The villagers called it the Third Bear because they had killed two bears
already that year.
But, near the end, no one really thought of it as a
bear, even though the name had stuck, changed by repetition and fear and
slurring through blood-filled mouths to Theeber.
1: A vision of of winter, of ice gravelly with frozen blood. More terrible than the real thing. An enormous shape is briefly visible amid the crystalline fronds. It disappears into the white maze before the Knights can pursue it.
2: A suspicious merchant and his caravan canter down the path. The last rider is missing, bloodstains and bits of skin stuck to the saddle. They don't notice until pointed out. They don't know where they lost him. They've heard of stuff like this happening. The guards were supposed to stop it.
3: Peasants investigate their neighbor's farm. The owner sits dead in his cart, disemboweled, head missing, hands still clasping the reins. The farmhands and family are similarly arranged across the farm. The investigators vomit and beg the Knights for help. This isn't the first attack.
4: A mob of agriculturists carry an old woman back to the village. She called the Bear with her foul magic, they say. They'll put her to the question and force her to send it back where it came from. Dead wasps hang in her tangled hair. Her tongue moves like a fat grey grub in her mouth. She laughs.
5: A survivor, blood soaked and shit spattered, legs gnawed away, insane. Just alive enough to tell those who find him what he saw when he found the Bear's den. A green lit cave. A pattern painted on a wall of skulls. It's not a Bear. It's something else.
6: A mob of villagers have lost sight of reason. Pale, starving, naked, unwashed, mutilated in the belief that doing it to themselves will stop the Bear doing it to them. They search for virgins to sacrifice to the beast. They eat the bodies of the fallen. When winter comes they will die. Perhaps it's already here.
2: A suspicious merchant and his caravan canter down the path. The last rider is missing, bloodstains and bits of skin stuck to the saddle. They don't notice until pointed out. They don't know where they lost him. They've heard of stuff like this happening. The guards were supposed to stop it.
3: Peasants investigate their neighbor's farm. The owner sits dead in his cart, disemboweled, head missing, hands still clasping the reins. The farmhands and family are similarly arranged across the farm. The investigators vomit and beg the Knights for help. This isn't the first attack.
4: A mob of agriculturists carry an old woman back to the village. She called the Bear with her foul magic, they say. They'll put her to the question and force her to send it back where it came from. Dead wasps hang in her tangled hair. Her tongue moves like a fat grey grub in her mouth. She laughs.
5: A survivor, blood soaked and shit spattered, legs gnawed away, insane. Just alive enough to tell those who find him what he saw when he found the Bear's den. A green lit cave. A pattern painted on a wall of skulls. It's not a Bear. It's something else.
6: A mob of villagers have lost sight of reason. Pale, starving, naked, unwashed, mutilated in the belief that doing it to themselves will stop the Bear doing it to them. They search for virgins to sacrifice to the beast. They eat the bodies of the fallen. When winter comes they will die. Perhaps it's already here.
INVOLVED PARTIES
THE BEAR, A craftsman from another world
VIG 19, CLA 17, SPI 5, 10GD
A2 (thick hide), maul and tear (2d12)
A2 (thick hide), maul and tear (2d12)
Hurts to look at. Drains D6 CLA each round you gaze upon it. Intelligent. Pretends it understands your speech so you'll waste time talking. Attacks once you're Exposed.
Takes heads. Mutilates bodies.WITCH HUNTERS, Self appointed inquisitors and amateur torturers
Warband
VIG 10, CLA 10, SPI 7, 3GD
Crude polearms (d8 long)
CRAZED VILLAGERS, Would-be cultists propitiating the Bear
VIG 10, CLA 10, SPI 7, 3GD
Crude polearms (d8 long)
CRAZED VILLAGERS, Would-be cultists propitiating the Bear
Warband
VIG 10, CLA 5, SPI 12, 3GD
VIG 10, CLA 5, SPI 12, 3GD
Stained blades and improvised weapons (d4)
Remember that Warbands gain a d12 blast attack vs anything smaller than another Warband.
2D6 TABLES
Rumors about the Bear
1: It will go home once it finishes its pattern
1: It will go home once it finishes its pattern
2: It is from very far away and does not know how to return
3: The Witch brought it here to avenge her being cast out of the village
4: It is no mere animal. It does not kill to feed itself.
5: Killing makes it sad. It wishes to stop but cannot.
6: Its appearance is so horrible it drives men mad.
Postmortem injuries inflicted by the Bear (head missing unless otherwise stated)
1: None initially, body dug up and head taken after burial.
2: Hands and feat chewed off.
3: Intestines removed and placed neatly within line of sight.
4: Eyes torn out and discarded before decaptitation.
5: Blood, blood, blood.
6: Contents of chest cavity removed and replaced.
THE MAKING OF
This is a direct adaptation of Vandermeer's The Third Bear. The best horror stories are hard to put in an RPG. When you run a game you need to know how things react to the actions of the players, and once you start writing up elaborate chains of cause and effect you've lost the mystery and atmosphere that made the original good. But in Mythic Bastionland you don't need to know how everything works. It's a myth, you don't have to explain shit.
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