Professional Documents
Culture Documents
10
DOWN
DOWN THESE
THESE
WEIRD STREETS
A Guide to the City
ON
ON THE
THE ROAD
ROAD
A Travelogue of a
Strange New World
IT LURKS
IT
IN DARKNESS
IN
A Guide to DOORWAYS
Monsters & Menaces TO DANGER
Pulse-Pounding
Portals to
Adventure
The streets are mean—and what lurks beneath then is even meaner,
but there’s fame and fortune to be had. Grab your guns or your
grimoire and join the ranks of the City’s adventurers!
Monster killing and treasure hunting meet the Pulp era in a complete
ii
rpg setting. ii
VOL. 1, No. 1 A ROLE-PLAYING GAME SETTING 2011
INTRODUCTION
Words from the Author .......................................................................................................3
INFORMATION PLEASE
How much do you know about the Strange New World? . ..................................................5
ON A WEIRD ROAD
Get out of the City and see what the open road has to offer..............................................28
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Turn the right corner and you can find anything...............................................................59
WEIRD MENACES
Here be monsters ............................................................................................................142
WEIRD ADVENTURES © 2011 Trey Causey. All rights reserved. Reference to other copyrighted material in
no way constitutes a challenge to respective copyright holders of this material. Weird Adventures, the Strange
New World, and all related elements are trademarks of Trey Causey.
COVER ILLUSTRATION by
Doug Stambaugh
CARTOGRAPHY by
Anthony Hunter
INTERIOR ART by
Reno Maniquis (p. 4, 38, 76, 145), Dave Felton (p. 6, 14), Daniel Kopalek
(p. 16, 23, 104, 107, 131, 151), Seth Frail (p. 28, 96), Chris Huth (p. 41,
48, 150), Johnathan Bingham (p. 43, 74, 119, 146, 149), Adauto Silva (p.
47, 142), Diego Candia (p. 52, 117), Doug Stambaugh (p. 68, 139, 143),
Stefan Poag (p. 85, 153), Adam Moore (p. 110, 133) and Alex Garcia (p.
158).
All other art presumed to be in the public domain. Comic and pulp im-
ages courtesy of the Digital Comic Museum and Graffix Multimedia, Inc.
Images on pages 65, 81, 87, and 114 from The WPA Guide to New York
City (1939).
PROOFREADING by
Jim and Jody Garrison, Rob Hewlett, Scott Simmons, Sean Holland and
Steve Collington.
2
WEIRD ADVENTURES
INTRODUCTION
This book details a setting that places traditional fantasy role-playing game tropes
in an era reminiscent of our world between the two world wars. More specifically,
it’s reminiscent of our world in that era as it has been portrayed in fiction, particu-
larly fiction published in pulp magazines.
As with any setting book, there are two primary ways Weird Adventures can be
used. One could play in the world as presented or simply borrow as many (or
as few) of the ideas here as one likes. Some of the material is presented as short
essays on particularly game-relevant points of interest, while other portions are
presented like selections from a travel guidebook within the world itself. Weird
Adventures provides numerous examples of how the disparate setting elements fit
together but not necessarily a thorough explanation. This is by design. In addition
to being a place of adventure, the City and its world can be a place of whimsy, hor-
ror, weirdness, or some combination of these. It’s up to individual gamemasters to
decide which elements to emphasize and which to throw away.
There are interesting tidbits that got left out, of course. The free pdf Strange Trails
and my blog, From the Sorcerer’s Skull, cover topics not covered here and provide
some additional material on topics that are. If you’re curious about the dangers of
air travel in the Strange New World or how magical schooling works, or you need
a monster than stalks subway and train stations, you can go to the above places to
find what you’re looking for.
I’m also indebted to the WPA Guide to New York (1939) written by the Federal
Writer’s Project. Its presentation of the “New York City that was” greatly informed
this City that never was.
Trey Causey
2011
3
4
WEIRD ADVENTURES
INFORMATION
PLEASE
Some Pertinent Background
on the Strange New World…
The Ealderdish in
the New World plunged into its latest and largest
The modern political bodies of the war—the largest ever in history.
New World arose from colonization
by the nations of Ealderde, the The Great War
Old World, across the Meropic With the eruption of the so-called
Ocean. After centuries taming Great War, a number of new
(or attempting to tame) the New technologies were brought to bear.
World, Ealderdish attentions were Thaumaturgical and alchemical
drawn back to wars on their own weapons were utilized on a scale
continent; their distant colonies never seen before—with long-
took the opportunity to assert lasting and terrible consequences.
their independence. The states of Acid fog was released from sprayers
the Union were first, nearly two to discourage attackers or to soften
centuries ago now. In the decades defenders. Amorphing solutions
that followed, they were joined by delivered via artillery shells sowed
others. terror by making flesh malleable,
dissolving limbs, or even melting
Since independence, the nations of soldiers together. Thaumaturgical
the New World have struggled to explosives and blights laid waste
gain the respect of their colonial to cities and farmlands. Rays of
parents. They alternately engaged searing light or jets of intense cold
with the Old World and shunned it. fired from zeppelins cut swaths of
Twenty-four years ago, Ealderde destruction across enemy trenches.
5
THE PREHISTORY
OF THE NEW WORLD
The New World isn’t really new, but what’s known
of its pre-colonial past is a mixture of
archeology, legend--and speculation.
Hard Times
Who cares about the Old
World? Things are tough right
here.
7
New World Calendar
The Days of the Week: On this night, the walls between
Godsday the material plane and the realm of
Loonsday the dead are said to be thin. Many
Pyresday adults may go masked and avoid
Wyrdsday using their real names—though in
Stormday more of a playful than fearful spirit,
Lovesday today. Children dress in more
Mournday elaborate costumes and engage in
ritual begging, door-to-door.
The Months of the Year:
Shiver Winter Solstice: On the 21st of
Gelid Aforeyule, some folk of Northern
Bluster Ealderdish descent wear masks
Vernal to pass as goblins and evil spirits,
Floral hiding in plain view from Bertha,
Midsummer
Queen of the White Women, the
Swelter
Ripened
witches of the North. Today, it’s
Harvest mostly a time of drinking and
Redfall bonfires, though some hold the
Erefrost witch queen still stalks the world
Aforeyule on this night.
8
WEIRD ADVENTURES
9
INFORMATION PLEASE
the Natives and exist in greater Yian is not actually the name of
numbers. However, they are this empire of the ancient East in
second class citizens, suffering its own tongue. It’s actually the
from discrimination and distrust— name of the mystical, secluded
and even sporadic pogroms over city—only sometimes accessible
the centuries. The Ealderdish- on this plane—where the dread
descended majority stereotype them (and perhaps inhuman) rulers of the
as lazy, ignorant, and superstitious. empire dwell. These are the Ku’en-
Ironically, the legends of the Black Yuinn, “the Deathless”—undying
folk identify the Ealderdish as sorcerers thought to be liches
the results of Meropian sorcerer- abiding from prehistoric Lemuria.
scientists crossbreeding humans
with subhuman stock. For these The common folk of Yian and
reasons, the Black folk remain the Far East are humans like any
something of a people apart, tending other: Despite the stereotypes in
to settle in their own enclaves— the West, they are not yellow-
in no small part because doing skinned. The “high folk” of the
so provides them some degree of city of Yian, however, do have
protection from wider society. skin-tones ranging from lemon to
saffron. These folk also tend to be
Yianese tall, whereas the common Yianese
Not all peoples of the Far East are are shorter than most westerners.
ethnically Yianese, but distinctions Also, the high folk of the purest
between different groups are lost ancient bloodlines often have a
on wider New World society, and slightly inhuman—sometimes even
the Empire of Yian does control bestial—cast to their features.
much of that region. The people
of Yian are generally considered The common folk of Yian began
a mysterious and alien presence immigrating to the New World
in the New World. Much of this in the last century. They crossed
prejudice and fear is borne of the Tranquil Ocean looking for
misunderstanding, but this much economic opportunity and freedom
is true: The Yianese are an ancient from the yolk of the often oppressive
people with ancient secrets. rule of the Deathless lords and
the high folk. Like other ethnic
10
WEIRD ADVENTURES
11
INFORMATION PLEASE
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
13
The Planes Beyond
The Heavens: Tradition puts their
number at seven, but some scholars
believe there may be as many Heavens
as there are permutations on the faith
of the Good Book! This is the realm
of God, the angels, and the righteous
dead.
Dreams rise into the astral like bubbles and merge with another
astral subrealm, Dreamland or Slumberland. Here, the
mirror-masked Dream Lord
and his subordinates, the
gnome-like Sandmen, monitor
the onieric flows for signs of
trouble.
15
INFORMATION PLEASE
many names for such individuals Gifts of faith are more common in
but they’re often called “the gifted” rural areas than in urban ones and
or “miracle-workers.” Some more common among followers of
thaumatological scholars have more ecstatic sects than mainstream
suggested that these individuals are ones. Such gifts are in no way
actually mystics of some sort, but confined to those who actually have
the gifted themselves believe their religious ordination or authority.
powers are granted by their deity or
by their faith.
16
The STrange new world
polar landS
WEIRD ADVENTURES
BOREA
THE UNION
Meropic
SepTenTrion Ocean
1000
National boundary
Z IN
LEGEND
1000
GA
500
RO
500
km 0
mi 0
Tranquil
Ocean
LEGEND
National boundary
km 0
mi 0
500 1000
500 1000
aSciana
17
WEIRD ADVENTURES
18
A STRANGE NEW WORLD
North and south we find frigid seas off them, who flocked to the North
and the polar regions. In the Arctic, in a series of gold rushes earlier this
there’s a Polar Continent quartered century and the end of the last. The
by torrential channels and mapped rushes are over, but miners continue
only by legend. At its center is the to work claims, and dreamers still
Pole itself, and the magnetic, magic- cling to the hope of a big strike.
disrupting Black Peak, around
which swirls a vortex of sea water The miners are relative newcomers.
falling down into…The Hollow Hunters and trappers still eke out
Earth? The Elemental Planes? livings as they have for over two
Primal chaos? No one knows. hundred years; there’s still a market
for the meat of the dwindling
And from those mysteries, we mammoth herds, or for the golden
retreat southward… pelts of the aurumvorax. The vast
northern forests still support a
CHAPTER II: thriving timber industry. Then
Borea: The Wild North there are the aboriginal peoples who
follow the ways of their ancestors,
19
WEIRD ADVENTURES
DuMarais has taken a mining camp hostage in isolated and snowbound Windigo Val-
ley. There, he plans to amuse himself while waiting out the winter. He commands at
least five loup-garous (werewolves) he created through the use of Native magic, and
has other spells at his disposal.
DuMarais’ ability to create and control werewolves comes from the tattoos (a stylized
wolf’s head encircled by a geometric pattern) decorating the back of his left hand.
Severing this hand will break his control over the beasts and destroy his ability to cre-
ate new ones.
20
A STRANGE NEW WORLD
The North has its share of against other factions in the name
mysteries, too. Shimmering, of strategic advantage and bleed
phantom cities are sometimes seen their own people to fund their
in its skies, which may be ghostly campaigns—which often require
glimpses of the distant past, psychic foreign mercenaries.
projections of the fabled paradise
of Hyper-borea, or something else.
Then there are legends of an Arctic
island warmed by volcanoes or hot
springs, which may be the ancestral
home of all the native peoples of the
New World. Other legends, or sea
tales, speak of ancient longships
from the Old World emerging from
the icy mists, manned by undead
raiders, and laden with centuries of
plunder. The people of Zingaro practice a
heretical version of the
CHAPTER III: Oecumenical faith that venerates
the Barren Madonna, Our Lady of
Zingaro: Death &
the Grave, “Sainted Mother Death,”
Revolution as its patron saint. This saint isn’t
recognized officially by the Church
Z INGARO is a mostly desert
land to the south of the Union
territories and Freedonia. Despite
outside of Zingaro, and theological
scholars speculate that she is either
a syncretized pagan death goddess
an ancient and proud history, or an eikone of death dressed in an
modern Zingaro is a place of Oecumenical nun’s habit—or
poverty and strife. What began as perhaps both. Her festival is the
a populist revolution over twenty “Day of the Dead,” when the people
years ago has become a bloody civil of Zingaro pay homage to the
war with no end in sight. Various ghosts of their ancestors and offer
contenders for the presidency have gifts of skull-shaped sweets to any
bases of power in different parts of undead they encounter—an
the country. They commit atrocities occurrence more common there
21
WEIRD ADVENTURES
Skulls are an important symbol Each of the seven crystal skulls may
in Zingaro beyond sweets for exhibit different powers, but the
following are common to all:
the undead. The most powerful
strike dead – once per day, a bearer
of the items connected with the may kill a foe instantly by pointing the
veneration of Mother Death are the skull at them;
crystal skulls. Seven are known animate zombie – once per day, the
to exist, but some thaumatological bearer may cause a corpse to rise as
a zombie subject to his or her bidding
archaeologists believe there may
by holding the skull over the body and
be as many as thirteen in existence. concentrating;
These mysterious items predate the foretelling – holding the skull and
modern land of Zingaro, perhaps staring into its eyeless sockets
being artifacts of prehistoric New sometimes gives confusing (and
perhaps incomplete) visions of the
World civilization, or of drowned
bearer’s future.
Meropis. Whatever their origin,
the Lady of the Grave has claimed
them as her own. Folklore holds
they are the transformed skulls of
men who so loved the Lady that
she preserved a part of them forever
— while taking their souls into her
eternal embrace as God wills.
22
A STRANGE NEW WORLD
cross said adventurers when they dug up and sold as undead slave
have what they want. labor. The same is done to vagrants
or strangers that die in town, and
Cuijatepec to criminals. The local church
Cujiatepec is an old settlement supports this practice
nestled in the hills of central
Zingaro, founded to exploit rich
silver veins. The town’s
western cemeteries have
eldritch properties.
Most of the
bodies buried
in them are
s o m e h o w
mummified and
don’t decay at a normal
rate — but that’s the least
of the strangeness. The
corpses there interred
are transformed
in a month’s time
into undead. These
creatures remain
in torpor until
exhumed, but once
this is done they’re
as active as any
zombie, and as
intelligent.
23
WEIRD ADVENTURES
by suggesting that those dead thus was merely a ghost of what had
employed are serving penance for come before. Already, great cities
sins in life, and earning their soul’s had been lost in the jungle, and
way into heaven by the labor of their legend. Still, stories persist of lost
soulless bodies. At any given time, Akakor, cloaked by jungle in some
a hundred undead may be working high mountain valley, where one
in the city as laborers or auxiliary may find the entrance to the last
police. redoubt of the ancients: a chain
of subterranean cities beneath the
CHAPTER IV: Dragon’s Backbone.
Asciana: The Pathless Trail
The jungles of the Grand Cinnamon
to Danger basin are a popular setting in
T
adventure stories. In addition to
HE southern continent of the
primitive (sometimes headhunting)
New World is less settled
human tribes, there are also the
than its northern neighbor. This
reptilian caimen, somewhat smaller
is largely attributable to it being
and more nimble relatives of the
a land of geographical extremes:
northern gatormen. Other natural
In the west, only a sliver of coast
dangers include giant snakes,
separates the ocean from the lofty
river sharks, piranhas, and even
and jagged peaks of the Dragon’s
carnivorous plants.
Backbone Mountains; in the east,
the wine-dark tendrils of the Grand
Cinnamon River system snake
through dense jungle; and in the
south, there are cold steppes where
giants dwell.
24
A STRANGE NEW WORLD
25
WEIRD ADVENTURES
26
Inland Sea Newdd
Llu
The
Steel League
H e s per
t
ia
e Wes
Th
Meropic
Freedonia Ocean
Tranquil
Ocean
A STRANGE NEW WORLD
27
WEIRD ADVENTURES
T HE Union is a confederation
of states formed by several
disparate Ealderdish colonies on
of the West, Smaragdine, and the
Vast Plains.
28
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
Currency
The Union has a unified Notes: 1 Union = 5 “double
currency, overseen by the sawbucks” = 10 “sawbucks” =
Union Central Bank. Every 20 “fins” = 100 dollars ($)
member state issues notes and
coins so designs vary, though Coins: 1 dollar = 2 half-dollars
sizes are uniform for ease of = 4 quarters = 10 dimes = 20
recognition. The value of the nickels = 100 cents (“pennies”
Union dollar is pegged to gold, or “coppers”)
so that 1 troy ounce=$35.
Notes of larger denomination
Typical denominations of are sometimes issued, but
currency, their common these are used only between
names, and relative values are banks and aren’t in general
as follows: circulation.
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
from each state, but the number resembles a magic sigil writ large,
of “votes” they command is based which is exactly what it is. The
on the population of the state. thaumaturgic planners made the
Each is appointed by his or her entire city a ward against sorcerous
respective state government but influence on government—though,
must be approved by acclamation like all wards, there are ways it
of the Assembly. The chairman of can be breached. And the larger
the committee is not officially a the ward the larger the holes are,
representative of any state and is comparatively. There are powerful
instead appointed by the Assembly. genius loci known as poliphylaxes
Decisions of the committee must who visit retribution on any who
ultimately be approved by the would try to harm the structures or
Assembly, but details need not be monuments of the Union to contend
publicly debated, meaning that with, as well.
the business of the committee is
inherently more secretive. CHAPTER II:
New Lludd
The Union has authorized the
L
settlement of new territories which YING north of the hegemony
have courtesy representation in the of the City, New Lludd boasts
Assembly but no actual vote. The some of the oldest permanent
Vast Plains Territories seemed close Ealderdish settlements in
to applying for full membership Septentrion. The earliest colonists
in the Union, but the misfortunes were religious separatists from
that resulted in it becoming better Grand Lludd, who were derisively
known as the Dustlands has set that called “Stickers” in their native
back by decades. The citizens of country but called themselves “the
the Smaragdine Mountains seem Lawful.”
completely uninterested in ever
becoming full members. The Lawful believed that existence
was a struggle between the forces
The seat of the Union government is of Law (the living spirit of the
Phratropolis, a planned city located commandments of God) and Chaos
between the territories of the City’s (everything else). They opposed
influence and the South. Viewed what they believed to be the
from the air, the city’s layout
30
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
31
WEIRD ADVENTURES
32
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
34
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
T
winning streaks, and at some HE region between the
point the smiling men of the hegemony of the City, the
Gaming Commission return and Smaragdine Mountains, and the
give them a gold chip. Gold-level eastern coast of the New World
35
WEIRD ADVENTURES
There are some cities, of course. Racial tensions in the South are
Most are old and located near the perhaps greater than in other parts
coast—the notorious canal-city of of the New World. The Black folk,
New Ylourgne is a prime example. who have historically been found in
The cities engage in trade with greater numbers in the South, have
Ealderde, though this is not the become a legally disenfranchised
business it once was. The South underclass. Laws in some places
has its own steel or mill towns, too, restrict their movements and keep
though these pale in comparison them from voting. The murderous
to the production of their Steel Knights-Templar of Purity are more
League rivals. Nexus, a railroad common in the South than in other
hub, represents these new Southron places, having their origin here,
cities. and in some communities they
36
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
operate openly and with impunity. to this day the shops of its Sorcerers
Some aristocratic Southrons take a Quarter remain perhaps the best
paternalistic view of the Black-folk place in the New World to acquire
and seek to help them improve their exotic material components—and
lot through charity and education, perhaps to sell illegal components
but few even of these philanthropists on the black market.
see them as other than inferior.
The thaumaturgical traditions of the
New Ylourgne Black folk are also more strongly
This sultry canal city near the mouth represented here than elsewhere, and
of the Big River on the Zingaran the city boasts a number of secret,
Gulf was founded as a magocracy Black-only magical fraternal orders
by adventurers from the Ealderdish which parade through the streets on
land of Averoigne. As the port sacred days in elaborate costumes.
grew and immigrants flooded in, the These orders vie for dominance in
power of thaumaturgists waned, but ceremonial contests that have been
known to turn violent.
“Blasphemous Bill”
Bill Whatley, that goat-faced giant of a man, has up and kidnapped that pretty
young school teacher.
That Bill was a bad one had been clear from his birth. Such was expected,
given he was the bastard son of that soft-headed albino, Lavinny, and grandson
of Old Man Whatley — widely held to have been a witch. He’s only proved
it with twenty years of destroying property, killing livestock, and crippling
men in barroom brawls. Still, kidnapping is a step too far, and it’s high time
he was stopped.
Bill’s taken her out to his shack in the swamps where he lives with his crazy
mother. It’s a place people mostly stay away from: A lot of animals are found
mutilated in those parts (even gators!) and no one can say what sort of beast
might’ve done it. Folks recall old man Whatley’s mad cackling about two
grandsons before his death—and hadn’t Bill been known to sometimes mumble
something about a brother when he’d had too much stump-whiskey?
37
WEIRD ADVENTURES
T
places of magical power—“soft
HE old and worn Smaragdines
places” where the other planes are
run like a spine down the
closer than elsewhere. These same
east coast of the Septentrion. The
soft places have drawn conjure-
rugged terrain and dense forests
folk looking to make bargains for
have mostly isolated the people
inhuman power in the ages since.
of the region from the rest of the
world. In many ways, going into
The Ancients weren’t the only ones
the Smaragdines is like stepping
to retreat into the Smaragdines.
into the past.
Magical beasts wiped out by
colonists in the lowlands can still
These forested hills were the
be found here. These creatures
last redoubt of the Ancients.
occasionally menace mining and
Already diminished, these once
timber operations, at times leading
mighty people fell even further,
companies to hire adventurers for
degenerating into the hill-billy
protection—or hunting expeditions.
38
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
Though alcohol is legal across the Purpureal ether: Also called mauve
New World continent, smuggling emanation, this alien substance is
still exists to avoid taxation. The difficult to describe in earthly terms:
most prevalent illicit smuggling It’s purplish, has a slight glow, and
of intoxicants, however, involves can be “poured” or contained–
alchemical substances of various something like dry ice fog, though it
sorts, illegal in most of the member doesn’t dissipate like any fog and is,
states of the Union thanks to the in fact, a radiation from somewhere
efforts of church-driven abstinence in the Outer Dark. It can be collected
movements. on moonless nights with little cloud
cover on alchemically prepared
This has done little to stem the cloth screens. These are pressed
tide of these substances, which are or squeezed to yield the substance,
available in speakeasies and drug which is then bottled in opaque
dens throughout most major cities. receptacles. (Sunlight will degrade
“Bathtub alchemicals” are made in it within hours.) After 24 hours,
small laboratories within cities or it becomes more volatile and is
rural areas. Larger-scale operations inhaled from bottles or from cloths
smuggle in alchemicals from foreign on which some of the substance
countries. Some may even come has been poured. Its use deadens
from other planes of existence. pain, increases strength (+1 with
commensurate damage bonus) and
Alchemical intoxicants come in heightens the mind (making the
many varieties, having effects similar user immune to illusions and the
to mundane drugs (alcohol, cocaine, like) for 1d4 hours. It also reduces
opiates, cannabis, etc.) or mixtures coordination (reducing anything
thereof. There are also “exotics,” reliant on dexterity by -1). Longterm
which produce magical effects similar use (daily use for a period of 1-4
to many potions in traditional fantasy months), causes degeneration first
worlds. Cheaply made alchemicals of the nerves (further dexterity loss,
may be dangerous, in ways beyond though this time permament), then
the intended effects, and cheaply of the flesh (charisma and, finally,
made exotics often strangely so. constitution loss).
39
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40
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
41
WEIRD ADVENTURES
the Hell Syndicate stays out of 1 - He can only be hurt by magical weapons.
Motorton. It’s the Dwarf’s city.
2 - The tea he sometimes offers visitors can
bring strange visions and cause madness.
Yronburg
The steel town of Yronburg 3 - He carries a pocket watch whose hands
represents the old industrial cities only move when someone dies—or maybe
when someone particular dies.
of the League. Yronburg has a
population of around 670,000 4 - Bones excavated from the old, mass
people, but its growth has essentially plague graves can be used to ward against
him.
come to a halt in the current decade.
Like most of the older League cities, 5 - He’s only dangerous because Motorton’s
its most vibrant years are past, but it sick. If the city could be healed, the dwarf
would be benevolent.
goes on.
6 - The dwarf is only a midget human
Yronburg, like Motorton, is home sorcerer cashing in on an old legend. It’s all
smoke and mirrors.
to an unusual being. A giant lives
at the heart of the city. Inhabiting 7 - There’s a red leather journal of a young
the largest steel mill is a man over girl who died in an asylum that contains (in
its ramblings) the Red Dwarf’s true name—
ten feet tall and apparently made of and the ritual to bind him to service.
steel. This giant came from the Old
World—though whether he is some 8 - The dwarf is always accompanied by
the same gang--a black-haired moll in a red
fallen god or titan, or just a member dress with a silky voice, and twin bruisers
of a lost race is unknown, perhaps with the same first name.
even to the giant himself.
9 - The Red Room is actually the lowest
level of Hell. The dwarf is actually
Svarozic, as he’s called, works Morningstar in disguise.
tirelessly and seems impervious
10 - The dwarf isn’t a real entity at all, just
to heat. He doesn’t seem to sleep, the physical representation of the death
but at times goes still and appears curse of a Native shaman on the Ealderdish
to be at some sort of rest— invaders. Treating it like a real being only
increases its power.
sometimes for as much as weeks
at the time. Luckily for Yronburg,
Svarozic accomplishes enough
42
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
43
WEIRD ADVENTURES
when at work to keep them ahead cut a Faustian deal with the Hell
in the manufacture of steel. The Syndicate. Granted hellish powers
other steelworkers—many fellow and infernal soldiers to swell his
immigrants from Ealderde—see ranks, he quickly overwhelmed the
“their” giant as a source of civic and other gangs and took control of the
professional pride, and tell tall tales city. Since then, a succession of
about his exploits. gang bosses has controlled, through
use of patronage and influence-
CHAPTER VII: peddling, a city that, if not exactly
Lake City peaceful, has at least been stable. Of
course, the gangs are certainly not
44
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
45
WEIRD ADVENTURES
The Combine
The members of the Inland Sea
T HE past decade has seen the
Western prairies between
the cities of the Steel League and
Combine are manufacturing cities the Stoney Mountains choked by
skirting the Inland Sea and the dust. Over-farming and relentless
farm communities that support drought have left the topsoil with
them. Several of these have gangs nothing to hold it in place so it
of their own, though they all now blows across the land in large, dark
owe fealty to the Lake City Boss of clouds, giving the area its nickname,
Bosses, and all of them, whether led the Dustlands. Millions of acres of
by more conventional governments farmland have become useless; the
or mob strongmen, pay tribute to population has dropped by more
Lake City for “protection.” than half and continues to decline.
The Combine’s territory borders The blighted land has given rise to
that of the Steel League. The twisted and wrathful elementals—
gang bosses would like to extend malign spirits in the form of dust
their influence over the League’s devils and even cyclones. They
rich factory towns, while the criss-cross the land, warring with
League would love to expand its each other; the strong consume the
manufacturing support base and weak and add the substance of the
ultimately weaken the criminal vanquished to their own, growing
element on its borders. Membership larger and more powerful in the
in the Union makes it difficult for process.
the two to make war on each other
openly, but hired guns often clash in The big storms terrorize the isolated
more covert exchanges. dirt farmers and small communities
that remain. They demand tribute
or sacrifices—and sometimes even
worship—as if they were ancient
gods. Would-be adventurers and
46
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
Eliza Gunn
She’s only nineteen years-old, but she’s been making
her own way in the bleakness of the Dustlands for
several years. Gunn is an ace mechanic—and handy
in a scrap. She’s been with a gang of adventurers for a
couple of years, defending refugees and isolated towns
from road agents, black-dust zombies, and violent
cyclone bosses. Amid all this do-gooding, the gang
raids old Native mounds for treasure—artifacts, magical materials, and maybe
a little gold and silver. There are trains to be guarded, too—a few days riding
the rails from Lake City to the Stoneys, looking out for thunderbirds and as
always, malevolent elemental storms.
Though quiet and not much for conversation, Gunn is given to almost berserker
rages when she gets riled. Her favorite weapon is an oversized wrench
(rumored to be imbued with magic by a Native shaman or perhaps forged from
adamantine scavenged from the sword of an ancient Old World king—stories
differ). She’s used it to crack more than one skull of a would-be hardcase who’s
underestimated her.
47
WEIRD ADVENTURES
48
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
T
and stage brief revivals of their HE largest and least populated
ancestral ways. Former Native of the territories of the Union,
hunting grounds became homes the West stretches from the
to vast herds of cattle and the Dustlands to Hesperia and from
cowboys who tended them—the Borea to Zingaro. It’s dominated
essential elements of Freedonia in by the rugged peaks of the Stoney
the popular imagination. Mountains—beside which the
Smaragdines look like mere
From the vast distances, rough and hills—but its terrain encompasses
tumble cow towns, Native raids, mesa-strewn hardpan deserts and
and the odd wandering monster was windswept high plains.
born a special breed of lawman—
the Freedonia Ranger. Though The West in many ways retains
they have never been numerous, its frontier character; it refuses to
the Rangers have made up for that be fully civilized. Cowboys (and
lack with their toughness and their rustlers) still ride the plains. Native
reputation for the same. A ranger tribes keep to their old ways on
(it’s said) always gets his man—but their reservations—and they’re
whether he brings that man in dead still known to stray at times from
their assigned lands. Thunderbirds
49
WEIRD ADVENTURES
50
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
still harbinger storms in gray skies. behind the rest of the Union in
Badmen and lawmen settle accounts development, the open spaces of
in dusty streets and on lonely trails. the West are slowly giving way to
creeping civilization. Perhaps one
Perhaps the ghosts of the past hold day a trip to the gambler’s haven of
civilization at bay? Abandoned Doña Fortuna or the gateway to the
mines and ghost towns are reminders Stoneys, Mountain City, will be as
of the recent past. The ancient easy as vacationing on the Meropic
ruins that rim canyon walls and the shore?
strange artifacts that emerge from
the desert point to an ill-defined, but Perhaps. But today, there’s frontier
no less real, ancient history. yet to be tamed.
“Nightmare Town”
Strange things are happening at a secretive excavation on the outskirts
of a small, isolated desert town. The locals are tight-lipped and scared,
but what they do say is interesting. They tell how the town has been
taken over by the urbane but menacing Llewellyn Wail—the enormous,
hairless, and almost albino overseer of the dig—and his hired guns.
They’re looking for a meteor that fell near the town about a hundred years
back—in a place animals avoid and old-timers call haunted. Townsfolk
have seen weird burns on injured diggers and heard them discuss the
need for welding torches—maybe even thaumaturgic ones. Then there’s
the odd glow, and unnerving hum, coming from the site that makes folks
want to close their shutters and cover their windows at night.
51
WEIRD ADVENTURES
52
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
P
even an island!
eople from all over the New
World are drawn to Hesperia,
These historic peculiarities might
the westernmost territory of the
have been forgotten if it weren’t
Union on the shores of the Tranquil
for the persistent strangeness of the
Ocean. The promise of work in its
land. This is manifest in its two
fertile valleys and bustling ports
largest cities: Heliotrope and San
draws many refugees from Zingaro
Tiburon.
and the Dustlands, but what really
captures the collective imagination
Heliotrope
of the people of the New World are
The City may be the unofficial
the celluloid dreams conjured there.
commercial capital of the New
World, but Heliotrope, in southern
There is real magic to Hesperia,
Hesperia, is the center of its
beyond people’s hopes for a better
entertainment industry. This city
life. Hesperia was once an island
of nearly 1.5 million is home to all
separated from the mainland of
the major movie studios, and most
the New World by a strait. Maps
of their stars, but the Heliotrope
and accounts of early Ealderdish
of the gossip rags and glitzy film
explorers over two centuries
premieres is only part of the story.
are quite clear on this point.
Old and powerful magics lurk
It’s described as populated by
behind its sun-blinded streets and
statuesque, black-skinned amazons,
beneath the banner of the famous
without a man among them, who
“HELIOTROPELAND” sign.
wielded weapons made of gold.
53
WEIRD ADVENTURES
Trane was the son of a half-giant woman and her minister husband. As a young man, he
dreamed of running off and joining the circus, a notion looked upon unfavorably by his
parents—particularly when actually he ran off and joined one. After years with the circus,
performing for the crowned heads of Ealderde and the potentates of the Orient, he wound
up in Freedonia.
Trane became a Ranger. He brought down outlaws like Heck Thorn and his Roaring Boys,
exotic menaces like mummies of the Ancients (taller than he), and the urbane Zingaran
vampire lord, Don Sangre.
A series of dime novels caused Trane’s fame to grow to a point where it was unclear where
truth ended and tall tale began. Trane did, in fact, train a giant prehistoric cat to serve
as a mount, but generally, he preferred horses and
kept the cat on his ranch. He did ride an elemental
tornado like a bucking bronco but never actually
lassoed lightning with a telegraph cable.
54
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
conspire to gain wealth and political city (pop. ca. 630,000). Where
influence, aided by potent magic. Heliotrope is sun-drenched and
These accounts always suggest that warm, San Tiburon is often fog-
prominent citizens are involved in enshrouded and chilly.
the cult and that the prime movers
of the film industry are either cult
acolytes or else under the glamour
of the witches.
55
WEIRD ADVENTURES
The city’s current inhabitants give about his past, it’s only in oblique
deference to a peculiar character—a references to the weightiness of
vagrant who claims to be a king. crowns upon heads, and the trials of
This self-styled King of the Union, destiny.
Protector of Borea, and Suzerain
of Zingaro is Josiah Pellam, a man Even King Pellam’s admirers
of uncertain background. No one must admit that he’s quite mad.
knows for certain how long he has Sometimes he raves wild-eyed like
occupied his fog-cloaked capital; a man in delirium tremens about a
it’s been at least thirty years, but beast (which sometimes he hunts
old-timers have difficulty recalling and sometimes is hunted by) that
a time when they were without only he can see—though some have
his shabby yet regal presence. claimed to hear its weird, yelping
Many recollect some small, cries in the distance. He knights
strange miracle associated with a people seemingly at random,
chance meeting or an off-hand but charging them with perilous and
profound bit of wisdom he offered important quests. Especially
in passing, which they’ve carried important to him is the securing of
with them since. a particular grail, that he asserts can
heal his wound and, in so doing, his
Despite his current humble kingdom.
circumstances, Pellam appears
to be a man of some erudition, Despite his wound, King Pellam
as evidenced by his flowery and is far from defenseless. Hardened
somewhat archaic manner of killers have come for him and in the
speech. He dresses in cast-off end turned their guns on themselves
clothing but somehow manages instead. Magic cast directly against
to find well-decorated second- him seems to dissipate. The city
hand uniforms of various armies itself seems to accommodate and
from past decades, and styles his protect him. Distances shorten at
beard like an Ealderdish aristocrat his royal whim, and those who
from the same era. He walks with irritate him or wish him harm find
a pronounced limp, which he themselves lost on unfamiliar
attributes to an old wound or “a streets.
dolorous stroke.” When he talks
56
ON THE WEIRD ROAD
The people of San Tiburon provide each newly elected mayor and city
for their resident lord’s needs by council visits him to ask his leave to
allowing him and his honor guard take up their elected roles.
(two mongrel dogs of unusual
intelligence) free meals from any The King sometimes disparages
restaurant in the city, free passage the old shark god, still said to hunt
on city cable cars, and purchase the cold waters outside the city’s
of small goods and sundries with harbor, but he seldom ventures out
his royal scrip. They don’t burden on the wharves, and never onto
him unduly with the problems of watercraft, perhaps out of grudging
day-to-day governance, although respect for his rival.
DJINN
CIGARETTES
A distinguished cigarette made
from a blend of Korambeckish
and New World tobaccos,
alchemically enhanced for
pleasure and a smooth as silk
smoking experience.
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
From The Mundy Guide to the City: A Comprehensive Guide to the Five Baronies of the Metropolis (5888)
59
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60
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
61
WEIRD ADVENTURES
For this reason, unsanctioned access barony, and the second most
is legally prohibited and punishable populous. When City-dwellers
by a fine of no less than $10. The speak of “the city,” Empire Island
enrichment to the City’s economy is the place they refer to.
provided by the illicit explorations
has insured that sanctions have The first known people from
never been made more severe. Ealderde to arrive in the environs
of what is now the City were the
Entrances are closed by the Dwerg-folk of Gulden. Though
authorities as soon as they are of human stock, the Dwergen are
found, but secret entrances exist, pygmies. Perhaps because of their
accessible through basements, unimposing stature, they devoted
sewers, and subways. Cheap maps themselves to becoming wealthy
of dubious value can be purchased through trade, and became a far-
from street vendors (“for novelty ranging mercantile culture.
purposes only”) in tourist districts,
and more expensive ones drawn Over three hundred years ago, the
from adventurers’ explorations Dwergen adventurer known to
can sometimes be acquired from history as Piter Middennight struck
outfitters. a shrewd deal with the Natives,
exchanging treasures worth 60
These days, there are few rich hauls silver pieces for Empire Island. He
brought up from beneath Empire and his band build a fort and trading
Island. Too many delves have picked post that would one day grow into
the depths clean. Conventional the City.
wisdom among adventurers holds
that any truly big scores left in the First, he had to defeat the Wurm—a
metropolitan area are in the near dragon-like serpent that dwelled in
Hegemony or Lichmond. the streams and fens of the island,
receiving the fearful deference of
CHAPTER II: the Natives. Middennight and other
adventurers fought the creature, but
Empire Island
it was immortal and could only be
E
beaten back, never killed. Only by
MPIRE ISLAND is the center
draining the wetlands and diverting
of the City, its most important
62
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
63
E I WEIRD ADVENTURES
LEGEND
km 0 1.07 2.14
mi 0 2.0 4.0
64
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
65
WEIRD ADVENTURES
Besides the park proper, the area is probably appropriate given its
is home to several governmental role in finance. The exchange is
agencies. The Barge Office is owned and administered by the
the disembarkation point for member brokers, each occupying a
immigrants and houses branch “seat.” A gold medallion marked
offices of the Coastal Guard and the with the image of the exchange
Departments of Immigration and and a number identifies a seat
Customs. The South End Ferry owner. Medallions can only be
Terminal offers transport to harbor bought or freely given; if stolen
islands (including the Colossi they turn to lead. It’s rumored that
islands), Lichmond, and Rookend. the medallions also protect their
On the border with the Financial bearers from magical coercion.
District is the oldest pier on the
island and home to the Fireboat A number of other exchanges are
Station (berth of the fireboats) found nearby: the Cotton Exchange,
and the ticket office for steamboats the Maritime Exchange, and the
headed to Lapin Isle and on other Commodities Exchange, among
day excursions. others. There’s even rumored to
be a Fate Exchange that employs
2. FINANCIAL DISTRICT thaumaturgist brokers who buy
Area: Castle St. north to Bailey St. (Broad and sell incremental manipulation
Blvd. to Wharf St.) and Park Row and of the future, quanta of luck
Gulden (Park Place to Pearl St.); from
Wharf St. west to Broad Blvd. (Castle St. embezzled from the universe,
to Bailey St.) and Park Place (Bailey St. to for wealthy clients. The exact
Park Row and Gulden St.). location of the Fate Exchange is a
secret, and it’s likely protected by
The area between Pearl and Broad powerful wards against intrusion.
and centered on Bailey Street is
the financial heart of the New Other finance-related institutions
World and provides a name for the in the area include several banks,
entire district. The most famous among them the Empire National
institution located here is the City Bank, largest in the Union, and
Stock Exchange. The columned the City of Empire Bank and
façade of the main building Trust Company, the city’s
resembles an ancient temple, which oldest, rumored to incorporate
66
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
67
WEIRD ADVENTURES
3. HARDLUCK
Area: Bailey St. on the south to Park
Row (Pearl St. east to the Wyrd River)
and Howl St. (Grimm St. to the river and Still, it’s the district’s street gangs
Wharf St.) on the north; from the Wyrd that have captured the public
River west to Pearl St. (Bailey St. to Park imagination. Boys (and some
Row) and Grimm St. (Bailey St. to Howl girls) form bands and roam the
St.), excluding Triangle Park.
streets looking for mischief and
The sprawling slums of Hardluck are money. Some of these groups
packed with the mostly immigrant are just gangsters in training and
poor of the City. Despite the poverty, potent recruitment tools for the
vibrant ethnic communities have Hell Syndicate. Others are perhaps
sprung up in its crowded streets more community-oriented and
and tenements. Neighborhood provide a chance for kids to escape
newspapers and political pamphlets a life in the sweatshops. Among the
68
Random Immigrant Encounter Table
01 Doppelkinnian Butcher – Heavy set with an outrageously over-sized moustache (waxed
at the ends) and thinning hair. For some reason, his artificial left eye is bright blue. His real
one is brown. His large, heavy-knuckled hands always have the faint stain of blood. All he
sees and hears gets reported to the mob and from there, to Hell Syndicate capo Dis Pater.
02 Graustarkian Police Man – Ruddy-faced with a bulbous nose like ground-beef. Pay
him well, and he’ll look the other way. Don’t pay him, and he’ll look for a reason to crack
your head. Despite his accent, don’t ever mistake him for a Dawsbergener.
03 Ixanian Dissident Scientist – Thin, bespectacled, and chain-smoking, with a twitchy
mouth and nervous eyes. His fastidious suit is hopelessly out of date. He’s a bit paranoid—
anyone could be a Red agent or an Anarchist fanatic trying to get the secret. What secret?
Well, how does he know he can trust you? At some point in the near future, his dead body
will be found in the Eldritch River.
04 Karlovan Laundress – Aged, stooped, and bundled in a shawl. She sings to herself
constantly in the old tongue—songs bawdy and profane, if anyone understood them. She
has a chronic, wet cough, which should worry her employers but doesn’t. She knows a
few hexes that can make things difficult for those who cross her.
05 Uqbarish Taxi Driver – Oh, the stories he could tell—and will. He’ll regale you with
fascinating tales of the old country, if you can pick the “gold” from the dross of his broken
Common. Don’t listen! His homeland doesn’t exist in this world (at least not yet), but the
more people who come to believe in it through his enchanting anecdotes, the more likely it
is to manifest in reality—and, like a cancer, begin remaking the world around it.
06 Trysteran Pimp – Sleepy-eyed and perpetually smelling of alcohol but a sharp dresser.
He always carries a stiletto (since the incident that gave him the still-visible scar on his left
cheek) and knows how to use it. He’s also got a pistol (a souvenir from the War) in his sock
drawer. He has a strange fear of mirrors and a habit of stroking a rather sinister looking icon
of a saint no one is able to recognize.
07 Scirieli Prostitute – Works for the Trysteran Pimp. Beautiful and brunette with green
eyes that might hold centuries’ worth of boredom. In the old country she was chosen as a
young girl to serve the cult of the old and dread goddess the church fathers have tried hard
to stamp out, but the peasants stubbornly cling to in secret. She’s got a knife, too—an ornate,
ancient blade you will not see unless you too are chosen. And by then it’s too late.
08 Servian Newsboy – Born in the City and sounds like it, though his parents know not a
word of Common. He manages to hear a lot without ever being noticed, and shows up almost
like magic at pivotal moments, often to complicate matters. He wields a mean slingshot.
09 Luthan Anarchist – Tall and thin with long, spider-like fingers. He carries a Cerberus-
headed cane he fondles like a lover. His accent is thick, and he tends to mumble, so listeners
can never be sure they heard him correctly. He has enough explosive secreted on his person
to whip up at least a small bomb on very short notice. No one in this decadent city is
sufficiently dedicated to the revolutionary cause. He’d see it all go up in flames, if he could.
10 Poitêmien Occultist - Once handsome but now bald and growing paunchy. His
penetrating gaze is half his mystique. The other half is the shabby, libertine air he tries to
cultivate. He does seances for old money and looks for magical artifacts in the markets of
poorer parts of town. He seems to be seeking something specific....
WEIRD ADVENTURES
most famous of the latter type are Wurm and limiting its power. If the
the Hardluck Hooligans. Previous stories are true, this bit of history
generations of the Hooligans have is hidden in the depths of the City
produced actors, adventurers, and archives.
political leaders. A series of film
shorts (entirely fictionalized) has There are two buildings within the
made the gang famous Union-wide, park, both near the north end. The
if not any of its actual members. City Court Building on Chambers
Street is known for its caryatids in
Where Hardluck meets Yiantown the form of angular and stylized
and Dead End stands City Police ladies justice, bearing downward
Headquarters. This is the pointing swords. Folklore holds
command center for the police these figures sometimes hear the
precincts and patrol officers pleas of wronged women and
scattered throughout the five intercede. City Hall houses the
baronies. The building houses the offices of the mayor and his staff;
offices of the Police Commissioner the City Council and its various
and his deputies, the headquarters subcommittees; the Metropolitan
of the division of detectives, the Unusual Activities Commission,
criminal identification file center, which monitors thaumaturgists
and the forensic, necromantic, and and extraplanar entities; and the
thaumaturgic laboratories. Art Commission, which clears
designs for all public buildings and
4. PENTACLE PARK artworks. The central tower is 52
Area: Park Row and Civic Place on the stories tall and has an observation
south to Chambers St. on the north; from
deck open to the public on the 47th
West Broad St. east to Pearl St.
floor. City Hall is protected from
Pentacle Park is officially named magical assault by bound genius
Civic Park but gets its unofficial loci that cause spells to fail or
title from the arrangement of the backfire.
paved walks that separate its green
areas into a five-pointed star. Since In the park nearby is the entrance
the oldest days of the City, it has to City Hall Station of the
been rumored that the whole park Interbarony Rapid Transit subway.
is part of a great seal, binding the The station boasts unusually
70
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
elegant design with skylights, tiled industry, whose presses once served
arches, colored glass tile-work, and Ink Row. In the same vicinity was
brass chandeliers. the City’s leather tanning industry.
The growing population pushed
The park area in front of City Hall the tanneries away, but the leather
is home to a recently erected bronze merchants remain, and it’s the best
Statue of the Titan, the heroic place in the City to get a cuirass or
orichalcum automaton who has buff coat.
saved the City more than once. In
years past, this area functioned as North of Chambers, where Yianese
the City’s town square and has been restaurants and groceries have be-
the site of public gatherings—and, gun to encroach on the old city center,
occasionally, civil unrest. In 5807, there are still more government
it was the scene of a battle between offices. Foremost among these is
two rival police organizations. the imposing Municipal Office
The combatants stormed City Building. The City’s public radio
Hall, and, in an ironic turn, the station (CTY1) can be found here,
insurrection was only quashed by as can the marriage license bureau
the intervention of adventurers and and a single-room marriage chapel.
criminal elements. On the 23rd floor, the Municipal
Reference Library is a public library
Formerly, the section of Park Row branch holding maps, reports, and
just across from Pentacle Park documents related to all the cities
was home to the majority of the of the Meropic League and beyond.
City’s daily newspapers and so was
known as “Ink Row.” The industry Further north, an entire block is
has moved on, but the Guardian occupied by the building housing
Newsboys’ House, which provides the offices, clinics and laboratories
food and shelter at low cost for of the Municipal Departments
homeless boys, still remains. More of Health, Hospitals, and
than a few adventurers got there Sanitation. Here one finds
start there. the small offices allotted to the
Municipal Department of Animal
East from Park Row one finds and Pest Control, the highly-
the center of the City’s printing trained specialists known as the
Exterminators.
71
Taxmen
73
Exterminators
The Exterminators—the highly trained In the mid-levels or in wetter places,
and perhaps a little crazy men (and a various slimes, oozes, and molds are
few women) working for the Municipal found. These strange life forms are born
Department of Animal and Pest Control— of the effluvia of industrial alchemy,
are a special breed, as hard-bitten and the sludge of botched thaumaturgy, the
courageous as any adventurer. strangest flourishes of nature, or possibly
all three. Control of these lifeforms
Escaped familiars or the occasional requires special preparation and often
wandering monster from out of the protective garb.
wilderness are the sort of calls that will
bring out the men of the MDAPC, but The lowest levels present the strangest
their workaday grind is the monitoring challenges. There are prehistoric
and clearing of the various subterranean holdouts evolved (or devolved) to
areas beneath the City. The City was hideous, blind forms in the eternal
built on swampy land crisscrossed by darkness. There are chimerical creatures
creeks and streams. These swamps were produced by the decadent sorceries of
drained and many of the waters directed the Ancients. There are even extraplanar
underground through tunnels. Add to visitors summoned by prehuman wizards
these waterways the sewers, steam and trapped for millennia behind now-
tunnels, and subway stations that support eroding wards.
the modern city—to say nothing of the
occasional underground structure built In other words, the officers of the
by the Ancients. All these subterranean MDAPC face most of the challenges
environments support life. faced by your average professional
adventurer. The only real difference is
In the upper levels, one mostly they have a city pension to look forward
encounters creatures which may have to instead of a big treasure haul. Is it
wandered down from the surface or any wonder many give up civil service
vermin swarms—or larger-than-normal in favor of putting their skills to use
specimens of such. Dangerous fungi are elsewhere?
not unknown. Here the exterminators
must also be careful to respect the ghouls
and give them wide berth.
74
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
75
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76
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
77
WEIRD ADVENTURES
A rare treat is Little Carcosa’s street St. to Grimalkin St.) on the south to Howl
festival. Its occurrence is hard to St. on the north; from Broad Blvd. west to
Grimalkin St. (Chambers St. to Howl St.)
predict, based as it is on their arcane and Carnacki St. (DeMontour St. to Howl
sidereal calendar, but the Carcosans St.).
must plan for it well in advance—
despite no visible outward When the City was only a village
preparation. Young and old alike crowding a fort at the south end of
take to the streets in masks, forming Empire Island, there were rumors of
a raucous procession following a a sprawling house, beyond the glow
group of clowns. These clowns are of the village lights, built in a single
master contortionists (and possibly night by devils at the command of
even illusionists of some sort), a cabal of evil Ealderdish sorcerers.
performing feats that scarcely seem The sorcerers came to this wild
humanly possible and sometimes land to open a Black School (a
border on grotesque. Scholomance) to tutor what students
would come in the dark arts.
Outsiders are urged to leave after
the main body of the procession Some stories say a natural disaster
has passed for their own safety. A (“an act of God”) destroyed the
final performer sometimes follows school, while others say a group of
the parade, wearing a pale mask righteous adventurers razed it; a few
and dressed in yellow, tattered hold it just disappeared, as if hell
robes; his appearance tends to whip reclaimed it. No one really knows
the already excited crowd into an for certain.
ecstatic frenzy. While there have
been no verified cases of violence— What is known is that the place
and rumors of disappearances or where the Black School once stood
mental breakdowns are certainly was eventually engulfed by the
simply that—the intensity of the growing City and became known as
proceedings may be beyond the Scholo. Whatever industries have
comfort of the casual visitor. tried to take hold there—from farms
to brothels to sweatshops—never
9. SCHOLO (Magetown) lasted for long. The area is strangely
Area: Chambers St. (Grimalkin St. to prone to fires and unusual accidents.
Broad Blvd.) and DeMontour St. (Carnacki
78
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
The only thing that lasts in Scholo and unable to remember any but
is magic. As other enterprises the barest details of what they
have dwindled, magic book shops, experienced there. What fragments
alchemical supply stores, and the can be gleaned from them suggest
offices of cut-rate thaumaturgists malign, ever-shifting architecture,
for hire have thrived and grown sadistic traps, strange hauntings,
to crowd Scholo’s streets. and halls stalked by a half-real
Thaumaturgists live here, too— creature—never fully manifest on
young would-be up-and-comers this plane—that pursues intruders.
and old has-beens and never-wases
of any age. They practice their arts 10. ELDSIDE
in small, shabby apartments and Area: Chambers St. on the south to Howl
congregate to trade secrets (and St. on the north along the Eldritch River;
from the river east to Grimalkin St.
lies) in a few cafes and bars. (Chambers St. to DeMontour St.) and to
Carnacki St. (DeMontour St. to Howl St.)
Bar talk often turns to the Black
School. It appears some nights of This area is the busiest portion of
the new moon, they say, in that old the City’s commercial waterfront.
park where nothing has ever been Along the river are bustling
built and nothing but twisted and bulkhead sheds and dockhouses.
blighted trees grow. Some brave Across Eld Street are luncheonettes,
souls have gone in (the story goes) saloons, and clothing stores
and found it bigger on the inside— catering to sailors who swarm the
and growing larger all the time with waterfront. Many longshoremen
creaks and groans. Amid its many live in slums near Eld Street, and
rooms are libraries full of occult line up every morning along the
lore, including some texts thought docks in the hopes of being chosen
lost. for the daily work crews.
It’s a tempting destination for those On Eld Street, one finds the ferry
young up-and-comers, but the old terminal of the Central Meropic
timers remind them that most who Railroad. Here, ten ferry services
go in never come out again; those provide passage for people and
that do have emerged haunted, vehicles to Hoborxen, Moth, and
shattered men prone to suicide Weemawkish Cove. A couple of
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
blocks south is the office building for any other trouble. Like most
of the City Chronicle, the venerable places in the City, the tunnel has its
daily newspaper. urban legends. Commonly heard
tales report thick fog in the dead of
A little north on Eld is the night in which a short procession
Timepiece Museum of J.A. of bipedal but vaguely batrachian
Gambol and Associates. This figures are seen, carrying crackling,
collection contains a myriad weirdly glowing orbs. The fogs
of timepieces, from watches to are said to dissipate as quickly and
standing clocks—some of these of mysteriously as they are alleged to
strange, perhaps unearthly design. appear and leave no trace.
Indeed, not all the museum’s clocks
seem to measure time in the same The City Telephone Company
way or progress at the same rate. Skyscraper, only a few blocks
The elderly curator, dressed like further north, rises ziggurat-
something of a dandy and always like and is topped with a spire
possessed of an enigmatic grin, resembling a Tesla coil. Whether
will answer questions elaborately, this spire serves any purpose other
but never satisfyingly. Visitors than decoration is apparently a
have noted upon leaving that trade secret. This facility is the
the amount of time they actually headquarters for the subsidiaries of
spent in the museum doesn’t seem Reade Telephone Systems, serving
congruent with their subjective most of the City’s hegemony. A
experience, though the direction of little ways up Eld, in the Research
the discrepancy varies. Laboratories of Reade Telephone,
scientists and a few thaumaturgists
The Corund Tunnel begins at the work to advance telephony and
end of Brandoch Street and passes allied communications technologies
under the Eldritch River to 12th including telectroscopy, etheric
Street in Moth (50-cent toll for image transmission, and even
passenger cars). East and west trans-mortem communication.
bound tubes are separated, each Rumors that a secret laboratory
with two lanes. Catwalks in each holds a strange artifact—a
tube are patrolled by officers who mummified yet animate and vocal
enforce the speed limit and watch head kept in a vacuum inside a
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
caught beneath the boughs of that Wellborn) was held here awaiting
tree. The streets surrounding the trial for the “Great Gold Train
park are lined by stately homes, Robbery.” A couple of blocks north,
apartments, and a few mansions, St. Valiant’s Hospital is the City’s
the exception being in the east, oldest charity hospital, relying on
where one finds the main buildings voluntary contributions—and a
of City of Empire University. favorite of injured, short-on-funds
adventurers.
South of the square are converted
studios and a string of bars and 12. EAST GRIMALKIN
nightclubs, patronized mostly by Area: Howl St. and Triangle Park on the
outsiders looking to soak up the south to 14th St. on the north; from the
Wyrd River west to Broad Blvd.
bohemian atmosphere. Emerging
from this area is the narrow, blind, Once the rural outskirts of Grimalkin
pedestrian street Black Dougal Village, the march of the poor and
Alley, where old mews have been mostly immigrant masses made this
turned into studios and at least one area part of Hardluck. A trickle
experimental theater specializing of free-thinkers and bohemians
in grisly horror. The alley is lit by who couldn’t afford Village rents
the City’s only remaining gas street eventually turned it into a mixed
lamps—strangely so, since the fuel neighborhood with a character of its
lines were supposedly turned off own.
decades ago.
The immigrants are predominantly
Along Grimalkin Street, there are of southern and eastern Ealderdish
numerous art galleries, hosting stock: Scierili, Luthans, Servians,
everything from the traditional to and Karlovans are common,
the avant-garde. The Yellow Door but there are representatives of
is a popular new gallery of the latter numerous tiny states. They worship
type. Somewhat out of place is the at churches that practice a rite as old
more prosaic Women’s House of as the Oecumenical Heirarchate,
Detention and its associated court but distinct from it, under the
building located on 7th Avenue. guidance of long-bearded priests.
The famous (and glamorous) air- The old faith is sometimes at odds
pirate queen Mab (Cora Mabelle with the modern philosophies of
82
Open All Night
Philmon’s is a well-known all-night diner on Grimalkin Avenue. It’s seen its share of
unusual late-night visitors. Here are a few possibilities:
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Barrow Men
Ability Modifiers: CON +1, CHA -1
Classes: All
Languages: Ghoulish
Racial Traits:
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Down in Undertown
The ghouls of the City are a subspecies Undertown is a sovereign city, but it
of humanity whose origins are lost in has survived by making connections
history. If they live in the Old World, with the human city above. Ghouls
their presence is well hidden, perhaps relay grave goods and valuables hauled
obscured by legends of vampires from the underground to policemen,
and the like. In the New World, after criminals, and low-level bureaucrats—
centuries of mistrust and antagonism, and, in return, no one notes the bodies
the ghoulish community of the City has that disappear from potter’s field or
struck an uneasy truce with its human even the City morgue.
neighbors.
Ghouls produce no physical works of art
The bone of contention between the or literature, as far as is known. Their
ghouls and humanity is their dietary only material culture is scavenged from
habits. The ghouls are eaters of carrion the upper world, or looted from graves.
and have a taste for human flesh. They do however produce strange music,
They don’t (as often portrayed in pulp which many find unsettling, but others,
stories) eat live humans or attack them strangely appealing. They’ve also
like predatory beasts. The truth, though, been known to put on plays—perhaps
is perhaps equally lurid: In addition to unsurprisingly, mostly comedies filled
human flesh, they periodically consume with gallows humor.
human brains. They seem to require
some essential nutrients present in Occasionally, ghouls get hopped up on
human gray matter. Those who don’t fungus from abandoned subways or
consume at least a small amount drunk on brains soaked in the bootleg
every 14-28 days (depending on the liquor from their stills, and they go
individual) begin to suffer from a on a bit of a tear, scaring upper-folk
degenerative neurological malady. and generally making a nuisance of
themselves. Then, police and deputized
Ghouls have always lived underground civilians are sent down to crack a few
and come out to scavenge at night. In ghoul skulls, and some ealdormen
the City, the underground construction make noise about the “ghoul menace.”
that produced waterworks, steam Mostly though, the two peoples remain
tunnels, and subways provided spaces segregated and mistrustful, but willing
for ghouls to inhabit. They connected to live and let live.
these more modern structures with
older, labyrinthine tunnels built by
the Ancients for some forgotten
purpose. This ramshackle area of ghoul
communities is known as “Undertown.”
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knowledge of the past, claiming (if As diverse as the salesmen and their
pressed) that trying to make sense wares are the square’s beggars.
of the tangled skein of futurity Blind, handless, footless, legless or
is seldom worthwhile. Her most on rolling platforms, playing guitar
common gift is to recall for someone or saxophone or reciting verse, they
a thing he or she has forgotten— stake out advantageous spots or
even something he or she has been wander through the crowds. Some
made to forget by magic or has lost of them may well be urban druids
through reincarnation. communing with their city, but if
so, they don’t reveal themselves.
Those summoned are usually given
a task. Sometimes the tasks are The face of a sun in bas-relief
innocuous, mundane; other times, watches over the square with
they’re more akin to epic quests. smiling beneficence from the
Like her choice of agents, the pediment of Sun in Splendor Hall
reasons for these tasks are often to the east. This is the headquarters
known only to the Lady. of the Fair Share Party political
machine that dominated City
16. MONOLITH SQUARE politics throughout the early part
Area: 19th St. on the south to 23rd St. on the of the century—too often through
north; from 6th Ave. east to 4th Ave. graft and patronage—and continues
In Monolith Square you can buy to be an important player to this
anything from artificial flowers to day.
men’s neck ties, political dailies
to risqué picture postcards, and At the “prow” of the square, near
popular song sheets to dream 19th Street, is the monument that
interpretation books. In many gives it its name. A rough-hewn,
ways, it’s a working-class version black standing stone, some six feet
of the Circus; there are shopping tall and three feet wide, has been
marts and street vendors instead of in that spot since before the City’s
boutiques, matinee movie houses founding. The stone is a magical
in place of glittering-marqueed void; it absorbs all thaumaturgic
theaters, and cafeterias instead of energies directed at it without any
cafés. effect. This property, combined
with its weak magnetism, have
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Scratch The business he conducts is as eclectic
as the people with whom he conducts it.
Mr. Scratch, or sometimes “Nick Scratch,” Often he gives favors — some seemingly
is a figure of some mystery. Scratch makes inconsequential, others of great importance.
all the right parties, and can be seen in He seldom asks for anything in return—at
all the tony night-spots. He might be least, not immediately. He provides tidbits
glimpsed hobnobbing with the scions of of information at a high price but is just
old-money Dwergen families, rising-star as likely to save someone’s life gratis. It’s
city ealdormen, high-placed members not always hard to discern some pattern in
of the mob, or even some of the more public his actions, but his ultimate goal remains
supernatural denizens of the city. At the elusive — if indeed there is one. Still, more
same time, more than one down-and-out than one tale of woe in the City begins with
junkie or death row loser will spin you a a seemingly positive meeting with Scratch.
tale of having met him outside some dive
in Hell’s Commot or on a smuggler’s dock Scratch’s physical appearance and the deals
obscured by night fog off the Eldritch. he sometimes offers suggest a connection
to the Hell Syndicate, though which of the
Wherever he’s met, Scratch is always eight infernal families he might work for is
stylishly and impeccably dressed. His unclear. Some have suggested he might be
moustache and beard are always neatly the son of a hell capo, given control of the
trimmed and his hands well-manicured. city to “make a name” for himself. Others
Most people either don’t notice (or are too think that for all his mysterious airs, he’s
polite to mention) the small horns on his just another sap working out the terms of
forehead. He’s usually flanked by “muscle” a Faustian contract. Still others point out
of almost preternatural quiet. The goons act that the diabolic boss of bosses hasn’t
more like well-dressed statues than men, been heard from in some time. It’s been
unless Scratch needs them to make a point. whispered (perhaps recklessly) that Scratch
He maintains a well-appointed office in a might be Morningstar himself, in disguise.
skyscraper downtown (on the 66th floor, What a being of that power would be doing
naturally), though that’s seldom where in the role of middling operator in the City
people first meet him. is a worrisome thought.
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Gargoyles
Gargoyles are Old World creatures that have been roosting in human cities
since ancient times. Historically, some Earlderdish cities are reported to
have formed pacts with gargoyle colonies for mutual protection. Not
native to the New World, the creatures must have either stowed away or
been purposefully transported to its shores.
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
overwhelmingly industrial and Ave. (30th to 34th St.) and 7th Ave. east
sparsely populated; even its poor, to Broad Blvd. (34th to 42nd St. and the
Circus).
mostly immigrant workers choose
to live elsewhere to escape the ever- In the ‘30s and ‘40s, this area was
present animal smells. the “Tenderloin,” notorious as the
wickedest place in the city. Today,
Thaumaturgists and alchemists it is home to the city’s foremost
sometimes visit the yards to industry, the garment trade, and
purchase animal-derived material related businesses.
components like bezoars or
alectorian stones. Occasionally, The character of the district is
adventurers are hired to trap or influenced by the peculiarities of
kill monsters that are drawn to the the garment business. The close
offal—giant rats and the six-legged, interplay between manufacture
naked devil-rats are probably the and sales has insured that the
most common—though rarely workrooms have remained close to
something will crawl or slither from the design studios and showrooms.
the subterranean depths. Also, the fickleness of fashion has
allowed smaller operations to hold
It’s long been rumored that the ghouls their own against larger ones.
have an arrangement with some
slaughterhouse operators to allow The treatment of the predominantly
the use of their facilities for after female shop workers—once the
hours “dinner parties” in exchange subject of muckraking exposés—
for loot from the underground. has greatly improved since the
Certainly, unscrupulous owners establishment of a Garment
of knacker’s yards and livestock Workers Union. Though some
holding pens have—for a fee— sweatshops remain, one terrible
been happy to oblige mobsters in practice has hopefully been stamped
the disposal of bodies. out entirely. In the past, destitute
young girls were transformed into
23. THE GARMENT DISTRICT
centaur-like, human-spider hybrids
AND VICINITY
Area: 30th St. on the south to 34th (5th to 8th through the use of thaumaturgic arts
Ave.) and 42nd St. and the Circus (Broad stolen from certain pagan temples
Blvd. to 7th Ave.); from 8th Ave. east to 5th of the East. The silk produced by
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Between 30th and 34th Street, 6th Fane Station on Seventh Avenue
Avenue becomes a pedestrian- is one of the City’s two great
only thoroughfare, passing passenger railroad terminals. It
through the heart of the City’s lies along the only route allowing
concentrated shopping center. direct rail travel from New Lludd
The area is dominated by three to the South. The architecture of
famous department stores: Dacy’s, the structure recalls monumental
Gymbles, and Shrack’s. temples of ancient Ealderde. The
vast central hall is lined with
Dacy’s, the largest department store murals depicting the destinations
in the world, sits across from the served. The station’s massive yard
34th Street boundary of the mall. It is located underground, beneath it.
boasts 23 acres of retail space where
customers can buy everything from Across Eighth Avenue from Fane
diamonds to dog food. Its sporting Station is the City of Empire
goods department carries some General Post Office, the largest
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
hospital, or the morgue, and set and shop workers. The church is
petty thugs to flight. Still, Hell’s popularly known as “The Church
Commot remains a fertile recruiting of Father Duncan,” in honor of
ground for the gangs under the Reverend Padric Duncan, chaplain
suzerainty of the Hell Syndicate to of the City’s “Fighting Fifth” during
this day. the Great War, and pastor here until
his death. Duncan’s earthy manner
From 30th to 32nd Street, the and his strong fists (he was one
waterfront is dominated by Empire of the gifted) helped him reform
Central Railroad’s Eld Side Yard, many a hardened gang member and
which sprawls over ten city blocks. protected his flock.
It serves as the primary receiving
and departure point for the only A number of film distribution
all-rail freight line on the island. companies occupy the area around
Security must remain vigilant for the 44th Street and Ninth Avenue known
inevitable congeries of hobogoblins as Celluloid Center. All the major
seeking free transit. Heliotrope studios have offices
here to prepare films for screening
On 42nd Street, the Church of the in area theaters. Newsreels are
Holy Saltire ministers to theater folk produced and edited here so that
and entertainers as well as factory footage shot in the afternoon can
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
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111
continued from previous page 5. A used napkin with the address of a
warehouse where a Staarkish Imperial
Horvendile & Hawberk’s, or Military manhunter golem has been
sometimes “Double H’s” (used stored. It’s battered but only needs a
somewhat superstitiously), looks power source to return to operation.
new, though its decor and signage
are a decade or more out of date. 6. Four-and-a-half pages of illuminated
text in a magical script from a grimoire
Decorative glass fixtures around
on which someone has over-written a
the upper walls are etched with series of bawdy limericks. It contains
astrological symbols. The staff 1-4 spells that must be recopied
is always crisply dressed and to separate the formulae from the
pleasant but doesn’t engage limericks.
in conversation. In addition to
the automat staples like coffee, 7. A post-bill asking after a lost dog
named “Jakey.” The crude drawing of
pie, sandwiches, and macaroni
the dog is so vague as to be unhelpful,
and cheese, the coin-operated, but it’s strangely unsettling to the
hinged, glass slots at Double viewer. Anyone who touches it will
H’s sometimes hold apparently have vague nightmares and unrestful
random and unusual items: sleep that night.
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The Borogove-Astra
Hotel is two 47-story
towers between 49th and
50th Streets, Park and
Hexington Avenues. It
plays host to important
City social functions and
is the lodging of choice
for visiting foreign
dignitaries. The hotel
sits atop the railroad, and
private cars may stop at
32. EMPIRE PARK EAST a special entrance.
Area: 59th St. north to 106th St.; Empire
Park east to 3rd Ave.
Flashman Avenue is home to the
The district East of Empire Park is headquarters of the Zephyria
a place of old mansions, spacious Broadcasting System and its
apartments, exclusive clubs, and studios. It’s the second largest
palatial hotels; of tony art galleries, network in the Union.
trendy cocktail lounges, and swank
nightclubs. The stretch of 5th Avenue On 78th Street between Flashman
along the park is called “Pauper’s and Park is the Mircalla Karnstein
Row”—a name originally applied Finishing School for Young Ladies
derisively to the modest dwellings founded by the Staarkish Countess
here when the City elite still lived Karnstein. Graduates of the school
further south, but used ironically for have found husbands among the
the past thirty years as the area has City’s wealthiest bachelors. All
become populated by millionaires, seem to follow their mentor’s
first in mansions, but increasingly unorthodox beauty regimen and are
in apartment buildings. seldom seen out in the sunlight.
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
This public persona doesn’t tell the whole story. His real name is Alisander
Welleran, and he’s taken an oath before the Nine Unknown Sages of Agarthala
to defend this plane against the forces of evil. Time after time, he’s put the
mystic powers he mastered in Agharthala to this purpose—and if he can
increase his celebrity thereby, so much the better. He’s thwarted Anarchists
trying to poison the City’s water supply with flesh-warping alchemicals and
bested a murderous shade striving to re-enact its pre-death killing spree,
among other exploits. And he’s always looked good doing it.
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Fifth and Flashman Avenues This district is the oldest of the ethnic
are where the most prominent enclaves in the north of the island
businesses of the district are located. and one of the City’s most densely
Restaurants offer cuisine from the populated areas. Immigrants tended
denizens’ native lands, pharmacies to settle near folk from their same
offer traditional medicines and village or province until the entire
charms, and a number of music map of the Vatilian League was laid
shops sell instruments and Esparian down in crazy-quilt fashion on the
language records. grid of the City’s streets.
116
Dark with Something More than Night
The living share the streets of the In the early stages of vampirism—
City with the unliving.... perhaps the first few weeks after
they rise—most enjoy the high
Vampires: The vampires that of blood-drinking. Many only
haunt the City’s streets and prowl take it from semi-willing victims
its night-spots must drink the they have seduced, and are often
blood of the living to survive. careful not to kill. Some may only
Specifically, they must consume need to ingest blood every other
the blood of living humans; the week at this stage. Over time,
blood of other animals will stave tolerance develops and the amount
off withdrawal but won’t give of blood needed to stave off
them the “high” they crave and withdrawal becomes greater—as
leaves them in a weakened state. does their willingness to do almost
Like vampires elsewhere, they’re anything to get it. Advanced-stage
nocturnal hunters who can’t abide vampires may need to consume
the light. blood nightly.
Vampires are perhaps best This increased use takes its toll on
analogized as addicts or junkies. a vampire’s body. Nature abhors
A vampire in need of blood is the vampire: Immune elements
afflicted by terrible physical in the blood they ingest lead to
and psychological symptoms the development of sores on their
of withdrawal. Whatever their undead skin. Older vampires
moral or ethical feelings were in often lose their hair and muscle
life (or even in their undeath), mass; their nails and teeth yellow,
the crippling need drives them to and the whites of their eyes turn
harm others. jaundiced.
38. SOLACE
Area: 118th St. on the south to Reynard
Lane (John Conquer Ave. to Solace Ave.)
and 155th St. (5th Ave. to John Conquer
Ave.) on the north; Solace Ave. and John
Conquer Ave. east to 5th Ave.
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Except for the waterfront area south Empire Park West (continuous
of 54th Street (which boasts the docks with Eighth Avenue) is home to
of some of the world’s most famous several apartment buildings. The
ocean liners), the area between the twin towers of the Monarch
Eldritch River and Empire Park is Apartments house the exclusive
crossed by thoroughfares lined with Explorers Club. While the club’s
the residences of the wealthy. wealthy members mostly look
down on the mass of adventurers
(whom they consider grubby tomb-
robbers), a few of the latter group
have managed to elevate themselves
into the fellowship. The club’s
quarters contain a private museum
filled with trophies acquired by
members during their adventures.
The Shonokin
Mingus Rooke
Though only a country boy just arrived in New
Ylourgne, Rooke nevertheless impressed
jazz band leader and sorcerer Salomo King.
Learning both the music business and
musical thaumaturgy from King, Rooke soon
struck out on his own and put his skills to use
with various adventuring gangs.
Arriving in the City, Rooke made a name for himself in the jazz night-
spots and earned the enmity of Mr. Scratch after turning down an
exclusive contract—an antipathy that would plague his adventuring
career. Rooke retired from “the adventuring life” relatively young,
after suffering a minor stroke. This he suffered while blowing Gabriel’s
trumpet to summon an angelic host to save Hardluck from processing
by the alien Machineries of Night.
Rooke still plays on occasion (if not quite as well as he used to) and
operates the trendy Solace night-club, The Blue Hound.
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At 72nd street, the Shonokin is houses not only exhibit halls but
a brown and muted yellow brick also research laboratories and
building with high gables, deep a scientific library. The fossil
roofs, and pinnacled dormers. For collection boasts a leviathan skull
all its beauty, the apartment building big enough for visitors to stand
has had sinister associations in the inside; a display in the Hall of Ebon-
past: When it was new, the spinster Land Mammals allows a safe look
Pitt Sisters christened it with the at the face of a catoblepas. (Museum
blood of children they killed and hours: weekdays and Mournday
ate; a few decades later, Hadrianus 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Godsday 1 to 5
Marcato, diabolist, was lynched in p.m.; admission free. Planetarium
the lobby for his infamies. performances: weekdays at 2,
3:30, and 8:30 p.m., Mournday 11
Between 76th and 77th Streets is a.m., hourly from 1 to 5 p.m., and
the City Historical Society. The 8:30 p.m.; Godsday hourly from 2
building contains a library, art to 5 p.m.; admission 50 cents for
galleries, and a museum of artifacts matinees, 60 cents for evenings,
of the City’s history. The collection children 15 cents.)
includes the original scabbard of
Middennight’s vorpal sword (itself The corner of 96th Street is occupied
lost), original Pickman oils from by the Electrovangelic Church of
his stay in ghoulish Undertown, the Machine Messiah. The church
assorted pieces of Native costume, is part of a worldwide movement
explorers’ maps of the area, and a dedicated to building the perfect
cast of Archambaud Wychwire’s construct to instantiate the Messiah
hoofprint. (Museum open 10 a.m. to and usher in an age of spiritual
5 p.m., Godsday 1 to 5 p.m.; library perfection.
open daily except Godsday 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m.) 34. ELDSIDE DRIVE
Area: 54th St. to 137th St. bordering the
Eldritch River.
Seventy-seventh to 81st Streets are
occupied by the City Museum of Eldside Drive is a scenic
Natural History and Gernsback thoroughfare that winds its way
Planetarium. This cluster of along the escarpment above the
buildings on park-like grounds Eldritch River. This permits a view
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“STROLLING THROUGH THE PARK”
of the majestic Lenfer Bridge, the Eldritch River east to 8th Ave. (118th to
144th St.) and Park Place West (110th St. to
the imposing face of the Pale in
118th St.).
Shancks, and the river itself. The
vista is zealously guarded by a row Morningstar Hills and its northern
of apartment buildings and a few neighbor are hilly areas marked by
old mansions on the east. institutions of religion and learning.
The most prominent of the latter
The heart of the drive is Eldside is Septentrion University, one
Park, which lies between its curve of the oldest institutions of higher
and West Avenue. At the southern learning in the country. This
end of the park stands a Statue private school was historically
of Joan Darkling in plate armor. devoted to the liberal arts but has
Darkling was a former adventurer branched out over the decades into
who became a prominent figure science, medicine, engineering, and
in the early labor movement. A thaumatology—though not actual
nine-foot Statue of Rudland J. sorcery. Bellegarde College is its
Madlark can be found at the park’s sister school, located in the vicinity.
north end. Madlark was a City
mayor influential in the creation of The most famous of the religious
the Meropic League. institutions is the ornate Eldside
Church, set on a promontory
The point of the park overlooking overlooking the Eldritch. The
the Eldritch is home to the park’s church’s stained glass windows
most unusual statue. The Statue were thaumaturgically enhanced
of the Serpent is a fanciful work so that they emit a gentle glow at
meant to depict the river monster night. Its bell tower is 22 stories
that was a brief sensation one and contains an observation tower
summer some thirty years ago. open to the public (10 a.m. to 5
The serpent supposedly delivered a p.m.; admission 25 cents).
series of prophecies to City fathers
that have never been made public. At the Church of Saint
Azederac, sermons are delivered
35. MORNINGSTAR HILLS in Averoignat, the native tongue
and 39. GOTHAMVILLE of the saint himself. The reliefs
Area: 110th St. on the south to 118th St. decorating the church are notable
(North Park Plaza to 8th Ave.) and 144th St.;
for their toad motif.
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
126
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
free for residents of the City who medals. The coinage of the City
can pass the entrance exams. and the Union are emphasized,
but the collection includes historic
On Broad Boulevard between 145th pieces from the Ancients, Meropis,
and 146th Streets is the entrance and Ealderde. (Hours: 2 to 5 p.m.
to Sage’s Court, where a group daily except holidays; admission
of museums is clustered. The free.)
Museum of the Zephyrian Native
is dedicated to the preservation Along the northern riverfront is the
of the culture of the indigenes of Septentrion University Medical
the Western Hemisphere (Open Center complex. In addition
weekdays and Mournday 2 to 5 to various clinics and specialty
p.m.; admission free). The City hospitals, the area is home to the
Geographical Society publishes Septentrion University College of
books, maps, and a quarterly Physicians and Surgeons.
journal. The group maintains a
library and map collection open to South on the river, just north of
the public (Open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Brant’s Tomb, is the sprawling
weekdays and Mourndays except Saint Bernward’s Cemetery.
during the months of Swelter and When the cathedral’s churchyard
Ripened; admission free). was crowded out of downtown, it
was moved to a more tranquil and
The Auberon Society was expansive area. In decades past,
founded in honor of Chyrils Hoyt the cemetery was a meeting place
Auberon, paranaturalist, collector between ghouls and unscrupulous
of anomalous phenomena, and body-snatching staff of the medical
illustrator. The society collects center.
artifacts, oddities, and writings
related to things unexplained by 41. ALDWOOD
mundane or thaumaturgic science. Area: 155th Ave. on the south to the Eldritch
River on the north; the Eldritch River east
The society keeps eccentric hours, to Aldwood Rd.
but it allows free admission to its
collection. The Union Numismatic Aldwood is the most isolated of the
Society boasts a library and exhibits City’s districts—and not simply
related to the history of coins and because of its location. Wooded,
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
quiet Aldwood has been entirely
overtaken by a fictional world. mushrooms had cropped up, and
fanciful creatures were encountered
Aldwood was a normal, suburban with regularity.
district until Midsummer’s Eve
some 34 years ago. Perhaps not Many of Aldwood’s residents
coincidentally, this was the night chose to flee. Law enforcement
of the final Broad Boulevard was dispatched to investigate.
performance of the musical They were naturally resistant to
adaptation of the popular children’s negotiating the cession of the
fantasy The Magical Monarch of Mu. district with an animate, pumpkin-
Residents reported hearing strange headed scarecrow, but attempts to
music that night and laughter. By reclaim Aldwood were repulsed
the next morning, the forest had by a cast-iron giant, smartly-
grown thicker and wilder, and many uniformed elfin pikemen, and china
trees had become animate—and doll martial artists.
opinionated. Stands of man-sized
The next two years saw
intermittent skirmishes
between the City and the
invaders. Reconnaissance
confirmed that many were
identifiable characters from
The Magical Monarch of Mu.
Attempts to locate the author, F.
Marsh Loam, for questioning
proved ineffective, even
with thaumaturgical aid.
Ultimately, pragmatism
prevailed, and a peace
treaty was signed,
making Aldwood a
reservation within
the boundaries of the
City.
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
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Urban Druids
130
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
T
fearful or even fleeing some danger
atop the hill: Some have fallen, he first settlements in Rookend
others are stumbling, and still were camps of hirelings, bar
others seem to be shielding their owners, traders, and prostitutes
faces. Eight of these statues have making a living off adventurers
been discovered but others may be planning expeditions in the
buried or hidden by foliage. underground of Empire Island.
As pirates and river rats drifted
The other enigmatic point of interest in, these tent-towns developed
is the Witt Bridge. Connecting to into ramshackle streets of saloons,
Marquesa across the Wyrd River, gambling dens, whorehouses, and
it appears to be built of the same the shanties of the poor, derisively
marble as the griffin and the other called “rookeries” by their
statues. Remarkably, its entire span neighbors across the Wyrd.
and supports seem to be a single
piece of stone; no seams can be Today, Rookend is known as the
detected. The Old Dwerg-folk were City’s residential quarter. In fact,
superstitious about the bridge and it’s the most populated barony of
only used it during daylight. They the metropolis. It
associated it with the witch- has wealthy districts
folk of their native land, and poor slums, but
the White Women. it’s mostly composed
A popular pastime of middle-class
among local youth is neighborhoods. Many
daring one of their of these are immigrant
fellows to walk to communities: A third of
the bridge’s midpoint Rookend’s population
at midnight. There, they say is foreign born.
in conspiratorial whispers,
the White Women will This is not to say that it’s
appear. without industry. Close
to half of the City’s
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132
CITY CONFIDENTIAL
133
The Boardwalk War
A covert war is being fought along Mister Chax’s rival can be found in
the boardwalk and in the places a novelty shop near the entrance to
of amusement on Lapin Isle. The Lunar Rabbit Park. Her glass case
war is between two lords (or one gives her name as Grisselda, but
lord and one lady) of petty crime. her followers—her “ducklings”—
The stakes are the illicit earnings call her “Auntie” or “Great Aunt.”
from all the beach’s pickpockets, Grisselda appears as an old woman,
quick-grab artists, petty confidence like an Old World grandmother.
tricksters, and part-time prostitutes. She tells fortunes by the use of
Neither of these would-be kingpins playing cards, and this is also the
is human; each is, in fact, a coin- way she communicates with her
operated fortune-telling machine. followers. These are mostly young
girls, either in their teens or early
In the middle of the boardwalk, twenties, who dress like prim
a penny arcade is the domain of young ladies, perhaps on a church
Mister Chax, the All-Knowing trip. Their dainty purses hide
Homunculus. Inside his glass switchblades, and maybe pocket-
case, Mister Chax appears as a pistols, and nasty, back-alley magic
ventriloquist’s dummy in a natty items. The cryptic meanings of
suit with dead (yet too-knowing) Grisselda’s cards are interpreted by
eyes, and a leering, plastered grin an oracle. She’s a girl a little older
beneath a pencil-thin moustache. than Auntie’s standard soldier,
His communications come on cards, with eyes older still and porcelain
neatly printed and filigreed. Chax’s skin. She typically dresses like an
gang is mostly scruffy urchins who aspiring torch-singer and smokes
seem innocuous when encountered a cigarette through a holder. Her
singularly but sinister in packs. name is always “Esme.”
They speak in a ridiculous child-
argot, never completely intelligible Chax and Grisselda try to keep their
to adults without magical aid. Some war sotto voce. They have no wish
of them are very large for their age. to attract the authorities, but also
no wish to draw the interest of the
Chax also has been known to malign godling of Lapin Isle, the
employ inky spider-things the size dark personification of the rabbit in
of wharf-rats with almost human the moon; the thing like a man in a
faces and derisive, whispering bunny suit that is not a man.
voices. Their bites cause painful
pustules and nightmares.
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
It was built by a retiring knight fate was tied to the City’s (rather
errant, but given a more sinister than that of the wider Hegemony)
reputation when it was inhabited due to collusion between its leaders
by the necromancer Alessandro and those of Empire Island to control
Macabra. After Macabra was travel along the Eldritch River at its
forced to flee (and nubile captives narrowest point, across from what is
in his dungeon freed) the castle now Eldside Park.
became the property of the local
government. Shancks is named for Jarus Shanck,
a former adventurer and assassin
East City Studios, in the vicinity, is who built a fortress atop the Pale—a
used for the production of shorts— line of steep cliffs rising almost
mostly comedies and educational vertically along the west bank of
subjects. A few feature films have the Eldritch. The rock face bears
been shot here, as well. runic-like markings in places (the
vertical lines of which climb as high
The eastern island of Marquesa as 300 feet) that have so far resisted
is separated from the west by the translation. Jarus Shanck’s treasure
Narwall River. It’s more rural than hold was said to extend into tunnels
its neighbor but also home to resort behind the cliff wall itself, and if it
areas located on Yondo Sound. ever existed, it remains hidden to
Among the amusements in the area this day.
is Marduke Race Track (General
admission $2.50, women $1.75; Shancks was, for generations, an
clubhouse $5.00, women $4.00). area of rural farmland supplying
The stands seat 12,000, though City markets, but eventually
attendance may be much higher developed into a railroad suburb
when a famous horse is racing. as it was the closest point on the
mainland. Today, its communities
CHAPTER V: are mostly working-class, but the
Shancks territory’s rulers planned well to
preserve green space, and it boasts
S hancks is the only City barony large parks and a few colleges with
on the mainland. Historically expansive campuses.
something of a rural backwater, its
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Besides the Pale, Shancks is perhaps The City Zoological Society, which
best known for Shancks Park. Its supports the park, also maintains a
nearly 800 acres of forest and green research facility on its grounds and
lawn along the Shancks River publishes bulletins and periodicals
are home to the City Botanical on related topics.
Gardens and the City Zoological
Park. The Botanical Gardens (Open
daily; admission free) were
The zoo (Open daily 9 a.m. to a established in 5841. They are
half-hour before sunset, Vernal 15 separated from the zoo by Pellehan
to Redfall 15, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Parkway. The huge glass building
Redfall 16 to Vernal 14; admission that is the Main Conservatory is
25 cents for adults, 15 cents for divided into “houses” devoted to
children under 12, free weekends different environments or divisions
and holidays) is the largest in of the plant kingdom. Around the
the New World. Its over 2000 conservatory are pools for aquatic
specimens reside in habitats that plants and garden beds.
resemble their natural environments
as much as possible; the zoo sprawls The Gardens contain a few exotic
over more than 250 acres. or parabotanical specimens.
Dried and preserved specimens
Its animals tend to be of the more of Plant Pygmies (Vegepygmeus
mundane variety (or at least, anthrophagi) are displayed in a
typically appear so), though in diorama. A glass-enclosed grotto
decades past there were small allows visitors a safe glimpse of
dinosaurs, captured in the Grand various subterranean fungi.
Chasm vicinity. Those were ill-
suited to the City’s winters and The Garden’s museum contains a
were removed to warmer climes. herbarium with tens of thousands
Occasionally, predatory monsters of seeds and desiccated specimens
wander up from some subterranean and research laboratories. The
layer, drawn by so many potential Botanical Society funds expeditions
meals in a limited area. For this to far-flung areas of the globe to
reason, former adventurers number bring back exotic specimens for
among the zoo’s staff. study.
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140
Enemies & Allies
142
WEIRD MENACES
essentially a small elemental that believes intellect—evolved even beyond the need
itself to be the spirit of the person slain. It for speech—began to change unexpectedly
has the knowledge, skills, and personality upon exposure to humanity. After
of the person emulated, albeit distorted by millennia, they experienced appetite.
unreasoning, homicidal anger. Despite its
name, it’s not a ghost and has none of the The psychic flavors of human emotions
traits of the undead. (particularly the various permutations of
fear) are like nectar to their once utterly
ZOMBIE logical minds. The greatest delicacy,
No. Encountered: 2d20 beside which the purely mental morsels
Hit Dice: 2 pale, is the visceral pleasure of consuming
Armor Class: 8 or 12 raw human brains—preferably fresh from
Speed: Very Slow to Slow the skull of a still-living victim.
Attack: 1 claw or contagious bite (1d6),
bites do not heal naturally and anyone Brain invaders typically descend on rural
who dies after receiving a bite wound will areas. Acquisition parties go forth and
become a black-dust zombie use their mental abilities to dominate the
Special: Immune to sleep and charm minds of victims, summoning them from
their homes. The brain invaders lead their
Those that eventually die from
inhaling the choking black-dust have
a 30% chance of becoming black-dust
zombies. These unfortunates are indeed
dead, but their bodies are animated
by the particulate malevolence of
the storm. Black-dust zombies aren’t
actually undead and don’t possess the
associated traits.
BRAIN INVADER
No. Encountered: 1d4
Hit Dice: 2 (5 attached to slave body)
Armor Class: 5 or 15
Speed: Medium
Attacks: 2 tentacles (1d4), 1 weapon
or mental attack
143
WEIRD ADVENTURES
144
WEIRD MENACES
145
WEIRD ADVENTURES
The rules that Gatormen live in small tribes and eke out a
bind them dictate marginal living trapping and fishing. Lurid
that they never pulp stories credit them with a taste for
assume their true human flesh (and sometimes, a perverse
form in front of lust for human women), but they’re more
“civilians,” and likely to steal and eat human pets—and
most will only there are no verifiable accounts of amorous
violate this law extra-species advances. They do have
under extreme a love of alcoholic beverages, amply
duress. provided to them by unscrupulous traders.
This only increases their natural surliness
Hit fiends pride and propensity for violence.
themselves on their professionalism.
Some even self-impose additional rules GHOST TOWN
about the conduct of their jobs to add an No. Encountered: 1
extra challenge and stave off boredom. Hit Dice: 12
Whatever veneer of honor they may cloak Armor Class: n/a
themselves with they remain sadistic, Attacks: generate multiple ghosts (total hit
inhuman, and born for murder. die 12), telekinesis every 1d4 rounds
Defense: see below
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WEIRD MENACES
147
WEIRD ADVENTURES
GNOME
No. Encountered: 1d8
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 2 or 18
Speed: Slow
Attacks: 1 punch (1d6) or by weapon;
possibly petrification (once per day, see
below)
Defense: move through stone
148
WEIRD MENACES
HOBOGOBLIN
No. Encountered: 1d100
Hit Dice: 1
Armor Class: 7 or 13
Speed: Medium
Attacks: 1 weapon or bite (1-2)
149
WEIRD ADVENTURES
off vicious dogs, finding shelter from the 57-58 Lack Thumb Hari 59-60 Quicklip
elements, and calling up freight trains. 61-62 The Grumbler 63-64 Handsome
No one should ever mistake them for Bloat 65-66 Furious 67-68 Flash Bastard
trustworthy, however, and one should deal 69-70 Seldom Gently 71-72 Tobacco
with them only with caution. Sweetback 73-74 Unreasonable the Lesser
75-76 Bullneck 77-78 Wormy Ned 79-80
Random Hobogoblin Names (1d100): Boneyard Meech 81-82 Blundercuss 83-84
01-02 Violets M’Gurk 03-04 Burlap 05-06 Ruckus Quietus 85-86 Thar’n’back 87-88
Whiskey Bazoo 07-08 Coffin Nell 09-10 Brazen Dingus 89-90 Jenkin Miserable 91-
Hang-dog Legee 11-12 Fleabitis 13-14 92 Little Lord Flapjack 93-94 Bleeding-
Nimble Jek 15-16 Greenyteeth 17-18 Gums 95-96 H. Hiram Horribilis 97-98
Rotpizzle 19-20 Smolderblunt 21-22 Old Simple 99-00 Lonelyhearts Ginny Finn.
Kid Slaug 23-24 Grimey Low 25-26 Dry
Gulch 27-28 The Right Reverend Sinister LIVING HOUSE
29-30 Grinless 31-32 One-Eye Elrood 33- No. Encountered: 1
34 Jabber Obscuro 35-36 Crooknose 37- Hit Dice: 8
38 Silent Zed 39-40 Gentleman Distemper Armor Class: 6 or 14 (outside) 10 (inside)
41-42 Spectacles 43-44 Mad Heck 45- Speed: n/a
46 Tusker Duke 47-48 Mumbles 49-50 Attacks: digestive acid (2d6/round)
Chauncey Throttlebottom 51-52 Goofus Special: 50% chance the house will
53-54 Young Hairback 55-56 Ol’ Rheumy disgorge its prey after suffering 25% its
total hit points in damage
150
WEIRD MENACES
151
WEIRD ADVENTURES
weapons. Fire-based attacks, however, intoxication, sex, and illusion. They put
cause an additional point of damage per their arts to use in their night world of jazz,
damage die rolled, and flaming weapons liquor, and carnal pleasures—all in pursuit
do +1 point damage (or 1 point if they are (supposedly) of some sort of mystical
of a class which would otherwise do none). enlightenment.
They also suffer a -1 penalty to saving
throws against fire-based attacks. Some former hangers-on of these serpent
men (as they’re also sometimes known)
LOUNGE LIZARD claim that they follow the pronouncements
No. Encountered: 1d4 of a mad poet—the Lizard King—who
Hit Dice: 6 performs at an endless party in his people’s
Armor Class: 5 or 15 ancient, underground temple. He recites in
Speed: Medium a husky, dream-darkened voice to the beat
Attacks: 1 weapon, spell, or bite (1d4) of bongos before enrapt human followers,
Special: impersonation (as per alter self swaying like charmed snakes before him.
but indefinite duration)
MURDER BALLAD
Walk into a night-spot in Heliotrope or No. Encountered: 1
the City, or maybe even down in New Attacks: induce homicidality (see below)
Ylourgne, and you might unknowingly rub
shoulders with an ancient inhuman race. A man in a bar hears a bluesman sing a
They’re derisively called “lounge lizards,” traditional ballad about a betrayal and the
but these sybaritic sophisticates have about grim things that followed, and he goes and
as much in common with the various sorts shoots his business partner. A housewife
of lizard-folk as a movie star has with a listens to an old record that spins a tale of
skunk-ape. Unlike their brutish, reptilian woe about a wayward man and a woman’s
country-cousins, they’re alluring creatures revenge and serves up a rat poison dinner
with a beauty alien to humanity—lithe, to her husband.
sensuous, and gorgeously scaled.
What thaumaturgists know as a murder
They’re great sorcerers who sometimes ballad is a malevolent alien presence that
claim to have been the originators of the hides within traditional songs recounting
knowledge stolen by Meropis, or to have a murder. The exact song which conveys
ruled the world of man’s apish ancestors, the entity or infection varies—perhaps
but they’re notorious liars, so there’s no even from one day to the next—but it may
way to know for certain. Some scholars be that target individuals are somehow
link them to the Serpent in the Good “marked” ahead of the performance, and
Book, responsible for mankind’s exile the song is chosen to maximize the chance
from Paradise. Despite conspiratorial of influence. What the entity desires is to
theories they probably don’t eat human induce the target to commit violent murder.
flesh (probably). What’s certain is that The target is someone with angry or
they’re masters of magics of music, resentful feelings toward another (though
not typically murderous feelings). The
152
WEIRD MENACES
narrative of the song performed will abilities over the time they carry the
have elements that vaguely relate to the malefic influence, but this has not been
target’s present situation. A failed saving verified.
throw means the target’s anger and
resentment will suddenly grow, and the OGRE
target will attempt to the murder object No. Encountered: 1-10
of his or her anger within whatever time Hit Dice: 4
frame is feasible (typically 24 hours). Armor Class: 5 or 15
While the target is emotional, he or she is Speed: Slow
not without reason; the attack will be as Attacks: 1 weapon
planful and calculated as the time permits.
If the target is restrained or prevented from If the human and hilly-billy giant
completing the attack for at least an hour, inhabitants of the Smaragdine Mountains
he or she receives a second saving throw.
After 24 hours—or after a completed
murder—the whole experience will
seem dream-like to the target.
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154
WEIRD MENACES
14. Horn-like growth on some part of the offer themselves to their masters in
head. this way using ritualized hand-fishing
15. Body covered by weeping pustules. techniques.
16. Hunchback.
17. Albinism.
Three times per day, Old Ones can, with
19. Excessive wrinkles, giving the skin a
baggy appearance. concentration, mentally enslave a person
20. Massively oversized forearms. within 30 feet. This functions like the
dominate person spell, and allows a saving
OLD ONE throw every 24 hours to escape thralldom.
No. Encountered: 1-4
Hit Dice: 4 or 16 PARA-ELEMENTAL, OIL
Armor Class: 4 No. Encountered: 1
Speed: Medium (swim), Very Slow (land) Hit Dice: 8, 12, or 16
Attacks: 4 (1 bite 1d6, 2 feelers 1d4), Armor Class: 3 or 17
mental domination, psychoactive slime Speed: Slow
Attacks: constriction (2d8)
Old Ones are sentients resembling catfish. Defense: can only be harmed by magical
They’re an ancient race, perhaps the oldest weapons or flame
sentients in the world, and they have an Para-elementals can form in petroleum
abiding contempt for other species. The deposits. The exact mixture of the primal
Old Ones dominate and co-mingle their
blood with isolated human communities
along the rivers in which they dwell.
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
elements that leads to the formation of to stinking cloud (lasting 2d6 minutes),
a petro-elemental is uknown, but their except that all those who fail their saving
quickening only occurs under intense heat throw must make a second saving throw
and pressure and in the presence of the or be feebleminded (as per spell) for 1d10
heaped remains of microscopic sea life. additional rounds. Even those who make
The negative energy from that mass death the first saving throw are sickened (-2 to
fills these creatures with hostility toward rolls) until they can leave the area, or the
all living things. They destroy the drills cloud disperses.
and equipment that roused them and rise
from underground to kill anyone close by. Few suffer any long term effects of the
attack, but when word gets out in the
PHANTOM GASSER community, everyone who hears the tale
No. Encountered: 1-3 responds as if they’ve entered an aura of
Hit Dice: 2+1 fear, and will react as per the fear spell
Armor Class: 8 or 12 if they encounter anything suggestive of
Speed: Medium another phantom gasser attack.
Attacks: 1 gas (see below)
Special: explodes if killed (3 dice fireball) It may be that the creation of fear is the
true motive behind these beings actions.
Phantom Gassers or Phantom Anesthetists
are mysterious beings who make sporadic PINK ELEPHANT
attacks on towns and villages by use of gas No. Encountered: 2d6
and the widespread panic these apparently Hit Dice: 3
random and motiveless attacks cause. Armor Class: 7 or 13
Speed: n/a
The Gassers are human-like, though thin Attacks: cause fear in those who see them
and androgynous, but their movements are (see below)
strange—parsimonious almost to the point Defense: only harmed by magic, or other
of mechanicalness. They dress completely astral beings
in black and wear stylized gas masks over
their faces. They have never been known Those who become too inebriated or
to speak. intoxicated invite the astral invaders known
as pink elephants into their minds. These
Phantom Gassers seldom operate in groups creatures appear as gelatinous, multi-
larger than three. They attack homes with colored (not just pink), bipedal elephants,
relatively few people in them (no more with sinister, leering expressions and
than five) and introduce their gas with eyes as featureless as the abyssal depths.
spray nozzles through whatever means They are non-corporeal, and can only be
available—open windows, under doors, or harmed by magical means or by other
the like. astral beings. They cause fear in those
able to see them (unless they make a save
The gas is colorless, but has a peculiar, vs. magic). This unreasoning fear drives
sickly sweet odor. It functions similar those that perceive them to fight for their
156
WEIRD MENACES
lives against the elephants as if they are A weird menace haunts the newsstands and
corporeal beings, which can lead to the magazine racks of the City. Behind some
victim inadvertently injuring themselves seemingly innocuous — if lurid — paper
or those around them. During this period cover there lurks an alien entity with an
(which lasts 1-4 hours) the victim’s mental appetite for human minds. This entity has
faculties and dexterity are effectively no official name, but is sometimes called
reduced by 1d4. After the resolution of the the “shudder pulp” after the odd “someone
elephants’ attack, the victim will sleep for walked across my grave” feeling people
2-12 hours and awaken with a monstrous often describe upon first encountering it. A
headache. There is a 33% chance that an warning, perhaps. They generally ignore it.
encounter with the elephants will lead to
more serious, permanent impairment of The entity appears as a pulp magazine of
mental abilities, if a save vs. death is failed. the most prurient variety. It changes the
specifics of its title and cover image on
each occasion, but invariably teases tales of
violence, sadism, and the macabre. There
are some reports of the entity appearing as
a comic book as well, but these have not
been verified.
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WEIRD ADVENTURES
In addition, even having the item in one’s The origins of the Red menace lie with
possession requires a saving throw every an Old Worlder named Carisdall, who
1d6 days or else the possessor acts as returned after being presumed lost at sea
if under a suggestion spell performing with a strange story of a hidden island
increasingly depraved acts (though civilization where private property was
starting at the relatively mundane) bearing forbidden, and everyone worked for the
some similarities to those depicted in the good of the society as a whole. For the
stories in the volume. rest of his life, Carisdall tried in vain to
relocate his utopia. He wrote a manifesto
The entity may be destroyed by any of the describing the islanders’ philosophy he
usual means used to destroy a mundane called “Communalitarianism.” His work
magazine. Destroying its physical found adherents and spawned small-scale,
manifestation breaks its spell, and limits experimental communities and political
further effects. However, the entity will parties in several countries.
likely re-coalesce elsewhere in a slightly
different form in 1d10 days. The danger came when Carisdall’s
philosophy spread to the degenerate
RED remnant of a once-mighty subterranean
No. Encountered: 3-18
Hit Dice: 3
Armor Class: 3 or 17
Speed: Medium
Attacks: by weapon
Defense: magic resistance
(+2 against spells and direct
magic effects)
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WEIRD MENACES
civilization. During the Great War, that stages are sometimes given technological
society experienced a violent revolution devices by their masters that duplicate the
based on these ideals. The idle and same effect. Agents might also be loaned
intellectually diminished ruling class was other technologically advanced items as
slaughtered by the more bestial workers. well, though these will always be parcelled
The former workers sought to realize out in a limited, efficient fashion.
Carisdall’s utopia, but in a “scientifically
perfected” manner that would have likely
horrified the man who inspired them. The
workers began to alter their own minds
and bodies to create different functional
groups, the better to serve society. Then,
using the thought-broadcasting machines
of their ancestors, they began to subtly
influence the minds of unsuspecting
surface-dwellers.
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WEIRD MENACES
161
Designation of Product Identity: All material identified as Product identity by the owner of the
is designated Product Identity in accordance with Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the
Section 1(e) of the Open Game License, version 1.0a, Open Game Content; (f) “Trademark” means the
except that noted below as Open Game Content. logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are
used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products
Designation of Open Game Content: or the associated products contributed to the Open
Subject to the Product Identity designation above Game License by the Contributor (g) “Use”, “Used” or
all game statistics and descriptions or suggestions “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format,
of game mechanics are designated Open Game modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative
Content. All references to material from the d20 Material of Open Game Content. (h) “You” or “Your”
SRD are already Open Game Content by virtue of means the licensee in terms of this agreement.
appearing there.
2. The License: This License applies to any Open
OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a Game Content that contains a notice indicating that
the Open Game Content may only be Used under
The following text is the property of Wizards of the and in terms of this License. You must affix such
Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use.
Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this
License except as described by the License itself. No
1. Definitions: (a)”Contributors” means the copyright other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open
and/or trademark owners who have contributed Game Content distributed using this License.
Open Game Content; (b)”Derivative Material” means
copyrighted material including derivative works 3.Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game
and translations (including into other computer Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of
languages), potation, modification, correction, this License.
addition, extension, upgrade, improvement,
compilation, abridgment or other form in which 4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for
an existing work may be recast, transformed or agreeing to use this License, the Contributors
adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-
license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, exclusive license with the exact terms of this License
transmit or otherwise distribute; (d)”Open Game to Use, the Open Game Content.
Content” means the game mechanic and includes
the methods, procedures, processes and routines 5.Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are
to the extent such content does not embody the contributing original material as Open Game Content,
Product Identity and is an enhancement over the You represent that Your Contributions are Your original
prior art and any additional content clearly identified creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the
as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and rights conveyed by this License.
means any work covered by this License, including
translations and derivative works under copyright 6.Notice of License Copyright: You must update the
law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to
(e) “Product Identity” means product and product include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of
line names, logos and identifying marks including any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying
trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, or distributing, and You must add the title, the
storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the
incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game
depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, Content you Distribute.
themes and graphic, photographic and other visual
or audio representations; names and descriptions 7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use
of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, any Product Identity, including as an indication as
teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in
places, locations, environments, creatures, another, independent Agreement with the owner of
equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or each element of that Product Identity. You agree not
effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any
any other trademark or registered trademark clearly Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction
with a work containing Open Game Content except as David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John
expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on
with the owner of such Trademark or Registered original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open
Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the Modern System Reference Document Copyright
ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any 2002-2004, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Bill
Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Charles Ryan,
retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Eric Cagle, David Noonan, Stan!, Christopher Perkins,
Identity. Rodney Thompson, and JD Wiker, based on material
by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams,
8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content Richard Baker, Peter Adkison, Bruce R. Cordell, John
You must clearly indicate which portions of the work Tynes, Andy Collins, and JD Wiker.
that you are distributing are Open Game Content.
“Crabman” inspired by Crabman from the Tome of
9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer
Agents may publish updated versions of this License. Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God
You may use any authorized version of this License Games; Authors Scott Greene and Erica Balsley,
to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game based on original material by Ian Livingstone.
Content originally distributed under any version of this
License. Monster Compendium: 0e, Copyright 2008, Matt J.
Finch.
10 Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy
of this License with every copy of the Open Game Weird Adventures, Copyright 2011, Trey Causey.
Content You Distribute.