable glamour, his eyeless perception, and the
invisible knives he uses to slaughter those who betray
his cult.
But it isn’t only abstract death that feeds Chambliss’s
testament to madness. The creatures from beneath the
jungle eventually sensed the power of their new death
god, and they have come to feast on his leftovers.
98
The Monsters: Cham-VI Juntan
Not much is known about the carrion beasts that haunt
Chambliss’s stock tunnels; they are so reclusive and
deadly as to have avoided even the attention of myth.
Though equipped with powerful jaws and claws fitting
that of wild animals, the creatures express enough in-
telligence to avoid detection, strategize, and, of course,
find more food sources. It is unsure if the beasts are
immortal, if they turn other creatures into them-
selves, or if they propagate throughout the centuries
by inbreeding. Whatever the case, they can always be
found where the death magic Chambliss discovered is
practiced. The constant, steady supply of rotting meat
necessary to maintain the spell insures their symbiosis,
and they act as a de facto immune system for whatever
dark soul dares to launch itself to godhood.
The deadly expedition in South America ran into eons-
starved, desiccated versions of these creatures. Even
having long ago eaten the last bones of the ancient
sacrifices, the skeletal creatures could revive them-
selves long enough to kill. Only Chambliss’s quick
study of the forbidden magic contained in the carvings
saved him, or perhaps the creatures merely recognized
another monster…one capable of providing the pre-
cious meat.
Upon completion of the deadly rites, the Cham-Vi
Juntan migrated to their new master, trickling north-
ward along the dark pathways humanity rather not see.
In Chambliss’s new sanctum, they could feast endlessly.
By ’31, the creatures have grown fat off years of rancid
cow flesh. They are now bloated and covered in foul
excretions of all sorts, even going so far as to take on
characteristics of the dead cows. The food has revived
them of their senses enough to reveal the dark whis-
perings of their new master.
However, despite their ability to follow basic orders,
they remain territorial, predatory beasts. They are no
less quick and deadly for their new size. They won’t
hesitate to kill intruders and add more flesh to the
piles. While unprepared for the threat of modern fire-
arms, the Cham-Vi Juntan are armed with their very
food source; they hide amongst the piles of festering
dead and wield discarded horns and ribs like knives.
 THE RED TOWER - No Security
GAMEPLAY
INFORMATION
Character Selection
Ultimately, the only responsibility a player’s character
has is to be fun to play as and fun to play with. What-
ever concept a group agrees will serve that purpose
should work fine. However, it should be noted that this
scenario makes two assumptions: horror games are
more fun for players when the characters are scared,
and characters get scared when their mundane reality
gets upset. If characters are to fit in with the setting of
1931 Chicago, they might consider joining with one
of the four factions already tied into the plot: socialist,
blue collar, government, and criminal. Here are some
suggested character concepts that work well with this
adventure.

• Reporters for The Worker sent to track down

their missing co-worker, Eddy Chapa
• Pro-union thugs tasked with putting enough of
a scare into the socialists to stop their inflam-
matory rhetoric
• Bureau of Investigation Agents (early FBI) can-
vassing the Meatpacking District for associates
of Capone mentioned in his ledger
• FDA chemists and investigators cooperating
with the Treasury Department to leverage
slaughterhouse owners
• Chicago cops seeking to assist/disrupt the
federal investigations
• Soldiers in Guissipi Gallo’s crew out looking for
the missing capo, Paulie Alegretti
• Mobsters in the employ for Frank Nitti sent to
take down Gallo’s upstart crew
• Members of a protection racket hired to break
up the socialist, pro-union rallies taking place
in the district

99
 SPELLS
Plot Hooks
The question implicit in The Red Tower is “how hor-
rific do things get before people abandon petty differ-
ences and band together for survival?” Since all the
factions described in the scenario are at odds, it may
seem difficult to get players together and involved in
the same plot. Below are some tips for GM on how to
get even the most confrontational PC’s headed in the
right direction.
Socialist: Eddy Chapa, one of The Worker’s best
muckrackers, has gone missing in the midst of under-
cover investigation. It’s possible that he has just fallen
out of contact in order to maintain his cover, but Eddy
is the newspaper’s most dedicated writer, even gar-
nering some mainstream re-prints. Employees of the
paper are dispatched to try and find him.
Blue-Collar: For those players wishing to play the
everyman, one of the major set-pieces in the scenario
is a Consumer Rights Rally. Blue-collar workers with
leftist political leanings attend to support the cause.
Anti-progressive hardliners fearing what the Commu-
nists might do to their beloved Union would just as
likely be in attendance, jeering at the speakers.
Government: Bureau of Investigation agents (precur-
sors to the FBI) are in the area rounding up the small
fish left behind in Capone’s ledger. The meatpacking
district paid the boss a lot of protection money, and
the feds will be canvassing the slaughterhouses for
persons of interest to question. The newly reorganized
FDA is assisting, pressuring the owners with surprise
inspections and trying to establish a reputation. These
teams could work together as a single unit or separate-
ly. Both will be interested in attending the Consumer
Rights Rally. After all, between the product complaints
and the slaughterhouse owners seeking to break up the
demonstration, it proves to be a target-rich environ-
ment.
Criminal: Guissipi Gallo is raving for the blood of
Paulie Alegritti; the mobster went missing weeks ago
and is suspected of turning rat. Though a small timer,
“The Hen” Gallo seems to have got it in his head that
he’s taking over Chicago. He won’t accept such disre-
spect so early in his reign. He dispatches half his
100
crew to find Alegritti while the rest of his boys throw
in with the established Union leaders; the Reds are
stirring up trouble and need to be knocked down a peg
before the dues start drying up.
Each faction has a number of places where it makes
sense for their characters to start investigating. The
GM can start the game with each player receiving
orders from the respective NPC’s located there. Con-
versely, if it seems like it will be exceptionally difficult
to get the PC’s interacting, the game could start in
media res at the Consumer Rights Rally (Location 0
p.103), an event in which the whole neighborhood
will have a stake.
SPELLS
NPC’s in The Red Tower utilize dark magic. Some of
these spells are available to PC’s that sufficiently under-
stand their instructions. For casting these rites, GM’s
are encouraged to utilize whatever magic mechanics
their system favors, or they might treat casting the
spell as a simple skill check. Regardless of how it is put
into practice in the system, here are the effects of the
available spells found in The Red Tower.
Perceptive Glamour
This spell is only available to the powerful sorcerer
Andrew Chambliss and only in use on the Chambliss
Meatpacking Plant. In short, the massive red brick
building dominating the middle of the district is seen
but not noticed. No one knows anything about it, few
have any desire to learn more, and fewer still are able
to learn more. All paths of traffic bend away from the
building and no one thinks to questions it. Onlookers
that manage to notice the building constantly have the
perception of being at “the back” and are almost always
content with the assumption that there must be an
entrance “on the other side.”

Sharp Breeze
As it is fueled by powerful death magic and requires a
totem of the victim, this spell can only be preformed
on members of the Borkowski family. In a sign of
loyalty, all Borkowski children give their baby teeth to
their dark master. These teeth are stored by Chambliss
in his sickening inner chamber, providing a magical
link to his servants. His consciousness sees their every
action, and if displeased, may take retribution.
To an onlooker, the traitorous Borkowki will seem to
freeze and go silent. Then, with a violent spasm, the
victim will levitate a few inches off the ground before
beginning to bleed from a number of mysterious cuts.
Despite the assistance of any bystanders, those caught
in the spell are slashed hundreds of times by some in-
visible blade, unable to even scream as their vital blood
vessels are sliced open. The victim bleeds out for a few
short moments before collapsing into a pool of his or
her own blood, dead as they hit the ground. Need-
less to say, witnessing this kind of attack is extremely
stressful.
Summon Cham-Vi Juntan
This spell is used by the child messengers of the Bor-
kowski’s to contact the devilish creatures living un-
derneath the city. The spell is very simple and can be
learned from a set of notes the children have set in
their shoebox (Clue 7E, p.108) at Paulie’s Poolroom
(Location 7, p.107). Those casting the spell must
be underground, chant a few simple phrases, and cut
their left hand, letting the blood seep into the dirt. This
wound causes minor damage and gets aggravated, no
matter how small or what was used to make the cut.
Shortly after the spell’s completion, a Cham-Vi Juntan
will arrive. However, the creatures are not stupid.
Unless the summoner has orders from Chambliss or
dead meat as an offering, the would-be magician will
only end up getting attacked.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
Banishment
This spell can be learned in the course of play (Clue
11A, p.111). If used inside The Red Tower (Loca-
tion 13, p.113), it can destroy the immortal presence
of Andrew Chambliss once and for all. The ritual is
complex and requires a number of props in addition to
complex chanting. Players wishing to attempt the spell
will need to collect a chicken foot, salt, candles, and
specific blends of incense before the ritual can be done.
The rite takes a number of uninterrupted minutes to
complete. Once finished, an unearthly scream an-
nounces the spirit’s demise as the tomb—in this case,
Chambliss Meatpacking Plant—is torn asunder by
unseen forces.
Becoming the Godhead
This spell can also be learned in the course of play
(Clue 9A, p.111). Though similar to banishment in
that it destroys Andrew Chambliss if performed in his
sanctuary (Location 13, p.113), the spell is simpler
and more dangerous. The ritual only requires concen-
trated chanting for a number of moments. However,
completing the rite essentially recreates the cause of
Chambliss’s own madness. Characters casting this spell
will become unrepentantly evil and insane, determined
to build themselves a temple so that they might be im-
mortalized with death magic and rotting flesh.
101
 Location and Clues Flowchart

Location and Clues Flowchart

Some clues in The Red Tower only provide players with information or a scary moment, but others can lead char-
acters to another location. This chart connects each location to the clues found there and points to where each can
lead. Use this page as a playmat to keep track of where players stand in the story.

102

LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
0. Consumer Rights Rally
The Rally is being held on the loading docks of an
abandoned warehouse. The crumbling brick and
boarded-up windows have been covered with posters
for Socialist party candidates in the next election.
Volunteers man the front gates passing out soup and
sandwiches to men on the way home from their shifts
in the slaughterhouses: “Come for the food; stay for
the revolution!” A full day’s ticket of speakers is lined
up, would-be insurrectionists headlining for a gallery
of atrocities: girls blinded by a line of mascara, boys
poisoned by lead toys, widows of husbands killed by
snake-oil remedies. Depending on the speaker, the
crowd wavers between scornful indifference and righ-
teous indignation.
0A. Socialist Questioning
Members of the socialist party ask anyone who will
listen about the whereabouts of Eddy Chapa. The
famed muckraker has been missing for weeks in
pursuit of what he called “the next Jungle,” an ambi-
tious undercover operation meant to expose further
corruption in the city’s livestock industry. Workers in
the stockyards will merely be asked if they’ve seen a
man fitting his description. Criminal and government
agents may well be accused of murdering or arresting
him. Regardless, PC’s will be aware of Eddy Chapa’s
disappearance as a possible line of inquiry.
0B. Government Questioning
FDA and Bureau agents casually mingle with the
crowd, trying to find the whereabouts of certain
persons listed in Capone’s ledgers as working in the
Meatpacking District. Paulie “Roach” Alegretti is
chief among their concerns, and agents will ask all the
blue-collar attendees where they work and with whom.
The largely-immigrant population remains extremely
distrustful of the feds, but they’ll at least reveal where
they are employed. Nobody seems to have seen the
man they are most interested in: Paulie “The Roach”
Alegretti,
THE RED TOWER - No Security
With the proper skill, PC’s working for the govern-
ment may notice that no one at the Rally works for the
large red factory in the East. Faded letters painted on
the brick declare it the Chambliss Meatpacking Plant
(Location 1, p.103). Nobody seems to work there
or knows anyone who works there, though some of
the Polish immigrants mutter the name “Borkowski”
before spitting in the dirt.
0C. Criminal Agitators
Clyde Hannity, head of the predominantly white Meat-
packers Union, dislikes the Socialist agenda intensely.
The party makes the same promises of worker’s rights
as his organization without charging a dime in dues,
and they even let Blacks join their ranks. Hannity
has used his mob ties to call in a group of agitators to
harass and intimidate speakers at the Rally.
Perceptive characters notice that these cat-callers are
unusually well-dressed to be stockyard men. Their con-
stant jeers and cries of “We’ve already got us a Union,
ya Bolshevik sissy!” are enough to arouse suspicion of
the local Union HQ.
Any mention of Franco “Roach” Alegretti overheard by
these men is likely to arouse their interest. They might
very well tail the person in question to see if they know
where the mobster is hiding.
1. Chambliss Meatpacking
Chambliss Meatpacking looms huge over the factories
and stockyards of the district. Though not the biggest
building in the area, it seems to be visible from nearly
anywhere in the neighborhood. But visibility isn’t the
same as actually being seen. Those staring up at the
massive edifice often find the sun forcing them to look
for the shade, or a sudden gust of wind blowing grit
into their eyes. The few determined enough to stare at
the red brick building find it even more infuriating to
get to. All roads seem to cut away from it, and every
side seems closed off with litter, fences and under-
brush. PC’s always seem to be on the backside of the
building, the entrance apparently hundreds of yards
away across a dizzying tangle of side streets. In fact,
characters trying to find a way into the building should
find the act disconcerting and stressful. As if in a
bad dream, no amount of speed or navigation
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
gets them any closer to their destination. This is the
effect of the Perceptive Glamour Chambliss has cast on
the building (see “Spells,” p.100).
1A. No Doors/ No Windows
Characters that circumnavigate the entire facility will
find that there are, in fact, no entrances to the building.
Every door, window, and loading dock has been sealed
off in brick…for many decades judging by the color
of the mortar. This is a stressful realization; it makes
no sense for even an abandoned building to be sealed
so completely. The only entrance to the place must be
underground, and this realization effectively breaks the
Perceptive Glamour (see “Spells,” p.100)
1B. Follow Jacek Borkowski
Jacek Borkowski loiters around the outside of the
building, closer to the fence than anyone else. Jacek
is a young boy covered in filth and tattered clothes.
He’s often throwing rocks at stray dogs or just deject-
edly kicking at the dust in vacant lots. He’s impossibly Eddy’s desk contains his address book. Besides his own
laconic, meeting every question posed to him with
silence or a lie.
Perceptive investigators notice Jacek slip away down a
hidden path in the underbrush and through the barbed as follows.
wire fence guarding the building. Those stealthy
enough to follow unseen can witness a strange ritual.
Jacek runs to the westernmost corner of the building
and places both hands and head against the lodestone,
as if the normally spastic young boy has been put in
time out. Then, after a number of minutes, he backs
away from the wall just as a brick—falling seemingly
from nowhere—smacks against the mud where he
once stood. The boy then grabs the brick and runs off.
Characters shadowing Jacek will find he leads them to
Paulie’s Poolroom (Location 7, p.107)
1C. The Brick
The brick that fell from the roof is covered on all sides unlikely to complain if anyone enters to investigate.
by strange script. It is scrawled in a gummy, black
material. Each character is remarkably ornate picto-
graph, depicting something that can only be described
as abstract. Though there is no way to make out what
the script says, an academic character or someone
sufficiently invested in research can discover
104
some of the characters have Mayan overtones.
2. The Worker Offices (Socialist HQ)
The “Offices” of The Worker are really just a series of
three low-rent apartments with holes knocked through
the shared walls. Franklin Pearson lives and works
there. His commitment to the socialist cause is total;
he feels that the Depression has placed the American
public mere weeks away from revolution and is deter-
mined to get the scoop when it happens. This delusion
feeds into another: the idea that The Worker has any
kind of serious readership that would give a damn
about the disappearance of Eddy Chapa. Still, Eddy
was a friend and a pretty good reporter. His co-work-
ers want to make sure he is okay, and Franklin wants
everybody searching for him after helping out at the
Consumer Rights Rally.
2A. Eddy Chapa’s Address Book
apartment, none of the addresses are labeled. Players
find it open on the last page; the freshness of the ink
seems to indicate these are his latest entries. Relevant
addresses the investigators can glean from the book are
• Eddy’s own apartment (Location 3, p.104)
• A house outside of town (Location 9, p.110)
• A house located in the Meatpacking District’s
slums (Location 11, p.111)
• The Municipal Building (Location 5, p.105)
3. Eddy Chapa’s Apartment
Eddy Chapa rented out a room in slum house on the
outskirts of the Stockyards. When players arrive, they
can see that the door is just barely on its hinges after
being kicked in. Eddy’s downtrodden neighbors have
little to say about the break-in, but they are equally
3A.Ransacked belongings
Eddy’s meager possessions have been destroyed. The
mattress lies gutted, the furniture reduced to kindling,
and all the books shredded. Muddy boot prints dot the
floor, and big holes in the wall denote the rage of the

intruders. Characters with any kind of forensic skills
can notice that the damage was done with some sort of
large hammer rather than hands and feet.
3B. Hidden Notes
Those perceptive or clever enough might notice that
there is no bathroom in Eddy’s two tiny rooms. Down
the hall sits the community restroom used by all the
renters, and a quick search reveals a folder hidden
behind the toilet. Inside are Eddy’s notes on his inves-
tigation.
• A series of call numbers at the local library
(Location 8, p.109)
• A brochure written in Polish and English,
advertising cheap property rental. It includes a
mailing address (Location 10, p.110)
• A number of interview transcripts and transla-
tions detailing how immigrant workers in the
meatpacking district were scammed of all their
possessions in a predatory lending scheme led
by Henryk Borkowski. When rent would shoot
up without warning, each family was greeted
by a charity organization called Chambliss
Charities. The charity, owned by the Chambliss
Meatpacking Plant, was just another loan in
disguise. Eventually, the poor families would
have all their property seized and were left to
starve in the streets. Notes made in Chapa’s
home remind him to research the Chambliss
holdings at the Municipal Building (Location
5, p.105)
4. Union Headquarters (Blue-Collar HQ)
Clyde Hannity is the “elected” leader of the Meatpack-
er’s Local 215. He can often be found in the Headquar-
ters building, which is really more of a clubhouse than
a functioning union office. The members of the 215 are
uniformly white, and nearly all are mid-level man-
agement in the slaughterhouses and railyards. These
foremen have grown fat off years of corruption, deep in
the pockets of both the owners and the mob. They long
ago sold their manipulative power over an uneducated,
poverty-stricken workforce to the highest bidders.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
Clyde Hannity likes the status quo and fears the change
promised by the Socialists. With the hard times seem-
ingly without end, too many of his work crews are
mumbling about fair wages and human rights. He
intends to call in services for all those years of protec-
tion money he’s paid up on. Clyde can be found in the
Union Hall, organizing agitators to heckle at the rally
and drinking illegal hooch with a group of bruisers
ready to break up the gathering the second they feel it
gets “out of hand.”
4A. Due Records
Anyone with access to the Union’s back office can
sneak a look at the organization’s records. The Local
215 has a well-documented presence in the city, and it
appears as if every cannery, slaughterhouse, cattle yard,
and rail station has members in the Union…everyone
except Chambliss Meatpacking.
4B. Brute Squad Truck
Out back is a big flatbed, waiting in case the boys
need to get over to the rally and bust it up. In addi-
tion to bats and other improvised weapons, the cab is
filled with copies of The Worker, an issue featuring a
cover story by Eddy Chapa. There are also a number
of socialist armbands and crude imitations of protest
signs. It appears the brute squad intends to discredit
the group as dangerous anarchists after their drunken
attack on the rally.
4C. Complaints about the Borokowski lend-
ing scheme
The message board in the Hall is overflowing with
push-pinned notes long ignored. Those that actually
take time to read the messages will find that a number
of pleas in half-understood English beg for help with
the “Borkowskis” and something called Chambliss
Charities. One particular note even claims to know
where these thieves live (Location 11, p.111).
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
5. Municipal Building (Government HQ)
Located downtown, this recently refurbished office
building is a far cry from the dirt streets and stench
of the Meatpacking District. The Great Depression
seems very far away from the marble floor and art
deco design of the lobby. In temporary offices upstairs,
Special Agent Alexander Whittemer and Dr. Philbert
Cannes are spearheading investigations in the area.
Agent Whittemer is directing his agents to look for a
capo named Paulie “Roach” Alegritti. The capo went
missing before he could be swept up in the arrests, and
without his testimony it will be impossible to prosecute
the otherwise “legitimate” businessmen listed in the
ledger. Wittemer suggests checking out the socialist
Rally to see if the mobster has laid low with a job in the
factories.
Dr. Cannes is assisting Whittemer reluctantly; he hates
burdening his inspection crews with useless G-men.
But the FDA provides a way into to every warehouse,
stockyard, and factory in the District that might be
hiding Alegretti. Dr. Cannes will feel better about the
deception if his teams can uncover some big code
violations to feed to the press. The good doctor wants
the newly reorganized FDA to get some good head-
lines, and he can think of no better way than to renew
the outrage the founded the department: health viola-
tions in the notoriously corrupt Chicago Meatpacking
District. He urges his chemists to find any infraction
they can to offer the press and suggests attending the
Consumer Rights Rally as a motivational exercise.
5A. Capone’s Records
Capone’s records list Alegritti as the chokepoint for
most protection money being funneled out of the
Meatpacking District. The only money “the Roach”
received that didn’t funnel back to the big boss was the
capo’s cut. Part of this cut went to something called
“P.P’s Room.” Asking around could reveal this to be
Paulie’s Poolroom (Location 7, p.107).
One other mobster was gathering money in the area
(Guissipi “the Hen” Gallo) but it appears he was fairly
small time. There’s no information in the ledger that
hints to his wherebouts, but asking the right gang-
ster reveals his shop. (Location 6, p.107)
106
Finally, it appears every business operating in the
district was paying money to Capone. The only dis-
crepancy is a blotted out name in the ledger with no
financial annotations next to it. The only legible part
are “—ss” sticking out from the scratched out word. A
cross-reference of buildings in the area can reveal that
Chambliss Meatpacking Plant is all that fits
(Location 1, p.103)
5B. Chambliss’s Meatpacking Records
Investigators with the wherewithal to check the city tax
records will find that, alarmingly, Chambliss Meat-
packing has not paid income tax since 1907. There are
other tax records, paid on time and as early as possible
every year, but the company claims not to have done
anything except spend money for nearly two decades.
Even that spending is odd, as records claim only two
expenditures: something called Chambliss Charities
(Location 11, p.111), and the purchase of livestock.
Any characters that discover this information will be
perplexed by the sheer enormity of the oversight. The
absence of an audit all these years is, quite simply,
magical.
5C. Borkowski’s Property
Cross-referencing the address listed for Chambliss
Charities reveals a house listed to one Cyryl Borkow-
ski. Cyryl also owns the deeds on a number of resi-
dential properties scattered throughout the district.
Curiously, none of these houses are claimed as rental
properties, but no attempt has ever been made to sell
them either.
5D: Bill of Sale for Chambliss Estate
Looking up the Chambliss name in property records
will show that in 1906 the family sold off a number of
diversified business interests, keeping only the meat-
packing plant. The last thing to be sold was a large res-
idential property located outside the city, sold to one
Sachs Carmody. The file containing the Bill of Sale is
filed under “Chambliss Estate.” It appears as if Andrew
Chambliss hasn’t lived in his ancestral home for almost
two decades (Location 9, p.110).

5E. FDA Inspection Records
Calling the headquarters in Washington can reveal
a startling truth: Chambliss Meatpacking has never
been inspected. Ever. Since the inception of the agency,
the facilities haven’t been checked for health, labor,
or building codes. Chambliss Meatpacking isn’t even
listed as a product provider in any of the FDA files.
Discovering this information can be stressful for any
researcher. How can a gigantic building, in plain sight
of everyone for miles around, never have received a
single bit of scrutiny for all those years?
6. Boardwalk (Criminal HQ)
Guissippi “The Hen” Gallo was always a small-time
hood. His participation in the operations running
around the Meatpacking District had more to do with
geography than any degree of skill. Paulie “Roach”
Alegretti was spread too thin by how much ground his
goons had to cover making collections, so Gallo got to
pick up the scraps. In the golden days, Gallo kept his
mouth shut and paid his dues, infuriated by his subser-
vience but not quite dumb enough to think he could
survive doing something about it.
With Capone gone, Gallo’s inferiority complex has
become a full-blown delusion of grandeur. He’s fooled
himself into thinking the other capos are going to look
to him for leadership, and he’s got enough manpower
to make a nuisance. From his hideout from the back of
a shooting gallery game booth, The Hen tries to solidi-
fy his power. First order of business: he’s convinced the
rest of the family that the missing capo, Paulie Alegret-
ti, has turned into a witness for the prosecution. He’s
sent a few members of the gang out to find the missing
mobster while he stays behind to tend to business.
6A. Orders to meet Clyde Hannity
The leader of the local Meatpacker’s Union paid pro-
tection money to Alegretti in the old days. With the
Capone case upsetting things, Gallo has snatched the
contract from underneath his old mentor. The Hen is
ordering all his underlings to report to Clyde Hannity
at the Consumer Rights Rally (Location 0, p. 103).
While they’re breaking up the Red protest, they’re to
look for any signs of Alegretti at the rally.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
6B. Marda Alegretti
Marda, Alegretti’s beleaguered wife, is being held
captive by Gallo. While not restrained, the poor
woman looks pretty bad; deep bags hang under her
eyes, her hair is frazzled, and she’s never out of some
gangster’s sight. She’s as furious with Gallo as she is
scared. She insists she doesn’t know anything about
Alegretti’s whereabouts. He never involved her in his
affairs, and their marriage was a sham. She insists he
stayed out all hours of the night and day, even after the
Capone heat forced him to shut down his poolroom.
A crafty character might infer from this that Paulie’s
Poolroom isn’t as closed as it seems
(Location 7, below).
7. Paulie’s Poolroom
Paulie “Roach” Alegretti laundered his money through
a low-rent basement poolroom located along one of
the main thoroughfares between the stockyards and
the meatpacker neighborhoods. For a number of years,
he used the operation to provide working men bathtub
whiskey and illegal gambling. As it was listed on the
Capone ledgers, the business was closed soon after the
arrests began. Law enforcement assumed the mobsters
had skipped town…incorrectly.
Jacek Borkowski can be followed to this location, or
he might pop in at the GM’s discretion. Ever since
the mobsters’ demise, the mad Poles have been using
the location to communicate with their underground
counter-parts: the Cham-Vi Juntan. In return, the mad
ghouls ferry their master’s business orders to the Bor-
kowski’s via the child messengers.
7A. False Panel
It’s not hard to pry open the boards blocking the pool-
room’s door, but all characters find is a large basement
with outlines on the floor where the three billiards
tables would have stood. Perceptive characters notice
that these outlines don’t make much sense; the place
could have easily fit more tables if it would have ar-
ranged them differently. Careful investigation reveals
the space remained open for the false panel leading to
the speakeasy in back.
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
7B. Speakeasy Massacre
The Speakeasy was never much: a long hallway, a
blacked-out basement window, three small rooms
for drinking and gambling. The fourth room, which
originally housed the boiler for the now-abandoned
building upstairs, was converted into a dance floor.
That is, until Capone went down. Alegretti apparently
saw the opportunity to fill the gap in the market and
turned the closed poolroom into a distillery. In the
weeks since the mobster’s disappearance, the distillery
has leaked, leaving an inch of stagnant booze rotting
the dance floor. Investigators are immediately met with
the stench of yeast, mildewed hops, and something far
worse.
In the hallway, bloody handprints and drag marks
coat the wallpaper, trailing into the first room on the
left. Inside, a dead mobster is collapsed in the corner
behind an overturned poker table. He’s been dead
for weeks. One had holds a nearly spent Thompson
machine gun; the other clutches the grey intestines
loosed from a savage, animal gash across his belly.
Those brave enough to rifle through a dead man’s
pockets find the ID of Paulie Alegretti
7C. Footsteps in Dust
Alegretti appears to have died almost a month ago.
Aside from his bloodstains, it appears that the speak-
easy has been abandoned since then. At the end of the
hall, there are two sets of footprints in the accumulated
dust. Both enter through the basement window and
are child-sized. One pair leads into the last room (the
same one the blood trail originates from), whereas the
other stops at a small shoebox. The pair leading into
the room is Jacek’s route to the underground from the
Chambliss Meatpacking Plant; the shoebox footprints
are Isabella’s tracks from the shoebox to the Stockyards
(Location 10, p.110).
7D. Tunnel Breakthrough
The last room in the hallway has had the floor torn up
and replaced with a ladder leading into a dirt tunnel.
Characters with criminal backgrounds will understand
that these escape tunnels are standard practice for
urban bootlegging operations.
108
However, the passage intersects with a much larger
tunnel after a short distance. This is where Alegretti
broke into The Cattle Tunnels and met his doom
(Location 11, p.111).
Characters with a light source notice huge, inhuman
footprints in the dirt.
7E. Shoebox of Spell Notes (Summon Cham-
Vi Juntan) and Receipts
In the shoebox located in the corner of the hallway,
there are two sets of the documents. The first, written
on ancient paper and with a crude understanding of
phonetics, relay the instructions for Summoning a
member of the Cham-Vi Juntan. Characters that pass
a test for understanding the instructions can perform
the spell if they are willing to pay the cost in their own
blood (see “Spells”, p.100). However, characters
unprepared for the sight of the ghastly creature and
without anything to offer (dead meat or the brick from
Clue 1C, p.104) will soon find themselves in conflict
with the creature.
The box also contains hundreds of haphazardly orga-
nized receipts. All the slips come from the Stockyards
and date back decades. It appears that Chambliss
Meatpacking has been buying cattle all this time.
Financially adept or otherwise academically inclined
characters notice that the receipts make little sense
from a business standpoint. The amount of cattle pur-
chased and the haphazard intervals could not sustain
a major meatpacking business. However, there is far
more cattle purchased than could ever be justified for
personal or family consumtion. The grade of the meat
is also rock-bottom; many of the animals were sold at a
discount on account of being diseased or lame.
7F. Following Jacek Borkowski
If Jacek was followed from Chambliss Meatpacking
(Location 1, p.103) and stealthy characters con-
tinue to make their checks, investigators can witness
Jacek’s job for the Borkowski family. After entering
the abandoned poolroom through the basement
window, Jacek goes into the tunnel entrance. Once he
climbs down the ladder, the boy performs the ritual to
summon the Cham-Vi Juntan (see “Spells”, p.100).

The creature’s arrival is announced only by its labored
breathing. It will stick to the shadows. Jacek puts
down the brick (Clue 1C, p.104) and sees it quickly
snatched away by a bloated, clawed hand. The hand
then inches from the shadows, placing a scrap of crude
leather with “50 head. Two weeks,” scrawled in some
disgusting ink. Jacek, who is obviously shaken despite
the routine of the experience, hurriedly deposits the
scrap of leather on the shoebox before scrambling back
to his post by Chambliss Meatpacking.
7G. Following Isabella Borkowski
If players hide themselves and stake out the ruined
speakeasy, they can glimpse the other Borkowski
child at work. Isabella Borkowski will eventually slip
in through the basement window, deposit the latest
receipt into the shoebox, and leave with the scrap of
leather on top. Following the little girl leads back to the
Stockyards (Location 10, p.110).
7H. Interrogating Either Child
If either child is approached or detects a tail, they will
do absolutely everything in their power to get away.
Characters that catch one of the Borkowski children
can question them effectively, provided they have the
skill. Both kids will be very reluctant to reveal any
information about the family, but fear of their captors
can loosen their tongues about the lending scheme,
the creatures underneath their feet, and why they
love (or have been brainwashed to think they do) Mr.
Chambliss so much. Still, both children will be abso-
lutely terrified and panicked at the thought of retalia-
tion from “the boss,” especially if questioned near the
tunnel entrance.
At the game master’s discretion, Chambliss should cast
Sharp Breeze (see “Spells,” p.100) on his traitorous
subjects. Seeing the Borkowski child levitated and bled
out by invisible blades should shatter the minds of all
but the most hardy characters.
8. The Public Library
Though containing no vital NPC’s, no one should ever
neglect the power of research. There are a number
of useful clues that can be gleaned from researching
Chambliss at the local library. Note that investigators
THE RED TOWER - No Security
already in possession of clue 3B “Hidden Notes,”
p.105 need not make any checks to discover the
following information.
8A. Chambliss Expedition Records
Notes from the university and newspaper reports can
piece together some of what happened on the Cham-
bliss expedition in 1905. Andrew, against the wishes
of his father, continued his anthropological studies
by mounting a study of ruins located on the South
American land purchased by a family friend. There are
accounts of the expedition reporting back for resupply
once. They reported nothing but the most predict-
able finds. A few weeks later, over half the expedition
members were dead after a disastrous descent into
a sacrificial well. The only survivors that saw what
happened were Andrew Chambliss and his hired man,
Cyryl Borkowski. They reported that nearly twenty
men died in a “climbing accident.”
8B. Chambliss Newspaper Clippings
Clippings compiled and organized by Eddy Chapa
detail Andrew Chambliss’s decline upon his return
to Chicago. A number of news stories mention the
“mysterious, laconic” new demeanor of the handsome
young heir upon his return. Others discuss his father’s
suddenly ailing health and the family’s uncommon
seclusion. The majority of the articles are from the
business section and concern the company’s mass sell-
off of infrastructure and extensive, secretive construc-
tion projects. Shortly after the last editorial theorizing
as to how the meatpackers might be restructuring, all
news about the family falls silent.
8C. Sister Novak
Characters looking into the above clues will be asked
by librarians if they should call for Sister Novak. The
clerks recognize the information Eddy Chapa had
been looking over and assume that any investigators
pouring over the same text must also work for his
paper. Eddy was using the services of Sister Novak to
translate the Slavic languages spoken by many of his
interview subjects.
Sister Novak volunteers at the library on a regular basis
and can easily be found during operation hours.
She’ll happily talk about what she discussed with
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Mr. Chapa and his interview subjects; she is concerned
for everyone’s well-being. Sister Novak can reveal the
entire predatory lending scheme run by Cyryl Bor-
kowski (Clue 3B, p.105). Sufficiently persuasive
characters can convince the Sister to reveal something
she left out of her translation to the reporter. A few
of the victims had figured out where the Borkowski
family lived (Location 11, p.111) but did not wish
it revealed because of superstitious fears that the family
would “curse” them.
9. The Former Chambliss Estate
Lydia Carmody is an upper-crust widow living in
the mansion outside of town formerly owned by the
Chambliss family. Her husband, Sachs Carmody,
bought the home for their family at a substantial
discount in 1906. Sachs has been dead for a number
of years and Lydia will be thrilled to have to have
company, even the suspicious, investigative type.
However, Lydia is an old-money snob with easily of-
fended sensibilities. Characters in her home would be
wise to indulge in small talk and behave if they don’t
want her calling the police.
9A. Hidden Attic
Lydia will reveal what little she can remember about
the previous occupants. Though her husband had all
the dealings with the family, she recalls how the house
was laid out when she first bought it and can lead char-
acters to Andrew Chambliss’s old rooms. Perceptive
players notice that the copper ceiling is oddly shaped
in one corner of the room, thus discovering the hidden
attic in the mansion.
9B. Death Magic (Become the Godhead)
Above Andrew’s rooms hides the stiflingly hot, dark
attic where he performed his dark magic upon return-
ing from South America. The rafters are uniformly
carved with insane, indecipherable symbols, and
odd figurations map themselves to the floor in dull
blue paint. Dusty tomes and unreadable scribbling
lay scattered about, organized into nests by decades
worth of squirrels and other vermin. Oddly though,
all the animals are dead. Every pigeon, squirrel, rat,
moth, and roach lies dead and mummified, curled in
concentric patterns around the only untouched
110
manuscript in the place. Seeing this strange sight
damages the calm of all but the hardiest souls.
The spell requires no more than a simple chant, repeat-
ed a number of times. However, its effect is the same
as when Chambliss first uttered the words in the ruins
of the temple. Any character casting the spell in the
presence of the Cham-Vi Juntan will become their new
master, taking Chambliss’s place and losing their mind
in the process (see “Spells,” p.100)
10. The Stockyards
The Stockyards are rented out by every major slaugh-
terhouse and meatpacking operation in the city. Cattle
are unloaded from the rail yards, then organized into
the proper corral before heading to their final destina-
tion. Finding the area of the massive complex dedicat-
ed to Chambliss will be difficult without at least some
prior knowledge.
The Borkowski’s operate near the edge of the yards,
an inopportune placement for getting their cattle to
processing. Surprisingly, they have a cattle tunnel: a
specially constructed underground chute that funnels
animals towards their killing floor in the district.
Henryk Borkowski can be found directing the work of
the male family members around the cattle tunnel. He’s
a gigantic, middle-aged man with an inscrutable ex-
pression. He constantly carries a bloody sledgehammer
he uses to euthanize cattle too sick to walk…among
other things.
10A. Borkowski Behavior
In addition to being related, the work crew at the
Chambliss yard act very strangely. Socially attuned
characters can notice that it’s more than the fact many
of them don’t speak the language: the men seem in-
stantly suspicious of any passerby, they’re unnecessar-
ily cruel to the animals, and each seems communicate
almost entirely in subtle gestures and looks. Some of
the work crew are far too old to be working, and others
are unusually young. A few have twitches or mumble
inaudibly to themselves. All is not right with the Bor-
kowski’s.

10B. Sick Cattle
The cattle being taken from the trains by the Cham-
bliss crew are barely alive. The majority of the animals
are undersized, stringy, and starved. A few hobble
forward on three legs or bleed from open wounds. No
food inspector or farmer would ever deem these dis-
eased creatures fit for consumption, and no owner in
his right mind would ever invest in such sickly meat.
10C. Tunnel Entrance
The entrance to the Cattle Tunnel is unusually secure:
the doors are heavily reinforced and festooned with
locks. It would be foolish to leave an entrance into a
major factory unguarded, but these doors appear to
keep things inside.
The Borkowskis, especially the imposing Henryk, will
discourage any investigators from investigating the op-
eration. However, any players that overpower, sneak, or
rush into the open chute will quickly find themselves
locked inside (Location 12, p.112). The laughs of
the Borkowski’s will be the only explanation as to why.
11. The Borkowski House
The Borkowski House looks no different than the tene-
ment properties they rent to Irish, Russian, and Polish
immigrants come to work in the Meatpacking District.
It is perhaps even less well-maintained, with tiling
falling off the roof and an unkempt lawn. The house’s
nondescript appearance might be why the family
so easily scams the poor workers with their lending
scheme; by all outward appearance, they are merely
another family struggling to get by.
A collection of wives and daughters maintain the
homestead while the men work in the Stockyards.
The undisputed master of the house is ancient Cyryl
Borkowski, who rules the home from his bed on
the second floor. Cyryl will order the family to deny
entry to any and all visitors. All attempts to gain entry
will be met with force. Fanatical older women attack
intruders with knives if they dare enter uninvited. If an
incursion comes at night, any able-bodied Borkowski
men join in on the attack.
THE RED TOWER - No Security
11A. Cyryl’s Room and Spellbook (Banish-
ment)
Cyryl Borkowski, no longer the mountainous man that
fought off horrors in the jungle, rots bed-ridden in an
upstairs room. The second he sees anyone that is not of
his family open the door to his room, he will open fire
with the revolver kept on his night stand. The first five
bullets are for any fool standing in the doorframe; the
last is for himself.
If Cyryl’s suicide isn’t enough to induce terror in the
players, his notes might do the job. In a journal behind
Cyryl’s pillow, the mad man documented the past two
decades in a pidgin of Polish and English. Characters
capable of reading the documents can get an outline
of the terrors Cyryl fought in the South American
tunnels. They can read descriptions of his constant
nightmares from those days, his fears that the monsters
would devour the world. Eventually, they can discov-
er that Chambliss earned Cyryl’s life-long loyalty by
promising to keep the monsters contained, locked into
slavery so long as Cyryl followed his orders. Finally,
characters with enough time can suffer through
reading about the years of indoctrination, depravity,
and murder Borkowski subjected his family to in order
to create Chambliss’s mad cult.
However, it appears that the former servant did not
completely trust his dark master. On the last page,
Cyryl relays instructions for a spell to banish Cham-
bliss, to be used if he ever fell under the influence of
the beasts (see “Spells,” p.100). Oddly enough, the
spell’s instructions are written in multiple languages,
as if Cyryl were very concerned for the document’s
readability upon his death.
11B. Tunnel Entrance
An entrance to the tunnel system beneath the city can
be found in the house’s basement. The path was dug by
the family themselves and is extremely claustrophobic,
but it will eventually lead characters to the system of
cattle tunnels.
11C. Eddy Chapa’s Body
Eddy Chapa has been beaten to death with sledge-
hammers and festers in the Borkowski’s basement
next to a number of other corpses. It seems that
111
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Chapa was killed for his investigations, but the other
bodies are harder to identify. Characters with the right
social connections or familiar with Sister Novak (Clue
8C, p.109) can identify a few victims of the Borkow-
ski lending scheme that wouldn’t let it go. The corpses
appear to be arranged next to the tunnel entrance like
some sort of psychotic offering.
11D. Financial Records
A thorough search of the house reveals years upon
years of financial records. Cyryl and his spawn have
kept the Chambliss Meatpacking Company existing
on paper for years. They also own the rental properties
and the Chambliss Charities front organization that
tightened the financial noose around their victims.
Passable accountants realize that the money accrued in
the lending scheme was meant to off-set the dwindling
money left behind by the Chambliss sell-off. Disturb-
ingly, nearly every penny went towards the “operation”
or purchasing more cattle; the Borkowski’s spent their
entire lives in abject poverty.
12. The Cattle Tunnels
Taken by itself, the near total darkness of the cattle
tunnels would be enough to drive a man mad. But the
few glimmers of light provided make things so much
worse.
Intersections seem to split into infinite, identical
options. Echoes confuse the ears at the same time a
choking stink fills the air. Man-made corridors can
expand into awe-inspiring caverns before suddenly
dwindling down to narrow slits in the earth. Entire
passages are clogged to the ceiling with the rotten,
poisonous remains of dead cattle, buzzing with flies.
Others only rattle with a carpet of bones.
Every passage pulses with eerie blue light radiating off
the grotesque symbols painted on the walls. Though
each design seems to point towards some central
location, using them to navigate the labyrinth is infuri-
atingly difficult.
112
Navigating the Tunnels
Travelling through The Cattle Tunnels should be like
navigating a nightmare. Each tunnel courses with
the magical energy of a million sacrifices and hidden
threats. Getting through will not be easy.
When players move through the tunnels, the GM
should conduct the game in turns and tell everyone
how many successful “movement tokens” are required
before reaching the center hinted at by the glowing
blue runes (Location 13, p.112). At the end of each
turn, the GM should consult the following table, either
picking what comes next or rolling a d10 at random.
At this point, there are a number of options. Things
could be as simple as making the characters roll some
sort of Navigation skill for each turn and providing
tokens for success. For a longer game, GM’s might only
allow players to move towards the center on repeated
numbers. For example, the second time a 2 is rolled
would count for a movement token. To really challenge
the group, require that players roll all their successful
turns in a row, starting over each time the group is led
astray.
Regardless of how the threats are arranged, any con-
frontations with the Cham-Vi Juntan should be as psy-
chologically damaging as they are deadly. GM’s should
adjust other threats and impediments according to
how challenging they wish the game to be.
13. The Red Tower
Characters that reach the center of the maze find an
oddly beautiful sight: a massive, circular basin with
an ornately carved dome up top. Here, all the runes
scrawled in blue phosphorescent paint converge,
meeting in a nexus of four blood stained pillars with
chains attached. The chains themselves hum with the
same eerie azure glow as they dangle from a hole some
twenty feet upwards.
If the characters have somehow avoided contact with
the Cham-Vi Juntan, they will not be able to continue
to do so. The creatures will defend this inner sanctum
to the death, and desperate adventures must choose
between fighting their way back into the tunnels or
attempting to climb the chains to safety.
 THE RED TOWER - No Security
Those that flee upwards won’t be pursued, but
they will finally find themselves inside the
d10 Random Encounters Chambliss Meatpacking Plant. The once-busy
1: The tunnel is completely empty and without threat. Gain
a token. killing floor and cannery has been completely
2: Strange sounds (chittering, a baby crying, wet slaps, etc) cleared out; even players with access to a light
lead characters astray, losing a token. source will find inky darkness cloying to them
3. Characters come across a tunnel clogged with mounds in the cavernous space. The interior has been
of dead cows. If they do not cross, they lose a successful converted into some sickening cross between
token. If they do climb over the piles, they are attacked by a tomb and womb. Sickly, grey flesh clings to
a Cham-Vi Juntan hidden amongst the carcasses. Those every surface with an almost fungal consis-
that survive or escape gain a token. tency, black veins languidly pumping some
4. Characters discover the remains of a man who appears viscous fluid into strange organs. Pustules of
to have been eaten alive. While horrifying to behold, his
flesh pop open with a fetid hiss when charac-
hand encloses a useful item. Gain a token.
5. A series of dizzying intersections bewilders the travelers. ters go past, offering up strange artifacts that
Players must either all lose a successful turn or make a skill are simultaneously alive and rotting: ashen
check. Anyone failing the check becomes separated from lumps in the shape of faces, miniature caskets
the party. No tokens can be gained, even for successful made of bone, perfect heart-shaped lockets
checks. that bleed pitch when opened. Whispers fill the
6. Characters come across a tunnel clogged with mounds darkness, and characters constantly feel some-
of dead cows. If they do not cross, they lose a token. If they thing skittering across their skin.
do climb over the piles, they find that the stacked corpses
nearly reach the ceiling. Characters must make a check to Staying sane inside Chambliss’s living mon-
squirm through before succumbing to disgust, wretched ument is a moment-by-moment struggle.
stench, or clouds of flies. Failed checks result in items lost
Retreat is not an option; Cham-Vi Juntan
in haste, damage, panic, or suffocation.
7. The tunnel is carpeted in skeletons. Falling could cause guard the only exit. At this point, players must
severe puncture wounds. The clatter of the dry bones either defeat Chambliss, become him, go incur-
accompanying every footstep is maddeningly loud. While ably mad, or face the ravenous hunger of the
it may or may not attract unwanted attention, the noise is creatures below.
enough to damage any character’s composure.
8. Stampede! Driven mad by starvation, thirst, and terror,
a herd of cows barrel down the tunnel in a panicked sprint.
Characters should make checks to sense the danger and
flee from it. Those caught in the stampede suffer severe
damage. Everyone loses a token.
9. This tunnel goes so deep it touches on the water table.
An underwater river is eroding the floor into precarious
ledges. Traversing the area is extremely dangerous. If
players turn back, they will lose a token. Those that risk
the crossing can gain two tokens at once, but failed checks
send characters into the current to be swept away and
drowned.
10. Characters come across a massive antechamber where
the dozens of Cham-Vi Juntan are feasting. It is a challenge
just to remain sane after seeing such a horrific, disgusting
sight, and now players must decide what to do about it.
Going back costs a token, whereas forging ahead can earn
three tokens. Getting through the feasting ground requires
a number of checks in order to avoid detection. Those
discovered by the Cham-Vi Juntan must either try to lose
them in the tunnels or engage in a nearly hopeless combat
with the monsters.
113
 ENDGAME

ENDGAME
There are few “victory” scenarios in The Red Tower;
the game is meant to present groups with a confusing
web of human intrigue that leads them into an incom-
prehensible terror. However, there are a few ways to
survive the ordeal and defeat the monsters festering
underneath Chicago.

Characters that found the Banishment spell located in

Cyryl Borkowski’s room (Clue 11A, p.111) may use
the spell to destroy Chambliss’s presence once inside
the Meatpacking Plant. The ritual will take time, and
players not involved with the casting will likely have to
defend a final onslaught of the Cham-Vi Juntan as they
scramble up the chains to defend their god. If success-
ful, the spell causes horrific gales to tear through the
interior of the building, winds so strong they punch
holes through the bricks and start a collapse. The
Cham-Vi Juntan will flee in terror, and any surviving
characters must make checks to escape collapsing
chunks of the ceiling and walls.

Similarly, characters that have discovered the Become

the Godhead spell in Chambliss’s old home (Clue 9B,
p.110) can save themselves from the dark magic and
nightmare creatures by doing what Andrew Chambliss
did in 1906: taking over. Again, any characters not in-
volved in the casting will have to defend against a final
attack from the Cham-Vi Juntan. If the caster is suc-
cessful, Andrew Chambliss’s ghostly presence quietly to this brute victory is uncertain. It is up to the GM
dissipates and the Cham-Vi Juntan stop their assault, whether they quietly slink back into the shadows or go
bowing to the caster before slinking into the darkness. on a kill-crazy rampage through the city streets.
Physical death can be avoided by this route, but the
person in charge of the spell will have become incur- If all the characters flee or die, the status quo will
ably insane, obsessed with killing themselves to erect a continue in Chicago until the Borkowski’s money dries
new temple of flesh elsewhere. In a sense, this solution up. With the cattle unavailable, who knows what new
merely defers the hellish ecosystem of the Cham-Vi depravities Chambliss and his minions will concoct to
Juntan to another time and place. feed their insatiable hunger for death?

Finally, characters always have the option of blowing

the damn place up. Whether breached from the inside
with explosives or from outside with heavy machinery,
Chambliss’s ghost can’t survive the cleansing presence
of sunlight. Destroying the Meatpacking Plant will end
the dark god, but how the Cham-Vi Juntan will react

114
 Fall
The
Without End
 INTRODUCTION

The Fall Without End

INTRODUCTION 1931: North Peak of Mount McKinely:
Mount McKinely—from base to peak, it’s the tallest
The Fall Without End is a cosmic/survival horror sce-
mountain on land, and 3rd highest point above sea
nario focused on a summit attempt on the north peak
level on the entire earth. At 20,320 feet tall, its twin
of Mount Mckinely. Set in 1931, three to six charac-
peaks dominate the horizon for much of the Alaskan
ters take on the roles of alpinists attempting to win a
wilderness, prompting the natives to call it Denali,
mountaineering prize offered by the U.S. Government.
meaning “the tall one.”
Midway through the expedition, things go horribly
and inexplicably wrong. Thematically, the scenario
In 1910, the Sourdough expedition, staffed exclusively
simulates the unpredictability and despair of survival
with local alpinists, claimed the prize of First Ascent.
situations by burdening characters in the midst of an
They’d climbed the dreaded Wickersham’s Wall, a sheer
already dire situation with an unimaginable threat.
face of rocks and ice infamous for spewing forth ava-
lanches without warning. They claimed to have staked
This adventure starts with an overall description of
a pole with their flag atop the North Summit.
the setting and plot for the GM’s use. Information the
players can reveal through roleplaying can be found in
An attempt to confirm the climb by looking down
the gameplay section.
from the taller South Summit failed in 1912. This Park-
er-Browne expedition turned back mere yards away
from the summit on account of an incoming storm.
Remarks about Parker’s cowardice were short-lived
though; the very day the group arrived back in camp,
an earthquake struck the area and shook tons of rock
116

and ice from the mountain in deadly waves. One year
later, Stuck and Karstans conquered the South Peak
from which Browne had been forced to retreat. They
claimed to have seen the Sourdough’s pole through
their binoculars.
In the dozen summits of the South Peak after Stuck
and Karstans, not one expedition saw the pole on the
adjacent peak.
Nearly twenty years later, the Sourdough expedition
is considered highly dubious amongst mountaineers.
Their names have been stricken from the record books,
and the 1928 Olympic Committee declared a success-
ful climb of the North Peak grounds for medal consid-
eration. The North Summit of the greatest mountain in
America remains untamed, or at least it is convenient
to think so….
The American government has seized on the oppor-
tunity. They need new “Lingburgh’s” in these trying
times, daring adventurers unafraid to tackle the great-
est obstacles and capable of inspiring a demoralized
nation. Quietly, a large sum of tax money has been
funneled to the “McKinley or Bust” project. Local
lodging has been reserved, a film crew has been hired,
and the big newspapers stand ready to print photos of
the new American heroes as soon as they descend.
The first to the top can expect fortune as well as fame.
Rumors of a massive cash prize for First Ascent have
been quietly circulating amongst the alpinist com-
munity for months, with a bonus offered for anyone
mad enough to drag a weighty camera to the peak
for a photo op. The prize is enough to last any family
through the hard times, and for some desperate climb-
ers, Wickersham’s Wall might prove as much a test of
financial survival as physical.
All is prepared as the climbing teams await the start of
their expedition at the Denali Trading Post, enjoying a
lavish send-off amongst the government handlers and
journalists. The locals have never seen such decadence
hauled so far into the wilderness, and their contempt
for the spectacle is as palpable as their need of the gov-
ernment’s funds.
The old frontiersmen scoff at the tourists, whispering
prophecies of doom and damnation. Are they merely
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
trying to scare their resented American visitors, or is
there some truth to the curse of Denali’s North Peak?
Perhaps something lurks up there, older than land’s
owners, older than the mountain itself….
GM INFORMATION
List of NPCs
“Coot” – owner of the Denali Trading Post,
scornful of the climber’s chances
Yuri Clevchynko – old frontiersmen claiming to
have been part of the Parker-Browne expedition
Booker Hamlin – director of the documentary
film crew set to record the climber’s homecom-
ing
Macey Sly – put-upon newspaper reporter sent
to document the attempt
Ted Carpenter – treasury department employ-
ee charged with monitoring the expedition and
awarding the prize
Kyle O’Shaughnessy – local boy in charge of
maintaining base camp
The Hutchison Brothers – three local brothers
attempting to beat the players to the top
The Monster: Vertiginous Horrors
“Vertiginous Horror” is as specific a name that can be
devised for these creatures. They have no earthly cor-
ollaries and exist entirely outside our biosphere. They
evolved on another planet, and their presence on our
plane of existence is infrequent and little understood.
The bridge which links the human world and their
own is inexplicable and intermittent (Location 10,
p.130). It’s opening is announced with all sorts of
strange weather phenomenon—sudden fogs, violent
earthquakes, blinding snow—and coincides with no
known environmental cycle or star chart. The opening
blinks into existence on the interior of Denali (among
other places), hovering in the middle of the deep
crevice scored into the side of Wickersham’s Wall. The
portal itself is a black pool atop a hollowed, trun-
cated pyramid with obsidian sides whose origin
is anyone’s guess. The stone is so smooth and 117
 The Monster: Vertiginous Horrors
hard so as to provide the creatures no purchase once
they burst forth from the brackish water. The worm-
like Horrors are left to scramble for a grip on the side
of the crevice or crash into bloody heaps a kilometer
below. Those that survive remain crawling atop the
alien mountain, forced to find whatever sustenance
they can in the arid heights until they starve or are
called home by some unknown force.
The creatures themselves are roughly 9 feet in length
and shaped like grubs as wide as tree trunks. They
are armed on both sides with identical mouths that
can distend outwards with sucking proboscis ringed
with hundreds of teeth—much like a leech. The dual
mouths are lined with three dexterous arms ending in
bone-hard talons strong enough to anchor in stone.
The things have no eyes, and the means by which they
navigate the world is a mystery.
Both in their world and our own, Vertiginous Horrors
exist exclusively at high elevation and on the steep-
est slope possible. They move exclusively by folding
themselves end-over-end. One mouth will bite into the
rock face, securing the creature’s weight by clamping
into the stone with its powerful jaws and talon-tipped
appendages. Then, the creature will contract the other
end of it’s meaty body either up or down, bite the rock
face with its other jaw, and let go of the original anchor
before repeating the process.
The creatures are lightning fast vertical climbers,
rolling up sheer rock faces as if unconstrained by
gravity. They are greatly slowed when moving hor-
izontally, having to resort to an up/down zig-zag
pattern due to limited horizontal flexibility. On less
steep slopes or flat ground, Vertiginous Horrors are
quite clumsy, but their yawning maws still make them
dangerous.
On whatever world that harbors these nightmares, it
appears there are only two directions worth going: up
and down. Whatever they eat, they appear to swallow
whole, dragging the prey into a meaty tube with row
after row of clawing teeth. Cold and wind and scrap-
ping stone have no effect on their health. If they have
gender, it is unclear what distinguishes it. If they breed,
they must give birth through the same mouths they
eat, defecate, and move with. In short, Vertigi-
nous Horrors have the biological efficiency only
118
found in nightmares. They eat and crawl, eat and crawl,
mindlessly. Perpetually.
“Gotcha” Gaming
The horror in The Fall Without End depends on the
idea that, despite the fact each character is knowingly
entering a survival situation, they are completely un-
prepared for what terrors they are about to face. There
are two ways to get players in the proper mindset for
this type of play.
Option 1 : Lie
When asked why the film From Dusk til Dawn shifted
so suddenly from a noir thriller to a goofy monster
movie, Quentin Tarintino famously quipped that
the characters didn’t expect the vampires to show up
either. Braver GM’s might try to adopt this philoso-
phy. If not playing with a rules set blatantly known for
horror, sneakier GM’s might claim they want to try a
mountain climbing scenario because watching Touch-
ing the Void or reading Into Thin Air inspired them.
The bafflement of the players will inform their role-
playing when giant, extra-dimensional creatures try to
eat them. Of course, this tactic requires a lot of trust
between the gaming group, and a lot of exploitation
of that trust by the GM. If it is even remotely possi-
ble some players might get pissed to come back from
the bathroom and suddenly find their characters in a
different genre, do not lie about the horrific nature of
the scenario.
Option 2: Focus on Character Motivations
This is a sound idea for any gaming group, regardless
of whether or not the GM decides to be truthful. A
safer option for getting players invested in mundane
competition before all hell breaks loose is to make sure
their characters have a serious desire to win. Spend
some time talking with each player before beginning.
Why does your character want to be the first to the
top? Do they need the money from the prize? Does it
fulfill a lifelong dream of Olympic gold? Do they want
to stick it to their former climbing partner on another
team? If characters have an explicit motivation for
winning the prize of First Ascent, the contrast with the
cosmic horror portion of the scenario will be all the
more dramatically interesting.

Playing in Pairs:
Advanced mountaineering is almost always done in
pairs. Groups of three or more are sometimes used, but
that typically just means there are merely more people
to hold the rope beneath the lead climber. Until they
were discontinued around WWII, Olympic medals in
mountain climbing were often awarded in groups of
two rather than to individuals, and the history of the
sport’s greats is one of successful partnerships.
As a result of this, no player can attempt The Fall
Without End solo. A climber attempting to summit
Mount McKinely alone would be considered suicid-
al by the governmental backers, and other climbers
would likely view the madman as a dangerous liability
placing everyone’s lives in danger. If one of the players
insists on soloing to the top, allow it only if that players
knows that a single failed climb check means plum-
meting to certain death (and that’s before anything
truly horrific happens).
So players need to find a partner(s) before playing and
decide how their characters came to climb together.
The bond of trust between climbing partners is said
to be deeper than that of family; at multiple points
throughout any climb, the life of one is literally in the
hands of the other. In terms of gameplay, this also leads
to an interesting dynamic; each pair starts the game
in perfect cooperation, but their goal is to beat all the
other players to the top.
Standard Climbing Procedure
Once players have partnered up, it would be a good
idea to inform them of the basic structure of team
climbing. Essentially, one is going to have to climb
Lead and the other Belay, or they are going to have to
take turns.
Lead climbers pave the way. They largely determine the
route of ascent and are the first to encounter any new
obstacles. It is their job to secure anchor points and
cut holds into the ice. They have no rope to assist their
ascent, but they are kept somewhat safe from falls by
the rope attached to their belay partner and the anchor
points below. Even with this limited insurance, any fall
could be potentially disastrous. A “Lead Fall” means
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
Optional Rule: NPC Belay
In games that the GM plans to make especially
deadly or in groups that do not cooperate well,
NPC belay climbers are an option.
In this instance, each player would be essentially
controlling two characters: the lead climber of
the team, and the belay climber of the player to
his or her right. The belay climber need not be
given stats yet, but each should have a fleshed out
backstory detailing why he is partnered with the
other character and what their motivation for the
climb is.
This way, each player gets to compete individu-
ally for the prize and boss his belay NPC around,
but the player doesn’t have to talk to himself
when speaking to his partner because the NPC is
controlled by the person next to him. The player
also doesn’t lose the chance for some interest-
ing roleplaying with his partner as they attempt
the climb. The GM gets a helpless NPC to use as
cannon fodder for the monsters, and players have
a spare to take over in case their first character
goes plummeting into an abyss or down a mon-
ster’s gullet.
The downside of this rule is that when combat
comes around, certain players might try to exploit
their second half into becoming a mind-con-
trolled kamikaze. Belay’s can also find themselves
in the position to “cut the rope:” letting a climber
in an unrecoverable position fall to his doom in
order to save the one member of the pary. Con-
sidering the competition between teams, is this
a decision the person in charge of an NPC Belay
can be trusted to make in character? If the group
is sophisticated enough to avoid this type of
meta-gaming, the optional NPC belay rule can
help create a more brutal, uncompromising horror
game while generously providing players with an
“extra life.” If the temptation will prove too great,
leave it out and have players climb in two’s or
three’s.
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 GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
that the top climber will fall the distance to his last
anchor point—plus whatever slack is left in the rope—
before the line goes taut. If too much momentum is
built up, the anchor points could give way, even up
to the point where the Belay climber is pulled off the
mountain as well. As a Lead, one missed handhold can
mean the death of the whole team.
The Belay climber (or “belay slave,” as they are some-
times called), climbs beneath the Lead. Going is easier
for a belay climber: they have a taut rope for support,
pre-cut handholds, and a tested route upwards.
However, Belay climbers are far from freeloaders.
Their instructions can be vital for the survival of their
partner, as they are sometimes afforded a much more
strategic view of the rock face than the man above
them. Belays are in charge of spooling up spent line so
the pair doesn’t run out of rope midway through an
ascent, and the easier nature of their climb means they
are typically given the responsibility of carrying sup-
Climber Terminology
Adze: a thin blade perpendicular to the handle on
an ice axe that can be used for chopping footholds.
Anchor: An arrangement of one or (usually) more
pieces of gear set up to support the weight of a belay
or top rope.
Belay: to protect a roped climber from falling by
passing the rope through, or around, any type of
friction enhancing belay device. In the 30’s, the
device was most often the belayer’s hips.
“Belay off ”: called by a climber to confirm that a
belay has been removed from the climbing rope. Es-
sentially, “don’t fall, because the rope isn’t attached.”
“Belay on”: called by the climber to confirm belay
has been (re)applied to climbing rope. Essentially,
“rope is back on, but please don’t fall anyway.”
Belay Slave: someone continually placed into belay
duty rather than climbing Lead.
Bivouac: camping overnight in the midst of an
ascent, sometimes in nothing more than a hammock
made of rope.
Carabiner: metal rings with screw-shut gates, used
with anchors. Usually oval or roughly D shaped.
Crampons: metal spikes attached to boots for in-
creased traction on snow and ice.
Deck: the bottom of the mountain
120
plies. This is made all the more difficult by the constant
falling rock and ice caused by the Lead’s scrambling
for footholds. Most importantly, the Belay’s duty is to
operate as a counterweight preventing a falling Lead
from plummeting into the void. The ability of a Belay
to hold on for a few more seconds has saved many an
expedition.
GAMEPLAY INFORMA-
TION
Character Creation
Since all the PCs in The Fall Without End are expe-
rienced alpinists, their character sheets will be very
similar regardless of the system used. Every PC needs
to be capable in all mountaineering skills if they’re to
have any hope of surviving even the early stages of the
scenario. However, the basic premise is that of a moun-
First Ascent: the term for the first successful, con-
firmed summit of a mountain.
Free Climb: climbing without rope or other protec-
tive assistance.
Harness: a canvas webbing device worn around the
waist and thighs designed to allow a person to safely
hang suspended in the air
Haul bag: a larger, unwieldy bag in which supplies
and equipment are stored
Hold: any place to temporarily cling, grip, jam,
press, or stand in the process of climbing.
Ice Axe: an ice climber’s primary tool. This hard-
ened pick can be used to cut holds out of ice and
rock or as a short walking stick. In desperate situa-
tions, it can sometimes arrest slides and falls down
icy slopes.
Lead Climbing: a form of climbing in which the
climber places anchors and attaches the belay rope
as they climb.
Lead Fall: a fall while lead climbing, meaning the
climber will fall at least the distance back to his last
anchor, plus any slack and rope stretch.
Pendulum: Swinging on a taut rope to reach the
next hold in a traverse.
Piton: a metal spike hammered into a crack or seam
in the rock and used as an anchor point

tain climbing contest, so the race to the top won’t be all
that interesting if all the characters have the exact same
stats and skills.
When making characters, GM’s should give players a
list of skills organized into the following three cate-
gories. The exact skills listed will vary depending on
the system used. Alternately, the GM can abstract the
various techniques of each set into a single skill of the
same name. For the purposes of suggesting skill checks
at specific locations, this scenario will use the abstrac-
tion strategy.
Instinct:
Spotting the hold, predicting a change in the weather,
planning an efficient route, packing enough supplies,
hearing the creak of an impending avalanche—this
skill set entails all aspects of situational awareness and
preparedness that help a mountaineer get up and down
alive.
Ascension:
These skills determine how good the player is at doing
the physical work of climbing. How fast are they? How
far can they jump? How far can they stretch to reach
that next hold? How strong are their limbs?
Endurance:
No climber can survive ascending one of the largest
peaks in the world without a hefty amount of Endur-
ance. Skills in this category determine a character’s
resistance to cold, exhaustion, and despair as the climb
progresses.
It is up to GMs to decide which skills will fit into each
category or if abstraction is the better option. Further-
more, the GM has to decide at what level all the skills
in that category will operate. Obviously, much of this
is dependant upon the system used. It is suggested the
all the skills within each group be set at one of three
levels: Exceptional, Proficient, and Adequate. GM’s
might think of these levels as an 80%, 70%, and 60%
chance to succeed on tests, respectively. Alter ratings as
seen fit.
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
Example Character Creation:
Frank and Doug want to role up “The Dynamic
Ducoti Brothers”, a pair of circus acrobats with
mountaineering experience seeking to cash in on
the government bounty being offered for summit-
ing McKinely. The players come up with back­
stories and buy a few skills to flesh out each
character’s personality, but now it is time to
purchase climbing skills.
Doug decides that his character, Giuseppe, is the
younger and smaller of the two. He’s a bit of a
show off and decides he wants to climb Lead. To
maximize his chances, Doug takes the Ascension
category as his Exceptional skill set. This gives
him roughly an 80% chance to succeed on any
skill check the GM listed in that category. Doug
also wants to make sure Giuseppe can stand
whatever the mountain has to throw at him, so
Endurance is taken at the Proficient level. Finally,
his player figures Giuseppe is a bit too hot-head-
ed for the Instinct skills, meaning it is left as the
Adequate set. Chances to succeed in that category
are better than the average non-climber, but not
by much
Frank, wanting to compliment his climbing part-
ner’s abilities, makes his character the stable, older
brother type. Iago Ducati is a much more cautious
climber than his sibling, so he takes Instinct at
Exceptional level in the hopes he can warn of any
danger. As he will be climbing Belay and might
need to hold onto the mountain for both men in
an emergency, he takes Endurance as his Pro-
ficient set. Finally, Frank gives Iago Ascension
skills at Adequate because he figures the character
would rely on his younger brother’s trailblazing to
ease the way.
This “yahtzee’d” version of character creation will allow
characters some personalization options while still en-
suring a chance of survival (however slim that chance
may be). Furthermore, the prioritization of skill sets
will make the competitive portion of the game more
interesting and allow for more dynamic team builds.
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 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Plot Hooks (Getting Character’s Together) 1. Denali Trading Post
Characters should start at the Denali Trading Post the
night before heading up to establish base camp. This
gives characters a chance to interact with each other in
a casual setting, dream about the prize money, ques-
tion government sponsors, and pose for a few pictures.
Locals can also provide a bit of the mountain’s history
and current events.
After reaching base camp, it is generally assumed that
players are going to split up in an attempt to gain the
lead. This is fine. Once they discover what lurks near
the summit, they’ll be eager to get back together soon
enough.
LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
GM Map versus Handout
The flowchart on page 134 is a map for GM use. This
page provides a helpful reference as to the mountain’s
geographic features, the difficulty of traversing them,
what threats might be found there, and other locations
accessible from that position. Though players can be
informed of this information through play once they
arrive at a location, they should not be allowed to see
the GM version of the map until after the scenario is
complete.
The handout for players is located on page 133 and is
meant to represent a hand-drawn map torn from an
alpinist’s journal. Players are encouraged to look at
this handout whenever they please so as to plan the
fastest route to the top. However, they should be aware
that their information about the route up Wickersh-
am’s Wall is possibly inaccurate due to a lack of proper
survey, untested navigational routes, local supposition
confused as fact, decreased visibility above the cloud
line, and a number of other factors (like the extra-di-
mensional portals and hellish nightmare creatures, for
instance).
When setting up scenes, the GM should describe each
portion of the mountain in such a way that highlights
the differences between the reality of the situation
and the map.
122
The Denali Trading Post is shoulder to shoulder with
people. Local loggers and trappers have come from
miles around to see the spectacle of a Hollywood
movie crew, journalists, and the brave explorers. The
tiny log cabin is crammed to bursting with the send
off party Ted Carpenter insisted on throwing at great
expense. The booze and food is more for the press
than the athletes, as Ted is keen to remind his climbers
between the forced smiles of countless photo ops. The
government has paid handsomely for this little adven-
ture, and it will not be pleased unless a noble Ameri-
can hero that can restore consumer confidence walks
off that mountain.
“Coot” couldn’t be less pleased with the affair, despite
the money he’s making off the spectacle. He hates all
these outsiders traipsing about his store, and any time
one of the locals scoffs at the outsiders’ chances, he
can’t help but snicker and righteously spit tobacco juice
in agreement. Curmudgeon that he is, “Coot” will be-
grudgingly respect any character he deems sufficiently
tough. He might be persuaded to sell some last minute
pitons and provisions to such men. A really persuasive
tough guy can coax the old man into revealing a secret
that only the locals know: the Hutchison brothers,
three local boys who have climbed on Denali their
whole lives, are damned if they’re going to let some
government pets take away the honor of First Ascent
from Alaskan men. They mean to beat the govern-
ment’s men to the top, and they have a one-day head
start. It’s already night; any hope of catching up will
have to wait until daybreak.
Yuri Clevchynko would be at the trading post regard-
less of the proceedings taking place around him; it is,
after all, the place where supply trucks drop off the
Canadian booze. The leathery drunk is the closest
thing Coot has to a friend and regular. Those curious
enough to make small talk with the old Russian find
that he claims to have climbed Denali many times in
his youth, once with Russian army buddies and many
more times after he went native. He even claims to
have been a guide on the Parker-Browne expedition’s
failed attempt up the South Summit. Clevchynko
warns anyone who will listen that Parker, fearing
criticism, left Yuri off the expedition’s records because

he refused to lie about what happened. The Russian
claims that more than a storm contributed to the
team’s decision to turn back. The group said weather
had been acting strangely for weeks, baffling all
almanac predictions. They’d found strange drop-
pings far above the tree line from no animal anyone
could identify, as well as bloodstains on the stone
and carvings made by no human tool. A mist of
“otherworldly” persistence obscured their view
throughout the entire trip, and each night at camp
the men swore they could hear a sound like crunch-
ing gravel in the dark. The men near hysterics,
Parker turned back only a few kilometers away from
the summit. The man found himself vindicated by
the freak earthquake that struck upon the expedi-
tion’s return and immediately set about swearing
his men to secrecy about the fear that really caused
their return down the mountain.
If prompted, Yuri claims to know nothing about the
Hutichison brothers and denies any attempt to scare
the climbers away from their attempt. Clevchynko
will not tolerate accusations of dishonesty; he’s had
his fill of that over the years, and quietly returns to
his drink rather than argue with fools.
Macey Sly disintrestedly goes about the tiny party,
gathering quotations and asking the minimum
number of questions. Her annoyance at being
dragged out to the wilderness to cover a silly pub-
licity stunt is palpable. If any climbers point out her
unprofessionalism, she’ll be keen to defend herself;
she does recognize the men are legitimately risking
their lives due to her long-term interest (romantic?)
in alpinists. She thinks the Sourdough expedition’s
claim for First Ascent is legitimate and that this
whole thing is a ridiculous spectacle meant to dis-
tract the public from corruption on Wall Street and
Capitol Hill. Climbers who are honest about their
motivations for the climb, be it the prize money or
the glory, can earn her respect, and perhaps even a
date when they get back down the mountain.
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
Objective versus Subjective Danger
Mountain climbing is an insanely dangerous sport.
Mount McKinely alone has a documented kill count of
over 100 climbers as of 2012. Alpinists are aware of this
danger, even drawn to it, but they think of it in different
terms.
Mountaineering is divided into objective and subjective
danger. Objective dangers are threats presented by the
mountain itself: avalanche, rock fall, temperature. Sub-
jective dangers rest on the individual climber: fatigue,
equipment failure, unpredictable weather. In short,
objective dangers are considered when plotting a route,
but the only defense against subjective danger is training
and luck. Estimations of objective dangers for each area
are listed on the player map, and the actual danger level
of each is on the GM map.
In game terms, any failed climbing check should have
negative, possibly even deadly, consequences. Failed
checks in areas of heightened objective dangers will
have more extreme consequences. For instance, missing
a handhold on a gentle snow slope is less severe than
missing one while trying to mount the overhang over a
bottomless chasm.
Areas with higher levels of objective danger might
also require more frequent skill checks or checks with
a higher difficulty rating. The differences between
extreme, high, medium, and low danger zones are up to
the GM and largely dependent upon the dice mechan-
ic used. Regardless of how difficult the climb is made,
GM’s should exercise discretion when doling out con-
sequences. The Fall Without End is designed to be an
a short scenario where death lurks on every ledge, but
dashing a character’s brains out on the rocks with two
hours left to play might not make a very fun experience
for that player. Failed checks could mean slowed ascent,
lost equipment, increased exposure, or dramatic near
misses. Save death for a climactic moment or a series of
unfortunate rolls.
Conversely, if climbers risk a dangerous route and
succeed, feel free to reward their bravery with speedier
times or bonuses on future rolls. These characters are
adrenaline junkies, after all.
123
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
Booker Hamlin pesters PC’s throughout the entire
event, lining up imaginary shots and snapping flash
bulbs. He’s convinced his choice for shooting the doc-
umentary footage is based on his artistic vision, not
the fact that he comes cheap and is dumb enough to
drag his equipment into the Alaskan wilderness. Any
discussion inevitably leads to romanticizing the climb-
er’s struggle against the mountain, the motif of man
against nature, the refusal of the American character to
submit to blah blah blah…
The scene ends when characters have had their fill of
the conversation and head to bed. The march towards
basecamp starts in the morning.
2. Base Camp
Base Camp is to be set up the following morning. As
it is merely a hike to a basin where the camp is set up,
GM’s should treat this scene solely as a roleplaying
opportunity. Players can get to know each other on
the trek, or they can use the opportunity to intimidate
their competition.
Kyle O’Shaughnessy is the local teen hired to maintain
the base camp in the absence of the climbers and the
only NPC accompanying them. Perceptive characters
might notice that O’Shaughnessy is feigning his loyalty
to the expedition and actually quite resentful of the
characters. The boy is a friend of the Hutchison broth-
ers, and he’s decided to do whatever he can to sabotage
the expedition to ensure their success. Those aware of
the Hutchison brothers and suspicious of O’Shaugh-
nessy’s demeanor can try to intimidate him into telling
the truth.
If O’Shaughnessy is undetected, he’ll try to do one of
two things: sabotage equipment or dismantle camp.
His first priority will be gaining access to the climbers’
haul bags. The original plan is to set up base camp,
relax for the remainder of the evening, and head out at
first light. Once players sleep, O’Shaughnessy plans to
remove non-essential equipment from as many back-
packs as he can, stealing sleeping bags, extra rope, and
food. His intent is not to kill, merely to force the more
experienced climbers to turn back so that the Hutchi-
son’s cannot be overcome.
124
If the players know about the Hutchisons already,
O’Shaughnessy improvises in his panic to aide his
friends’ chances. He suggests the expedition let him
set up camp by himself so that the mountaineers can
immediately start their ascent. It will mean bivouack-
ing (camping) on the side of the mountain midway
through the climb once darkness falls, but it’s the only
chance to catch up to the locals. If players agree to this,
Kyle will wait until they are out of sight before leaving
with their stored equipment. Though just a mild
inconvenience if the climb goes successfully, injured
or exhausted climbers returning to find their tents
gone might not survive a march all the way back to the
Denali Trading Post.
If O’Shaugnessy is caught in either plan, he’ll admit
his deceit and retreat back to the trading post without
much fight. Whether characters decide to forge ahead
or stay the night, the mountaineering skill checks
begin after characters depart from Base Camp.
3A.”Knife’s Ridge”
Approach to Wickersham’s Wall is from the Peters
Glacier, but the valley surrounding the ice field can
be traversed as well. The western edge of the glacier
is known as “Knife’s Ridge” and constitutes a massive
shale cliff that steeply rises above the crevices of the
glacier. Crossing the ridge requires walking across
the narrow spine of the shale pile. The loose, jagged
shale and narrow ridge prevent icing, so this is typ-
ically considered the safest, fastest path to the wall.
However, it is rarely travelled; the massive overhanging
rock face directly above this approach is considered
impassible and requires a lot of extra vertical climbing
to navigate around. “Knife’s Ridge” is not without its
dangers. Rogue winds can strike from the West and
blow climbers from their narrow perch, and the loose
shale covering the rock face makes falls damaging and
difficult to arrest.
Climbers travelling along the Ridge will see a figure
approaching from further ahead. Upon closer inspec-
tion, it appears to be a climber in extreme distress. The
man is horribly frostbitten and blood-soaked from
lacerations across his chest and face. Coat in tatters,
he hunches and mumbles to himself, feeling his way
forward with an ice axe. Climbers with good Instincts
will recognize a man suffering from snow blindness.

The man doesn’t respond to any greetings, merely
blindly continuing his desperate stumble down the
mountain. When he comes within a few feet of the
climbers, they become visible as blurry shapes and the
man enters a blind, feral panic. This is a combat: the
hysterical climber is armed with an ice axe, and the
narrow path prevents players from ganging up on him.
However, he is severely injured and nearly blind, so
even inexperienced fighters should have a chance to
best him.
If players can grapple him to the ground without
falling down the shale pile, the crazed man can be
knocked unconscious. This, of course, complicates
matters for the players; dragging the man back to base
camp will eat an entire day’s worth of time. Taken back
to base camp, the man can be revived enough to rave
madly about “worms eating the mountain” and ask,
“Where’s Josh? Did they get Josh?” Beyond that, the
man’s mind is irreparably broken.
If players can’t knock him out, the climber will keep
attacking until killed or the players flee. Successful
attacks against the assailant will either gut him with an
ice axe or send him on a fatal tumble down the shale
embankment. Victory should be damaging to the at-
tacking character’s psyche; this outdoor adventure has
turned into a brutal murder in a matter of seconds.
Whether subdued or killed, the climber drops a nearly
empty haul bag monogrammed with “P. Hutchison.” It
Isolation
As soon as players pick separate paths, they can
no longer communicate with each other. Separate
routes are too far away for any communication to
be heard; even shouts are snatched away by the
mountain winds. Climbing partners and groups
along the same route can speak to each other, but
only if no one is significantly ahead of the other.
Even visual communication between routes is in-
effective. If other climbing teams are even in sight,
they remain no more than indistinct shapes on the
horizon. Giving up the competition and regroup-
ing for safety is a major dramatic choice later in
the scenario, and the isolation of a separate route
should be apparent to other players at that point
in the adventure.
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
is streaked with frozen blood.
3B. Peter’s Glacier
The glacier is cross-hatched with deep crevasses in the
ice that could break men’s legs or necks. Getting across
means winding around atop the ice slabs and avoiding
unstable snow bridges. Failing to tell the difference
between ice and a snow bridge can mean plummeting
straight down as the packed powder gives way, possibly
even dragging the flat-footed Belay in afterwards.
Good Instinct is necessary to tell when a snow bridge
is safe. For heightened suspense, GM’s might roll these
checks in secret and tell players whether a bridge
seems safe depending on the result. Recovering from
a snow bridge fall requires an Ascension check from
the falling climber and an Endurance check from the
Belay. This recovery takes time and slows a team down.
Especially reckless teams can try to shave time off their
glacier trek by making an Ascension check to leap
across a crevasse rather than finding a bridge. Failing
this kind of check would be a very bad idea; a missed
leap would mean not only a fall, but a hard slam into
both crevice walls.
3C. Snow Slope
The other side of Peters Glacier is dominated by a
snow slope. While much easier going than the glacier
itself and free from the falling danger of the shale em-
bankment, this slope is where the Wickersham’s Wall
approach gains its infamy for avalanche danger.
Players foolhardy enough to try this approach must
deal with an avalanche sweeping down from the peak
of the slope and towards the glacier itself. As a snow
avalanche and not one composed of ice and rock, there
is little chance of the collapse killing anyone outright,
but the event can still be potentially deadly. Instinct
checks can recognize the tell-tale creak of snow about
to give way and allow climbers a chance to prepare.
Climbers that anchor themselves can weather the tide
and make Endurance or Ascension check to dig them-
selves out. Failed checks mean the buried climbers take
damage from suffocation and cold.
125
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
If climbers are caught unaware, they will be swept
down the slope towards the glacier. They must make
an Endurance check to arrest their slide with an ice
axe. If successful, they stop and must make the checks
to dig out listed above. If failed, the momentum of one
climber drags the other down too, even if that climber
already braced or stopped his personal slide. Both
climbers must then make Endurance checks for one
last chance to arrest their momentum. Anyone failing
this check reaches the bottom of the snow slope and
slides into a crevasse, taking serious falling damage. In
addition, they must make the same checks to dig out of
the snow listed above least more damage be accrued.
Finally, any climbers in a crevasse must rescue them-
selves by picking holds into the ice and climbing out,
severely delaying the ascent.
4A. Skirting the Overhang
Due to its elevation, the Knife’s Ridge meets Wickersh-
am’s Wall mid-way up, saving alpinists a few hundred
feet of vertical climb. However, directly above is a huge
overhang at least 10 meters long. It would require a
Lead climber to travel that distance hand-over-hand
across ice-glazed rock before pulling themselves up
to the vertical face. Then, the Belay would have to
perform the same impressive feat, or the Lead would
have to plant an anchor of sufficient strength to allow
the belay to swing out into the void and climb the rope.
The route is rumored to be impassible, and the hun-
dreds of yards worth of horizontal shimmying required
to skirt the overhang negates any benefits of taking the
Knife’s Ridge.
With a successful Instinct check, climbers under the
overhang recognize that if a climber could mount it,
the time saved would be immense. Climbing teams
must decide if gaining such a lead is worth the risk.
Either way, the lead must make at least one Ascension
check to get them to their destination.
4B. Mantling the Wall
Wickersham’s Wall presents a stark end to both Peters
Glacier and its parallel snow slope. The climb doesn’t
initially seem too daunting, but reports say that the av-
alanche danger and truly difficult climbing doesn’t
start until nearer the cloud line.
126
A mountaineer with good Instinct recognizes two
things before mantling onto the wall. Firstly, there
seems to be a section of oddly colored rocks near the
base of the cliff to the East. Secondly, the beginnings
of a fissure are visible high up the rock face, just below
the cloud line. This fissure isn’t listed in any surveys of
the mountain, and there is no telling how far up it runs
past the mist.
Investigating the oddly covered rocks reveals them to
be painted in a splatter of frozen blood. Nearby is the
shockingly mutilated corpse of a fellow climber. Those
that can keep their head after seeing such a sight can
make an Instinct check to discover that the state of the
body can’t be blamed on a fall alone. One entire arm
is missing, and the head is connected by no more than
a string of tissue. It looks like the poor bastard was
passed through a meat grinder before being dropped
off the mountain. Anyone with a stomach strong
enough to search through the pockets finds a few spare
pitons and some mittens monogrammed with “C.
Hutchison.”
5A. The Overhang
Mounting the overhang requires a series of three in-
creasingly difficult tests for a lead climber. Firstly, the
character must make an Ascension check to gain pur-
chase on the icy ceiling. Next, the climber must make
an Endurance test to keep their grip, then another
Ascension check. Finally, the Lead must succeed in
Instinct, Ascension, and Endurance to find a safe hold
across the lip of the overhang and muscle over it. The
Belay climber can make the Instinct check at the last
minute if the lead fails; the lower perspective provides
a better view of what lies beyond the Lead’s vision.
If any of these checks fail, a Lead fall occurs. At that
point, both climbers better pray the Belay set good
anchors (Instinct) or can hold on (Endurance). Even if
disaster is averted, the prevention of a deadly fall only
means that the lead climber gets to smack against the
rock face…hard.
If a Lead manages those three checks, they are con-
sidered safely perched on a ledge above the overhang.
If they don’t want the Belay climber to have to go
through the same process, they can make an Instinct
check to secure an anchor strong enough to support
the partner’s full weight on the rope.

While waiting for the Belay to catch up, the Lead
hears a strange crunching sound from above and feels
the tinkle of gravel. Looking up, the first Vertiginous
Horror comes thrashing out of the cloud line, bar-
reling down at the Lead climber like some gigantic
hookworm. The creature’s goal is simple: consume the
climber in its free jaw.
If the climber manages to stay sane at the sight of the
thing, the GM can present them with options. The
climber can try and fight the thing off with an ice
axe, risking consumption for every round the Horror
survives. If a hit is scored with the axe, the climber can
leap from the wall, dragging the wiggling thing into
the void before letting go of the handle. At this point,
the anchors set by the Belay would be the only thing
keeping the humans from a certain death as well.
Finally, the Lead could attempt to climb back down the
overhang, essentially reversing the checks made to get
up there in the first place (this matter could be further
complicated by a very confused Belay climber trying
to head up at the same time). Though flexible, the
Vertiginous Horror has trouble bending itself into the
complete circle required to get a grip on the overhang’s
“ceiling.” In its zealous pursuit of prey, it may lose its
grip and fall to the jagged rocks below.
Particularly evil GM’s could say that as its jaw is ripped
from the mountain side, the Vertiginous Horror slices
the anchor rope amidst its thrashing.
Surviving climbers might choose to head back at this
point, but doing so would require difficult climbing
checks to get off the cliff face, or extremely difficult
checks to get under the overhang. For those that
skipped setting up base camp, night is falling as well.
Even if they could get off the mountain, it would just
mean sacrificing the other climbers to whatever that
“thing” was without so much as a warning.
From this stage, a mountaineer can either ascend to
Parker’s Rebuff, an ice slope within view of the South
Summit that has never been climbed, or move side-
ways towards a massive fissure. An Instinct role will
reveal that weather is going to come in from the South,
buffeting Parker’s Rebuff with a storm. Crossing the
fissure, while dangerous, would provide shelter from
the winds to come.
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
Bivouacking
If players decided to rush through setting up base
camp and get straight to the climbing, it should
be getting too dark to continue around the time
they reach locations 5A and 5B. Night climbing is
nearly impossible, making it necessary to bivouac.
This involves securing oneself to the side of the
mountain via a harness and trying to get some
sleep while perched on whatever narrow ledge is
available.
Getting through the night requires Endurance
checks against exhaustion and cold. Each failed
check costs a climber’s health. If Kyle O’Shaugh-
nessy stole supplies, three Endurance checks are
required for each climber. If players have had
nothing stolen or lost but both fail an Instinct
check, two Endurance checks are required. If
someone succeeds an Instinct test, the climbers
are well-prepared and only make one Endurance
check for the night.
Bivouacking is made all the more uncomfortable
by the odd sound of crunching gravel echoing up
and down the mountainside. Climbers unfortu-
nate enough to have already encountered the Ver-
tiginous Horrors will recognize this as the sound
of freakish jaws biting into stone. The creatures
are patrolling up and down the rock face, blindly
searching for prey in the dark. At any moment,
one could roll itself onto the camp and devour a
climber, or bite through a rope and send a sleep-
ing mountaineer tumbling to his death. Even
those lucky enough to avoid such a grisly fate risk
going mad with fear. It’s gonna be a long night.
As it is a means to build tension, night should
fall at a dramatically convenient time for the
GM. After a group at 5A has faced a Vertiginous
Horror, but before the teams at 5B run into a
horde of them would be an opportune time, for
instance.
127
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
5B. Wickersham’s Wall
Wickersham’s Wall is dangerous due to the length of its
sheer vertical ascent and the risk of avalanche. Ascen-
sion checks are dangerous and frequent. Belay climbers
don’t have to make these checks due to the stabiliz-
ing rope, but they have the added danger of rock fall
sparked by the Lead’s movements. Every so often, large
stones come pouring down from the weak footholds of
the Lead. The Belay climber must either make an As-
cension check to dodge out of the way or take damage.
Midway up the wall, an odd sound like the crunch of
gravel can be heard. Tiny pebbles start drizzling down
from somewhere above in the mist. Rock fall might
even threaten the Lead climber, dislodged by some
unknown source.
Instincts can lead climbers to an odd gleam in the
rock. Nearby, strange circular impressions can be
found on the cliff face, concentric rings made from
hundreds of triangular cuts. The gleam is from an ice
axe still embedded in the stone, a hand still clinging to
it, dangling an arm. The etching in the handle reads “C.
Hutchison.”
As climbers approach the mists of the cloud line, the
first Vertiginous Horror slinks into view. Followed by a
second. Third…
If climbers can suppress their revulsion long enough to
maintain a level-head, they can make an Instinct roll.
Success recognizes the descending doom. The things
are huge and headed towards them almost as fast as
men fall. Since they have the high ground, there is no
way to out-climb or outfight the things. Traversing
sideways is the only hope.
The way to the right leads to a sharp corner and the
void. Left towards the fissure is the only option, but as
long as the climbers make a simple Ascension check
they can outpace the creatures. The things don’t seem
well-adapted to moving sideways, only able to do so
by stagger-stepping with their mouths in a movement
reminiscent of parallel parking.
Once reaching the fissure, team’s can finally get a
look at the massive scar inexplicably running up
128
the mountain’s side. Black, sharp obsidian stone marks
the inside of the crack as if it had been burned there.
Crawling inside it would cut ropes and hands to pieces,
and it’s a good 25 yards to the other side. Players are
faced with a choice: face certain death in the jaws of
the monsters, attempt a risky maneuver called a Pen-
dulum Traverse, or cut their ropes and try free-climb-
ing up and away from the Horrors.
Free-climbing is insanely dangerous—one missed hold
means death—but it greatly speeds up the laborious
process of anchor and belay climbing. It is the only
chance for characters to stay on Wickersham’s Wall and
outpace the monsters, hopefully finding respite on the
ice slope of Sourdough’s Deceit
Players choosing to use the fissure as a stop-gap for the
beasts should look to location 6 (below) for a descrip-
tion of that process.
6. Pendulum Traverse
A Pendulum Traverse is a difficult maneuver at the best
of times, not to mention when being pursued by car-
nivorous monsters. Whether players are approaching
from the Overhang or Wickersham’s Wall, the process
is the same.
A Lead climbs high up on the fissure and plants the
securest anchor possible (Instinct check). He then puts
his full weight on the rope and prays the point holds.
The Belay then puts their full weight on the rope, using
the Lead as a counter-weight. The lower climber begins
running back and forth across the rock face, building
momentum. The Belay then leaps into the void, hoping
to reach the other side.
Swinging across the fissure is an Ascension check.
Failing the check means the jumper slams against the
rock face on the return, taking damage. The climber
above will also have to make an Endurance check to
hold on. Once the leap is successful, the Belay then
climbs up the other side of the fissure to the same
altitude as the Lead and inserts an anchor of their own.
The Lead then removes the anchor, respools the rope,
climbs down to alleviate strain on the line, and makes
the swing.

A second jumper in a rush (for instance, because he’s
about to be eaten?) can cut the rope to the original
anchor, falling until the remaining line snaps taut and
sends him hurtling to the other side. If the secured
partner can hold on (Endurance) and the anchor
holds (Instinct) AND the crazy man can grab on after
smacking face first into a cliff (Ascension), it just might
work. If this risky maneuver fails or the monsters grab
hold of one of the climbers, the dead weight of the sus-
pended/eaten climber will inevitably break the anchor
and pull both men to their doom. In this instance, both
men will certainly die unless the top climber makes
the hard choice and cuts the rope. If players take this
option, the GM should allow enough time for the char-
acters to make an appropriately cool final exchange.
Needless to say, a climber pragmatic enough to kill
his best friend to survive is not going to be mentally
healthy anytime soon thereafter.
7A. Parker’s Rebuff
Parker’s Rebuff is actually comparatively safe from
both climbing hazards and otherworldly nightmares.
The slope is gradual and snowy, making it difficult for
the Vertiginous Horrors to maneuver. Still, moving
around the area is no less dangerous. There are dozens
of the creatures laboriously trying to reach their prey
by wrenching themselves upright, wavering like a
hollow, tentacled tower of meat, then crashing forward
and repeating the process. It is a horrific sight, as if the
mountain sprouted a fleshy forest with a need to eat.
So long as characters can keep moving, the real danger
is the incoming storm front. The abrasive, whiteout
gales—combined with the high altitude and panicked
fear—creates a murderous environment. At this point,
it takes successful Endurance checks just to incur
minor health damage. Failed checks cause serious
damage such as fingers, noses, and eyelashes lost to
frostbite. Anyone losing all their health points due to
these checks falls from exhaustion, unable to contin-
ue. Unless their partner is willing to take risk more
damage in an attempt to drag them to shelter, they’ll
have to be left to the Vertiginous Horrors.
The only respite from the storm is a strange blue glow
in the distance (Location 8, p.130). The summit lies
above that point, offering little solace in lieu of the
monstrosities around it.
The Fall WIthout End - No Security
7B. Sourdough’s Deceit
Sourdough’s Deceit is far steeper than its parallel path,
Parker’s Rebuff. As such, the Horrors have a much
easier going than climbers. Mountaineers unfortu-
nate enough to be in this position will find themselves
trapped on both sides with monsters ascending Wick-
ersham’s Wall below and rolling down the ice slope
above. The only glimmer of hope is a strange blue glow
near the summit (Location 8, p.130) that appears free
of the creatures, but there a lot of teeth between here
and there.
An Instinct check reveals a slim hope of survival. The
ice slope faces the sun, causing a cycle of melting and
refreezing that makes the Wickersham route so dan-
gerous in the first place. A climber mad enough to
rush at the descending Vertiginous Horrors and go
chopping with his ice axe might trigger a hard slab
avalanche.
Hard slab avalanches occur when entire sheets of
jagged ice break free of the mountainside and begin
sliding. The friction of the moving sheets and the
sudden absence of decades old ice causes even more
sheets to fall until a cascade of gigantic ice sheets
rumbles downwards. In many ways, this event is a
climber’s worst nightmare. The sheets are so massive
and move so quickly they can easily cut a man in
half…but the same could be said of a horrific mon-
strosity.
Players should be given an opportunity to survive such
a desperate maneuver. How this is done is up to the
GM’s discretion. Perhaps it is a simple as coming up
with the idea in the first place, or maybe an Ascension
check is required to maneuver out of the way in time.
Games focusing on the true desperation of a survival
scenario might use some mechanic approximating
blind luck to see whether or not house-sized sheets of
ice pulverize the characters.
If the tactic succeeds, all the Vertiginous Horrors on
Sourdough’s Deceit go sliding off the peak of Wicker-
sham’s Wall. Though some Horrors still climbing the
sheer face below likely survived the icy collapse, they
are too delayed to catch up. Shielded by the mountain
from the incoming storm, climbers are left to
129
 LOCATIONS AND NPC’s
hobble towards the strange blue glow above at
whatever pace they can manage.
8. Strange Crevice
Scorched and surrounded by melted stone, the cave
cut into the side of the summit appears to have been
recently blasted there by lightning or some sort of
inexplicable volcanic activity. The stone is still slightly
warm to the touch despite the icy maelstrom, and it is
unclear whether the blue glow from the cave is reflect-
ing off of the glassy, blackened stones or coming from
the rocks themselves.
In the narrow confines of the cavern, GMs can throw
a single Vertiginous Horror at the climbers. The rela-
tively flat ground and the narrow confines should give
characters a chance to slay one of the things with ice
axes. If the climbers are already barely alive, feel free to
leave the cave hauntingly vacant.
At the end of the hallway of melted stone, a narrow
chimney descends into the heart of the mountain. The
climb down is easy (especially if a rope is sacrificed
to tie off up top), and a glimmer of light can be seen
emanating from the bottom of the shaft.
9. Summit
Those with the determination (or insanity) to per-
severe despite being attacked by monstrosities from
another dimension can reach the summit. There, they
will find a blazing snowstorm obscuring any scenic
vista that may have rewarded them. The last Hutchison
brother is there, frozen in a pool of blood from his own
raggedly-sliced wrists and staring blankly to the West.
In his lap rests a wooden pole with the tatters of a flag
frozen to it, a final insult from the North Summit actu-
ally conquered twenty years previously. The Sourdough
expedition told the truth; the whole venture was for
nothing.
Buffeted by the storm, climbers face a choice: they
can descend their original route and try to seek refuge
from the creatures in the oddly glowing cave, or they
can risk the winter winds by descending the opposite
face. Doing the latter should require a number of
Endurance checks with health lost to frostbite,
130
hunger, and exhaustion. If the players succeed, they
make it to a place suitable for bivouac and can descend
the rest of the way without incident the following
morning.
10. Portal Chamber
The strange crevasse empties down into a bizarre, inex-
plicable chamber. The same jagged stone surrounds an
obsidian obelisk in the shape of a truncated pyramid,
topped with a becalmed pool of what appears to be
motor oil. The thing appears to be resting atop some
sort of pillar, but climbing downwards reveals that it is
hovering in midair. The fourth wall of the chamber is
open to the air; this is the top of the fissure that makes
up the Pendulum Traverse (Location 6, p.128).
The three walls surrounding the pyramid teem with
Vertiginous Horrors. The creatures fight for position
on the walls, stabbing each other with their claws,
ripping junks from rivals with their distended jaws.
The wet thumping of the falling worms punctuates the
constant gravel-crunch as the things cling to the walls.
Some find escape by shuffling out of the fissure and
to Denali’s exterior. Others try to crawl blindly across
the ceiling where the characters hang. These unlucky
creatures break off stalactites with their weight and go
crashing into the slick obsidian sides of the pyramid
before sliding into the abyss.
Upon entering, the origin of the creatures becomes
clear. One of the giant worm things comes crashing
out of the black pool, arching into the air like a leaping
whale before smacking into the glassy obsidian sides. If
it’s lucky, the thing will grab a clear spot on the fissure’s
sides and arrest itself. If it’s not, it goes falling into the
black to be dashed on the rocks far below.
There is no way to climb on the fissure’s walls without
getting eaten by the Vertiginous Horrors. The only
chance to descend this route is the strange obelisk
itself. By tying on another rope to one secured atop the
chimney, climbers can descend and perch atop the lip
of the black pool. Any rope used this way will have to
be sacrificed. To determine if the climbers have enough
rope to descend from the floating obelisk after giving
up so much line, have players roll an Instinct check to
determine how well they packed. Characters can still
 The Fall WIthout End - No Security
proceed even if they don’t have the line; they just have
to save the rope by leaping into inky waters of the pool
(Location 11, below).

Once balanced on the pool’s edge, climbers will find

that there is nowhere to tie off. In order to descend
without touching the ravenous walls, one character will
have to sacrifice himself by staying behind as a count-
er-weight. Alternately, they could swim to the bottom
of the pool and see if there is anything to secure the
rope to under the water…(Location 11, below).

Once a rope is secured, characters can safely descend

the shaft (though the Vertiginous Horrors snapping at
them from all sides is certainly disconcerting). Near
the bottom, the fissure narrows to the point where the
things cannot maneuver. To reach fresh air, climbers
need only scale the mounds of still twitching Horrors
killed in the fall from the portal. Getting outside
means a safe descent from the mountain starting from
Wickersham’s Wall (Location 5B, p.128), though at
this point death would likely be a mercy.

11. ?????
Entering the pool instantly causes characters to sink,
drifting through a disorienting, bottomless void. Just as
their breath is about to fail, they burst through a new
surface rather than settling to the floor. After reorient-
ing, a hellish new world on the other side insinuates
itself.

Another truncated pyramid of black obsidian hovers

beneath them, holding the inky pool that spans two re-
alities. Above, a canyon of unimaginable heights rises.
Out-of-place stars and too many moons shine through
a narrow slit as the immense canyon walls assault the
sky.

131
 ENDGAME
The entire gorge is completely obscured by a blanket
of Vertiginous Horrors fastened to the canyon walls
in crowded, fleshy braids. They writhe on every side,
biting at each other for purchase. One creature falls off
just so another can vomit out wriggling spawn in its
place. In both directions, the cliffs are lined with the
monsters, so much so that there is a constant rain of
gigantic, screaming worms plummeting into the abyss.
Those that land in the pool find themselves on Denali.
Those that don’t, fall…seemingly forever.
Witnessing the origin of the Horrors is enough to
flay most men’s minds. Those strong enough to hold
themselves together for a few moments longer notice
crude carvings of the creatures at the four corners of
the pool. A rope can be tied to these and strung across
the inexplicable nexus between worlds, thus saving an
otherwise stranded Belay climber.
Surviving characters stumble back to the Denali
Trading Post broken men, covered in blood and sweat,
faces horribly mutilated by frostbite, raving insane
stories about impossible worms that no one will ever
see again. Those characters that somehow manage
the whole ordeal unscathed are just up for criminal
charges; who would ever believe the Hutchison’s were
eaten by monsters?
A GM that manages to get a lone survivor back to
camp—barely alive and completely crazy—will be
truly aligned with the scenario’s themes of survival and
cosmic horror. Ideally, The Fall Without End finishes
up like many other horror scenarios begin: a crazy,
scarred old man rants and raves exposition disguised
as madness in a bar, warning a new set of doomed
protagonists about the monsters….

Whether or not anyone wants to be saved after seeing

the hell that waits on the bottom of the pool is another
question entirely.

ENDGAME
After characters reach the summit or make their escape
via the Portal Chamber, GMs should handwave much
of the descent. Though climbing down is often one of
the more dangerous aspects of mountaineering, it will
reek of anti-climax after fighting otherworldly demons
atop a wintery peak. Furthermore, even for the most
sadistic of gamers, killing the players for a single failed
climb check after they’ve conquered a mountain and
murdered hell beasts with their bare hands is just a
bullshit move. If dice must be rolled, make the checks
fast and quickly transition from scene to scene.

That said, The Fall Without End stays pure to its roots
in cosmic horror: survivors’ lives should be very nearly
shattered in the aftermath. There is no hope of ever
discovering exactly what the hell just happened. Incur
health penalties for failed checks on the descent until
the characters are barely alive, especially if O’Shaugh-
nessy made off with the supplies at Base Camp
(Location 2, p.124).

132
PLAYER HANDOUT 133
133
GM HANDOUT

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