The Curse of the Watery Shroud

Here's another series of random tables to let you generate the outline for an adventure that was partly inspired by a drawing from Bryan Baugh.

THE CURSE OF THE WATERY SHROUD
The Whitehead family has been suffering under a curse since 1688 when the Angelina, the eldest daughter of Lord Elwyn Whitehead drowned mysteriously in water overflow tunnels beneath Castle Whitehead on what was both her 17th birthday and the celebration of her betrothal. Ever since then, if the eldest daughter of the Whitehead family has been unmarried on her 17th birthday, she has come to a tragic end by drowning.

This curse last asserted itself in the Spring of 1918, and it was ruled an accident. Now, just over 100 years later, another girl carrying the Whitehead family blood, Ashley Whitehead, has died in the waterlogged tunnels under Castle Whitehead. Is the curse real? And if so, what's behind it? Can the player characters solve the mystery and save a life... because Ashley's twin sister Emily has yet to fall victim to the curse!

OPTIONAL: HOW DOES THE PARTY GET INVOLVED? (Roll 1d6)
   1. They are friends of Emily.
   2. There were friends of Ashley.
   3. They are hired by the family to figure out what happened and save Emily.
   4. They are brought in by a contact in law enforcement.
   5. A contact in the paranormal investigation community asks the party to solve the mystery.
   6. One of the characters is a distant relative of the Whitehead family, and there have been mysterios deaths of teenaged girls in his family as well.


IS THE CURSE REAL? (Roll 1d6)
   1-3. Yes. Got to WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE CURSE
   4-6. No. Go to WHO KILLED ASHLEY


WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE CURSE? (Roll 1d6)
   1-2. Angelina committed suicide to avoid her forced nuptials. Ever since, her restless and bitter spirit is killing to stop other Whitehead girls from having the happiness she never did.
   3. Angelina was murdered by a jealous and jilted suitor whom she managed to kill even as he murdered her. His restless and evil spirit has been hunting and killing Whitehead girls ever since.
   4. Angelina hated the man she was being forced to marry. She conducted a dark ritual that called for a water demon, but instead of killing her would-be husband it killed her. And it's been claiming the lives of virginal Whitehead girls who don't marry young ever since.
   5- 6. Lord Elwyn made a deal with the Water Elemental Lord: He would be unaging until the life force of 333 girls of his line were claimed by creature as virgins on their 17th birthdays.

HOW CAN THE CURSE BE LIFTED? (Roll 1d6)
   1. A temple to the Water Elemental Lord at the center of the water-logged tunnels beneath Castle Whitehead must be destroyed, possibly collapsing the castle in the process.
   2. The water-logged tunnels underneath the castle must be excorsized of water elemental spirits, as well as the hate-filled ghost of Angelina (1-3), the man who murdered Angelina (4-6).
   3. Lord Elwynn Whitehead, who has been made unaging by the life force of each girl killed must be brought to the temple to the Water Elemental Lord under Castle Whitehead. Here, the angry ghosts of victims will destroy him and the curse will be lifted.
   4. The restless ghost of Angelina must be destroyed.
   5. The spirits of all the dead girls must be rescued from the grip of the Elemental Water Lord.
   6. Roll twice on this table, ignoring and rerolling results of 6. Both steps must be taken to lift the curse.

WHO KILLED ASHLEY? (Roll 1d6)
   1. Her secret boyfriend who got her pregnant and didn't want a scandal.
   2. A madwoman who believes she's the rightful heir to the Whitehead fortune if the twins are gone.
   3. A cultist who wanted to summon the legendary Water Elemental Lord and used her as a human sacrifice.
   4. Her psychopathic older brother wants to turn the castle into a "supernatural tourism" destination, and he murdered his sister to revive the legend of the Watery Shroud.
   5. Ashley isn't dead--Emily is. Ashley killed her sister and took her place.
   6. The butler did it. Ashley discovered he was replacing family art treasures with forgeries.

The Terror of the Ouija Ghost

Here's a randomly generated horror plot based on a drawing by Bryan Baugh. It's purpose is to provide a framework and spur your imagination to create an adventure of your own, for whatever game system you prefer.

OPTIONAL: HOW DO THE PLAYER CHARACTERS GET INVOLVED? (Roll 1d6)
1-2. One or more of the Ouija Ghost's victims were friends or family of a party member.
3-4. The party has been tracking the cursed items that are rumored to cause the Ouija Ghost to manifest.
5-6. One of the player characters witnessed his or her friends be murdered by the Quija Ghost as a teen and he or she recognizes the pattern of its attacks.

THE TERROR OF THE QUIJA GHOST
A group of friends spend the night with some food, some alcohol, and a Quija board. They awakened something terrible, and the player characters must discover what and return it where it came from.

WHO PLAYED WITH THE OUIJA BOARD? (Roll 1d6)
1. 1d3+1 Cheerleaders
2. 1d3+1 Sorority Girls
3. 1d3+1 Supermodels
4. 1d3+1 Goth Chicks
5. 1d3+1 Baristas
6. 1d3+1 Ballerinas

WHY DID THEY PLAY WITH THE OUIJA BOARD? (Roll 1d6)
1-2. For spooky fun.
3-4. To talk to the spirit of a recently deceased friend.
5-6. To scare one of their number who is a believer in spiritualism.

WHERE DID THE OUIJA BOARD COME FROM? (Roll 1d6)
1. The attic of a family home.
2. A pawn shop.
3. Abandoned on a rainy street.
4. A store specializing in occult items.
5. An antique store that was going out of business.
6. Found in the hallway; each girl assumed one of the others brought it.

WHAT IS THE QUIJA GHOST? (Roll 1d6)
1. A vengeful spirit, specifically after the girls.
2. A manifestiation of the curse upon the Quija board.
3. A manifestation of the curse upon the planchette.
4. A demon that took advantage of the game.
5. An urban legend made real through the psychic powers of one of the girls (and her secret hatred and jealousy of another member of the group).
6. The spirit of a serial killer that's been returned to the world.


WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GIRLS? (Roll 1d6)
1. All but one were driven insane.
2. All but one were brutally murdered; survivor driven insane.
3. All have vansihed without a trace. (1-3, they can found alive; 4, 1d3-1 can be found alive; 5-6, they can be found dead.)
4. One girl brutally murdered, the others injured but alive.
5. They are all comatose, the life mysteriously slowly draining from them.
6. 1d3-1 girls brutally murdered, the others missing. Those missing are now puppets of the Ouija Ghost.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE OUIJA GHOST ISN'T STOPPED? (Roll 1d6)
1. Each night, 1d2 friends or families of the girls who played with the Ouija board are brutally murdered.
2. Roll on WHO PLAYED WITH THE QUIJA BOARD. 1d2 girls of the indicated group are brutally murdered each night.
3. Each night, 1d2 additional girls of the kind originally rolled on WHO PLAYED WITH THE QUIJA BOARD are brutally murdered.
4. One of the surviving girls, becomes possessed by the Ouija Ghost 1d3 nights later and goes on a killing spree. (If the girls had vanished without a trace, one reappears each 1d3 nights to brutally murder innocent people until the rest are found and rescued.)
5. Once the surviving girls are dead, the Ouija Ghost will start to target the player characters and their loved ones.
6. Roll two more times on this table, rerolling any results of 6. If the same result is rolled twice, then it is the only one that applies.

HOW IS THE QUIJA GHOST STOPPED? (Roll 1d6)
1. The Quija board must be reduced to fine ash in a sanctified place.
2. The planchette must be ground into fine dust and scattered on the grave of a murderer.
3. The truth about how it came to be a ghost must be revealed.
4. The Quija board and planchette must be destroyed with the horn of a unicorn.
5. A Jew, and Christian, and a Muslim must perform an anient ritual over the Quija board, forcing the Quija Ghost to go dormant again.
6. Roll two more times on this table, rerolling any results of 6. If the same result is rolled twice, then it is the only one that applies.

WHAT IS THE SURPRISE TWIST? (Roll 1d6)
1-2. There isn't one.
3. The Quija Ghost wasn't destroyed. It was spread into 13 different random Ouija boards within a 666 mile radius of the original killings.
4-5. There never was a Quija Ghost... it was all the work of one of dead or vanished girls who's a very clever, very psychopathic killer.
6. There never was a Quija Ghost. It was a ruse by a Satanic cult that sacrificed the girls and staged the Quija Ghost situations to lure the player characters to their deaths.

Who's Haunting the Old House?

Here's another random adventure idea generator. We hope you enjoy!

THE HAUNTING OF THE OLD HOUSE

Although saddened by the passing of Aunt Millie, the Pleasantons (mother, father, high-school age daughter, grade-school age son, infant son) were thrilled to move into the isolated old house she left them in her will. At least they were until it turned out to be haunted.

Roll 1d8 on the tables to randomly generate a Dark Old House ghostbusting adventure seed and set the PCs about getting to the bottom of it all!

Art by Lee Elias

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE HOUSE? (Roll 1d8)
1. Strange lights and sounds are waking the family up at night.
2. Items are being moved around and drawers are being emptied and the contents scattered.
3. Food in the fridge is spoiling and all liquids in opened containers (such as milk and juice) are evaporating overnight.
4. The baby keeps disappearing from her room, but is always found safely in some bizarre part of the house.
5. The plumbing keeps going haywire with strong blasts of scalding or ice cold water, sinks and tubs backing up and causing flooding, or small fires keep erupting in the living room and bedroom.

6. The daughter keeps feeling a presence near her and she has even caught sight of a dark figure following her home from school. Someone has even torn up her clothes in her closet.

7. All electrical devices suddenly start turning on and off at random and eventually the circuit breakers trip.
8. Roll twice on the table, re-rolling any Eights or repeated numbers.


WHY ARE THE SPIRITS RESTLESS? (Roll 1d8)
1. They aren’t. A greedy real estate developer (and supposed family friend) is trying to scare the family from their home.
2. They aren’t. A crooked antique dealer (and supposed family friend) is sneaking into the house and searching for treasure that, according to old records he found, is hidden in the walls.
3. They aren’t. The angry lover of the husband (1-4)/wife (5-8) has used a magic ritual to bind a minor demon to the house to harass the family.

4. They aren't. A kid from school has become obsessed with the daughter and is stalking her.
5. The daughter and a friend played with a Quija Board and 1d8 poltergeists now inhabit the house.
6. When the old well at the bottom of the backyard was unsealed, elemental and nature spirits were awakened and released.
7. Children playing in the back yard awakened the cursed souls of cultists sacrificed by their leader to appease their dark god (and to prevent his discovery by the authorities).

8. Roll twice on the table, re-rolling any Eights or repeated numbers.

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If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Along the Way, one of our actual releases. Click here to buy a copy, because it will encourage us to make more of the same!

Two new templates for the OGL d20 System... and comics!

The latest in release from NUELOW Games is in perfect keeping with the season of October, as it loaded with ghosts, werewolves, and general weirdness.

Art by Bernard Bailey and Dave Berg

Ghost Woman... Also Featuring Spooks contains two early works from Dave Berg, best known for his gentle ribbing of American culture in the pages of MAD Magazine, a tale from Bernard Bailey, and two new templates, a talent tree, and feats for d20 System that bring new twists to life and death .

The Berg stories tell the tale of a college professor who, after being murdered by an embezzler, returns to Earth in spirit form to fight injustice. The story from Bailey, featuring ghosts, undead werewolves, and the origin of a monster hunter, manages in eight pages to present a sketch of a game setting more interesting than many source books manage in 80.

The RPG material is by Steve Miller, who worked on the Ravenloft gothic horror game setting. It includes a template that allow player characters to remain in play even after they've suffered a final and irreversible death, a template that introduces a new kind of werewolf that more closely resembles the ones of folklore, and a new talent tree and feats that support the templates. (Talent trees are used in the OGL d20 Modern game, but the templates and feats are usable in any RPG that is based on the d20 System.)

Ghost Woman... Also Featuring Spooks is available at RPGNow and DriveThruComics. Click on your preferred site to see previews or to get a copy.