50 Appendices Appendices Effects of the Womb In order to feed the being within it with all the knowledge it will need, the Womb parasitically taps into the collective consciousness of all sapient life around it, draining a portion of their memory and knowledge. In his research on how to build the Womb, informed by key passages in the Clavis Inferni, DuVernay either overlooked or did not discover anything to indicate that this effect would be produced. The parasitic effect is subtle, manifesting itself primarily as brief lapses in memory and cognition, along with irritability and a sense of malaise. Over time, however, the Womb’s vampiric hunger for knowledge becomes increasingly pronounced, as the embryonic being within requires more psychic sustenance; see Aftermath, page 29, for details. These effects will be accompanied by a flat 10% chance per rest period that affected characters will experience as a vivid nightmare, after which a saving throw versus Magic is required. Failure results in the character suffering the effects of sleep deprivation (Rules and Magic, page 36) until they enjoy a full night’s rest. The constant mental strain of being subjected to this sapping effect also creates a sense of irritability—the chart below lists reaction roll modifiers for interacting with anyone suffering from the drain. Other, more deleterious effects manifest themselves as the Womb continues to feed, and the being within grows. These are detailed below. Note that these effects are not cumulative: later effects supersede and replace earlier ones.
51 Days After Effect Begins Effect Stage 1-159 Stage 1: 8% drain on all Experience Points earned. Spell failure 10%. Reaction roll modifier: -2 160-250 Stage 2: 10% drain on all Experience Points earned. Spell failure 15%. All character skills lose 1 pip. A -1 penalty on saving throws versus Magic. Lose 1 non-native spoken / written Language. Reaction roll modifier: -3 251-300 Stage 3: 12% drain on all Experience Points earned. Spell failure 20%. All character skills lose 1 pip. A -1 penalty on saving throws versus Magic. Intelligence and Wisdom scores drop by 1 each. Lose 1 non-native spoken / written Language. Reaction roll modifier: -3 301+ Stage 4: 15% drain on all Experience Points earned. Existing Experience Points begin to drain at a rate of 1% per month. Spell failure 25%. All character skills lose 2 pips. A -2 penalty on saving throws versus Magic. Intelligence and Wisdom scores drop by 2 each. Lose 1 non-native spoken/ written language and lose the ability to read or write one’s native language. Reaction roll modifier: -4 Should the Embryonic Christ be destroyed, these effects will immediately cease. If the Embryonic Christ emerges from the Womb at any point and is not dispatched, the effects will continue to grow in both severity and scope.
52 The Embryonic Christ To say the Order fucked the rebirth of Christ up would be an understatement. The Embryonic Christ is indeed a clone of the one and only Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Sort of. Somewhere along the line, the gestation process went horribly awry and what emerges from the Womb is something of a nightmare. The Embryonic Christ resembles a writhing mass of human limbs emerging from a flabby mass of tissue measuring eight feet in diameter. Three childlike heads sprout from its upper body, each perched atop thick, long phallus-like necks. Each head has a unique special ability (see below for details). Cutting off a head removes that head’s unique ability from the creature’s use. Targeting one of its necks is a difficult proposition: a natural 19 or 20 is needed to hit, and each neck can take up to 6hp of damage before it is severed (the good news is that any damage to the necks is subtracted from the monster as a whole). Note that the heads are not necessary for the creature to live; other than hit points suffered, cutting them off only eliminates each head’s special ability. The Embryonic Christ has the following abilities. As noted above, each of the creature’s three heads possesses a unique magical power. Head 1: Vampiric Thaumaturgy Once per round, the Embryonic Christ can steal one memorized spell from a single foe’s memory, erasing it from their mind, and immediately cast it against an eligible target (or just steal it and not use it). Head 2: Divine Suppuration The Embryonic Christ brings forth a massive, pus-filled boil on a target creature’s body. The next time the victim takes damage, the boil bursts, spraying everyone in a 10’ radius with toxic pus (saving throw versus Poison or suffer 1d4 points of damage). If multiple foes suffer from boils, this can cause a cascade effect of exploding pus-sacs setting each other off. Head 3: Precognition This head grants the Embryonic Christ a limited form of precognition, allowing it to predict the actions of its enemies. As this head peers into the future, all attacks against the creature suffer a penalty of 1d4, and it benefits from a 1d4 bonus per attack (roll each of these separately, so if the Embryonic Christ attacks three times, each attack receives a separate 1d4 bonus). To Clone or Not to Clone So you might be asking yourself, “Why didn’t DuVernay just use the Magic-User spell Clone to bring back Jesus?” Welp, the way Clone works (per the spell description in Rules and Magic, page 94) is that the caster pulls in the spirit from one of the original being’s alternate timeline counterparts. The problem is that there is only one Messiah who exists for all timelines simultaneously. A simple Clone spell does not work because, simply put, there is no alternate timeline version of Christ to put into a new body. He is everywhere yet nowhere. I suppose you could look at this as some kind of narrative cop-out to make the adventure tick—and you might be right!—but I think once you start to argue about the specifics of this kind of thing, you ruin the fun if you take it too far. Just roll with it, chief.
53 Initiative Advantage When rolling for initiative, the Embryonic Christ always rolls three dice and takes the best one, winning any ties. Magic Resistance The Embryonic Christ is protected by an innate 20% resistance to all magic attacks. The Embryonic Christ moves about by using its multitude of limbs to heave its massive flabby girth towards its destination. Despite the clumsiness of its movements and its bulk, it moves quickly. Small doors or passages are no problem, as it is squishy enough to push its mass through tight spots (no smaller than 3’ in diameter). It is also capable of sprouting human arms at will and can manipulate objects as well as any human being. THE EMBRYONIC CHRIST Armor 18 (lots of flabby flesh), Move 140’, 8 Hit Dice, 38 hp, 1d4 claw attacks per round, each attack may target a different foe, 1d8 damage each, Morale 11. Spellcasting (see Heads opposite page), magic resistance 20%.
54 The Wight The Wight is not truly undead but is instead a being of pure energy created from the lingering hatred and anger in the pagan tomb beneath Quarr Abbey. The poorly contained energy field created by the Womb coalesced these emotional energies into a semi-sentient being capable of controlling living matter and the minds of other thinking creatures. Though invisible, its presence is detectable as a sense of overwhelming dread while standing in its presence. The Wight can spread itself over an area measuring 100 square feet (basically a 10’ x 10’ cube), and any living, thinking creatures within this space must make a successful saving throw versus Paralyzation or be taken up in its rage, seeing its enemies as their own. Anyone so controlled may make an additional saving throw each round until they break free of its influence. Once freed, they are immune from the Wight’s effect. Note that the Wight can take any shape it wishes, including spreading its mass out over a large area or squeezing through small cracks. The Wight can also possess the mind of a single target, forcing the victim to make a saving throw versus Magic or be wholly subject to its whims. While controlled by the Wight, this individual is completely conscious of their actions but will be unable to control them. Once directly controlled in this manner, nothing will sever the link between themselves and the Wight except killing the Wight itself. Finally, the Wight can raise the corpses of the dead and manipulate them, effectively creating a zombie army to carry out its whims. It may control 100 such undead at a time but is limited by the need to do so directly with its tendrils (imagine a marionette on strings, with each tendril directly manipulating the bones and muscles of its puppet). Killing the Wight is rather difficult. For one thing, it is invisible. One may observe it using Detect Evil (in which case it manifests as a luminescent red cloud with long, thin tendrils) or Detect Invisible. You may wish to allow other similar magical means to reveal its form. It is completely immune to normal weapons, as they simply pass through its ethereal form. Magical weapons will inflict only minor damage, 1 point per hit. Magical attacks, such as offensive spells, will hurt it, doing damage as normal. Note that the Wight does not inflict direct damage—its powers are entirely used to manipulate others to cause harm. Remember that if any of the player characters or their allies fall in battle, the Wight will immediately raise them to take up arms against their comrades. THE WIGHT Armor 12 (easy to hit, hard to damage), Move 120’, 5 Hit Dice, 21 hp, Morale: 11. Special: Control Undead, Induce Rage, Mind Control. Damage Resistance, see above. ZOMBIES Armor: 15, Move 90’, 1 Hit Dice, 4hp, claw or bite, 1d4, Morale 12. Special: Mob—when attacked by 2 or more zombies, victim’s Armor drops by 1 for each zombie past the first, maximum penalty of -5, i.e., no more than 6 zombies per victim.
56 The Clavis Inferni (“The Key to Hell”) is a forbidden tome of knowledge containing the occult wisdom of Saint Cyprian of Antioch. Though later canonized as a Christian saint, Cyprian of Antioch spent his formative years studying various esoteric secrets and—by his own admission— committing numerous horrific acts to gain audience with Satan himself. It appears that his sainthood hinges largely on his being the Bishop of Antioch during the Roman emperor Diocletian’s “Great Persecution” of the Christians (which wasn’t so great for the Christians). Cyprian was brought before Diocletian himself, who demanded that Cyprian recant his faith. Cyprian refused, and Diocletian summarily ordered him beheaded. Catholics do love their martyrs, I guess. Many foul rumors surround the Clavis Inferni, of which the most damning is that should one read the book in its entirety, it will summon the Devil. Many works circulated among low-ranking occultists that purported to be the work of Saint Cyprian, but this book—the one obtained by Alfonso Gutierrez—is the real deal. Clavis Inferni: The Grimoire of St. Cyprian of Antioch “I cut open pregnant women for the demons, and transforming noble women, I took them prisoner from their own cities, and after they conceived from fornication, I would kill them; I slaughtered their suckling babies below the earth, others I suffocated, others I strangled at the promise of the dragon’s assistance; by this time I was slaughtering boys who had attained puberty; others who were advanced in age I buried for Pluto, and I cut off the heads of foreign men for the sake of Hecate; I offered up the blood of women who were still virgins to Pallas, and to Aries and Kronos men already full-grown; and I satisfied fully many other demons through such sacrifices, so that in this way I might draw near to the devil himself.” —The Confession of Saint Cyprian The book itself is a pretty unassuming thing. The tome is bound in dark green leather with no distinguishing marks or symbols to betray its true nature. Despite its age (nearly 1,300 years old), the book appears to be in fine shape, although the pages themselves are quite brittle and require gentle handling. Oddly, the last section of the book is a list of several dozen names. No clue as to why these names are inscribed in the final pages is given (although see “The List of Names” below for an explanation). There is quite a What About the Womb? You may be asking yourself where DuVernay got the plans to make the womb. The fact is, there are no plans per se. DuVernay was able to suss out the occult mechanisms necessary to construct the womb through a lot of inference and deduction. There’s plenty of available knowledge in the Clavis Inferni to send a dedicated scholar down any number of rabbit holes, and the book was merely the first step towards the construction of the Womb. A necessary step, but not the only one.
57 bit of useful knowledge contained within the book, but it is buried beneath layers of obfuscatory nonsense. The text itself is a combination of Latin, Greek, Punic, and various occult symbols and magickal writing. To glean anything useful, one must: h Understand all three of the written languages represented in the text. h Have a working knowledge of Occult lore (this basically means one must be a Magic-User, although a character with a sufficient background in Occult study could probably swing it too, at your discretion. h Spend 100 hours studying the text. This time is reduced by a number of hours equal to 1d8 x Intelligence Modifier. Once studied, the Clavis Inferni reveals its secrets: h The Clavis Inferni contains an assortment of existing Magic-User spells. 1st (4x) / 2nd (3x) / 3rd (3x) / 4th (2x) / 5th (2x) / 6th (1x) / 7th (1x) / 8th (1x) h As promised, the Clavis Inferni also contains a ritual for attracting the attention of Satan himself. The ritual is complex, requiring four weeks of preparation and 5,000gp worth of materials (rare herbs and ointments and the like), all of which are consumed during the ritual. The ritual itself can be performed at any time (i.e., it is not dependent on seasons, phases of the moon, etc.) but requires 24 hours of complete uninterrupted silence and thus is best carried out in seclusion. Any interruption will spoil the ritual. At the height of the ritual casting, there is a 10% chance of success, plus 10% for each atrocity carried out during the four-week preparation. I won’t enumerate a list of possible atrocities—I’m sure you can figure out whether or not a suggested act is bad enough to ingratiate one to the Devil. I’ll also leave it up to you as to whether or not these atrocities are carried out “in-game” or are handled offscreen. The maximum bonus attainable through heinous acts is 60%, meaning the ritual has a maximum possible success rate of 70%. If successful, nothing will happen—yet. At some point in the future, when the player character least expects it, the Devil will manifest himself to them and offer them one Wish in exchange for their soul. The exact form the Devil takes can be as innocuous or as horrifying as you wish. Humorous even. But however he appears, the contract will be signed in the character’s blood and will be eternally binding. The Wish can take any form and can be as grand or expansive as they desire. But the Devil, being the Devil, will attempt to make the resulting Wish unsatisfying in some way while remaining true to the contract. Did the PC wish for a shitload of money? That money has to come from somewhere: perhaps they’ve impoverished their homeland or are now hunted by the ten crimelords whose stashes suddenly disappeared with a note explaining who stole it. Do they want to be king? Fine! Enjoy the endless mundanity of dealing with commoners’ complaints and constant assassination attempts by ambitious family members. You get the idea. As for the implications of selling their soul: every character created by that player in future games in this or any other LotFP campaign will bear a distinctive mark on their body which outs them as a thrall of Satan. It can be the usual “666” on the scalp or some other mark of your design,
58 but it should be obvious to anyone who sees it that they’re in league with the big bad dude from Hell. Furthermore, they are forever forbidden from playing characters of Lawful or Neutral alignment. It’s all Chaotic all the time from here on out! * The Clavis Inferni is an attractive book and makes for a nice addition to one’s library or as a coffee table book. Careful of those pages! The List of Names Oh, right! The Names. If one goes through all the trouble to study the Clavis Inferni, they must make a saving throw versus Magic. If failed, their name will appear in the back of the book along with the rest, and they will forever be linked to the dark power of the tome. Practically speaking, this means they will project a death aura about them that negatively influences everyone in their vicinity. Note that they themselves are not subject to the effects of the death aura unless someone else is likewise afflicted, in which case they will both be subjected to each other’s aura (and the same goes for multiple sufferers). Anyone within 6’ of a character projecting a death aura will suffer -1 to all saving throws. In addition, their maximum hit points will be reduced by 1. These effects are not cumulative so that two characters projecting death auras do not increase these penalties by -2. Note that the aura is invisible, and the source of these penalties will not be immediately noticeable. Also, anyone whose name appears in the back of the Clavis Inferni will be subject to the effects of Detect Evil, Protection From Evil, Dispel Evil, and will radiate a dark red corona if subjected to Detect Magic. The page of names cannot be destroyed—if removed from the book and burned, torn, or otherwise subjected to damage, it will mysteriously reappear the next day. The only way one may have their name removed from the book is through divine intervention of some sort (perhaps by selling one’s soul to the Devil? See previous page.)
59 The Real St. Cyprian of Antioch Before you Google it, yes, there really is a grimoire of ceremonial magick entitled “Clavis Inferni” attributed to St. Cyprian (the so-called “Patron Saint of Necromancers”). The version in this adventure is not that. The real St. Cyprian appears to have been something of a Pagan charlatan, hawking love potions and other occult snake oil remedies in Antioch until brought into the Christian fold. A handful of occult tomes throughout Europe have been attributed to Cyprian, including the Libro de San Cipriano in Spain and the so-called Svartebøka (“Black Books”) of Scandinavia. I won’t bore you with endless details about the real Clavis Inferni, but if your interest is piqued, there is an edition in print from Golden Hoard Press (2017). In short, the version of the book you see here is entirely fictional and bears little resemblance to any of the existing works attributed to St. Cyprian. I am taking some pretty big historical liberties here, and probably doing a grave disservice to the actual character of St. Cyprian and his work. So be it. If he doesn’t like it, he can take it up with me in the afterlife. (Although, do Google the “Confession of Saint Cyprian of Antioch”—it’s some pretty eyebrow-raising stuff).
60 NPC Names and Traits Here’s a handy set of charts if you need to generate a name for any of the Order acolytes or Landsknecht NPCs (or anyone else, really), along with some memorable characteristics. The Landsknecht are all German, so you should use those columns as appropriate (unless you want to have a foreigner among their ranks, which I suppose is possible). Note that many of the first and last names in this list come from a variety of European cultures, so you may end up with an Italian first name and a French last name. You can roll with that and figure out what that means or just pick a different pairing that lines up. 1d20 Male Female Surname Male (German) Female (German) Surname (German) 1 Calder Isolda Alday Paul Sandra Schubert 2 Eufrasio Arlette Diepardeu Maximilian Sabine Ludwig 3 Neville Bonnie Stewart Felix Katrin Schreier 4 Cisco Dorotea Lindell Moritz Gisela Köhler 5 Antonio Lorraine Bagley Hermann Ilse Frank 6 Forrest Jocelyn Ricci Otto Emma Sommer 7 Creighton Marion O’Riordan Sebastian Anja Krause 8 Johan Alanna Hernández Kurt Sabine Feld 9 Wallace Maida Finch Jörg Petra Sander 10 Conlan Caroline Stinton Wolfgang Leah Gantzmann 11 Clyford Rosetta Kinski Dieter Johanna Ziegler 12 Ogden Evelina Hauser Ernst Emily Graf 13 Rowan Holly De León Manfred Clara Hartmann 14 Pedro Armanda Frankl Christian Amelie Werner 15 Domizion Frederika Cawthorne Andreas Lill Esserg 16 Warren Candida Berlusconi Noah Hannah Schröder 17 Woodley Lupida Fitzsimmons Luka Mila Fuchs 18 Dudley Chelsea Russo Friedrich Karin Stein 19 Harlan Fiona Kelly Martin Nadine Vogel 20 Lyle Marianne Esposito Adolph Elke Winkler
61 2d20 Distinguishing Characteristic 2 Ragged scar running down face 3 Facial tic 4 Missing index finger on one hand 5 Walks with slight limp 6 Carries a beloved pet rat 7 Patchy, balding hair 8 Favors ostentatious hats 9 Dumb as a brick 10 Paranoid as all get-out 11 Missing one ear 12 Blind in one eye 13 Drunkard 14 Doesn’t speak 15 Grossly overweight 16 Plague survivor, face pockmarked from ravages of disease 17 Loves to gamble 18 Talks to their sword 19 Kleptomaniac 20 Very talkative 2d20 Distinguishing Characteristic 21 Rotten teeth, horrible breath 22 Has a wooden hand 23 Bald 24 Like to tell dirty jokes 25 Annoyingly religious 26 Annoyingly irreligious 27 Just annoying 28 Hates members of the opposite sex 29 Compulsive liar 30 Albino 31 Strangely high-pitched voice 32 Extremely tall 33 Extremely short 34 Clumsy 35 Has a collection of human fingers 36 Likes to smell people 37 Easily insulted 38 Complains constantly 39 Compulsive spitter 40 Roll twice (re-roll contradictory traits)
62 Inspiratori Musica This isn’t a list of stuff you should force on your players at the table while running this thing, merely a sampling of tunes I listened to while writing this adventure. Akhlys Anna Von Hausswolff Aoratos Behemoth Bell Witch Blut Aus Nord Bolt Thrower Coil Current 93 Diamanda Galas Electric Wizard Emma Ruth Rundle / Thou Gnaw Their Tongues Lingua Ignota Liturgy Mayhem Motörhead Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Sunn O))) & Boris The Legendary Pink Dots Ulcerate Xiu Xiu Zeal and Ardor Melinoë Dead Magic Gods Without Names Zos Kia Kultus Longing Deus Saltus Meae Realm of Chaos Horse Rotorvator All the Pretty Little Horses (The Inmost Light) The Litanies of Satan Time to Die May our Chambers Be Full Hymns For the Broken, Swollen, and Silent Agnus Dei Aesthetica Daemon Overkill Ghosteen Altar Shadow Weaver Stare Into Death and Be Still OH NO Wake of a Nation
63 Afterword Fuck Nazis.
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Strange Things are Afoot on the Isle of Wight! ISBN Print 978-952-7238-63-9 ISBN PDF 978-952-7238-64-6 Printed in Finland by Otava Book Printing Ltd., Keuruu First Printing: 2000 Copies Text © 2021 Alex Mayo Issued Under Exclusive License by LamentationS of the Flame PrincesS Adventures www.lotfp.com An archeological expedition searching for artifacts beneath an abandoned Abbey has a problem — two problems, actually. A scholar working the dig has disappeared and one of the mercenaries contracted to provide security has been murdered. Tension between the two groups (okay, that’s three problems, but who’s counting?) means someone from the outside needs to be brought in to investigate. Perfect work for a bunch of money-hungry adventurers with a nose for solving other people’s problems, wouldn’t you agree? Wight Power, written by Alex Mayo and lavished with lots of fancy art by CANCELED, is an adventure suitable for low-level characters for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying and other traditional roleplaying games.