Liminal Ark

  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...

Mnemosyne Shaped as a fleshy hippocampus with multitudes of writhing suckers in a roiling and distended belly. Befouls bodies of water with chemical secretions that smell of adhesives and turpentine where it sleeps and dreams deeply. The creature projects an aura of deep love and compassion through its cyclopean eye luring people to its hiding place through their dreams. Embracing the Mnemosyne through its dozens of writhing mouthed tendrils allows one to enter into a world of nostalgic bliss seeing things as they were or should be while the creature secretly feeds off of their powerful emotions. People that have been fed upon become bonded to the Mnemosyne protecting it at all costs until they have been fed upon enough to be sublimated into the pool becoming nothing more than a liquified husk. Those who aren’t consumed are given purpose and the will to make their world in the dream a reality. The most faithful and devoted servants of the Mnemosyne are even given a semblance of the cre...

 Best Left Buried Defensive Items Quick one. Currently running a Resident Evil inspired mega-dungeon for my brother and I. His Cryptdiggers have been having a real rough go of it and he was trying to find a way to spend Grip in order to save one of their lives' after a particularly vicious attack but to no avail. I feel bad for these poor souls but I also see an opportunity to try to introduce a cool mechanic I enjoy from the Resident Evil remakes; Defensive Items A defensive item is a special piece of equipment that provides a passive benefit when equipped but can be destroyed to provide a more powerful one for a short time. The take the same amount of slots as a normal item of their type. Shield. Provides +1 Defense when held in your hand. Can be expended to block an attack entirely. Lamellar Cuirass . Functions as Heavy Armor. Expend to deflect an Injury inflicted by a foe. Combat Knife : A Light Weapon that can also be Thrown. When Restrained or Grappled by a creature can be ex...

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...

Short one this week. Feel kind of tapped creatively due to some real life stressors but I wanted to put something down regardless.  NEW CONDITIONS First up are some conditions that often come up in my games which I just like to have written down since I use them so often. With the addition of cowboy guns and enemies that can wield them OK Corral style fire fights are inevitable so codifying the Cover move was done here as well.  Bleeding (Condition) The creature loses 1 Vigour at the start of their turn. If this damage brings them to 0 Vigour they die.  Paranoid (Condition) Observation checks have the Upper Hand. Grip checks are Against The Odds. Pinned (Condition) Must succeed at a Grip check or else can't move. NEW ACTION Take Cover (Move) Instead of moving to another Zone the Cryptdigger can move behind cover instead. Ranged attacks made against them while they are in cover are Against The Odds. NEW ADVANCEMENTS Hunker Down Advancement Martial / Technical While in Cove...

Every time I wade into the catacombs of old school dungeon crawling, regardless of system, inevitably I have to convert or add mechanical bits from my setting to the rules. Since I dabble in a very industrial-fantasy setting the first order of business is usually adding guns to the weapon list. That is, without at the same time invalidating every other weapon on that list. A tall order and to be honest, one I usually mess up. But, as I gear up to wade into Best Left Buried once more I figured it was high time to give it a shot so here's what I ended up with. COWBOY FIREARMS Though not the most creative name Cowboy Firearms are the closest archetypal analogue to the feeling I'm trying to replicate. The guns are very mechanical, heavy, loud, and smelly. Here, even your sniper rifles and shotguns are six-shooters in disguise. With that in mind I needed mechanics that help sell that vision. Something more Hunt; Showdown then Red Dead Redemption. (Those are video games. It's fin...

  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...