Liminal Ark

A weekly blog post?! Egad! Don’t look now but I may have actually beaten the rut. From my previous musings on adding modifications to the Underclock you may have seen my interest in the Stalker type enemy endemic to a lot of modern Survival Horror and how that type of foe seems like an obvious fit to way of handling random encounters. So I tried it and it felt a bit…crowded. I wanted lesser creatures that roamed between the buildings, environmental traps, and other dungeon delving horrors which took up quite a bit of space. Somehow I was also supposed to find a way to resurrect locality effects that I had missed from the overloaded encounter die. It was all just a bit much to also add in a chase sequence as an option on the list so I went back to the drawing board. I needed to separate the Nemesis (My big bad unstoppable beasty) from the Underclock without vastly increasing the cognitive load in running a complex hunter creature amidst all the other workings of my dungeon. Then I reme...

Happy almost anniversary. 2024 was a tough year for creative brain and keeping games going both because of player fluctuation and my waning motivation. However, the last month or so has seen a resurgence for me in tackling the myriad of half finished projects while running a new campaign of His Majesty The Worm. The game is wonderfully designed and my last session saw a real workout of the Challenge phase card battle mechanics that really saw my players engage in a way with tabletop RPG combat I hadn't seen for a very long time. As every referee, DM, GM, and Keeper knows that joy is the grease for the gears so the machine chugs on. Dungeon Seed:  The Barrow of the Unrequited Hundreds of feet beneath the ancient elven grove of The City is crypt of fallen martyrs. Elven parents forced to sacrifice themselves to sire children in this new world were entombed here after a civil war amongst the immortals from ages past. Unable to reconcile their differences the council chose instead to ...

I've been going through some stuff. Here's a monster originally made for Kult but adapted to Liminal Horror. May also release the Kult and Hunter the Reckoning versions at some point. Happy New Year! Concept: A creature that is made and exemplifies family trauma. It will raise you up and make you pay for every gift in time while feeding off of your emotional highs and lows. It will isolate and divide and conquer. If one leaves it chooses a new favorite to make the first jealous. Manages a web of drama to keep itself fed. Fawn responses and acting like it wants will keep you safe. It is as powerful as you make it.  Inspirations: Trauma, Barbarian, Silent Hill, The Evil Within, Livia Soprano, Art Posts by @OmegaBlackArt on Twitter, Centipedes from Sekiro, Familial Cycles of Abuse When you fell; you fell alone. When you failed; you failed alone. When you hurt; your pain was a beacon. And the next time your world fell apart; They were there to pick up the pieces. The Parent wants w...

  I find myself about to run a pretty big campaign using Kult: Divinity Lost taking more from the survival horror sphere ala Resident Evil and Silent Hill. To that end (But also because practice is good) I have need of some of my old monsters re-imagined in this style. So without further ado here is a reinterpretation of the Wraith Hound. (As for mentions of The Dream, this will be a liminal horror space revolving around the central antagonist of the story known as the Muse. I’ll get a write-up for Her in at some point in the future when I’m closer to talking about the rest of this.) WRAITH HOUNDS Eyeless canid horrors that exist only to hunt down and torture beings lost in the darkness beyond the light of their dreams. Mewling, pathetic beasts with bodies of old cracked leather, and wretched guttural howls out of blackened throats of whirling teeth. These entities were borne of malicious violence and intense animalistic desire now unfettered by flesh and free to inflict their pe...

THE CONCIERGE The manager’s right hand on the first floor gifted power to lord over the guests who vexed him in life. Looks out for the interests of the hotel and its reputation over the individual desires of any guest. Exceptional manners. Useful out of spite. Attentive and petty. Desires only for you to check in, follow the rules, and check out. What’s so hard about that? HD: 6 Armor As Chain Strength Of The House: While on the 1st Floor the Concierge has several abilities granted by the Manager. Each must be invoked by configuring the esoteric clockwork gears on his wristwatch. Can teleport anywhere on the 1st floor and take anyone or anything in his grasp with him. Visitors who make themselves pests (Or at least their luggage) are often dropped in the Gullet for the house to sort out. Can lock / unlock any door on this floor or portals leading to the outside. Staircases can be made to vanish but this power does not extend to the elevator. Cannot die. If this body is slain, re...

  Supernaturally talented performers who wear the guise of an attractive humanoid in order to protect themselves and feed their appetite for flesh. Their song is intoxicating causing those under its spell to become devoted entirely to the wants and needs of the Siren even if it means sacrificing themselves to protect their façade to authorities. If desperate, the Siren will eat the flesh of their servants but if given time or opportunity prefers to devour the lonely most of all. They will use their guile and mystique to isolate prospective morsels from family or friends before sinking in their teeth which can put victims into a dreamless sleep where they await the Sirens last gift. Siren’s Song: Creatures who can hear the Chanteuse Siren’s Song must make a save or become Beguiled. While Beguiled by the Siren must obey their every word until dismissed. The spell lasts for 24 hours unless renewed by listening to the song again. An hour before the curse ends the victim will do anyth...

Thespian Wraiths Inspirations: Spirits of the Other World in the Medium (Fuck the rest of the game), The Evil Within loading screens, Pathologic, desperate people who exist to hurt others with their delusions, depressive patterns of negative self-talk, Greek tragedy. HD: 1 Armor: As Chain  Mask wearing wraiths wearing troubadour masks denoting their final roles in the drama of life. This is a lie. They stole these lives and roles so now act as psychopathic mimics that if not allowed to play with this façade become homicidal. All Thespian Wraiths can; mimic others whose souls they have slain or tasted (By way of consuming physical objects coveted by the person); use psychic suggestion to get others to do their bidding; vanish into the ethereal plane temporarily but must leave their disguise behind. Additionally, a Thespian Wraith has the uncanny ability to grant boons to its favorite pets and followers using an object important to its role. While under the effects of the Wraith...

This week instead of working on my dungeon like I was supposed to I've cobbled together something a little weird. Here are a bunch of strange, scary, and cute doggos statted as BLB monsters you can use however you like. Some are probably good guards while others will perform well as special retainers if your players can train them to be good. Adaptation's are taken from the Cryptdigger's Guide and the Hunter's Guide to Monsters unless stated otherwise. Thanks for reading.  Temple Dog Made of stone with a lions face. Though a living creature can hold its breathe for long periods of time while on watch allowing it to become indistinguishable from its surroundings. It's bite causes paralysis and eventually turns one to stone.  Brawn: 1 Wit: 1 Will: 0 Vigour: 15  Armour: 9 Disguise, Petrifying Fangs* Stone Fangs (Hand) Special Adaptation: Petrifying Fangs . As Petrifying Gaze but its range is reduced to Melee. If the Temple Dog inflicts an injury with Stone Fangs can c...

  The Heat Wave Part 3: Ire of the Dog Star With more heat wave on the way here in the PNW as well as smoke from the wildfires down south it seemed as good a time as any to return to the Heat Wave series. This time we imagine the Heat Wave as a petty cosmic foe that demands sacrifice or else batter down your defenses and turn man's best friend against you. It is inescapable and hungry. It is the Ire of the Dog Star.  Though this monster is made for Chronicles of Darkness specifically I see no reason why it can't be altered to fit any number of urban fantasy games. I could imagine a more visceral God-Machine'y version of this that would fit Kult: Divinity Lost's vibe more or simply retooling what's here for Monster of the Week. Anyway, to the Dog Star! <queue Florence & The Machine> "Sun set in the Cairngorms"   by  apollo1981  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 2.0 The Ire of the Dog Star Background:   Many ancient cultures ascribed malice to the su...

Monstrous Mondays An experiment Recently, I ran a dungeon for my players underneath a small town where a crocodilian mummy lord named Mazebek held court. The creature was inspired by egyptian myths and the wonderful Bloat adventure written for Mork Borg by Greg Saunders  (Which you should check out it's pretty cool ). Like the vagabond Silas in that adventure Mazebek had a certain appetite for mortal flesh and possessed a menagerie of automatons who prepared his meals for him. In an effort to make this cannibalistic feasting more exciting I decided it could be more interesting for Mazebek's servants to innovate on the idea of creating pleasing meals for their lord. So, after reading an article on Auto-Brewery Syndrome, my course was set and the Noble Rotter was unborn.  La Mort Vivant: The Noble Rotter The Noble Rotter is a zombie who has been used much like a wine cask or oak barrel with legs. A walking, eating, storage unit for fermented things like beer, wine, or veggies, ...