Within The Wall

Table of Contents
Page 2; Overall Setting Data
Page 3; Game Premise
Page 4; Setting details
Page 5; new mechanics
Page 6; Meta Plot, GMs only
Page 7-14; Encounters
Page 15-16; NPCs
Maps Start Here
System Notes Start After That
Bestiary Happens Next

Made by Monotreeme
Setting of Play:
>Size
A country a little smaller than Germany. (120k or 125k square miles)

>Geography/Geology
Hills/small mountains very little or no actual level plains. Situated at the southern tip of a mountain range
that extends to setting worlds pole. LOTS of rivers, and lakes, heavy forestation. Naturally occurring magic leads
rapid growth of trees. Where many rivers travel overland, there are more that have traveled underground. Caves are
not uncommon. Iron rich silt is eroded away from the inside of the mountains, providing massive supplies of Iron to
any smith with lodestones, a bucket and shovel. (Need to find/make a suitable map)

>History/Politics (of the surrounding countries)

Unprecedented peace, but tensions rise between nations, war is brewing. When found, Warlocks are
preparing to make use of the frenetic energy of battle. Necromancers are gathering their tools and supplies for a
harvest. Cults pray not for the war to start, but for the war to come to be a thing of un-imaginable magnitude. In
response to this, as an almost self fulfilling prophesy the countries are themselves preparing for a conflict, building
up stores of weapons, armies swelling, Scientists and Engineers hard at work to find every edge for their homelands
that they can in technology as yet unrefined.

>Tech level
Pre-industrial or early industrial revolution. (Massage the numbers a little on some things for the sake of
hand waving some early 1920's tech into the setting), contained cartridge weapons exist(breach-loaded), reliable
repeaters do not; steam engines exist, regular rail systems have not been universally accepted or built; electricity
known/partially understood, but not controlled. As usual, system slightly stagnated by magic.

>Magic Level
Ritual and Rune based common magic, reasonably powerful. Necromancers use this heavily.
Enchanting; uncommon, requires aptitude and training. Any caster, as well as master-craftsmen can use.
Evocation; rare, requires aptitude and careful training. Sorcerers use this.

Mages are distrusted and shunned for the most part. Usually they go insane as a byproduct of their powers.
They are also unusually tasteful architects and interior designers, and used Sorcerer Towers Necromancer Lairs are
often prime real estate.

>Monster Level
Ware-beasts, Warlocks, and worse roam the countryside (they exist outside of the sealed land, but are more
common and densely packed there than any other known place in the world). To combat this, technology and
counter-rituals were utilized allowing Sothrel to dominate scientific and occult fields. It also lead to the population
of Sothrel being naturally hardy and hardened to such things. Eventually eldritch horrors, vampiric entities, ambush
predators, something based loosely on a less competent mix of The Predator and Pyramid Head, and other things
will show up in the game (inside the wall).

>Culture
Of Sothrel; Polite, and occasionally jovially violent, like Canadian hockey fans; in country Mandatory
Service is utilized (3 years required military and/or police service to include training in combat). Everyone’s polite
because everyone's taught to fight and everyone's been dealing with monsters all their lives. Like a very British
ancient Sparta. This is part and parcel of why there even ARE surviving settlements after 50 years of isolation.
Researchers and innovators of almost every stripe held in positions of respect above the more common crafts.

Of starting country; Reverence for the navy, and front-line fighters, voluntary military service. Monster
hunters count as front line fighters, not common, but not rare. Academics aren’t respected unless they do field work
or spend a sufficient time in experimentation or article publishing. To the common person; literacy is a luxury,
monsters a danger, protection comes from living in cities, and small townsfolk are crazy for dealing with dangers
like monsters (and are government paid for supporting farmers; one of the more dangerous occupations when you
consider the number of rampaging beasts out there)

Made by Monotreeme
Premise:
>Investigation
>Rescue
>Recon Report
>Looting
>Mapping changes
The land-locked Country of Sothrel was prosperous, made its money by trade of finished goods of
unmatched quality, and resisted involvement in wars by liberally dispersing traps throughout the landscape (all the
bridges rigged to blow at a moment’s notice, snow and landslides prepared in advance. Think modern Switzerland)
and the higher than usual presence of naturally occurring horrible monsters, the 30 foot high/thick border-wall didn't
hurt things either.

About 50 years ago Sothrel went silent. Neighboring countries tried peaceable diplomacy. The diplomats
were never seen again. Armed incursions resulted in horrors and death, trapped bridges and roads made it nearly
impossible for large groups to safely enter and move through the country. The cold killed many, traps took more,
and the monsters cleaned up the rest. The bare few survivors spoke of derelict villages or bodies in the street when
they weren’t reduced to gibbering into their hands about some vague thing or another.

It was decided to simply close all the gates and watch them so nothing got out. Every so often groups
would go in, to hopefully plunder the country. Few return, fewer remain sane when they do, and a vanishingly small
few bring back artifacts, small machines of unparalleled function and craftsmanship. It’s these artifacts that attack
the curiosity of the idle rich; they often pay for expeditions and lay wagers on the results

The party is one such band of brave (or foolish) people, lured by gold, glory, or the chance to give their
country an edge in the onrushing conflict. To find surviving scientific or engineering marvels, or even the journals
and notes of their creators, to find artifacts with sales prices high enough to buy their way out of military service,
even buckets of gemstones from the fabled mines and treasuries.

Their expedition is lightly funded, and their return may well lead to further expeditions and obscene
amounts of cash from their backers. The expedition calls for at least 2 hunters of monsters, and academic or man of
science/engineering, additions on consideration. (players are allowed up to a small cart or buggy, loaded with
common items, such as food, wet weather gear, climbing rope, nails, etc. on character creation; small enough to be
person drawn in case the horse gets killed an eaten by something)(This is separate from what the players take at
Char-Gen)

Once one of the goals has been met to a sufficient degree, the players may attempt to leave the country, via
climbing The Wall or one of the dozen or so Gates. If they do, and if what they brought back is intriguing enough
they may re-enter the country with a greater array of more specialized gear provided by a happy backer. If what they
brought back is disappointing the backer won’t pay them citing some vague clause in their contracts, and suggesting
they return with varying degrees of “less equipment”

The party may gain Prestige by making a sufficient number of trips into and out of Sothrel while remaining
sane, by having enough Prestige the party may attract other backers or even government assistance for further
expeditions, no more than one backer (or collective of backers) at a time though (BECAUSE I SAY SO, AND I’M
THE GM DAMMIT).

At any time they return from the country a great war between the nations may have started. They might
take care that they cross the wall into their own country to avoid having to cross warzones

Made by Monotreeme
Behind the Wall

>Starting Out.
Set in the town they meet in to begin the expedition. An NPC guide, a small man who used to be a wall-
guard arranges to lead them in but no further than a scarce couple of miles past the south-gate(exposition NPC
mostly; will probably die); play begins at a tavern there, final decisions are made including last minute purchases,
inventory checking, and getting used to a new game-system.

>Grand Mission Start.

An uneventful trip is made to the wall (perhaps a sample combat for new players), and less eventful to the
gate the NPC chose. "Here’s where I'll be leaving ya, I'll no’ go past this mile-marker; trust no bridge, nor shelter
without the greatest care and examination" the guide turns to leave, and the adventure truly begins

>Safe Zones Behind the Wall.

Churches tend to be safe where not de-consecrated. A few Churches remain bastions of safety. Some of
them even remain manned, and fed off of vegetable gardens and small herds of goats or other stock animals.
However, those are often at the outskirts of larger towns where the evil is less concentrated, and where people can
forage for livestock or goods in some kind of safety.

Fortified outposts litter the landscape (paranoid government setting up prepatory defense) many, but by no
means all, are serviceable. Many have been looted by some force (necromancers, survivors, other parties, etc.) little
of real value can be found in most of them.

In cities and larger towns the only option is to barricade the doors and windows of a sturdy house and post
a guard

>Architecture.
Cyclopean stonework is a common sight, trending to Gothic/Romanesque stone (BIG FUCK-OFF WALLS
MADE THICK, REINFORCED TO HELL-N’-BACK.) in successively newer constructions. Multiple levels are
more common than larger floor plans. Raised wood or stone bridges over the lower streets are a common sight in
many communities. Rooftop gardening is common pastime and feature in larger communal dwelling buildings.
Storm-drains and a rather advanced separate sewer-system were employed for hygiene purposes, leaving the cities
clean if not sparkling even without any maintenance.

Made by Monotreeme
Mechanics I like:
Dread Insight:
A track kept secretly for each player by the GM. track goes 1-20
An insight point may be gained whenever a Sanity Check is rolled regardless of sanity result (flip a coin GMs)
At low/no insight the world is mundane and normal.
As insight rises, descriptions of things change.
Characters with higher insight may start being targeted over others, by certain monsters.
Characters with higher insight gain perception bonuses, and bonuses to understanding found documents, notes,
trails, etc.
Characters with higher insight trigger certain encounters that wouldn't normally trigger.

Characters with medium insight begin to notice the edges of even very strong illusions where they occur.
Weaker illusions are dispelled entirely.
Where lower insight Characters see a man swinging a cleaver, a medium insight Characters sees a more bestial
deformed thing swinging claws
Where other characters may lean against a wall with no effect, a medium insight player can see the edges waver and
break it with a reasonably solid blow (hardlight illusions)

Characters with High insight are aware of and can attempt to break even greater illusions with a word or allow them
to remain in place to maintain both their (and the parties) sanity.
Great, passive beasts with impossible arrangements of limbs float in the sky, "those aren't trees" and other things of
horror.
Otherwise invisible monsters begin to attack when they realize a person can see them.

Warlocks locked up in their fastnesses, some guarding a few of the remaining human populous as minions
Necromancers afraid to go out of their crypts in lieu of sending skeletal minions
Both sorts have insights too high to go out safely themselves.

Signs of the Hunters Past:

Basically, it's an advanced version of the Hobo Scrawl language.
Hunters had high Insight and marked dangerous places with important warnings in symbolic shorthand, this was
adopted by many members of the population of [COUNTRY]. Places were marked by the scrawl, either with chalk,
or ink, or in some cases, by chiseling the symbols into the very walls. Often used by people to make comments
about neighbors like “timid”, “dishonest”, “kind”, “vicious dog”, some towns even have special posts at the front of
each house to place these marks.

If players make a successful perceptions check they may notice such scrawl near structures
If they've encountered the signs before they are granted circumstantial bonuses to checks made for various reasons.
1.) Ruined Surprises; character may chose to counter surprise attacks immediately or act first (before the surprise
occurs) when surprised.
2.) Armor of Foreknowledge; sanity checks may be made with a bonus
3.) Known Haven; a place such marked may be reassuring, due to this symbol, sanity and HP may regain faster
when resting (GM discretion)
4.) Hunter’s Mind; clues about monsters in a given area, and things that may work on them and techniques that may
mean the difference between death and survival.

Perils of the Warp

if the untrained or the only lightly trained attempt magic they may have to roll on the “Perils of the Warp” table
from Dark Heresy, substituting certain options to fit thematically.

Made by Monotreeme
>side-quests.
1.) Learning magic enough to improve chances of surviving. (Mostly pre-combat buffs; accidentally some insight
maybe?)

2.) Food supplies and their replenishment. (It can be more difficult than you think)

3.) Setting up Caches in well-defended locations for other explorers and as a material relay for return trips.

4.) Figuring out what's making that screaming noise all night and asking it to stop. (First evidence of horror maybe?
dying gate-guide mayhap)

5.) A warlock, hungry for news of the outside captures you for a mandatory lunch and a nap. (Possible exposition
here)

6.) Looting large abandoned manors/palaces (note to self, avoid butlers they are horrors. potential to find
Macguffins and things)

7.) Looting abandoned Depots (lots of "regular soldier" gear, maybe find dispatches from military leaders about
what actually happened)

8.) Looting Laboratories and academies (lots of bleeding edge tech, journals of same, most are isolated to limit
collateral damage from failed experiments)

9.) Looting Necromancer Lairs (because they had a lot of their minions already loot the above places as obvious;
maybe interrogate Necromancers)

10.) Wander empty towns and fight monsters (I want less of this, because I want fighting to be a not as popular
choice. because lethal, and aggravated damage)

11.) The party finds sign of another group, unknown, and follows them to find they are insane/adventurers/looters

12.) There are [NUMBER] Corruption Generators in [LOCATION] find and destroy/move/deactivate them

13.) On a return trip you cross the wall and discover that “War were declared” unfortunately there is a warzone
between you and your paycheck, should the party cross back over the wall and trek along, or should they try and
cross a trench front warzone? (Pro-tip; they shouldn’t)

14.) The party finds some old machine of indeterminate size, should they take time to figure out how it works or
what it is? (What could I feasibly have them find…I’m not actually sure yet.)

15.) Filling in the map. Full on recon mode here

Made by Monotreeme
Encounters:
Name: “who turned out the lights”
Requirements: Located in town/city
Insight: at greater than 10
Hunters Marks: “Hostile Being”, “do not make eye contact”, and “stay in darkness”
Unique: no
Descript:
The party in the course of exploration finds houses that appear to be well lit, lanterns seem to burn but
nothing seems amiss aside from the relative cleanliness of the location. The player with the highest insight
perceives the house as dark. Should that player light a lantern the house will appear musty with a layer of dust on the
floor. Tracks from some other entity lead in, and stop. An easy perception check discovers the spindly toothy
[THING] hiding on the ceiling, mild check for sanity on its discovery.

If eye-contact is made the creature pounces, high agility, high hitting power, low HP, low defense/damage
resistance. If the party shut off the light nothing happens. If the party spend any length of time in the location the
entity may move, or may (with low probability) attack. It does not pursue far from its lair

Name: A Perfectly Ordinary Village

Requirements: remote location
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: “safe camp”, “timid people”, “[people markers]”
Unique: no
Descript:
A small town of perhaps a 50 to 100 people, consisting mostly of farmers, as well as the basic crafts people,
a tanner, a smith, a carpenter, a leader/book-keeper(usually also the librarian and the tavern keeper at the same
time), a medicine man/woman.

The villages usually consist of a collection of dwellings surrounded by a high timber or stone curtain wall.
Outside the wall, a fair stretch of farmland can be found dotted with stone or heavy timber barns for livestock.
Visitors are distrusted till they’ve proven otherwise, do not expect to see children, they hide from strangers. The
preferred means of trade is in fact barter, with gold or coinage having little or no value. Services can also be
bartered, as can bounties on various forest monsters.

The people of this country were always hardy, even after the collapse of the major cities the small villages
are self-contained enough to survive just fine, especially since Bog Iron sand is commonly found in the rivers, and
the forests grow faster in the ambient magic.

Made by Monotreeme
Name: Old Lady Spider
Requirements: random occurrence within a village
Insight: Variable, triggers at 14
Hunters Marks: “Not Hostile If Left Alone”, “Do Not Make Physical Contact”
Unique: Yes
Descript:
“Just leave ‘her’ alone; she does more good than harm.” In a small village there is a tight back alley or tiny
side-street, at the mouth of this passage during normal days sits a woman doubled-over with a begging bowl beside
her and a post with the Hunters Marks. People in the village pass her by, occasionally leaving a crust of bread or a
measure of grain or a block of salt in her bowl to be greeted with a soft mumbling sound.

At night the woman is no place to be found within the village, no tracks lead away from the post or the
begging bowl, no sign at all of where she’s gone. At daybreak she might be glimpsed, hunched over, dragging a
whole deer or wild hog to the Butchers workplace. After this she usually reappears at her alleyway sometimes not
until noontime, but usually no later.

At sufficiently high Insight party members may make a perception check, if successful they’ll realize that
the woman is in fact a giant spider in disguise. If inquiries are made the townsfolk will be aware of this fact and state
that she was a person once, caught out at night and in some way corrupted in shape, but not in mind. She rests by her
bowl during the day, people give her bait to lure nocturnal animals with, and in trade they get a measure of the
animal from the butcher. “An’ on rainy nights she sometimes harps at the tavern, always’ a sad sound to it tho.”

If confronted violently or directly she will make every attempt to escape; poison bite and sticky webs are
both attacks to watch for

Name: Necromantic Minions

Requirements: none, Increase odds if party is noisy.
Insight:
Hunters Marks: “Stay Quiet”, “Stay in Darkness”, “Does Not Stay Dead”
Unique: No
Descript:
A band of up to a dozen Zombies or Skeletons wanders through an area, slow and incautious. They often
appear to be searching for things, food, timber, lamp oil, corpses, etc. stuffing them into sacks and dragging them
along. Alternately they may appear to hunt, with skeleton archers taking the prey down, and Zombies dragging them
back to the lair.

Once a band has filled all its sacks, or hunted enough, it usually reverses its direction and returns to its
controlling Necromancer. An easy Sneak Check allows you to follow them back to the lair of their
creator/controller. If the followers are detected the band will either attack or scatter or both with those that scatter
taking the bags of found goods with them leaving the unburdened to fight.

As is usually the case, silver, or copper coated weapons do more damage to these entities, beheading works
on zombies, but not skeletons, skeletons are less resistant to bludgeons. Skeletons are faster, zombies are tougher,
and up to 3 skeletons may be equipped with bows.

Made by Monotreeme
Name: Necromantic Lair
Requirements: none, normally more common in the interior of the country
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: “Stay Quiet”, “Stay in Darkness”, “Do Not Trust Them”
Unique: No
Descript:
Necromancers exist; they usually set up their lairs in Crypts, Tombs, or Crematoria. While not inherently
evil or malicious in any direct way, Necromancy does make use heavily of energies that are difficult to control and
may result in plagues of disease or vermin, unaccountable bad-luck, rampaging zombies, and worse. It’s distasteful
to most people and countries that allow the practice generally regulate it heavily and limit the practice by regulating
the educational literature, and to cap it all off the sort of People that even want to become necromancers are usually
egotistical, antisocial, megalomaniacal, sociopaths.

The Party has discovered the lair of one such individual, and may investigate. This entails a dungeon crawl
of the standard variety, leading to a pompous asshole who can throw around some heavy-duty magic. Unprepared
direct confrontation is likely to result in TPK, enough prep or a strong opening attack can usually put them out,
“…and if you can put them out you’d best put them down!”

As is usual Necromancers are humans with the usual human needs, the lair often contains a small store of
food, a supply of fresh water, personal supplies and equipment, and quarters for the Necromancer and any guests
(willing or not) that (s)he may expect or have planned for. Additional loot may include weapons, armor, magical
reagents, gold or gemstones, ornaments, decorations of a gaudy nature, books of both common and arcane lore, etc.
Of special note in this game the Necromancer may have kept a journal detailing facts about setting mysteries or a
translator’s guide to Hunters Marks.

A half dozen to a dozen average necromantic lairs usually add up to enough Gemstones gold and oddments
for a “profitable return” for an investor for a basic expedition. The value of these easily liquidated assets represents
“a boring if good reason to fund additional trips beyond that benighted wall.”

This particular route allows the party to end an expedition early and re-equip with a more optimized cart-
load of goodies instead of the generic load they get at the beginning

Name: Bad Sign

Requirements: none, rare occurrence
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: any
Unique: No
Descript:
Sometimes things change, sometimes malice takes to the hands of men, sometimes monsters just move on.
Whatever the case, the symbols are wrong. Replace the symbols of the planned encounter with a pair of Sign chosen
at random

if they know the signs well enough players that correct the signs may gain bonus EXP. More is given for
correction than for simply leaving the sign for “Symbols Have Been Compromised”

Made by Monotreeme
Name: Trapped Bridge
Requirements: any bridge crossing
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: “Hostile Environment” “Proceed With Caution”
Unique: No
Descript:
This country and its people were very paranoid about invasion. One piece of evidence being the Great
Wall, another being the fact that most of the bridges are rigged to explode or collapse. All of these needed a human
to actively trigger the event as a safety precaution.

Despite the precautions, someone or something has triggered the collapse. A hard Agility check allows a
safe landing, retreat from the bridge, or a reduction in falling damage. A medium Perception check can spot the
charges on the bridge. Bridges over water do not cause falling damage, but may sweep away characters. Bridges
over passes, gorges, or high enough bridges over common roads may cause reasonable falling damage.

The bridges cannot be set to automatically trigger, and require active input to set off. Vengeance can be
nice; it can also yield supplies and info.

Name: Rival Party

Requirements: none, rare event
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: none
Unique: No
Descript:
Yours wasn’t the first expedition, nor is it the only expedition, the week you set out another party set out
from Malken Gatten in another country bordering The Wall. One such party is near, can you spot the signs? Will
you come upon them unawares? Or will they ambush you? In this wyrd land not much can be trusted, and besides,
they’re competition.

hostility of any encountered group of adventurers might range from ‘mildly adversarial’ to ‘it’s good
business, now die’ all the way to ‘OH MY GOD YOU HAVE SPIDERS FOR EYEBALLS KILL IT WITH
FIRE!!!’ at the discretion of the GM. Loot in this case is a variable and may contain expository notes and journals or
macguffins, As well as the food and equipment of the slain party.

Name: Shoggoth Wall

Requirements: located in cities, uncommon
Insight: greater than 10 to notice.
Hunters Marks: “guns are no good” “Team Member Vanished Here” “Fire”
Unique: No
Descript:
A great gelatinous entity has placed itself in the opening to an alleyway, and disguised itself as a section of
wall. Should any of the party lean against this wall, the shoggoth will attack. At insight over 10 a perception check
will reveal that the pattern of the brickwork doesn’t match in places and that it’s breathing. Should the shoggoth
attack without warning all party members present must roll sanity checks.

Shoggoths are large and slow, forged from meat and hitponts, and they curl up like slugs in the presence of
enough salt. Fire is an only partially effective deterrent. Shoggoths are intelligent and capable of informed pursuit.
Furthermore, a Shoggoth will not stop chasing its quarry within its city; being unheard-of outside the wall the party
will likely not know these things the first time. Despite its size it can and will squeeze through small spaces to
follow its prey.

It attacks by whipping at its prey with pseudopodia the size and density of rump roasts and by strangulation
and crushing.

Made by Monotreeme
Name: Wandering Monster
Requirements: none
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: none
Unique: No
Descript:
In this country, even at its peak Monsters were a common occurrence, more common in this region than
anyplace in the world. The local people learned to deal with them easily enough, but they often pose a problem to
visitors. The Party has stumbled across one such beast. Or has it stumbled across them?

Roll a die on a chart and throw a monster at them. Monster options to include Large Angry Bears, a Pack of
Wolves, a Beast of some sort (assemble them from WtF), or possibly Spiders...

Name: Monster Lair

Requirements: none
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: none
Unique: No
Descript:
Lairs usually consist of a cave, or occasionally an abandoned structure. They are often filled with bones,
and the smell of rotting meat. Occasionally equipment can be found here, still slung about the dead, journals and
macguffins may also be found for narrative convenience.

Name: The Hunter Of Searchers

Requirements: insight, must enter a city to initiate.
Insight: Greater than 10 in at least half (round up) of party
Hunters Marks: “It Is Not Human” “Stay Together” “Watch Shadows” “Hostile Being” “Flee This Place” “You Are
Being Watched” “Do Not Be Taken Alive”
Unique: Yes (1/city)
Descript:
Should the party gain enough Insight, they may gain the attention of a creature made by the Ancients. It is
a hunter, it hides, it ambushes, it traps and lures. It should never be seen directly. The shadow it casts features a
triangular head with branching horns. Glimpses caught of it describe a medium sized humanoid in a long cloak
shredded to strips and mottled in grays and browns. The hunter can never be heard. It is stealthy and fast

It fights by setting traps, throwing knives and avoiding direct confrontation, explosives are used but never
thrown (clockwork footplates, wheel-lock detonators). Nooses of fine cord hang throughout its grounds; it preys
upon those that separate themselves from groups. It likes high places. If cornered, The Hunter will fight for a time
before attempting self destruction to avoid capture, or kill the party. In close-quarters it fights with a short spear.

It will actively work to stop the acquisition of clues or knowledge pertaining to The Ancients. It cannot
read, but it does detect increases in Insight over large ranges.

Made by Monotreeme
Name: The Fleeing Baroness
Requirements: city/outskirts, night time.
Insight: 0
Hunters Marks: “Be Ready For a Fight” “It Follows” “Safe Hiding Place”
Unique: Yes
Descript:
A city with particularly wide roads, in the distance a cackling screaming is heard. Only a lucky or
preternaturally aimed shot will even slow down the charging madness-driven horses, or the headless monstrosity
directing them. From there it COULD be a straight up fight, or a running battle.

The ghost of a noble still haunts city streets. Her appearance is of a headless woman, dressed in fine clothes
guiding a black six-horse coach, the animals’ eyes glowing with a dread green light. The Baroness was trying to
escape the fall of the city. So she took to her carriage and lashed the horses to full speed. The baroness struck her
head on a low tree branch. People say that even after losing her head the Baroness' corpse continued to guide her
carriage, a whip in hand, cutting the air as she trampled all the people in her way.

She utilizes charging attacks with her carriage, and pinpoint strokes of the drivers whip for same. If
surrounded she’ll simply charge over anything in her way. If confronted with a dead-end of sufficient sturdiness
there is a 20% chance she’ll become incorporeal and escape. Technically a ghost (see sheet of weaknesses for
ghosts)

Name: Wandering Holes

Requirements: Artificial Structure
Insight: 5(starts), 10(second part)
Hunters Marks: “Area Changes”, “Unsafe Place” “Equipment Failure/Fails”
Unique: No
Descript:
In a building the players will notice an item covered in holes of a uniform size and distribution. Nothing
seems special about them; they may appear in any material. Should the party leave and come back, either more holes
will have appeared in the object, or the object has collapsed due to weakness of material because of the holes, or
another object nearby has started gaining holes

At 10 insight a perception check may allow a character to see a hole generate spontaneously(san check?),
as insight of the party rises, hole generation rate rises within that room, to eventually take the whole structure.

For every 5 minutes spent inside after the holes are seen generating within the building roll a d20 on a 1
some piece of the parties inventory will be found to have a hole in it(san check?). Item is irreparably infected with
the holes.

Made by Monotreeme
Name: Meat The Household
Requirements: located in the deep forest, rudimentary Hunter Sign learned
Insight: 7(starts), 12(second part)
Hunters Marks: “Area Changes”, “Hostile Environment” “Do Not Trust Them” “Do Not Fall Asleep Here”
Unique: yes
Descript:
The Party happens across a manor house that, unlike the others so far encountered, isn’t in disrepair. It’s
even still staffed, though “The Master is out”. The staff is congenial and pleasant and offer space in a spare room. If
the party accepts the offer and sleeps in the guest bedroom, there is a spontaneous TPK. At insight 7 the smell of a
fresh kill is apparent throughout the house. Perception checks by GM made at this point.

Should a perception check succeed make a san check, because

1. The “wood” the furniture is made of is actually bone.
2. Upholstery is actually a soft skin.
3. The staff are connected to the building via tendrils coming from the ceiling
4. The fur rug is actually PART of the floor.
The act of noticing this does not generate hostility, but the act of pointing it out does, as does any attempt to
start a fire within it.

The house can be killed. It does NOT like fire, or acid, components can be hacked off as per any limb. The
house regenerates damage, and staff members, and digests dead individuals on the spot. At any point up to 3 staff
members will spawn (to a maximum of 15) and join any running battle. If the party progresses towards killing the
building the occasional hazard or trap will be found, including reactive muscle-driven spikes of bone, and bear-trap
doors that close on party members that are passing through them. The heart is in the attic, a great pulsating thing,
any deep cut or puncture is enough to cause it a near unstoppable hemorrhage. Reflex save required by the house
killer(s) to avoid being blasted off their feet by a torrent of high pressure blood(bashing damage because hitting a
wall).NPC Staff members in combat have razor-sharp bones where their fingertips should be and do not die until the
controlling tendril is severed.

Should the party return to the house later they’ll find it heavily scavenged by local animals. And that
beneath the “meat moss” covering everything is a reasonably well kept manor of significant size. If the “moss” can
be cleared the house is actually quite sound and defensible, containing many of the necessary facilities for a small
collection of people to take up residence and be self-sufficient. The ground is unaccountably fertile…

Made by Monotreeme
Name: The Harbinger And The Lost Little Legion
Requirements: large city, dusk till dawn or indoors only
Insight: 5(starts), 9(second part), 13+ (third part)
Hunters Marks: none
Unique: yes
Descript:
Within a large city the party will notice the tug of what feels like a child’s hands, and occasionally hear
small sounds, like the source-less giggling of a child. Everywhere within that part of the city the feeling of being
watched can be found.

At insight 5 the shapes of children running and at play can sometimes be seen from the corner of the eye
some of them watch the party as the wander through the city, some walk along beside or behind trying sadly to hold
some party-members hand or mimic a stride or posture.

At insight 9 the children can be seen directly, without checking the sides of vision. At this point they can
be interacted with non-verbally and non-physically, they are ghosts. They’ll respond to gestures, Sign, and some
can even read. Being children their obedience to commands may not be that great. Occasionally a sound, noticeably
dissimilar to a human scream will be heard, it will cause all the Little Lost to scatter and hide from a presence that
the party can feel regardless of insight level.

At insight 13 the source of the scream can be seen stalking down streets. A spindly humanoid shadow, 9
feet tall at least, black beyond the eye’s ability to fully comprehend, and sharp of point, angle, and definition. It
ignores the party unless they’ve interacted with the Little Lost in any way during that day. If negative actions have
been made it will attack (need to come up with strengths and weaknesses). If any other action, like communication
was taken it will follow and observe passively. It can be followed back to a derelict Necromancers Lair no undead
are there to face you, the traps are all sprung. In the terminal room of the Lair a corpse lays beside a desk, on that
desk an open journal with a recently finished entry.

“This is the Las Will and Testament of Garmund the Necromancer. I grant to you all of my accumulated
lore and possessions, free and clear on the condition that you find a way to peacefully release the children from the
hold The Harbinger still has over them. I never expected them to linger after like this, and never figured out how to
undo what the Harbinger has done myself. I’ve no need of the power he’s gathered; I’m a dying man, part of a dying
land. I pray you can find a way.”

Any attempt to loot the Necromancers Lair before the Last Will is completed will result in hostility from
the Harbinger as well as several enchantments. A thorough look through his journal will provide some explanation
of the cities fall, and of the Harbinger. It was a being made to harvest the energy of death from the murder of
children (an act which created a great flood of power). It would await the death, take a measure of the available
energy, kill the child’s killer, and take the energy from them as well. Because of this energy the Necromancer was
able to exert more power than any of his peers. This specific Lair will be more fully stocked with goods worth
taking back to the parties Benefactor on the other side of the wall.

Killing the Harbinger will release the children, imprisoning and removing the Harbinger from the area will
also release the children. (If imprisoned and removed consider its escape and rampage)

Made by Monotreeme
Notable NPCs:
Organ Playing Priest:
The sounds of the church organ call out to the party through the city. Despite the aggressive growth of the
forest in this region, it does not encroach on this small stone church on the outskirts of the city. As they approach the
party will begin to recognize hymns being played. The player is a good-natured and Godly man; he tends a garden
and raises goats. His organ is an artifact that drives off monsters of all sorts (and can otherwise control animals that
hear it, down to biological processes, if played correctly).
“In the beginning the gods created all that lives, predators made by Hearn The Hunter, Livestock made by
Roathus The Farmer, work animals by Jevel The Smith, war animals by Yudrig The Warrior, and all the little
animals by Pyth The ordered Magister. This organ is a gift from them, imbued to control the living things of this
world.”
There is a certain book of music can be found that will…make the goats stand up and waltz…also, it may
mutate the players slightly, increasing one physical stat free, if they have the song played for them while they lie on
the altar.

The Blessed Hunter

In one of the few villages with people , an old man (claims he’s in his nineties) can be found sitting in a
tavern. An old Musket leans beside him. When he isn’t getting drunk or at home asleep he can be found limping
along the top of the village wall on his game leg. The bark of his flintlock can be heard every so-often. Children are
assigned to him, whenever he shoots they go and collect whatever was killed, and something is ALWAYS killed.
The man never misses, even the longest of shots.
“A longer time ago than I care to remember I was out hunting. I’d stopped to pray to Hearn, for the best
fortune and the truest aim when The Hunter himself appeared to me, ‘go, hunt’ he said ‘you shall never again miss
your target so long as you live, for this boon though you shall never sire an heir’ ever since I’ve been the best hunter
in this whole village ever since, sometimes though I regret my old way of praying as what brought on my childless
demeanor.”
At Insight 5 the party can begin to see the outline of a tattoo around his aiming eye, similar to a targeting
reticle. At insight 18 a party member may attempt to trace the sign, if the sign is then tattooed on the face of a party
member they will gain a bonus to all marksmanship checks

Sad Pastor:
A holy man runs a church in a town deep in the country, his depression and sadness lending themselves to
poignant Sermons and good advice. The oddest thing being that he is clearly from outside of the wall, as well as an
accepted member of the community.
“My son was like you, an adventurer in this cursed land. In search of glory and gold he came here with his
own friends. Only one of them returned, claiming my son had died in the city of [city name] I tried to go there, to
find the place. I could not, so I came here instead. The gods themselves must have guided me for I encountered few
monsters and even those I could evade.”
The body of the Son will be found in a city wall watchtower. It will possess a journal. The journal recounts
many uplifting and adventurous days on their excursion featured will be a landmark the current party found. The
final entry will be about their last day, and how he’d sacrificed himself so the last member could make it out alive.
Returning the journal will award the party with Bonus EXP, and maybe an item of good usefulness

The Lasting Guard:

In one town very near to a fortress a guard of great age will be found (70 years old) he was stationed at the
fortress as part of his term of mandatory service when it was attacked. The wall remain intact, but of all those
stationed there he was the sole survivor.
“Not by cunning nor by stealth or cowardice did I survive, but by the strength of my body, the depth of my
training, the speed of my wit, and the raw power of my rage at what was happening to my fellow countrymen; and
by that my faith in Yudrig is secured.”
If befriended he can be pumped for info about many things, any challenge of combat will result in the
defeat of his opponent by a wide margin. He also teaches the youth of the village in the combat arts of the country
using equipment pilfered from the old fortress armory.

Made by Monotreeme
The Sorcerer In His Tower
(needs a start)

Eileen the Expositional Crow:

(Needs Ideas)

Riley, The Adorable Little Girl:

AKA; BONESAW.
At the beginning of the game one fortress location is instead changed into a medical school. Zombies are
here, but not regular ones. These are preserved, armored, and reinforced. Traps, both magical and not, permeate the
area. All the signs will be there for a very dangerous Necromancer. Investigation of the area will find a small garden,
an orchard that grows meat, and a few dairy bushes all tended by the walking dead. If they search the location
thoroughly they may find living quarters of an adorable little blonde girl in pristine curls. They may also find the
operating theatre where aforesaid little girl converts found corpses and the schools stupid crazy stock of medical
cadavers into zombies.
“teehee!”
The girl is Riley, the necromantic Prodigy. She’ll be evasive about things. If the party tries to kidnap her
out of some misguided good will she’ll destroy them. If they can convince her to come with them she’ll pack a few
small bags on some zombies and try to find a new place to set up shop. She is accompanied by a carefully carved
skull, it can talk and it contains an imprint of all of her father’s not inconsiderable knowledge on the subjects of
Necromancy, Biology, Medicine, Zoology, Entomology, Herpetology, etc. etc. “you think carving the outside of a
skull is a challenge, you try carving the inside without damaging it WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE AND
AWAKE.” If she is on good terms with the party, she may be convinced to perform major surgery for the
reattachment of limbs, the repair of damage, and the removal of all damage.

Made by Monotreeme
>Meta-Plot
An Ancient long-lived race came to the world from out of time and space. They were responsible for
creating the traditional "monsters" in the world made as work animals, for sport, and just for fun. They brought
magic to the world as well seeding “nodes” across continents. These disguised nodes radiate arcane energies usable
by anything with high enough or specific brain functions (compare to Tesla’s proposed “free energy out of the air”
system). Humans are an unexpected series of mutations away from some creation of theirs or other.

At some time in the primeval past a small group of anarchist Ancients decided they’d drive their own
civilization into hibernation, if not downright extinction. The reason for this was not known and will not be known.
But once the ancient surface-cities had been razed the five surviving members of the race took up residence. Raising
the humans to that had evolved on their continent to civilization was just a small hobby to them, they made avatars
for themselves. These Avatars, possessed of so much advancement traveled the world spreading rumors, telling
tales, teaching, and performing impossible tasks. Eventually Hearn; The Hunter, Roathus; The Farmer, Jevel;
The Smith, Yudrig; The Warrior, and Pyth; The ordered Magister rose in status to become as gods. With the
basics of civilization seeded, the Anarchist Ancients sat back with their proverbial popcorn to watch the long sitcom
that was human history. The wars, the advances in science and technology and magic all stood as entertainment to
them. By the time of the adventure most of the anarchists, long lived though they were have been a half century
dead.

Meanwhile the greatest city of the ancients was embedded within the range of mountains that extends into
the country the game takes place in. Something about the presence of the city kept generating monsters, and
permeating the area with more magic than anyplace else in the world.

In this area where the weird was high, the local humans had to be hardy and adaptable to survive.
The desire to not be eaten by monsters led them to a series of technological breakthroughs in weapons, and by
extension other fields. It turns out that the wall wasn't just to keep armies out; it was meant to keep the monsters in.
for a time this worked. Some of the huge leaps in the sciences made by this country were because of found artifacts
from the ancients being taken apart or interrogated.

The "First Wave" a bare handful of ancients woke up 60 or so years ago to check and see if the Anarchists
had died out; they've started pumping up monster production to eventually retake the planet. The Humans of the
country instituted hunters, armed with the best equipment technology and magic could grant them. They held for a
time. It falls to the first wave to awaken the others when some specific task is done. It’s a slow process for them, but
they have time. Out of the "fast or cheap or good, pick two" question they've decided to sacrifice fast to the utmost
for cheap and good, doing nothing with haste. Eventually he wall will crumble or fall to the inquisitive humans...

>Corruption Generators.
Locations that convert sapient entities into monsters of the worst sort, these once-inert ancient arcane
devices were left behind without explanation by the ancients. All at once they activated, silently, via radiation of
evil, or interaction by the populace they started turning people into monsters. The monsters made were not like
anything seen before, they were made of the nightmares of their victims, a man afraid of spiders might sprout more
legs and spin a web, a woman fearful of the dark may lose the ability to see in daylight. All over the map, described
in journals of various adventurers or monster hunters of great enough skill. These journals are found of course on the
corpses of such people in a salvageable condition.

>Final Mission.
Find a message left behind by the five gods explaining everything, and asking that the party perform one final task.
Traverse the caves in the northern mountains and kill the first wave of the ancients, then possibly kill the rest,
reaping the rewards of that action with enough treasure/tech/glory/gold/godly power that they never need work for
the rest of their families respective existences.

Made by Monotreeme
Locations that need Mapping:
[Country]
 Needs some surrounding countries.
 Less detail is fine outside the wall adjacent and intersecting country borders need to be certain.
 a couple of dozen still-inhabited towns
 dozens of uninhabited towns
 4 major cities
 Separate terrain, road, and water maps

Towns: (a dozen locations, all mapped plus 40 more locations for uninhabited towns)
 Town square
 Each featuring at least one of the following buildings.
o A smithy, capable of iron smelting.
o A tanners shop+ leatherwork shop
o Local butcher
o Woodcutter/charcoal burner
o Apothecary/herbalist
o Doctor/chemist
o Combination inn/mayor’s office/library/records room
o Baker with tread-powered mill
o Shrine or chapel
 Curtain wall

Forts: (several dozen locations, at least 5 mapped)

 Armory
 Barracks (30-70 men)
 Officer barracks (maybe 10 men)
 Granary
 Stable
 Drilling yard
 Small smithy
 General maintenance and repair shop.
 Various siege engines stored disassembled or in stages of disrepair
 A stone keep topped with a signal assembly(signal fire/flags/color coded artillery )
 Curtain wall around the lot
 Archery and arquebus training yards outside

Watchtowers: (locations, at least 100; at least 15 mapped)

 Square or round
 All stone construction
 Comparatively thick walls
 1st floor common room/kitchen
 2nd floor barracks (4-10 men)
 3rd–4th floor storage/magazine/small ballistae.
 5th floor rec-floor, library, Music box(wax cylinder read-record type), shelf of empty journals
 Top floor signaling apparatus (signal fire/flags/color coded artillery)
 Stairs from floor 1 to 2, ladders and hoist elevators for floors 2-(top-1)

Made by Monotreeme
Cities: (4 large cities, no more)
 Large metropolitan areas
 Ask /tg/ and /trv/ about late Victorian city-planning
 Series of curtain wall layers, mostly breached

Churches:( perhaps a dozen locations)

 Roadside chapels
 Safe for occult reasons. (and beast repellent incense and garden plants)
 Frequently kept a garden and livestock.
 Occasionally still manned.
 Frequently feature pipe-organs
 Only feature bells if occupied(bad luck otherwise)

Corruption Generator: (around 40 locations)

 Mysterious monoliths
 Sensations of wrongness
 “Hostile Environment” “Flee This Place”
 Unexpectedly weak to acids
o Aqua fortia or aqua regia
 Resistant to explosives, and hammers.

Wild Laboratory: (at least a half dozen)

 Rudimentary wall, strong buildings compensate.
 Frequently booby-trapped
 Mostly shattered glass and smashed furniture
 Advanced tools often found
 Library of natural philosophy often found here
 Mechanical and chemical marvels found here will raise prestige if brought back to benefactor
 May contain clues as to the tech-advancements source
 May contain clues of what breached the walls of many towns and cities
 Frequently the dens of larger monsters
o Usually very rigidly nocturnal/diurnal

Lairs for Warlocks and Necromancers: (at least a dozen of each, with 2dozen possible locations for each)
 Usually booby-trapped
 Usually contain library
 Usually contain expensive loot
 Usually partially underground

Made by Monotreeme
Resources

RANDOM SHIT LIKE NAMES

http://donjon.bin.sh/

MAP PAINTING SHIT

Paint.net

System Brew-Notes:
Base system options:
 New World of Darkness
o Armory book; see Archaic firearms, Archaic ranged weapons, and Melee weapons
o Hunter: the Vigil;
 Newer World of Darkness
o See New World of Darkness
o Demons: the Decent; apparently very flexible in power creation(monster creation)
 Shadowrun (too techy)
 Dungeons and Dragons (just nope)
 TBSRPG (last resort, would prefer not)
 Song of Swords(in depth combat system)
o Ballad of the Laser Whales/Call of the Void(better initiative system, also guns)
 Blades in the Dark
 Malifaux’s RPG

Monsters I need to stat:

 Werewolf/Beastman
o Wolves are good, but what can I do with BEARS
o Rodents may also be fine as beast feature source
 Shoggoth(as described above)
o Ambush Predators
o Weakness to salt
 Giant Spiders
o Trap-Door
o Web-Builders
o Ogre spider
o Old woman
 Zombies
o Melee Combatants
o Low Supply, How to Maintain?
 Skellingtons
o Archers
o How to maintain?
 Undead predators
o More abundant than human corpses
 Large Monsters
o Not even a Clue on these
 Illusion-trap monsters
o Insight cuts illusions
 Warlocks
o Evocation magic
 Necromancers

Made by Monotreeme
 o Runes, traps, and minions
 Madmen
o Human, Mundane
o Slasher splat-book?
 The Hunters of Searchers
o Like The Predator, and Dresdenverse Goblins
o How to stat?
o Detect “dangerous” rises in insight
 Straight-up WOLVES
 Carrion collector
o Gathers corpses into a pile
o Hides inside/underneath the pile
o Attacks living things in territory(small territory)
o Ferret shaped rodents approx 4 feet long
o Chitin optional
 Ghuls
o See Arabic folklore
 Failed experiments
o Mix-n-match the stats…
o Found in or near science areas()
 Mold Monster
o See WoD “Antagonists” entry, toxic mold
o Sewer habitat
 Armor Hound
o Bullete from D&D
 NPCs (combat)
o At least a half dozen full parties of 3-6 men
o Several mad couplets and solos
o Archetypal combats(traps, bombs, ranged, melee, monster bait, lotsaFIRE)
 NPCs(non-combat)
o Still pretty fighty
 Harbinger
o Negative energy attacks
o Force Projection
o Weaknesses?
o incorporeal

Made by Monotreeme